Discussion Topic: We talk about criminal violence as a regional political issue throughout Latin America, but our readings for this week show some ways in which patterns of crime-related violence vary across the region and globally. Under what conditions do you think crime becomes a form of political violence, and how does it change our […]

Before the Western hemisphere was named America or Latin America, the indigenous empires had their own self-designated names such as Anahuac for what is today known as Central Mexico, and Tawatinsuyu for the Andes region of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. An Italian cartographer realized that he was sailing along the coast of a continent and […]

Watch the PBS documentary Peril and Promise, episode 6:LINK: https://www.pbs.org/video/latino-americans-episode-6-peril-and-promise/ Takes viewers through the past 30 years, with a second wave of Cubans arriving in Miami during the Mariel exodus and with hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans fleeing civil wars, death squads and unrest to go north into a new land transforming the […]

Watch the PBS documentary Prejudice and Pride, episode 5:LINK: https://www.pbs.org/video/latino-americans-episode-5-prejudice-and-pride/ Details the creation of the proud Chicano identity, as labor leaders organize farmworkers in California, and as activists push for better education opportunities for Latinos, the inclusion of Latino studies, and empowerment in the political process. Write a short essay response to Prejudice and Pride […]

Watch PBS Documentary The New Latinos, episode 4:LINK: https://www.pbs.org/video/latino-americans-episode-4-new-latinos/ Highlights the swelling immigration from Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic that stretches from the post-World War II years into the early 1960s as the new arrivals seek economic opportunities. Write a short essay response to The New Latinos of at least 300 words: Give […]

Watch the PBS Documentary War and Peace, episode 3:LINK:https://www.pbs.org/video/latino-americans-episode-3-war-and-peace/ Moves into the World War II years and those that follow, as Latino Americans serve their new country by the hundreds of thousands but still face discrimination and a fight for civil rights back in the United States. Write a short essay response to War and […]

Watch PBS Documentary Episode 2, Empire of Dreams:LINK: https://www.pbs.org/video/latino-americans-episode-2-empire-dreams/ Documents how the American population begins to be reshaped by the influx of people that began in 1880 and continues into the 1940s, as Cubans, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans begin arriving in the U.S. and start to build strong Latino-American communities in South Florida, Los Angeles […]

Watch the PBS Documentary Foreigners in Their Own Land: LINK: https://www.pbs.org/video/latino-americans-episode-1-foreigners-their-own-land/ Explores the period from 1565-1880, as the first Spanish explorers enter North America, the U.S. expands into territories in the Southwest that had been home to Native Americans and English and Spanish colonies, and as the Mexican-American War strips Mexico of half its territories […]