Professor Richard Weiner
Office: CM 205
Office Hours: TUES. & TH: 10:30-12:00 and by appointment
Office Phone: (260) 481-6692
E-Mail: weinerr@ipfw.edu
Fall Semester, 2007
History F-346: Modern Mexico
Tuesday/Thursday, 9:00-10:15, CM 210
This course focuses on nation building, an undertaking that has proved difficult throughout Mexico’s history owing to internal conflicts and foreign interventions. The course provides a historical perspective on the challenges that independent Mexico faced by examining the nation’s colonial heritage. The class then surveys—through lectures, readings, and discussions—independent Mexico’s struggles with nation-building over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Course Requirements:
1. Readings. All assigned daily readings should be completed by class time. I expect all students to come to class prepared to ask or answer questions concerning the readings. I may call on students during the discussion. At the least, this means (1) identifying what you think is the main point/s or theme/s of each reading, and (2) identifying several issues that raise questions for you in the readings.
2. Attendence & Participation. Students are expected to attend every class and to actively participate by asking questions and discussing issues, especially the assigned readings. Regular in-class writing exercises, which are based on the assigned readings, are another form of participation. Participation is graded at 20% of the final course grade.
3. Exams. There will be three midterms and a comprehensive final exam. Exams will consist primarily of interpretive essay questions, based entirely on the readings and lectures from the course. Each exam will comprise 15% of the final course grade.
4. Research Project. There will be one research project during the semester. It requires you to use Mexican and/or foreign (from the USA or another country) primary sources—such as travel literature, memoirs, newspapers, government reports, literature, etc.—to learn more about a specific event, issue, or individual in modern Mexican history. Using this research, you will write a 12-15 page paper. More detailed instructions will be distributed and discussed in class. The paper is worth 20% of your class grade. The paper is due 11/29. Papers up to one week late are marked down a letter grade and papers more than a week late are marked down two letter grades. No papers accepted after Dec. 11.
Required Readings:
(1) Meyer and Beezley, eds., The Oxford History of Mexico ( Oxford, 2000).
(2) Joseph and Henderson, eds., The Mexico Reader (Duke, 2002).
Readings on (3) ReservesExpress and a (4) Reading Packet to be handed out in class are cited as Reserves/Packet below.
Class Schedule:
8/21: Class introduction
SECTION I: MEXICO’S COLONIAL HERITAGE
8/23: Conquest. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 3; Mexico Reader, “The Spaniards entry into Tenochtitlan,” 97-104; “Cortés and Montezuma,” 105-08; “The Battles of Tenochtilán and Tlateloloco,” 109-13
8/28: Colonial Mexico. Readings: Oxford History, pp. 115-140. Mexico Reader, Enrique Florescano, “The Colonial Latifundio,” 131-140; and Alonso de Zorita, “Why the Indians are Dying,” 122-130.
8/30: The Church in Colonial Mexico. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 5.
Mexico Reader, Fray Jerónimo de Mendiata, “The Spiritual Conquest,” 114-21.
Packet/Reserves, “Pedro de Gante”; “Lords and Holy Men”; and “The Twelve.”
9/4: The 18th Century Bourbon Reforms. Readings: Oxford History, 141-149 and 275- 84. Reserves/Packet, Alexander von Humboldt.
9/6: Class meeting with librarian Cheryl Truesdell (library, 4th floor).
9/11: Mexican Independence. Readings: Oxford History, 285-299. Mexico Reader, Lucas Alamán “Siege of Guanajuato,” 171-88; José Morelos, “Sentiments of the Nation,” 189-91; and Agustín de Iturbide, “Plan of Iguala,” 192-5.
9/13: Exam #1
SECTION II: 19TH CENTURY INDEPENDENT MEXICO
9/18: The Early Republic. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 10. Mexico Reader, “Women and War,” 196-205; and “The Glorious Revolution,” 206-212. Reserves/Packet, “Down From Colonialism.”
9/20: Texas and the Mexican-American War. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 11. Mexico Reader, “A Conservative Profession of Faith,” 220-5; and “Considerations,” 226-38.
9/25: The Reform. Readings: Oxford History, 371-9. Mexico Reader, Luis González y González, “Liberals and the Land,” 239-251; and “Standard Plots and Rural resistance,” 252-62.
