Women in Latin American History (HIST 369)
| Spring 2019, Truman State University BH 212, MWF 12:30-1:20 Office: MC 227 |
Marc Becker |
Description
This course assesses the continuities and changes in the lives of Latin American women from the peopling of the continent to the present. We will examine concepts that have structured Latin American beliefs about gender including of honor and shame, and machismo and marianismo, and examine issues of gender relations, sexuality, and political involvement. How do beliefs about gender and gender roles relate to social structures including race, class and political structures, and how have these beliefs changed over time? By the end of the course students should have a clearer understanding of how gender influences historical changes and continuity in Latin America.
This course meets the Intercultural Perspectives requirement of the Liberal Studies Program. As such, it will provide you with a greater knowledge and appreciation of cultural diversity through the study of encounters of Indigenous, European, and African women in Latin America. Hopefully this course will make you more aware of how culture has been used for political and social ends, including confronting sexism, racial discrimination, economic exploitation, and social injustice.
See the syllabus addendum on Blackboard for additional class policies.
Readings
Powers, Karen Vieira. Women in the Crucible of Conquest: The gendered genesis of Spanish American society, 1500-1600. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005. ISBN: 0826335195
Olcott, Jocelyn, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano, Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006. ISBN: 0822338998
O'Connor, Erin. Mothers making Latin America: gender, households, and politics since 1825. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2014. ISBN: 9781118271445
Assignments and grades
Assignment Points
Participation 300 pts
3 Response papers (100 pts each) 300
Fun Friday Biography 300
Final Exam 100
Participation: This is a discussion-based class. Exchange of ideas, personal thoughts, arguments, and perspectives is the central benefit of the class format. We are not here to impress one another, but to engage in an honest dialogue about crucial issues. Please be mindful that we may not all have the same level of expertise, and that everyone's unique perspectives are of equal importance. We need to respect one another while challenging alternative perspectives. As you cannot participate in discussion if you are not present, unexcused absences will be taken out of your participation grade. Inappropriate use of electronics during class will also negatively affect the participation grade. Assessment will be based on the following criteria:
- Depth and content: participation beyond mere opinions; keeping discussion open for further development; ask yourself: can peers respond to my comments?
- Consistency: daily engaged involvement; paying attention to the comments of others
- Leadership: encouraging peers to participate; being prepared to discuss that day’s readings (and how they relate to those of previous class periods)
- References: to readings, experiences, and/or past discussions
The participation grade will be based on successful completion of the following two assignments:
Discussion questions: For each daily reading, post one question or discussion topic related to the readings to the class google drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LsryUceX-VNv2l5dq8-uCYUOPLGKPQ2v?usp=sharing). If a document for that reading does not already exist, please create a new one. If someone else has already raised the theme you planned to post, it is perfectly fine to expand on that post. Please clearly label your contribution with your name.
Discussion leaders: For each class period, one student will sign up on the class google drive to lead the discussion (organize the discussion questions into a logical flow) and another to moderate discussion (run stack) to assure that everyone has equal space to speak. Sign up for a total of three times, including at least once to lead and once to moderate the discussion. Do not sign up more than once for the same book.
Response papers: Prepare a 3-5 page typed response to each assigned book. Identify the author’s main arguments, and examine the use of sources, methodology, and theory. Provide your own assessment or critique of the readings. In writing your essays:
- Identify one main point in the reading that strikes you as most interesting or important
- Don’t just summarize the contents—exploring significance is more important
- Be sure to demonstrate that you have completed the entire reading
- Acknowledge authorship, especially since I want you to engage the authors’ main arguments and the evidence that they use, their use of sources, methodology, and theory
- Be sure to provide your own assessment or critique of the readings.
The essays must be typed, double-spaced, and include citations, a bibliography, and page numbers. Each essay will be due the class period after we finish discussing the book.
