Jose
Clemente Orozco, The Flag (Allen Memorial Art Museum)
The
purpose of this course is the in-depth investigation of the manner
in which subaltern populations, peasants in this case, influence,
impact, or otherwise have an effect upon a state which they do not
control, and the manner in which historians go about studying this
process. Since rebellion is the most common (but not only) vehicle
by which peasants hope to impact state behaviors, we will focus on
moments of rebellion. While I will argue that subalterns can have
an impact outside of their local settings, not all the authors we
will read share that opinion, and some strongly disagree.
Our tasks
include reaching a clear understanding of the principal terms that
we employ in this specific historical field (particularly “peasants,”
the “state,”“hegemony,” etc.), exploring our assumptions
about rural populations and their ability to shape a political sphere
which is most often formally determined in urban (“modern”)
settings, and developing a theoretically informed methodology which
can guide our analysis of these issues.
Although
there are abundant examples of peasant rebellion throughout Latin
America, and from pre-colonial to modern times, we will only examine
rural populations in Mexico from the early nineteenth century to the
present. There are two primary reasons for this: (1) While we can
develop some general arguments about subaltern politics, our best
analyses need to be historically grounded and contextualized. We can
do that better if we concentrate on only one social formation (Mexico)
as opposed to jumping from one country to another. (2) Beyond a doubt,
Mexico has given rise to the most sophisticated (and most exciting,
in my opinion) historiography, a good portion of which is available
both in English and (even) in paperback! There are similar reasons
for staying in the post-independence period, and we will explore these
further in class.
Requirements
and Grading
Weekly Assignments
Four students will be
in charge of each class session. Two of the four will write a short
(3-5 page) paper suggesting some basic analytic and/or historiographic
issues raised in that week's readings. These two are responsible for
posting the papers into the “Blackboard” system by the Sunday
afternoon (no later than 6:00 PM) prior to the Monday evening's class
during which we will discuss the readings. The other two will serve
as respondents to the papers (each assigned to respond to one of the
papers), summarizing the main points of the assigned paper and starting
the general discussion. All the other members of the class are required
to bring discussion questions to class based on their reading. I will
collect these questions at the beginning of class. The number of times
that you will each be assigned to write papers and serve as a respondent
will depend on the total number of students in the course, but, generally
speaking, you will likely be responsible for writing papers for three
classes and serving as a respondent for an additional three classes.
During the first class, we will assign responsibilities as well as grading
options for these papers. I will provide written feedback on all papers;
respondents will get a check+, check, or check- as a grade.
Final Project
Your final project will be a 10-15
page paper (or equivalent project) on any topic covered in the course.
You will need to clear the final topic with me by November 18. The
project is due on December 16 (the last day of reading period), although
you may receive an extension (if requested) until December 20, the
time scheduled for seminar exams (although there will not be a final
examination in this seminar). All projects submitted between Dec.
16 (at 4:30 PM) and December 20 will be graded down one grade-step
per day unless you have requested and received an extension from me.
All projects submitted after 2:00 PM on December 20 will not be graded
unless you have received an official incomplete in the course. If
you choose to present a final project in a format other than a paper,
you will need to clear that with me.
I expect all written
work to be thoughtful, well constructed, and spell-checked! An advanced
warning: computers always seem to go down just when you are putting
in your final paragraph. Always save your material frequently to a
floppy, not to the hard disk. If the computer crashes, at worst you
will only lose a few paragraphs. So don't tell me that the computer
ate your paper.
Final
Grade
Your final grade will
be based on your weekly written work, the quality of your work as a
respondent, your final project (30%) and your class participation (20%).
I don't expect everyone to understand fully all of the reading; I do
expect you to raise questions when you don't understand.
Work at Oberlin is governed by an Honor
Code. If you are unclear what that entails, please consult the
information at the Honor
Code site.
ACCESSING THE COURSE:
Course materials can be found on the “ CourseInfo”
Blackboard system. This electronic bulletin board will post all
the outlines for the course lectures, the syllabus, exams and paper
assignments, and other materials useful for the course. You must
register to get into the system, and I will provide information
on how to do this and how to use the system in the first week of
classes. In the meantime, click the following for information
on accessing Blackboard.
Once you are registered, you enter via a password, and then can
locate daily outlines, assignments or other useful information.
It is important that everyone registers for the CourseInfo Blackboard
system as it provides me with an easy way to email the class.
SOURCES ON LATIN AMERICA:
I have compiled a great many internet sources and resources on Latin
America at Sources
and Resources on Latin America. This resource includes a variety
of materials from the history of Latin America to organizations
and publications of interest to activists working on Latin American
issues.
