the mexican revolution since 1910 history xl 160b- … extension dept. of hsshs history xl160b...

UCLA Extension Dept. of HSSHS History XL160B syllabus

Dr. Carlos Alberto Contreras page 1 of 8

The Mexican Revolution Since 1910 History XL 160B- Course Syllabus

Spring Quarter 2010 Thursday evenings 7-10 p.m. Dodd 175, UCLA campus

Dr. Carlos Alberto Contreras Professor of History, Grossmont College Web page: http://www.grossmont.edu/carlos.contreras/ E-mail: [email protected] (you can e-mail me anytime) Blackboard: http://uclaextension.blackboard.com/ Login information provided at registration

COURSE DESCRIPTION

History XL 160B is a survey of modern Mexican history with an emphasis on the causes and consequences of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Primary attention will be given to analysis of post-revolutionary developments in Mexican society, including the process of state-building, efforts to develop the economy, the impact of government policies on the rural and urban population, the transformations of the political system, the struggles to reform the system, and the subsequent “end” of the Mexican Revolution in 2000. This course also examines Mexico’s economic and political transformation since the Official Party (the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI) was swept from power in 2000.

Because Mexico has been deeply transformed by successive waves of Globalization (flows of people, germs, flora and fauna, capital, and technology), this cartoon can serve as one of our guiding themes: “From Teotihuacan (Before Globalization 1.0) to Wal-Mart (Globalization 3.0)”

REQUIRED READINGS: The books listed below are required reading for this course and are available for purchase at the UCLA bookstore. You should also check online used book dealers such as amazon.com, bookfinder.com, abebooks.com, alibris.com, half.com, buy.com or http://www.textbookx.com/. 1) Meyer, Sherman and Deeds. The Course of Mexican History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). ISBN 0-19-514819-3 2) Contreras, Joseph. In the Shadow of the Giant: the Americanization of Modern Mexico (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009). ISBN 978-0-8135-4482 3) Camp, Roderic Ai. Politics in Mexico: The Democratic Consolidation. Fifth ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-19-531332-1



I will provide you with a copy of this article through Blackboard: Contreras, Carlos Alberto. “The Transformation of the Mexican Economy since Colonial Times” in Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004). Recommended book: Preston and Dillon Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004). (2005 paperback edition: ISBN 978-0-374-52964-2) Additional readings: I have assigned a series of newspaper and journal articles that will bring us up to date on some of the topics we will be discussing. These are all housed in Blackboard so you can read them. I will also e-mail you articles during the course of the term on topics related to our themes, so please make sure that your current e-mail address is in Blackboard. This is web-enhanced course. All of our lectures and discussions are on campus, but we will be using Blackboard so you can access all of my Powerpoint presentations, our handouts and additional web and video resources on Mexico. Through Blackboard we can also discuss material; you can pose questions and/or comments regarding course material; you can also communicate with each other in the Discussion Board or in private.

To keep up with Mexico and the world I recommend: For current Mexican politics: Proceso (http://www.proceso.com.mx); La Jornada (http://www.jornada.unam.mx). “El Universal” http://www.eluniversal.com.mx I will place further resources on Mexico in Blackboard. One of our goals is to develop “the power to grasp what kind of world we are living in,” as George Orwell put it. To this end, my lectures are designed to help you grapple with global interactions, global connections, and to see the “big picture” of Mexico’s development in relation to the rest of the world. We will identify the patterns of human activity and then add layers of complexity with more details and examples. Otherwise, we run the danger of not seeing the forest for the trees and we’ll be faced with a frustrating exercise in trying to sort through seemingly endless lists of names, dates, places, etc… Thus, my lectures and the readings overlap but do not parallel one another. Consistent attendance in lectures and participation in discussion are essential to understanding the course themes, the readings and films, and of course, to performing well in the class. Student Records: Students can access and update student records online by visiting: www.uclaextension.edu and clicking on My.Extension on the left navigation bar, selecting Student's Course Essentials, and following the directions to log in.

Student's Course Essentials lets you view your grades, request an official transcript,



change credit status on a current course, obtain enrollment verification, update your personal information, and much more. Accommodations: If you need any accommodations for a disability, please contact the UCLA Extension Disabled Student Services at: (310) 825-7851 or via e-mail [email protected]” Student Conduct: By enrolling in this course, all students are expected to have reviewed the Student Conduct and Sexual Harassment information provided in the current Quarterly catalog (print or online) under General Information.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND EXPECTATIONS “Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.” Bruce Lee The final course grade will be calculated based on the following components: 1. Class Participation (10%)- “The ability to ask the right question is half the battle of finding the answer.” -Thomas Watson