Fun Friday Biographies: With one other student, write a ten-page paper, prepare a ten-minute presentation, and guide the class discussion for one of the Friday topics listed in the class schedule. Please feel free to suggest a more appropriate recommended reading for the class than what is listed on the class schedule. Prepare a list of discussion questions for the class to guide the discussion. The paper should draw on at least six scholarly sources, including at least one book for each student. The essay must be typed, double-spaced, and include citations, a bibliography, and page numbers. The format should follow Mary Lynn Rampolla, A pocket guide to writing in history 8th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2015). The library has a guide for locating sources for this assignment at http://library.truman.edu/subsplus/subjects/guide.php?subject=LatinAmericanStudies. The essay is due at the time of the presentation.
Final exam: The final exam is comprehensive and cumulative.
Class Schedule
Jan 14: Intro
Jan 16: Bakewell, Peter. "Colonial Latin America." In Latin America, Its Problems and Its Promise: A multidisciplinary introduction, edited by Jan Knippers Black, 77-85. Boulder Colo.: Westview Press, 2011.
Conniff, Michael. "Latin America Since Independence: An Overview." In Latin America, Its Problems and Its Promise: A multidisciplinary introduction, edited by Jan Knippers Black, 86-98. Boulder Colo.: Westview Press, 2011.
Jan 18: Mama Ocllo (Indigenous America): Powers, Intro & Ch 1
Recommended reading: Irene Silverblatt, "Andean Women in the Inca Empire," Feminist Studies 4, no. 3 (October 1978): 36-61.
Jan 23: Joan W. Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," The American Historical Review 91, no. 5 (December 1986): 1053-75.
Heidi Tinsman, "A Paradigm of Our Own: Joan Scott in Latin American History," The American Historical Review 113, no. 5 (December 2008): 1357-74.
Jan 25: Malintzin (Conquests): Powers, ch. 2
Recommended reading: Sandra Messinger Cypess, "'Mother,' Malinche, and allegories of gender, ethnicity and national identity in Mexico," in Feminism, Nation and Myth: La Malinche, ed. Rolando Romero and Amanda Nolacea Harris, ed. (Houston, Tex.: Arte Público Press, 2005), 14-27.
Jan 28: Kimberle Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. Article 8: 139-67.
Barbara Foley, “Intersectionality: A Marxist Critique,” Science & Society 82, no. 2 (April 2018): 269-75.
Jan 30: Evelyn P. Stevens, “Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo,” in Female and Male in Latin America: Essays, ed. Ann M. Pescatello, ed. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973), 89-101.
Marysa Navarro, “Against marianismo,” in Gender's Place: Feminist anthropologies of Latin America, ed. Rosario Montoya, Lessie Jo Frazier, and Janise Hurtig (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 257-72.
Feb 1: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Religion): Powers, ch. 3
Recommended reading: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Religion): Michelle A. Gonzalez, “Background” and “Gender,” Sor Juana: Beauty and justice in the Americas (Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 2003), 27-37, 95-113.
Feb 4: Powers, ch. 4
Feb 6: Powers, ch. 5
Feb 8: Micaela Bastidas (Resistance): Leon G. Campbell, "Women and the Great Rebellion in Peru, 1780-1783," The Americas 42, no. 2 (October 1985): 163-96.
Feb 11: Powers, ch. 6
Feb 13: Powers, ch. 7
Feb 15: WGST conf
Feb 18: Powers, conc
Feb 20: O'Connor, ch. 1
Feb 22: Manuela Sáenz (Independence): O'Connor, ch. 2
Recommended reading: Sarah C. Chambers, "Republican Friendship: Manuela Sáenz Writes Women into the Nation, 1835-1856," Hispanic American Historical Review 81, no. 2 (May 2001): 225-57.
Feb 25: O'Connor, ch. 3
Feb 27: O'Connor, ch. 4
March 1: Xiça da Silva (Slavery): Susan Migden Socolow, “Women and Slavery,” The Women of Colonial Latin America, New approaches to the Americas (Cambridge, UK, New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 130-46.
March 4: O'Connor, ch. 5
March 6: O'Connor, ch. 6
March 8: Evita (Populism): O'Connor, ch. 7
Recommended reading: Linda B. Hall, "Evita Perón: beauty, resonance, and heroism," in Heroes & Hero Cults in Latin America, ed. Samuel Brunk and Ben Fallaw (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), 229-63.
