Latin American and Latino Studies - Fall 1998

Latin American and Latino Studies 80D: Political Change in Mexico

Professor: Jonathan Fox
Lectures: Tues., Thurs., 10:00 - 11:45 AM Merrill Annex 58 (lower level)
Location: 148 Porter
Phone: 459-5897/459-3125 fax
Office hours: Tues., Thurs., 2:00 - 3:30 PM
E-mail: jafox@ucsc.edu

Mexico is in the midst of a long and difficult political transition. The political system is both evolving and breaking down, while a new system has yet to take its place. This course explores the main trends in contemporary Mexican politics against the backdrop of long-term historical, social and economic change. The first half of the course combines analysis of how Mexico's diverse citizenry experiences politics in their daily lives with an overview of national politics and institutions. The second half of the course concentrates on the rise of civil society and grassroots movements, the emergence of guerrilla movements, US-Mexican relations and the democratization of local government. The course will also include guest speakers from Mexico, as well as video documentaries.

• Judith Adler Hellman, Mexican Lives, (New York: New Press, 1994)
• Wayne Cornelius, Mexican Politics in Transition: The Breakdown of a One-Party Dominant Regime, (La Jolla: Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1996)
• Copies of additional required readings (noted with an * in the syllabus below) will be made available in a course reader. News updates will also be distributed regularly, and some will be included in the readers.
• Two copies of each book are on Reserve at McHenry Library.

The course requires a mid-term and final exam, which will be based on the readings, handouts and lecture material. Consistent attendance is strongly recommended. Study guidelines will be distributed to help to prepare for the exams. All students are also expected to have email addresses by the second week of class, since Mexican news updates will be distributed electronically. Student evaluations will be based primarily on the two exams, but class participation will be taken into account as well.

Sept. 25: Introductions

Sept. 30: Overview

• Mexican Lives, pp. 1-42
• Mexican Politics in Transition, pp. 1-9

Oct. 2: Historical backgound: The revolutionary legacy

• Mexican Lives, pp. 43-62
• Mexican Politics in Transition, pp. 11-24

Oct. 7: Urbanizing Mexico

• Mexican Lives, pp. 63-113

Oct. 9: The countryside in transition

• Mexican Lives, pp. 113-151
• Peasant and indigenous movement updates to be distributed.

Oct. 14: On the border: Life on the line

• Guest lecture: Prof. Roberto Sánchez (Environmental Studies)
• Mexican Lives, pp. 152-184

Oct. 16: Understanding lives of struggle

• Mexican Lives, pp. 185-232

Oct. 21: The post-revolutionary regime: Political parties

• Mexican Politics in Transition, pp. 25-76
• Jonathan Fox and Luis Hernández, "Lessons from the Mexican Elections," Dissent, Winter, 1995, pp. 29-33*
• Eric Olson, So Close Yet So Far: Mexico's Mid-Term Elections and the Struggle for Democracy (Wash., D.C.: Washington Office on Latin America, June, 1997), pp. 1-32*

Oct. 23: Development, economic crisis and poverty

• Mexican Politics in Transition, pp. 99-113
• Tom Barry, Mexico: A Country Guide (Albuquerque: Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center, 1992), "Restructuring and Modernization," pp. 76-94*
• Nora Lustig, "The 1982 Debt Crisis, Chiapas, NAFTA and Mexico's Poor,' in Laura Randall, ed., Changing Structure of Mexico: Political, Social and Economic Prospects, (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 157-165*
• plus short selections from The Economist, El Financiero and the Financial Times*

Oct. 27: Guest lecture: Carlos Montemayor, novelist and indigenous rights advocate (Note: Monday afternoon, time and place to be announced)

Oct. 28: Organizing and disorganizing society: The hand of the state

• Mexican Politics in Transition, pp. 77-98, 115-119

Oct. 30: Mid-term exam [in-class]

Nov. 4: Civil society emerges: "La sociedad que se organiza"

• Guest lecture: John Ross, long-time Mexico-based journalist
• Aurora Camacho de Schmidt and Arthur Schmidt, "Foreword" to Elena Poniatowska, Nothing, Nobody: The Voices of the Mexico City Earthquake, (Philadephia: Temple University Press, 1995), pp. ix-xxix and pp. 142-149, 182-183*
• John Ross, recent news articles on grassroots movements (Latinamerica Press)

