HIST 291: Latin America in the U.S. Imagination

 

    

Fall 2009
Mr. Volk

Tuesday, Thursday 9:35-10:50 AM (King 323)

Office: Rice 309
Office Phone: 58522
Email: Steven.Volk@oberlin.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 10-11; Tuesdays 11-12; Wednesdays 2-3

On Line Syllabus: http://sites.google.com/a/oberlin.edu/hist291f09/syllabus

ACCESSING THE COURSE: All course materials can be found on the Blackboard system.

 

In the midst of the Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings for a seat on the Supreme Court, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) joked in a discussion about local laws and gun rights that the judge would “have some ‘splaining to do” if she came after him with a gun. Everyone laughed, and it was only a bit later when the blogosphere lit up with a discussion of the phrase, which was a signature exclamation Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), a Spanish-accented Cuban bandleader on the famous “I Love Lucy” show used when exasperated with Lucy (Lucille Ball), his ditzy (Anglo) wife. I have very little doubt that (at that moment), Coburn thought he was both funny and hip in a pop culture sort of way. Yet it also suggested that what he was thinking about when he questioned the nominee was not a New York accented judge, but a Spanish-accented Cuban, i.e., another Latino. That move, in one sense, is what this course will attempt to understand.

 

The basic theme of the course is not what happened in Latin American history (take my survey courses, HIST 109/110 for that), and it’s not about the nature of U.S.-Latin American relations (ditto: HIST 294), but rather how (US) Americans frame their understanding of both of these things. Do you remember the “Far Side” cartoon below? Well, to return to the Sotomayor-Coburn example, I’m interested in exploring the gap between what Sotomayor said (“If I go home, get a gun, come back and shoot you, that may not be legal under New York law because you would have alternative ways to defend...”) and how Coburn heard it (“blah blah blah blah Latina blah blah blah limited English blah blah”).

Some of the main representational devices which we will analyze to help us understand how this process works are those of semiosis (a study of “signs”), metaphor and stereotype. Language, of course, is one of the means through which these representational operations occur, but they also work via images, sounds, artifacts, etc., all of which help shape a culture. When we talk of people sharing a “culture,” at least one way to understand that is that when they see, hear, or read a particularly “representational” item (for example, the man with a large hat in the image on the first page of the syllabus), they will consistently derive similar meanings from what they see, hear or read, meanings that go beyond the pure image (man, hat, tree, etc.) itself. This course will explore how these various representational operations work, how meanings are made and shared, and how they continue to shape understandings long after we have stopped “thinking” about them.

Purpose and Learning Goals of Course:

This semester's course will focus on increasing students’ abilities to better understand the nature of U.S. interactions with Latin America, Latin Americans, and Latinos/as in the United States via an exploration of how Latin America came to be represented (“imagined”) in the United States. To do this, students will examine not only the historical context of these interactions (wars fought in Mexico or Cuba; the expansion of U.S. corporate activities in Latin America, etc.), but the cognitive frames through which (US) Americans came to understand these events. In the process students will gain skills in information literacy, skillful writing, image analysis, critical thinking, and the ability to work collaboratively. Among the specific learning goals are the following:

To introduce students to the history of some important interactions between the United States and Latin America.

To introduce students to the study of semiosis, of how meanings are produced, consumed, regulated, challenged, reformulated, or overturned, particularly through an examination of some major forms of representation such as metaphor and stereotype.

• Because culture and power are closely entwined, it will also engaged in issues of power and persuasion.

To help students understand some historical approaches to asking and answering questions, including:

• How to identify, closely read, and analyze primary sources.
• How to work with and evaluate useful secondary sources, specifically identifying and evaluating their central arguments.
• How to work with non-written sources (including images and artifacts).
• To understand and appreciate ambiguity in historical argument and presentation.

To further students’ abilities to work collaboratively in shaping and answering questions and in solving problems.

Course Organization:

This course is primarily a discussion-oriented course which will be supplemented by some short lectures. As such it required that students complete readings on time and come prepared for class discussions.

Accessing Course Materials:

You can access the course texts in a variety of ways: (1) Required texts are on sale at the bookstore (or can be purchased on-line). (2) All required articles are on Blackboard under “Readings” (not on ERES). (3) You can find all the required texts plus one copy of the required articles on Print Reserve in the library. (4) Texts can also be obtained through OHIO LINK. Please let me know if you are having any difficulties accessing any materials.

ASSIGNMENTS & GRADING POLICY. NOTE: You will receive a fuller explanation of each project at least 2 weeks before the due dates.