(Jose
Clemente Orozco, Mexican Landscape, Allen Memorial Art Museum)
Books Recommended
for Purchase
Florencia Mallon, Peasant and
Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru (Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994).
John Womack, Jr., Zapata and the
Mexican Revolution (New York: Random House), 1970.
Samuel Brunk, Emiliano Zapata!
Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico (Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press), 1995.
Mariano Azuela, Los de Abajo
(New York: Signet), 1996 reissue.
Subcomandante Marcos, Leslie Lopez
(translator), Frank Bardacke, Shadows of Tender Fury: The Letters
and Communiques of Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of
National Liberation (New York: Monthly Review Press), 1995.
Howard Campbell, et al. eds., Zapotec
struggles : histories, politics, and representations from Juchitán,
Oaxaca (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press),1993. [NOTE:
It is likely that this is out of print and you will need to buy
it used from Amazon.com or another service, if you want to purchase
it, or get it from Ohio LINK or the library.]
Jennie Purnell, Popular Movements
and State Formation in Revolutionary Mexico: The Agraristas and
Cristeros of Michoacán (Durham: Duke University Press),
1999.
NOTE: Course materials will be
available in a variety of formats:
—
All the books recommended for purchase are also available on reserve
in Mudd. You can also request library copies of them via Ohio
Link.
—
Many of the articles which have been copied are available in hard
copy on reserve in Mudd and on-line via the ERes
system.
—
Those articles noted as “JSTOR”
are only available by the internet. They are a part of a full-text
archive of scholarly journals. The easiest way to access these journals
is via the on-line copy of this syllabus — they are linked
directly to the article in question. These articles can be downloaded
and/or printed directly from JSTOR.
Syllabus
September 9: Background on Mexican
history (lecture/questions)
For
you to study peasants in Mexican history, It is essential that you
have a background knowledge of the broader history of Mexico. Many
of the readings will provide this over the course of the semester,
but this lecture, in particular, is designed for those of you unfamiliar
with Mexico's history. Although it is not required, you might want
to consult a standard textbook history such as Michael Meyer and
William L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History (New York:
Oxford University Press), various editions, or Jaime Suchlicki,
Mexico: from Montezuma to NAFTA, Chiapas, and Beyond (Washington:
Brassey's), 1996.
You
can also read the appropriate chapters in some survey texts of Latin
American history. See, in particular, the latest editions of Mark
A. Burkholder & Lyman L. Johnson, Colonial Latin America;
David Bushnell and Neill Macaulay, The Emergence of Latin America
in the Nineteenth Century, and Thomas Skidmore and Peter Smith,
Modern Latin America, all published by Oxford University
Press.
You can also read the useful section
titled, “The
Mexican Revolution,” skipping the introduction and focusing
on “The Insurgency” and Caudillo Politics and the Liberal
Reform”.
I: Theory
Week of Sept. 16 (reschedule date):
Can the Subaltern Speak? Some theoretical approaches to “subalterns”
and the peasantry.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can
the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and The Interpretation
of Culture, Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. (London:
Macmillan, 1988), pp. 271-313. [ERes]
Ranajit Guha, “Small Voice
of History,” Subaltern Studies IX (1996): 1-12. [ERes]
Peasant
Social Worlds and Their Transformation: This is an interesting
site directed and designed by John Gledhill for the University
of Manchester (UK) Department of Social Anthropology and the ERA
Consortium. When you open it up, you'll be asked to fill out your
name and affiliation and email (if you want), then you can go
to the texts. Within the site, you'll want to read:
Peasant Reproduction and Capitalism: Read “Theoretical
Perspectives.” Follow the links (“Next Page”) through
Marx and Lenin, the Chayanovian Alternative, and “Beyond
the Classical Debates” (the last page is “Rural Futures”).
You may also want to look at the section on “Anthropologists
and the Peasantry,” particularly, “Why did anthropologists
get interested in the peasantry?”
II: “Prehistory"
September 23: The Hidalgo
rebellions and the early 19th century.
Reading: Peter
Guardino, “Barbarism or Republican Law? Guerrero's
Peasants and National Politics, 1820-1846,” Hispanic
American Historical Review 75:2 (1995): 185-213.
[JSTOR]
David Alfaro Siqueiros, Angustia
John Tutino, “The Revolution
in Mexican Independence: Insurgency and the Renegotiation
of Property, Production, and Patriarchy in the Bajio, 1800-1855,”
Hispanic American Historical Review 78:3 (1998):
367-418. [JSTOR]
Eric Van Young, “Millennium
on the Northern Marches: The Mad Messiah of Durango and
Popular Rebellion in Mexico, 1800-1815,” Comparative
Studies in Society and History 28:3 (1986): 385-413.
