Latin American Popular Culture

This course examines the history of Latin America and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries. Our texts for this course are novels, political cartoons, movies, TV shows and music, along with traditional history books. The course seeks to examine the way that Latin American societies have depicted themselves in the popular media, the way that the United States has viewed and absorbed Latin American culture, and the ways that historians have sought to explain the transformations in various countries by examining popular culture. Since Latin American and Caribbean cultures are so closely linked to the United States, and because an increasing number of U.S. citizens are of Latino descent, this course offers valuable insights into the transformations occurring in US culture.