| Unit name | Revolution, Repression and Memory in Contemporary Latin America (Level H Special Subject) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HIST37013 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Latin America is a much ignored region: sleepy, sunny Latin America home of burritos, mojitos and salsa. Yet, Latin America has always been a region of violent extremes and these extremes have turned the region into a microcosm of global political conflict. The twentieth-century in Latin America was a time of intense struggle that witnessed, for example, the surprise establishment of Cuban communism in the backyard of the United States and the subsequent desperate and catastrophic US intervention to prevent the spread of the red contagion. In the 50s and 60s the region saw Che Guevaras explosion onto the international limelight and, posthumously, he became one of the most iconic world revolutionary leaders. While guerrilla movements sprang up to destabilise governments, military institutions supported openly or indirectly by US administrations moved to crush them. In the process, they stamped out democracy and unleashed a repressive and homicidal machine that tortured and killed hundreds of thousands. A new theology of Liberation meanwhile enabled the participation of Christians in the fight for justice: in fact, a month before his assassination by the Salvadorian military in 1980, the previously conservative bishop Oscar Romero proclaimed, we can either choose life, or death! Those who survived now have to deal with the consequences of death on such a massive scale, and transitions to democracy have been accompanied by the difficulties of confronting the past, remembering the dead, and struggling for justice. Should these nascent democracies forget past atrocities in order to prevent renewed polarisation and allow for a future based on consensus? Yet how can a government be legitimate if it fails to provide justice for its citizens and protects the guilty? How can countries function without a firm rule of law? Indeed, the legacy of such violence and the continued destitution of much of the regions population have given rise to another phenomenona colossal rise in criminality and the increasing sophistication of the international drugs trade: the US Cold-War has correspondingly morphed into the War on Drugs. Using government reports, revolutionary treatises, contemporary journalism, human rights reports, eye-witness accounts and film, alongside relevant secondary sources, the unit will investigate the traumatic socio-political processes, revolutionary conflicts and repressions of twentieth-century Latin America and will seek to understand their causes and determine their on-going legacy.
1 x 3-400 word essay (50%) and 1 x 2 hour exam (50%)
