Week 15 - Latin America, Looking Forward

WEEK 15 - Looking Forward (One segment only this week)

Readings

Bryan Pitts et al., “21st Century Golpismo: A NACLA Roundtable,” NACLA 48(4), pp. 334-345 (2016)

Barry Cannon, “Inside the Mind of Latin America’s New Right,” NACLA 48(4), pp. 328-333 (2016)

For an introduction to the recent trend toward right-leaning governments across Latin America, watch this clip. Frequently, these political transformations take place through what critics call a “legislative coup” (“golpe” means coup in Spanish and Portuguese). You can find examples of these with Paraguay (watch this clip) and of course in Brazil (watch this clip). With Paraguay, Lugo was a Catholic bishop with strong ties to peasant organizations and NGOS. He was elected in 2008, ending 60 years of rule by Colorado Party, but then, in 2012, Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies voted to impeach Lugo, ostensibly in response to the socialist president’s failure to prevent bloodshed at a confrontation between police and farmers.

For recent commentary on Latin America’s “post-pink” moment, watch this short interview with MIT linguist Noam Chomsky.

Finally, as we reach the end of the course, a plug for Latin American & Caribbean studies. Why consider LACS as a major or minor?

1.     Because the region’s literature, art, music and film are extraordinary;

2.     Because we can learn something from their experimentations with democracy;

3.     Because they elect female presidents;

4.     Because the African diaspora in the Americas has given rise to an incredible mosaic of culture, identity and political resistance;

5.     Because there are presently 54 million Latinos living US – 17%, and the figure will likely double in the next couple of decades—and the cultural and political importance of Latino/as in the United States continues to grow;

6.     Because the Pope is from Argentina;

7.     Because nearly 20% of our students at New Paltz – one out of every six – are Latino/a.