Document Type
Syllabus
Publication Date
Fall 9-1-2024
Course Description
This course demonstrates that Latin America is much more than what the mainstream media has depicted as a region rampant with violence and corruption. Twentieth- and twenty-first-century Latin American history can be characterized as an ongoing struggle for rights, justice, and democracy. Thus, this class explores the ways in which everyday people in Latin America persistently negotiated and pushed back against structures of oppression, leading to social revolutions, guerrilla warfare, indigenous rebellions, and feminist mobilizations. We will analyze what was gained and lost along the way. We will scrutinize how domestic and international threats posed significant challenges to the democratization of Latin America. US and CIA interventions during the Cold War, for example, led to dictators across the region who impoverished their own countries, terrorized their populations, and ended democratic rule. This class challenges the “myth of progress,” highlighting that democracy, civil rights, and greater equality are not guarantees in our modern world.
Recommended Citation
Espinosa Tavares, Martha L., "HIST 216A Power to the People: The Struggle for Democracy and Rights in 20th and 21st Century Latin America Epinosa Tavares Fall 2024" (2024). All Course Syllabi. 702, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/records_syllabi/702
Student Outcomes
Students will be able to: -Evaluate historical arguments, historiographical debates and develop and frame historical arguments in their own work. -Understand the past with respect to diversities of culture, geography and chronology. -Communicate complex historical analysis in written form with appropriate scholarly attribution and communicate effectively in class discussions and presentations.