Day: First four Wednesdays
Time: 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Location: HSSB 1174 (First session will be 1 hour, 5:00-6:00 p.m.)
Enrollment Code: 26625
Description:
The aim of this seminar is to spark students’ interest in problems concerning terrorism,
political violence, and human rights, by taking two Latin American case studies: Peru and
Colombia. During the second half of the twentieth century these two Andean countries were torn by bloody civil wars fomented initially by extreme leftist guerrillas. Although
revolutions and civil wars also sparked in other parts of Latin America between 1958 and the 1980s, notably, in Cuba and Central America, Peru and Colombia are peculiar in that
guerrillas emerged here to fight democratic governments, not military juntas. The topics of the class will be illustrated with 4 films (two dramas and two documentaries) produced
and directed (except for one) by Andean filmmakers. The films will be complemented with the reading of testimonials, shirt articles, and chapters to be discussed in class.
Professor Cecilia Mendez, History, teaches Latin America in the national period: the nineteenth century; the Andean region; Peru; peasant history; nationalism, ethnicity, state information. For courses she has taught, please check her webpage: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/people/person.php?acount_id=42
Email: mendez@history.ucsb.edu