Nov. 6: Social movements - gender, class & ethnicity

• Vivienne Bennett, The Politics of Water: Urban Protest, Gender and Power in Monterrey, Mexico, (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), pp. 106-127*
• Anna M. Fernández Poncela, "The Political Participation of Women in Mexico Today," in Laura Randall, ed., Changing Structure of Mexico: Political, Social and Economic Prospects, (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 307-313*
• Lynn Stephen, "Democracy for Whom? Women's Grassroots Political Activism in the 1990s, Mexico City and Chiapas," in Gerardo Otero, ed., Neo-liberalism Revisited: Economic Restructuring and Mexico's Political Future, (Boulder: Westview, 1996), pp. 167-186*

Nov. 11: The Chiapas rebellion

• Carlos Fuentes, A New Time for Mexico, (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1996), pp. 86-93*
• Jonathan Fox, "The Roots of Chiapas," Akwe:kon - A Journal of Indigenous Issues, 11(2), Summer, 1994*
• Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee, Zapatista Army of National Liberation, "Who are the Zapatistas?" January 6, 1994*
• Background video: "The Sixth Sun: The Mayan Uprising in Chiapas" (on reserve at library)
• Updates on guerrilla conflict and peace negotiations to be distributed.

Nov. 13: Behind the Salinas scandals (in-class video: "PBS Frontline: Murder, Money and Mexico," 1997)

• Alma Guillermoprieto, "Letter from Mexico City: Losing the Future," The New Yorker, April 4, 1994, pp. 53-56*
• Andrew Reding, "It Isn't the Peso, It's the Presidency," The New York Times Magazine, April 9, 1995*
• Alma Guillermoprieto, "Letter from Mexico City: The Riddle of Raúl, The New Yorker, June 2, 1997, pp. 36-47*
• For extensive background to the video, plus web links, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/mexico/

Nov. 18: The politics of North American free trade

• Tom Barry, Harry Browne and Beth Sims, The Great Divide: The Challenge of US-Mexican Relations in the 1990s, (New York: Grove Press, 1994), pp. 287-343*
• Karen Hansen-Kuhn, "Clinton, NAFTA and the Politics of US Trade," NACLA Report on the Americas, Sept.-Oct., 1997, 31(2), pp. 22-26*

Nov. 20: Immigration and Mexican politics in the U.S.

• Philip Martin, "Mexican-US Migration: Policies and Economic Impacts," in Laura Randall, ed., Changing Structure of Mexico: Political, Social and Economic Prospects, (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 145-156*
• Denise Dresser, "Exporting Conflict: Transboundary Consequences of Mexican Politics," in Abraham Lowenthal and Katrina Burgess, eds., The California-Mexico Connection, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), pp. 82-112*

Nov. 25: Democratizing state and local government: Bringing government closer to the people

• Andrew Reding, "The Next Mexican Revolution," World Policy Journal, 13(3), Fall, 1996, pp. 61-70*
• Bill Weinberg, "The Golf War of Tepoztlan: Ecology and Popular Defense in the Heartland of Zapata," Native Americas, 13(3), Fall, 1996, pp. 33-42*
• Andrew Reding, "Aztec Sun Rising," World Policy Journal, 14(3), Fall, 1997

Dec. 2: Envisioning future paths: North American integration and political change in Mexico

• Jorge Castañeda, "Mexico's Circle of Misery," Foreign Affairs, 75(4), July/August, 1996, pp. 92-105*

Dec. 4: Review

Surf directly to Mexico: For web access to several Mexican newspapers via McHenry Library's homepage, see: http://ucsc.edu/library/news/newsam.html/. See especially La Jornada, one of Mexico's best independent newspapers. They provide free access to indexed back issues by date or topic. For government viewpoints, see La Nacional at http://serpiente.dgsca.unam.mx/nacional/ [also accessible through McHenry]. For government reports and data, see: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/ & http://www.quicklink.com/mexico/ & http://info.cddhcu.gob.mx:80/camdip/index.htm (congress). La Neta is an entry point to a wide range of Mexican organizations, including women's, environmental, indigenous, civic and pro-democracy groups and links to many others. See http://laneta.apc.org.

