REVIEW MATERIALS:

Conceptual considerations:

Discuss paradoxes and four orientations with which John Chasteen characterizes the changing foci of U.S. thinking on Latin America from the early 20th century to the present. •Racial/Cultural and Environmental Determinism: An image by Americans which suggested that Latin Americans are “Hot-Blooded Latins” with too much “non-white” blood, and do not have the self discipline needed in order to make a more democratic, stable society. There were Catholics, lacking a protestant work ethic. Americans also pictured Latin Americans to be lazy individuals. •Modernization Theory: Once the previous idea was settled, it came to the reality that the Latin American countries had to go through modernization, such as the United States, and their feeble network on which their society rested upon was that being criticized. •Dependency Theory: Students were sure that these two previous explanations were merely methods to blame the victims of abuse. They believed that Latin American economies stood in a dependent position relative to the world’s industrial powers. Therefore other nations took their overpowering stand, and forestalled Latin America’s industrialization. “Economic dependency” is why the nation did not follow the path it was supposed to follow. •Social Constructionism: The way race, gender, class, and national identities are “constructed” in people’s minds.

Discuss Michel Rolph Trouillot’s theory of historical narratives •History understood as the distinction and overlap of the socio-historical process (“what happened”) and the narratives about it (“what is said to have happened”). •Three capacities people have within socio-historic processes: actors, agents, subjects a) Agents: or occupants of the structural positions. (b) as actors in constant interference without a context. (c) as subjects, thats is