LAS 111 Introduction to Latin America

Course Goals

    All of the people The Western Hemisphere's people and countries share a common heritage. This heritage, characterized by centuries of interaction between peoples native to the American continents, Europeans, Africans and Asians, in the 1990s is influenced by three trends: (1) an increase in levels of trade, commerce and migration, (2) construction of a hemispheric marketplace, and (3) a broadly shared goal to improve liberal democratic institutions. Yet living in the Americas today is much more than economics and politics, as all of us in the Americas share a deepening cultural exchange.

LAS 111 offers you the chance to learn to about this shared heritage in Latin America; to understand the lives, cultures, dreams and problems of people with which you will share the next century. Some of you may like the cultures and people we will study, and may wish to learn more by living in one of the countries for a time. Others of you may not be attracted to the cultures you will learn about, and will leave the course merely knowing more about them. It is worth recalling that in many respects the United States is a Latin American country itself; by the year 2000 20% of Americans may be in some way Latinos.

In this course you are expected to learn to make distinctions about Latin Americans. This means to comprehend the differences between the countries and their peoples, changes over time and the relationships between different social groups. While the countries of Latin America are marked by the pre-dominance of Iberian, or Luso-Hispanic, cultures, many very old American cultures persist and, in some cases, are even experiencing a renaissance. In some countries the impact of certain African cultures is impressive. And in many sites Chinese, Japanese or South Asian impact is noteworthy.

Your part in the course is to read, write, listen, discuss and think. The faculty will bring ideas, insights, experiences and their own passion for things Latino to you. All of us teaching the course hope you will enjoy the course as much as we enjoy teaching it.