This includes both verbal contributions and active listening in class discussions. Please come to class prepared to discuss your readings. We will, on occasion, shift from lecture mode to class discussion mode in order to fully explore the nuances of our course themes and their relation to our readings. 2. Interactive Journal (10%)- You will write a series of short thought pieces in which you show your understanding of the concepts and themes being explored in the course and how your readings and films relate to them. I will give you the topics or questions and you will bring your written responses to class prepared to discuss them with your peers and myself. You will receive feedback on your responses during our discussions. You will title, date, and keep them all together in order (this will include your written responses to the films as well) and turn them all in on the last day of class. When you turn them in, just clip them or staple them together. 3. Independent Project (20%)- Choose a topic that interests you about modern Mexico and build a project that shows your research and mastery of this subject. Some examples: an analysis of a historical novel (such as Carlos Fuentes’ The Death of Artemio Cruz or Rosario Castellanos’ The Book of Lamentations); a multimedia presentation with analysis of the paintings of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, or David Alfaro Siqueiros; a research paper on a specific aspect of modern Mexico such as the 1968 student movement; the Official Party’s response to dissident movements; the Zapatista uprising of 1994; the rise of independent journalism…. Choose a topic that interests you and a format that fits your strengths and run them by me before you proceed with it. Due: by June 17th -the day of the final (you can hand me a copy or email it to me)



4. Midterm Exam (30%)- This exam will be comprised of both short answer and essay questions which you will answer in class. You will have one and a half hours to answer these. In order to help you prepare for it, I will give you some sample questions at least a week in advance. A blue book (available at the bookstore) is required. 5. Final Exam (30%)- Same format as the midterm: short answer and essay questions drawn mainly from material since the midterm. Bring a blue book for this one too. All Grades are final when filed by the instructor in the Final Grade Report. Your grading rubric. This is how your exams and papers are graded: A: Outstanding achievement. Essays provide a solid argument and are well supported by appropriate examples drawn from readings, lectures, films. B: Praiseworthy performance, definitely above average. Essays provide a coherent argument supported by some specific examples. C: Student's basic effort; an average, satisfactory performance. To improve, essays need to be more coherent and better supported by examples. D: Need for improvement; student needs to redouble efforts to grasp basic themes of the course. Classroom standards: I strive to keep a positive learning environment in our classroom. Any behavior that impedes the process of instruction or distracts others such that learning is inhibited is not tolerated and will be considered a breech of the Student Code of Conduct and be addressed accordingly.

COURSE OUTLINE We may need to spend more time on a given topic. If so, changes to our outline will always be

announced. Week 1 4/1 Introduction to the course: course themes, approaches, and expectations The Historiography of Mexico; “How do we know what we know?” Readings: Start reading Meyer, Sherman and Deeds, chapters 1-5 Handout: “Where did Mexicans Come From?” LA Times art. by Gregory Rodriguez Joseph Contreras, In the Shadow of the Giant, chapter 1 Camp, Politics in Mexico, chapter 1 1) “Until lions have their own historians, the hunter will always be glorified” Ethiopian proverb 2) “Our past is only a little less uncertain than our future, and like the future, it is always changing,

always revealing and concealing.” Daniel Boorstin, Hidden History 3) “Our only duty to history is to rewrite it.” Oscar Wilde 4) “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” William Faulkner Requiem for a Nun (Act I, Scene

III) (referring to, for example, the legacy of slavery [something from the past] into modern times) 5) “Getting History wrong is part of being a nation” Ernest Renan 6) “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it”



Flannery O’Connor 7) Benedict Anderson argues that part of being a nation is “organized remembering and deliberate forgetting.” What do you think? 8) “The truth shall set you free, but first it’ll piss you off.” Gloria Steinem 9) “If you think you think you already have the answer or the truth, it keeps you from learning.”

David Henry Hwang, playwright 10) “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Emiliano Zapata said “The land belongs to those who work it” This cartoon: “History belongs to those who work it (or rewrite it)”

First class discussion on your responses to journal #1 and Rodriguez article Week 2 4/8 Mexico’s Native Peoples; the Conquest (Globalization 1.0); the Mexican

Colonial Economy and Society Film clips: “500 Nations: Mexico”

Readings: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds chapters 1-12 Contreras, “The Transformation of the Mexican Economy” for the colonial era

“Latin America’s Indigenous Saint (Juan Diego) Stirs Anger, Pride” “An Unsettling Racial Score Card” (Casta Paintings) by Gregory Rodriguez Journal Entry # 2 on film clips and readings; Discussion Week 3 4/15 Post-Colonial Blues: Mexico from the 1820’s to the 1850’s Readings: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds ch’s 13-19 Contreras, “Mexican Economic Policy” for this time period Juarez, The Wars of the Reform, the French Invasion and Mexico’s Nascent “Modernization”: Mexico from the 1850’s to 1876 Readings: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds ch’s 20, 21 and 22 Recommended novel: Zarco Week 4 4/22 Railroads, Rurales, Porfirio Diaz and “Order and Progress”: The “Modernization” of Mexico, 1876-1910 (Globalization 2.0)



