HIST 354 The History of Race in Latin America

This course examines historical and cultural constructions of race from the time of contact between indigenous European, African, and Asian peoples in the colonial period to the present. We begin with the establishment and evolution of the ethnic hierarchy in the colonial period; focusing especially on African slavery in Latin America; interethnic interaction among Iberians; indigenous and Africans; and attitudes toward marriage, sexuality, and racial mixing. The course continues to explore a broad variety of themes in the modern period, including racial ideology and national policies and identities, immigration, the marketing of whiteness, the legacy of slavery, and Afro-Latino and indigenous social movements. The class focuses on Mexico, the Caribbean, the Andes, and Brazil, but we will not neglect to consider many other places such as Venezuela, Central America, and California.