First Project: Due at start of class, October 8

 

Using any of the primary sources I will give you, prepare an analysis of the rhetoric (metaphors, stereotypes, etc.) used in discussions of Mexico at mid-19th century or the U.S. war with Mexico. (5 pages)

 

Second Project: Due at start of class, November 10

 

Prepare a semiological analysis of any film on a list you will be given. For the project groups of three will work on the same film. You will then have the choice of writing separate parts of a single paper (e.g., with each participant writing on a different set of images), or you can write separate papers after you have discussed the film together. (7 pages)

 

Final Project: Due December 17, 11:00 AM

 

A major content analysis using the tools gained in the class of any single issue that has received wide coverage in the news and which deals with Latin America and/or Latino/as. Examples: immigration; drugs; the coup in Honduras; etc. (You will get a longer list.) (12-15 pages)

Assignments are to be turned in on (or before) the due date noted in the syllabus. Late papers turned in without prior permission - you must request an extension before the due date of the paper - will be reduced by one grade-step for each day that the assignment is late. For example, a paper due on Thursday, October 8 which is turned in on October 9 will get a "B-" instead of the "B" that it merited; if it is turned in on September 10, it will get a "C+", etc.

Your first assignments must be turned in by the last day of the Reading Period, December 14, or they won't be counted. I will not allow an "Incomplete" in the course to allow you to finish those assignments. Your final papers are due no later than 11:00 AM on December 17. No papers turned in after that time will be accepted unless you decide to take an "Incomplete" in the course; in which case you must talk to me and fill out the appropriate paper work.

Your final grade will be determined as follows:

 

First Project: 20%

Second Project: 25%

Final Project: 40%

Participation: 15%

 

Plagiarism and the Honor Code: "The word plagiarism derives from Latin roots: plagiarius, an abductor, and plagiare, to steal. The expropriation of another author’s work, and the presentation of it as one’s own, constitutes plagiarism and is a serious violation of the ethics of scholarship." [American Historical Association, Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct]. Copying the work of others goes against everything that a liberal education is about. It is a serious affront to the other students in the course, to me as a member of the course, and to the plagiarizer him/herself. The college requires that students sign an “Honor Code” for all assignments. This pledge states that “I affirm that I have adhered to the Honor Code in this assignment.” For further information, see the student Honor Code which you can access via Blackboard>Lookup/Directories>Honor Code. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism, particularly in the context of joint or collaborative projects, please see me or raise it in class.

 

Students with Disabilities: Appropriate accommodations will always be granted to students with documented disabilities. Any questions about the necessary process of documenting disabilities should be addressed to Jane Boomer, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities (Peters G27-28; x5-5588). If you have a documented disability, please see me early in the semester.

Research help: If you need help finding information or conducting library research, you may wish to schedule an appointment with a reference librarian.  Librarians can help you plan a research strategy, search databases effectively, and locate books, articles, quality web sites, data, and other resources for any type of research project.  Fill out the form on the library’s web site to get started.  Drop-in research assistance is also available in all campus libraries.

Blogs: The Tex[t]-Mex Galleryblog®: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America -- is written by William Anthony Nericcio, San Diego State University, and which he describes as a blog which “devotes itself to the aggressive, relentless, and, at times, pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, "Hispanic," Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes.” The blog closely follows many of the topics that we will be discussing and should be followed regularly.

FINAL NOTE: If you are having problems with the readings, the lectures, or just want to discuss further any aspect of the course (from content to class dynamics), I strongly encourage you to see me during office hours or to make an appointment. Please don’t wait until late in the semester to express these concerns.

Books Recommended for Purchase

Robert W. Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination (NY: Oxford), 1985. [NOTE: This text is available as electronic resource at OBIS.]

Louis A. Pérez, Jr., Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 2008.

Otto Santa Ana, Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse (Austin: University of Texas Press), 2002. [NOTE: This text is available as electronic resource at OBIS.]

Henry Clay points to Latin America on flag-draped globe. Portrait by John Neagle, 1843. U.S. Congress

 Syllabus

 

Sept 1, 3, 8, 10: Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks

Sept 1:  Introduction

Sept 3:  Semiosis: The Production and Interpretation of Meaning: Ideology, Semiotics

Semiotics/Semiology

Patrick Fuery and Nick Mansfield, “Semiotics and Cultural Studies,” in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, 2^nd ed. (NY: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 47-55.

Thomas A. Sebeok, Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics (Toronto, Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2001), Chapter 1 (“Basic Notions”) and 3 (“Six Species of Signs” (pp. 3-23 and 39-63).

Ideology

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “The German Ideology” [301-303]; Louis Althusser, “Ideology” [304-310]; and John Fiske, “Interpellation” [311-315], in Michael Ryan, ed., Cultural Studies: An Anthology (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008).

Sept 8:  Metaphors and Understanding Meanings

Louis A. Pérez, Jr., “Introduction,” and “Metaphor between Motive and Meaning,” in Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), pp. 1-23.

Otto Santa Ana, Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), Part I: Theory and Method (pp. 13-62).

Sept. 10:  Application. Short student presentations analyzing a contemporary Latin American event.

Working in groups of 4 (to be assigned on Sept. 8), students will present (in whatever format) a short discussion applying some of the insights gained through a study of ideology and metaphor to the contemporary debate on health care in the United States. The purpose is not to analyze the various health care proposals themselves (e.g., we don't need to know which you think is the best policy), but to think about the meanings layered in how the event has been presented in the news.

 “The Kiss of the Oceans” - Meeting of the Atlantic and Pacific

Sept. 15, 17: Deep Historical/Cultural Meanings

Sept. 15: The Cartographic Imagination

J. B. Harley, “Maps, Knowledge, and Power,” in The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design and Use of Past Environments, Denis Cosgrove and Stephen Daniels, eds., (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 277-312.