9/27: The French Intervention. Readings: Oxford History, 380-396. Mexico Reader, Junta of Conservative Nobles, “Offer of the Crown to Maximilian,” 263-64; and Empress Carlotta, “A Letter from Mexico,” 265-69. Reserves/Packet, Robert Duncan.
10/2: Restored Republic/Early Porfiriato. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 13.
Mexico Reader, “Triumph of Republic,” 270-2. Reserves/Packet, Coatsworth.
10/4: Late Porfiriato. Readings: Reserves/Packet, Justo Sierra, “Present Era.”
Mexico Reader, “Porfirio Diaz,” 273-8; and “Scenes,” 279-84.
10/9: Holiday: no class
10/11: Cracks in Porfirian system. Readings: Mexico Reader, “President Díaz, Hero of the Americas,” 285-291; and “Land and Liberty,” 335-8. Reserves/Packet, Rafael de Zayas Enríquez, “Present Conditions in Mexico.”
10/16: EXAM #2
SECTION III: 20TH CENTURY MEXICO
10/18: Mexican Revolution. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 14. Mexico Reader, “Zapatistas in the Palace,” 351-56; “Mexico Has Turned into a Hell,” 357-63;
John Reed, “Pancho Villa,” 364-71; Oscar Lewis, “Pedro Martínez,” 375-86; and Ricardo Pozas, “Juan the Chamula,” 387-397.
10/23: US and the Mexican Revolution. Readings: Oxford History, 503-511. Mexico Reader, “Plan of Ayala,” 339-43; “Restoration of the Ejido,” 344-50; Anonymous, “La Punitiva,” 372-74; and “The Constitution of 1917: Articles 27 and 123,” 398-402. Reserves/Packet, Francisco Bulnes, “The Whole Truth About Mexico.”
10/25: The 1920s, Indianism, art, culture. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 17. Mexico Reader, Carlos Pellicer, “Ode to Cuauhtémoc,” 406-410. Reserves/Packet, José Vasconcelos, “Aspects of Mexican Civilization.”
10/30: Age Cárdenas. Readings: Oxford History, 467-502 and 520-31. Mexico Reader, Fernando Benítez, “The Agrarian Reform in La Laguna,” 445-51; “The Oil Expropriation,” 452-55; and “Cárdenas and the Masses,” 456-60.
11/1: Revolution Shifts gears in 1940s: the “Mexican Miracle.” Readings: Oxford History, pp. 575-597. Reserves/Packet, Sanford Mosk, “The Urge to Industrialize in Latin America”; and Frank Tannenbaum, “Peace and Bread.”
11/6: Critiques of the “Mexican Miracle.” Readings: Mexico Reader, Juan Rulfo, “They Gave Us the Land,” 465-9.Daniel Cosío Villegas, “Mexico’s Crisis,” 470-81; Rubén Jaramillo, “Struggles of a Campesino Leader,” 482-91; Siquerios, “Art and Corruption,” 492-99.
11/8: Student movement and Government responses. Readings: Oxford History, 598-607. Mexico Reader, “The Student Movement of 1968,” 555-569. Reserves/Packet, Octavio Paz, “Olympics and Tlatelolco.”
11/13: EXAM #3
SECTION IV: MEXICO REACHES THE 21ST CENTURY
11/15: Economic reconstruction and NAFTA. Readings: Oxford History, chap. 19. Reserves/Packet, Armando Bartra, Rebellious Cornfields; and Lois Stanford, the Bi-national integration of the US-Mexican avocado industries.
11/20: The Border. Readings. Mexico Reader, William Langewiesche, “The Maquiladoras,” 698-707; Luis Alberto Urrea, “Dompe Days,” 708-16; and Judith Adler Hellman, “Pedro P. Coyote,” 717-727.
11/22: Holiday, no class
11/27: Zapatista Uprising. Readings: Mexico Reader, “EZLN demands at the dialogue table,” 638-645; “The Long Journey from Despair to Hope,” 646-654; A Tzotzil Chronicle of the Zapatista Uprising,” 655-669.
11/29: Decline of PRI and democratization. Readings: Mexico Reader, Heather Williams, “Debtors’ Revenge,” 670-683. Paper due!
12/4: Final exam preparation week: no class held
12/6: Final exam preparation week: no class held
Comprehensive Final Exam: Tuesday Dec. 11, 8-10 a.m. (In-class comprehensive final)