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Overview: Latin American OriginsHow many travels are needed to get forgotten? The “modern” history of The American peoples begins, from a eurocentric perspective, in the times of Discovery and Conquest. As with any other epic narrative, these stories are full of political rhetoric and metaphors. There was a time when just some travelers were able to register their successes, disregarding the displacement, illness, slavery, and exploitation which millions of people (from the Americas and Africa) were used for their imperial desires. From these travesies, the memories and even the existence of thousands of humans were forgotten.Usually, the study and discussion of these times have a positive tone, from these brave men crossing the Atlantic Ocean to “civilize” the “New Continent”. Nevertheless, in the last decade’s several scholars, especially those who are living heirs from the first peoples from the continent had reclaim, using the tools from the modern civilization their memories and rights: sciences, history, arts, and politics, eurocentrically understood.For that reason, we will start reviewing some key indigenous groups in the American continent, to then focus on the different aspects of the Colonization process: racialization, religión and cultural regimes (education, language, economic and political institutions), to configure our own understanding of the “colonial legacies”The Learning Objective of this week is to Understand the process of colonization of Latin America by Modern European empires. In that respect, we will critically observe the original human cultures and inhabitants of the American Continent, to define what is the Colonial Legacies of the region. In this week we will explore the indigenous and colonial history of the region, which include elements from:- Recognition of indigenous voices and heritage from the region – Exploration of the stories and histories from the “Discovery of America” – Revision of different sources and perspective about the colonial times in The Americas – Discuss the impacts on Latin American Societies from these Colonial processes. The topics for this week are: The indigenous population in The AmericasSpanish, Portuguese, French, and English ConquestCommon elements from Imperial times, and colonial legacies.After reading, watching, and exploring the materials for this week, please do not forget to complete the activities for the week this week:Module 2: Indigenous Peoples from Latin AmericaPart 1: Country Project 2(DR): Indigenous populations of Latin AmericaDuring this week, we want to explore the first peoples of Latin America.Find one indigenous group (current or past) in your selected country, and: a) summarize its main characteristics during pre-colonial times (350-400 words)b) Illustrate with an artifact, art representation, or picture of the group or their cultural heritage (describe it in 100 or fewer words)c) Comment about the current status of that indigenous group (on 200 or fewer words)Do not forget to indicate your sources! In this first section of the week, let´s start looking at the history of humans on the American Continent. Indigenous people and First nations are a central element of the Latin American culture that is present until today. The label is unfair because try to place in a different political space the early inhabitants of the American continent. But, you will be able to find indigenous cultures in all Latin American countries until today, survivors from the Colonial period, and the oppressive continuation that most Latin American nation-states had maintained during the last two centuries. First, you will explore the map of indigenous peoples. Because it´s in English, some countries are underlapped, and I will recommend exploring other sources, in particular for the first part of assignment of this week (Country Assignment 2). Then, we will focus on the videos from below. Map Analysis: Explore, with attention in your country, londonessays.com second resource is Project 68 Voices. (Links to an external site.)In this Mexican project, a collective of artists, intellectuals, NGOs, and indigenous leaders teamed up to rescue the 68 indigenous languages that still are used in Mexico today. You will watch 5 of these videos: 4 from a common selection, and one that you can pick on your own. Nahuatl londonessays.com (Links to an external

site.)Zapoteco londonessays.com londonessays.com londonessays.com (Links to an external site.)Do not forget pick a last video, from a culture that you might get interested on the exploration of this site. Module 2: Spanish, Portuguese, French and English ConquestPart 2: Conquest and Invasion of Latin American territories (Week 2)Based on the readings, explain what the ideas of “transculturization” and “hegemony” mean in the study of colonial Latin America? Discuss it in relation to the caste system, with emphasis on religious, racial, and gender hierarchies. (600 to 700 words)This section will be the first time in the class that we will face the book “Born in Blood and Fire”, by John. C. Chasteen (Links to an external site.). is an emeritus professor from the University of North Carolina (Links to an external site.) at Chapel Hill, who dedicated most of his life to understand and study the socio-cultural story of Latin America. His research focused on the XIX century in the Caribean, Brazil, and River Plate (Links to an external site.) basin.I want to share a question before the reading: Why do we read an American historian to study Latin American history? That was a question that may be naturalized, but for me was complicated during the design of the course. In recent years we have been discussing in academic circles the hegemony of English as lingua franca, as well the intellectual imbalances that Global Academia had, make it easier to publish about any issue in English than in a local language (as you can imagine, there are not many papers published in the endangered indigenous language, as you explore in the previous section).Personally, I committed to highlighting the work from disenfranchised voices following inclusion criteria, which diversity the stories and ideas that you know (and as you will read next week, it´s also a little part of your policy paper). Nevertheless, I really consider that is important to explore the local ideas when we´re looking at any socio-technological transformation, but most of these incredible authors in Latin America tend to focus on very specific issues and don´t create an “umbrella” narrative in their lifespan. (or if so, there develop nation-centered treats that are really unenjoyable to read). For that reason, we´re sticking with Chasteen during this semester. The book is considered a “canonical” work on the review of Latin American history and culture in American Universities, which even has been used for previous generations of GTD 508. Latin America is a region which has thousand of terrific humanists and scholars (like the Uruguayan Angel Rama (Links to an external site.), the Mexican Ana Clavel (Links to an external site.), the Colombian-Spanish Jesus Martin Barbero (Links to an external site.), the Bolivian Silvia Rivera Cusiquansqui (Links to an external site.), the Argentinian Nestor García-Canclini (Links to an external site.), among others) But, none of them has developed as a short and didactical account of the historical complexities of the region until the moment that can rival Chasteen for a course like this. Read Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire, Introduction and Chapters 2-3 (Encounter, Colonial Crucible)Book can be found londonessays.com here is the link for the book we will be using for the course, you can download it for free without signing up.Module 2: Common elements from Imperial times, and colonial legacies.Part 3: Colonial LegaciesIn your opinion, which is the most important legacy of colonialism in the Americas? Explain why in no more than 300 wordsColonial legacies are a complex concept, not just because of their evident historiography (language, religion, traditions, institutions, and technologies) and the development consequences. For that reason, I´m doing a change in one of the readings from the proposed syllabus and assigning Lina del Castillo’s blog post about the construction of Colonial Legacies. Besides, two recommended resources were added in case you really are interested in Colonial consequences. A highly recommended critique to the Colonial Legacies, by Lina del CastilloFrom the Desk of Lina del Castillo: “Colonial Legacies” of Latin America (Links to an external site.)Miguel, V. V. R. (2009). Colonialism and Underdevelopment in Latin America. Political Affairs. Marxism Fresh Daily. londonessays.com