Susan Schulten, “Introduction,” and “Maps for the Masses 1880-1900,” in The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2001), pp. 1-44.

Great Mapping Sites:

The David Rumsey Collection. This incredible electronic repository focuses on 18th and 19th century North and South American cartographic materials. The collection includes atlases, globes, school geographies, maritime charts, and a variety of separate maps including pocket, wall, children's and manuscript maps. The online selection is an expanding cross section of images designed to highlight the depth and breadth of the collection.

Strange Maps. Fabulous blog on all types and natures of mapping, most of which highlight the representational power of the map.

Sept. 17: The Black Legend: Spanish Imperialism vs. English Imperialism

Edmund Valentine Campos, “West of Eden: American gold, Spanish greed, and the discourses of English imperialism,” in Margaret R. Greer, Walter D. Mignolo, and Maureen Quilligan, eds., Rereading the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), pp. 247-269.

W. M. Ivins, Jr., “South America and Our Responsibility,” World’s Work, VII (Feb 1904), pp. 4480-4484.

John J. Johnson, “Domestic Factors II: Racial and Ethnic Influences,” in A Hemisphere Apart: The Foundations of United States Policy Toward Latin America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp. 44-77.

Sept. 22, 24: Mexico Imagined in the First “American” Foreign War

Robert W. Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination (NY: Oxford, 1985), Prologue, Chapters 1-2, 6-8, Epilogue.

NOTE: No Class on Tuesday, Sept. 29 (I’ll be lecturing off campus)

Oct. 1, 6: The “Spanish American” War and Cuba.

Pérez, Jr., Cuba in the American Imagination, 24-228.

 

Oct. 8: Visual Analysis

Although we have been looking at images, we pause here to more fully explore visual analysis methodology: how to look.

Gillian Rose, “Semiology: Laying Bare the Prejudices Beneath the Smooth Surface of the Beautiful,” in Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials (London and Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2001), pp. 69-99.

Laura Wexler, “What a Woman Can Do With A Camera,” Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of US Imperialism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), pp. 15-51.

(Frances Benjamin Johnston collection at Library of Congress)

[Alfonso Bedoya as “Gold Hat” in John Huston’s The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)]

Oct. 13, 15: When all Latin Americans were Mexican: Imagining Latin America in the first decades of the 20^th century.

          Oct. 13: Responding to the Mexican Revolution

Agnes C. Laut, “In the Hells of Tehuantepec,” Forum, LXI, No. 6 (June 1919), 641-651.

Editorials, New York Times, 1910-1919.

Dan Ward, “Why Is Mexico?,” in World Outlook, Vol. II: 2 (Feb. 1916), pp. 7-8, 26. [Publication of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church].

          Oct. 15: Mexicans in the United States

Allen L. Woll, “The Attack of the Greasers,” The Latin Image in American Film, rev. ed. (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980), pp. 6-28.

Oct. 20, 22: FALL BREAK

Oct. 27, 29: Re-Imagining Latin America in the 1930s and 1940s: New metaphors, new stereotypes, new needs.

Oct. 27: Origins of the New Imagery: Discussion of Readings

Allen L. Woll, “Hollywood's Good Neighbor Policy,” The Latin Image in American Film, rev. ed. (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980), pp. 53-75.

Chon Noriega, “Citizen Chicano: The Trials and Titillations of Ethnicity in the American Cinema, 1935-1962,” in Clara E. Rodríguez, ed., Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the US Media (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), pp. 85-103. 

  Optional:

  Scott Schaffer, “Disney and the Imagineering of Histories,” in Postmodern Culture VI:3 (May 1996).

  Rosalie Schwartz, “Musical Fantasies, Political Realities,” in Flying Down to Rio: Hollywood, Tourists, and Yankee Clippers (College Station:      Texas A & M University Press, 2004), pp. 303-342.

Oct. 29: Film: The Three Caballeros (1944, Norman Ferguson, dir., Walt Disney Productions; 69 min.)

Lupe Vélez, the "Mexican Spit Fire"

Carmen Miranda

Dolores del Río

       Nov. 3, 5: The Cold War and New Metaphors

Nov. 3: Nixon in Caracas (1958)

News coverage of Nixon’s trip to Caracas, 1958

Nov. 5: The Overthrow of the Arbenz Government in Guatemala, 1954

Sean O’Brien, “Capturing the Death of Democracy” (unpub. paper).

Four articles from Time Magazine:

“Guatemala: Fishing Season,” May 8, 1950.

“The Problem of Guatemala,” January 11, 1954.

“Battle of the Backyard,” June 28, 1954.

  “The Hemisphere: Guatemala,” June 28, 1954.

Packet of New York Times articles from April-June, 1954. (Browse)

Nov. 10, 12: “Morning in America,” Wars in Central America

            Nov. 10: Refocusing: Grenada and Central America - President Reagan's Rhetoric

                        Reagan speech on Lebanon and Grenada

   President Reagan announces invasion of Grenada