Module 1: The Conquest and Colonization

Class 2

Topic

• Indigenous cultures in Latin America
• Amerindian voices. Popol Vuh and náhuatl poetry

Homework to do before class

1. Read: Selection from the Popol Vuh
2. Complete: Reading guide and discussion prompts

Class materials

• Mayan civilization (OER, Khan Academy)
• Ancient Latin American objects in the archive (exhibition, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)

Class 3

Topic

• Discourses about the Conquest and Chronicles of the “New World”
• Travel diaries

Homework to do before class

1. Read:
   • Christopher Columbus, “Letter to Luis De Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery“
   • Zotigh, Dennis and Renee Gokey, “Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Rethinking American History,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 7, 2018.
2. Complete: Reading guide and discussion prompts

Class materials

• Film: 1492: Conquest of Paradise (Ridley Scott, 1992)
• Supplementary reading: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain excerpt – Bernal Díaz del Castillo
• Supplementary reading: Clendinnen, Inga. “‘Fierce and Unnatural Cruelty:’ Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico,” Representations 33 (Winter 1991): 65-100.

Class 4

Topic

• Protests and turmoil in the Americas: Las Casas & the Valladolid Debate

Homework to do before class

1. Read:
   • Antonio de Montesinos, “Sermon Delivered in 1511”
   • Bartolomé de las Casas, selection from The Destruction of the Indies
2. Complete: Reading guide and discussion prompts
3. Watch: film Aguirre, Wrath of God (W. Herzog, 1972) and prepare two discussion questions from the list

Class materials

• TBD

Class 5

Topic

• The Mestizo Population and the Construction of Race: El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega

Homework to do before class

1. Read:
   • Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries (read only chapters IX & X)
   • Augusto Monterroso, “The Eclipse”
2. Complete: Reading guide and discussion prompts

Class materials

• Casta Paintings and Social Order in 18th-Century New Spain (Mexico):
  • Image 1: Miguel Cabrera’s set of casta painting, 1763, oil on canvas (LACMA)
  • Image 2: Francisco Clapera, set of sixteen casta paintings, c. 1775 (Denver Art Museum)
• TBD

Class 6

Topic

• First African Slaves in the Americas

Homework to do before class

1. Visit the First Blacks in the Americas website (Dominican Studies Institute, CUNY) and read:
   • “A Century between Resistance and Adaptation”
   • “Black Women Present in La Española as Early as Black Men“
2. Complete: Reading guide and discussion prompts

Class materials

• Digitized versions of primary sources from the First Blacks in the Americas (please click on the translation and commentary tabs):
  • Manuscript 026 (Theme: Around 1530 in Santo Domingo, a female Black slave was burned at the stake accused of poisoning her female mistress)
  • Manuscript 062 (Theme: In 1553, residents of Santo Domingo still remembered how Black maroon leader Sebastián Lemba’s head was exhibited in the city’s public square)

Class 7

Topic

• Modern visions of the Conquest (part 1)

Homework to do before class

1. Watch film También la lluvia (Even the Rain; dir. Icíar Bollaín, 2010) and prepare two discussion prompts from the list

Class materials

• TBD

Class 8

Topic

• Modern visions of the Conquest (part 2)

Homework to do before class

1. Read:
   • Julio Cortázar, “The Night Face Up”
   • José María Arguedas, “The Pongo’s Dream“
   • Elena Garro, “It’s the Fault of the Tlaxcaltecas”
2. Complete: Reading guide and discussion prompts

Class materials

• TBD

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