This course (Gen Ed code E) aims to give students the broadest possible understanding of the situation in Central America today, with a particular focus on Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. It also highlights Costa Rica as a contrast (in order to prepare students planning to go to Costa Rica for EAP). Specifically the course is designed to examine the region from the perspectives of the principal Central American actors and to explain the historical and socio-economic roots of the popular and revolutionary movements in Central America; to provide a comprehensive understanding of U.S. policies in the region; to evaluate the results of the peace processes ending the civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, and the prospects for Central America in the 1990s. Finally, the course includes a section on Central American immigrants living in California and elsewhere in the US.

The required readings for the course are:

1. a course Reader
2. John Booth & Thomas Walker, Understanding Central America.

Additional optional reading:

1. Susanne Jonas, The Battle for Guatemala.

The Reader will be sold in class; the books are available for purchase at Bay Tree Bookstore. In addition, there will be a list of recommended/optional readings, which will be on reserve at McHenry Library as available. Additional course materials and resources will include films, videos, and guest speakers from varying points of view.

Required work includes:

1. a take-home midterm examination;
2. a take-home final exam;
3. class presentations, as they come up, on topics of study;
4. periodic reports on items in the news.

Students will be evaluated on the basis of your written and oral work in the class. In addition to fulfilling course requirements, students should keep up with course readings, and come well prepared in order to contribute to lively discussion and debate in the class. Finally, this class places particular emphasis on following contemporary developments in Central America in the major news media.

NOTE:

• Class attendance is mandatory; all absences must be excused.
• If for some reason you should need to take an "Incomplete" in this class, you must negotiate it ahead of time with the Instructor \(en including the deadline for turning in the work.

NOTE: For readings included in each section of the Reader, see Reader Table of Contents. You will be given details of which readings are to be completed by each session.

I. Overview of the Region; Historical Background and Roots of the Crisis in Central America: Structural underdevelopment, Foreign Domination, Economic Dependency; Economic Models: Traditional Exports, Industrialization, and Export-Promotion (October 2, 7, 9)

READINGS:

1. Reader Section I
2. Booth & Walker (B/W), Chapters 1-3 & 5

II. Guatemala: Legacies of the 1954 U.S. Intervention, the 36-years' Civil War, and the Continuing Crisis (October 14, 16, 21)

READINGS:

1. Reader Section II
2. Booth & Walker, Chapters 4 & 7 (sections on Guatemala)
3. Optional readings in Jonas

III. El Salvador: Origins and Development of the Civil War, U.S. Involvement, the Peace Accords, and Post-War Situation (October 23, 28, 30)

READINGS:

1. Reader Section III
2. Booth & Walker, Chapters 4 & 7 (sections on El Salvador)

FILM: "Romero" (November 4)

RECEIVE MIDTERM: October 30

MIDTERM DUE: November 6, at beginning of class

IV. Nicaragua: The Sandinista Revolution, the U.S.-sponsored Counterrevolution, the Post-Sandinista Era, and the 1996 Election (November 6, 11)

READINGS:

1. Reader Section IV
2. Booth & Walker, Chapter 4 (section on Nicaragua) & Chapter 6

V. Costa Rica and Honduras (November 13)

READINGS:

1. Booth & Walker, Chapters 4 (relevant sections) and 8

VI. United States Policy and Its Effects (November 18, 20)

(A) Overview: Cold War, Old and New, U.S. Interests, Reagan Policy, and the "Post-Cold War" Era

READINGS:

1. Reader Section V-A
2. Booth & Walker, Chapter 9

(B) The Domestic Stakes of U.S. Interventionism and Contragate

READINGS:

1. Reader Section V-B

VII. Peace in Central America? Alternatives to U.S. Policy: Contadora, and Esquipulas II (November 20)

READINGS:

1. Reader Section VI

VIII. Future of Central America: Neoliberalism and Alternatives, Effects of NAFTA, Central American Immigration to the U.S., Environmental Issues, Redefinitions in Revolutionary Strategy, Results of Peace Negotiations (November 25, December 2, 4)

READINGS:

1. Reader section VII
2. Booth & Walker, Chapter 10

This interdisciplinary course (Gen Ed code E) addresses Latin American immigration to the U.S. from a variety of perspectives. Areas to be covered include:

1. Background and history of immigration to the United States\the U.S. as an immigrant nation.
2. Major social-economic and political conditions in Latin America causing immigration to the U.S. and U.S. business needs for immigrant labor;
3. Specific immigration processes and experiences (border and non-border, Latin American and Asian);
4. Issues facing Latino immigrants and their communities in the U.S. (special focus on women) and their contributions to the U.S.;
5. Immigrant labor organizing;
6. Cross-border binational and transnational communities;
7. Current debates about U.S. immigration/refugee policies and anti-immigrant attitudes among these, debates about economic impact, new varieties of racism, and immigration as an issue of democracy in the U.S.