March 18: O'Connor, ch. 8
March 20: O'Connor, ch. 9
March 22: Hebe de Bonafini (Revolutionary Motherhood): O'Connor, ch. 10
Recommended reading: Diana Taylor, "Making a Spectacle: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo," Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering 3, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2001): 97-109.
March 25: Carlos Monsiváis, “When gender can't be seen amid the symbols : women and the Mexican Revolution,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 1-20.
March 27: Mary K. Vaughan, “Pancho Villa, the Daughters of Mary, and the modern woman : gender in the long Mexican Revolution,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 21-34.
March 29: Adelita (Mexican Revolution): Gabriela Cano, “Unconcealable realities of desire : Amelio Robles's (transgender) masculinity in the Mexican Revolution,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 35-56.
Recommended reading: Elizabeth Salas, “We, the Women,” Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and history (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 67-81.
April 1: Anne Rubenstein, “The war on Las Pelonas : modern women and their enemies, Mexico City, 1924,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 57-80.
April 3: Julia Tuñón, “Femininity, indigenismo, and nation : film representation by Emilio "El Indio" Fernández,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 81-96.
April 5: Frida (Indigenismo): Stephanie Smith, “If love enslaves ... love be damned!' Divorce and revolutionary state formation in Yucatán,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 99-111.
Recommended reading: Margaret A Lindauer, “Unveiling Politics,” Devouring Frida: The art history and popular celebrity of Frida Kahlo (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1999), 114-149.
April 8: Patience A. Schell, “Gender, class, and anxiety at the Gabriela Mistral Vocational School, revolutionary Mexico City,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 112-26.
April 10: Ann S. Blum, “Breaking and making families : adoption and public welfare, Mexico City, 1938-1942,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 127-44.
April 12: Work on final projects
April 15: María Teresa Fernández-Aceves, “The struggle between the Metate and the Molinos de Nixtamal in Guadalajara, 1920-1940,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 147-61.
April 17: Heather Fowler-Salamini, “Gender, work, trade unionism, and working-class women's culture in post-revolutionary Veracruz,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 162-80.
April 19: Rigoberta Menchú (Indigenous women): Susan M. Gauss, “Working-class masculinity and the rationalized sex : gender and industrial modernization in the textile industry in postrevolutionary Puebla,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 181-96.
Recommended reading: Diane M. Nelson, “Gendering the Ethnic-National Question: Rigoberta Menchú Jokes and the Out-Skirts of Fashioning Identity,” A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999), 170-205.
April 24: Kristina A. Boylan, “Gendering the faith and altering the nation : Mexican Catholic women's activism, 1917-1940,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 199-222.
April 26: Michelle Bachelet, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and Dilma Rousseff (Las Presidentas): Jocelyn Olcott, “The center cannot hold : women on Mexico's popular front,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 223-40.
Recommended reading: Marcela Ríos Tobar, "Feminist Politics in Contemporary Chile: From the democratic transition to Bachelet," in Feminist Agendas and Democracy in Latin America, ed. Jane S. Jaquette (Durham N.C.: Duke University Press, 2009), 21-44.
April 29: Lynn Stephen, “Epilogue : Rural women's grassroots activism, 1980-2000 : reframing the nation from below,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 241-60.
May 1: Temma Kaplan, “Final reflections : gender, chaos, and authority in revolutionary times,” in Sex in Revolution: Gender, politics, and power in modern Mexico, ed. Jocelyn Olcott, Mary K Vaughan, and Gabriela Cano (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 261-76.
May 3: Berta Cáceres (environmentalism): John Gibler, “Under the Gun: An Investigation Into the Murder of Berta Cáceres,” Sierra 102, no. 4 (July/August 2017): 28-35, 58, https://sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-4-july-august/feature/under-gun-investigation-murder-berta-c-ceres.
Final Exam: Friday, May 10, 11:30-1:20