Readings: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds ch’s 23, 24, 25 Camp, ch. 2 The Liberal Order Collapses: The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920 Read: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds ch’s 26-30 Corridos of the Mexican Revolution Week 5 4/29 Film: “Mexico: Revolution, 1910-1940” Traces the “institutionalization” of the Revolution. Footage from the period. “Institutionalizing” the Revolution, 1920 to 1940 Readings: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds ch’s 31-34 Journal #_ - Film and readings; Discussion For further reading: Katz, Friedrich. The Life and Times of Pancho Villa. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Womack Jr, John. Zapata and the Mexican Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1968. Recommended novel: Los de Abajo by Mariano Azuela (The Underdogs in English) and The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes. Week 6 5/5 Midterm Examination (first half of class) Film: “Mexico: From Boom to Bust, 1940-1982” Traces Mexico’s Revolution

from its industrialization efforts to its oil boom and bust. Week 7 5/13 The Revolution Becomes “the Miracle”: The Drive for Urban and Industrial

Mexico, 1940-82 Readings: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds ch. 35-37 The Mexican Political System at the Height of the PRI’s power Camp, chapters 5 and 6 Journal Entry # _ on film and readings; Discussion For further reading: Castañeda, Jorge G. Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents Were Chosen. New York: The New Press, 2000. Recommended film: The Falcon and the Snowman Week 8 5/20 The Economic Crisis of 1982, the "Lost Decade," and the Economic and Political Restructuring of Mexico Readings: Meyer, Sherman and Deeds ch’s 38, 39



Carlos Alberto Contreras. “Mexican Economic Policy” for this time period Joseph Contreras, In the Shadow of the Giant, ch. 1 Film: “Mexico: The End of an Era, 1982-1988” Third part in this series, tracing the jarring changes that shook Mexico after the 1982 financial crisis, Mexico’s worst crisis since its Revolution. Journal # _ on film and readings; Discussion For further reading: Lustig, Nora. Mexico: The Remaking of an Economy. Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1998; Babb, Sarah. Managing Mexico: Economists from Nationalism and Neoliberalism. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2001. Week 9 5/27 Neoliberalism, NAFTA, and Globalization 3.0: the Remaking of the Mexican Economy and the Shifting Political Landscape from the 1990s to 2000 Readings: Contreras, In the Shadow of the Giant, chapters 2 through 6 Camp, ch. 9 Articles: “How a Tortilla Empire Was Built on Favoritism” (NY Times) “Dumping on Mexico” (NYT 12-09) “Did NAFTA Actually Help Mexico?” (NYT 12-09) Journal Entry # _ In the Shadow of the Giant and articles. Group and Class Discussion For further reading: Quiñonez, Sam. True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001. Week 10 6/3 The Zapatista Uprising Shatters the “First World” Myth Film: The Sixth Sun; clips from Rage Against the Machine’s concert in Mexico City Journal #_ Discussion on film and readings on this topic For further reading: Womack Jr, John, ed. Rebellion in Chiapas: An Historical Reader. New York: The New Press, 1999. The PAN’s Vicente Fox topples the Official Party: the Elections of 2000 and the Realignment of Mexican Politics Since 2000 Readings: Camp, chapters 7, 8, and 10 Articles: “A Paralyzed Democracy” by Jorge Castañeda Newsweek, 2-10 “Mexico’s Farm Subsidies Going Astray” LAT 3-10



For further reading: Shirk, David A. Mexico's New Politics: The Pan and Democratic Change. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005. Week 11 6/10 Mexico in the 21st Century: Migration, Remittances, and Capital Flows Readings: Contreras, In the Shadow of the Giant, chapters 7 through 12 and conclusion Articles in Blackboard (or links to radio reports): “NAFTA Should Have Stopped Illegal Immigration, Right?” LA Times “Gently Does It: Mexico and America” Economist Dec. 5th, 2009 “Mexico Struggles as US Economy Struggles” NPR 2-10-10 “Fewer Mexicans Dream of Returning” LAT- Rodriguez 2-22-10 Mexico in the 21st Century: Drug Violence, Public Security and the Rule of Law Readings: “How U.S. Became Stage for Mexican Drug Feud” NYT 12/8/09 “What’s Spanish for Quagmire? Five Myths that Caused the Failed War Next Door” by Jorge Castañeda (New America Foundation and Foreign Policy, Jan. 2010) “Problems with Mexico’s Legal System” WSJ 10-17-09 Recommended film “Presumed Guilty” (about Mexico’s dysfunctional judicial system) Class Discussion: Mexico during Globalization 3.0 and the “Americanization of Mexico.” Discuss In the Shadow of the Giant and articles. For further reading: Castañeda, Jorge G. Ex-Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants. New York: The New Press, 2007. Recommended films: Maquilapolis: City of Factories (2006) Week 12 6/17 Final Exam

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