[JSTOR]
September 30: The Reform Wars
of Mid-Century
Reading:
Florencia Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial
Mexico and Peru (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press), 1994.
III: History — The Mexican
Revolution
October 7: Background and
Approaches
Reading: Mary Kay Vaughan,
“Cultural Approaches to Peasant Politics in the Mexican
Revolution,” Hispanic American Historical Review (1999):
269-305. [JSTOR]
The
Mexican Revolution (University of Manchester site): Read
“Introduction,” skip the next two sections ( “Insurgency”
and “Caudillo Politics and the Liberal Reform”), then
read “The Porfiriato,” and “Agrarian Revolution”.
Mariano Azuela,
Los de Abajo (New York: Signet), 1996 reissue.
Recommended (but not required)
background reading:
Michael J. Gonzales, The
Mexican Revolution, 1910-1940 (Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press), 2002.
October 14: Zapata
(1)
Reading: John
Womack, Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York:
Random House), 1970.
October 28: Zapata
(2)
Reading: Samuel Brunk,
Emiliano Zapata! Revolution and Betrayal in Mexico (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press), 1995.
Diego
Rivera, Zapata (Martin Art Gallery)
November 4: Constructing
the Revolutionary Image (3)
Reading: Samuel Brunk,
“Remembering Emiliano Zapata: Three Moments in the
Posthumous Career of the Martyr of Chinameca,” Hispanic
American Historical Review 78:3 (1998): 457-490. [JSTOR]
Preparation:
You will be given some slides to consider for this week's class.
November 11: Ideology
Reading: Plan
de Ayala in English [Note: this document is also available
in Spanish]
Michael W. Foley, “Organizing,
Ideology, and Moral Suasion: Political Discourse and Action
in a Mexican Town,” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 32:3 (455-485) [JSTOR]
Judith Adler Hellman, “The
Role of Ideology in Peasant Politics: Peasant Mobilization and
Demobilization in the Laguna Region,” Journal of Interamerican
Studies and World Affairs 25 (1983): 3-29. [JSTOR]
Ana María
Alonso, “U.S. Military Intervention, Revolutionary Mobilization,
and Popular Ideology in the Chihuahuan Sierra, 1916-1917,”
Daniel Nugent, ed., Rural Revolt in Mexico: U.S. Intervention
and the Domain of Subaltern Politics, expanded ed. (Durham:
Duke University Press, 1998), pp. 207-238. [ERes]
IV: Post-history
Nov. 18: Topic for final project
due during class
Nov. 18: Mexico
in the 1920s and 1930s (The Cristero Revolt and Cardenas)
Reading: Jennie
Purnell, Popular Movements and State Formation in Revolutionary
Mexico: The Agraristas and Cristeros of Michoacán (Durham:
Duke University Press), 1999.
Marjorie Becker, “Black and White and Color: Cardenismo and
the Search for a Campesino Ideology,”Comparative Studies
in Society and History 29:3 (1987): 453-465. [JSTOR]
Nov. 25: The Subaltern
Voice?
Reading: Howard Campbell,
et al. eds., Zapotec struggles : histories, politics, and
representations from Juchitán, Oaxaca (Washington
: Smithsonian Institution Press),1993. [Note: limited editions
available; buy used from Amazon or other seller.] Pages to be
assigned.
Optional: Jeffrey
W. Rubin, “COCEI in Juchitán: Grassroots Radicalism
and Regional History,” Journal of Latin American Studies
26:1 (1994): 109-136. [JSTOR]
December 2: Modern
Zapatismo
Reading: Subcomandante
Marcos, Leslie Lopez (translator), Frank Bardacke, Shadows
of Tender Fury: The Letters and Communiques of Subcomandante Marcos
and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (New York: Monthly
Review Press), 1995.
December 16: Final
project due.
Note: This project
is due on December 16 (the last day of reading period), although
you may receive an extension (if requested) until December 20, the
time scheduled for seminar exams (although there will not be a final
examination in this seminar). All projects submitted between Dec.
16 (at 4:30 PM) and December 20 will be graded down one grade-step
per day unless you have requested and received an extension from
me. All projects submitted after 2:00 PM on December 20 will not
be graded unless you have received an official incomplete in the
course.
Films: The following films will
be shown at scheduled times (which we will decide in the first week)
over the course of the semester.