While drawing on materials from throughout the U.S., some sections of the course focus in detail on California, with its large communities of Mexicans and Central Americans.

Required readings are a Course Reader (to be sold in class), and two texts (available

at Bay Tree):

1. Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, \f2Immigrant America
2. Leo Chavez, \f2Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society

Optional reading: Susanne Jonas & Suzie Dod Thomas (Eds.), Immigration: A Civil Rights Issue for the Americas in the 21st Century

Additional resources will include films, videos, and guest speakers from varying points of view.

Requirements and basis for evaluation of students: a midterm exam and a final exam (both take-home); active participation in class discussions, including occasional presentations; and periodic written reports on items in the news.

NOTE:

1. Class attendance is mandatory; all absences must be excused.
2. If for some reason you should need to take an "Incomplete" in this class, you must negotiate it ahead of time with the Instructor including the deadline for turning in the work.

I. Background and History: U.S. as an Immigrant Nation

History of Immigration Trends and Policies (October 1, 6)

Readings:

1. Reader: Section I (all articles)

II. Sources and Causes of Immigration from Latin America

U.S./Latin American Relations, Socio-Economic Transformations of Latin America, and Economic Crises of the 1980s (October 8)

Readings:

1. Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 1
2. Chavez, Ch. 1-2
3. Reader: Section II: NYT, LAWR, Pastor

The Immigration/Foreign Policy Connection: Wars/Political Crises in Central America, and the Caribbean (October 13)

Readings:

1. Reader: Hamilton & Chinchilla

III. The Immigration Process: History and Experiences

The Revolving Door: History of Mexican Immigration (October 15)

Readings:

1. Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 2
2. Reader: Section III: Cockcroft

Border Crossings, Border Violence: Mexicans and Central Americans (October 20)

FILM: El Norte

Readings:

1. Chavez, Ch. 3
2. Reader: Cordova, Jimenez

Varieties of Immigration Experiences and Non-Border Arrival (Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Cubans, Asians) (October 22)

Guest Lecture: Judy Yung

Readings:

1. Reader: Finish Section III (also review Rosenberg from Section I)

IV. Immigrant Communities and Immigrant Labor in the U.S

Legal Issues, Immigration and Asylum Legislation (October 27)

Readings:

1. Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 7
2. Reader: Section IV (a)

Immigrant Labor in the Context of Economic Restructuring (including NAFTA) and Theoretical Aspects (October 29)

Readings:

1. Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 3
2. Reader: Section IV (b)

** GET MIDTERM: October 29

** MIDTERM DUE: November 5, due at beginning of class

Work/Community Situations: Urban, Rural and Semi-Rural (November 3)

Readings:

1. Chavez, Ch. 4-9
2. Reader: Section IV (c)

Immigrant Women (November 5)

Readings:

1. Reader: Section IV (e)

Immigrant Labor Organizing (November 10)

Guest Speaker: Peter Olney

Reading:

1. Reader: Section IV (d)

Identity, Adaptation/Incorporation, and Binational Communities/Families (November 12)

Video: Mayan Voices, American Lives

Readings:

1. Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 4-6
2. Chavez, Ch. 10
3. Reader: Section IV (f)

V. Immigration Policy: Issues and Debates

Prop. 187 and Beyond: New Congressional Legislation (November 17)

Readings:

1. Reader: Section V (a)

Latinos, African Americans, and New Varieties of Anti-Immigrant Racism in the U.S. (November 19)

Readings:

1. Reader: Section V (b)

Debates over Economic Impact of Immigration (November 24)

Guest Lecture: John Isbister

Readings:

1. Reader: Section V (c)

Thanksgiving Eve (November 26) NO CLASS

Immigration as an Issue of Democracy in the U.S., Redefining Citizenship, and Dual Nationality/Citizenship (December 1)

Readings:

1. Reader: Section V (d)

The Future of Immigrant Struggles (December 3)

Readings:

1. Reader: finish Section V

GET FINAL: December 3

FINAL DUE: December 10

Revised 7/19/04.