Course Title: The Conquest of Latin America: Ambivalent Encounters and Historical Memory
Course number & section: FIQWS 10003 HA5 Website: https://latinamericanconquest.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
Instructor: Prof. Daisy Domínguez | E-mail: ddominguez@ccny.cuny.edu | Phone: (212) 650-5758
Time: M & W 5:00-6:15pm | Room: NAC 1/301Y (Tech Center) | Office hours: By appointment
In this course, we will explore the period known as the Conquest of Latin America with an emphasis on the Caribbean, Mexico, and the Andes. This epoch was brought about by a fascinating mix of encounters between a number of civilizations and worldviews, both in the “Old World” and the “New.” We will read classic textual accounts and maps as well as alternative written or drawn accounts in order to salvage a multitude of perspectives (emanating from various ethnicities and genders) from the historical record. We will also examine audiovisual sources (film and material culture) for an immersive, fun, and hopefully rewarding scholarly experience. Analysis of our readings will be buttressed by a consistent focus on information literacy skills that you can apply to all disciplines and lifelong learning. Our ultimate goal as a class will be to develop our research and critical thinking skills, which, combined with our diverse perspectives, will allow us to produce thoughtful and nuanced readings and analyses of this complex time.
Learning outcomes:
- Gather, interpret, and assess information from a variety of sources and points of view.
- Evaluate evidence and arguments critically or analytically.
- Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions.
- Analyze culture, globalization, or global cultural diversity, and describe an event or process from more than one point of view.
- Analyze the significance of one or more major movements that have shaped the world’s societies.
- Analyze and discuss the role that race, ethnicity, class, gender, language, sexual orientation, belief, or other forms of social differentiation play in world cultures or societies.
Course Requirements: You are expected to attend class regularly and participate in class and BlackBoard discussions. You are also expected to read assigned material, make a group oral presentation, and complete all written assignments.
Appointments & Communication:
Please e-mail me to arrange an appointment, notify me of an unavoidable absence, or schedule a phone conference. Please feel free to discuss with me any problem or difficulty you might envision encountering in the course. Please also make sure that your Citymail e-mail account is activated because you will need it in order to access databases from off-campus and request ILLs (interlibrary loans). Please also make sure to monitor the e-mail account listed on your BlackBoard account or provide me with your correct e-mail address.
Support Services:
New Student Experience Center (NSEC) (Marshak, Room 053 Phone: 212.650.8290) is a resource for new students which provides individualized academic advisement, career/major exploration events, college survival skills workshops, and more. From their website: “The transition to college can be stressful. There are new rules, new expectations, new responsibilities, and many new people. The NSEC helps to reduce this stress and provide new students with resources, support, and peer community to make this transition a smooth one.” https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/nsec
Health and Wellness Services (Marshak, Room J-15 Phone: 212.650.8222) is a comprehensive social service network to help link students to appropriate services on campus (health, counseling, wellness, AccessAbility, gender resources, emergency grants). https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/health-wellness
The Food Pantry (NAC 6/145) supports students challenged with struggles of food insecurity. Their walk-in hours are Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10am-5pm. https://www.facebook.com/pg/ccnyfood/
The Samuel Rudin Writing Center (NAC 3rd Floor Plaza) provides writing assistance to individuals and in group settings. They also offer ESL tutoring. Website: http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/humanities/writingcenter/
AccessAbility Center Tutoring Services (NAC 1/218 Phone: 212.650.5913 E-mail: sds@ccny.cuny.edu) staff provide tutoring and workshops for all registered students with learning or physical disabilities. http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/accessability/
Disability Policy: In compliance with CCNY policy and equal access laws, appropriate accommodations are administered by the AccessAbility Center (NAC 1/218). Students who register with AccessAbility and are entitled to specific accommodations must request a letter from AccessAbility to present to the professor that states what their accommodations are. If specific accommodations are required for a test, students must present an “Exam Administration Request Form” from AccessAbility, at least one week prior to the test date in order to receive their accommodations.
Courtesy Policy: Please turn off your phones or put them on vibrate while in class. If you need to take a call, please leave the room, but please do not make this a habit.
Research skills: This course will help familiarize you with CCNY Libraries, the CUNY library system, and other research resources available to you further afield. We will visit CCNY’s Cohen Library for hands-on instruction and you will also develop your research skills throughout the semester. The CCNY Libraries homepage is: http://library.ccny.cuny.edu/
Grading:
50% Participation This consists of your:
- prompt attendance (repeated lateness or absences will bring your participation grade down) Attendance Policy: Four absences will result in a WU, which counts as an F in a GPA calculation. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to find out what you have missed and to come to class prepared for the next class.
- verbal communication in class discussions
- cartonera project (see examples here and here) that will include 6 creative writing assignments (1-2 pages)
- Cartonera Workshop Dates: Thursdays during Club Hours (12:30-1:45pm) in Prof. Domínguez’s office (Cohen Library 2/204): 10/17, 11/7, 11/21, 12/5. These workshops are not obligatory.
- 1 information literacy class reflection essay (2-3 pages)
- facilitation of discussions on BlackBoard
- responses to classmates’ questions on BlackBoard
Written Assignments: Late written assignments will be penalized by a reduction of at least one full grade point.
20% Role Play Oral Presentations – due: October 28 & 30, November 4,6 & 11 in-class (20-30 minutes, including PowerPoint or other presentation)
10% Primary Source Assignment (2-3 pages) – due: November 27 11:59pm
20% Research Paper (6-8 pages) – Final draft due: December 2 & Final revision due: December 16 11:59pm
Note: This is the same paper that Prof. Grove has assigned you and will be graded jointly.
Plagiarism: Do not plagiarize! You will receive an F.
- See The Writing Center’s Avoiding Plagiarism handout.
CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity statement on Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. Examples of plagiarism include:
- Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source.
- Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source.
- Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.
- Internet plagiarism, including submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, or “cutting & pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.”
BlackBoard: All written assignments should be uploaded onto BlackBoard as attachments in Word format (with .doc or .docx extension). Please do not upload PDFs.
ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) Course: This is a zero textbook cost course, meaning that you will not have to spend money to complete any readings, which are either available freely online or via the fee-based databases available to you as a City College student. The course website on the CUNY Academic Commons contains the most up-to-date documents and resources for this course.
Required Readings: * College closed: 9/2 No classes: 9/30, 10/9, 10/14 Class: 9/5 (Monday schedule)*
| Week | Date | Readings/Activities |
| 1 | W 8/28 | Introduction – Personal Sheet; Ice Breaker; Syllabus; Assignment of Questions (BlackBoard); Library Access; BlackBoard
*** Have your ID card activated at the Cohen Library Circulation Desk. *** |
| 2 | W 9/4 | Cartoneras Talk – Paloma Celis-Carbajal, NYPL Curator for Latin American, Iberian, and U.S. Latino Collections |
| Th 9/5 | CCNY Libraries Visit 1: Basics & Background Readings | |
| The Caribbean | ||
| 3
BB |
M 9/9 | – Zinn, Howard. Chapter 1. “Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress” in A People’s History of the U.S. New York: Harper Perennial, 1995: 1-22.
– Excerpts from Mignolo, Walter. “Putting the Americas on the Map: Geography and the Colonization of Space,” Colonial Latin American Review 1:1 (1992): 25-63. Read 36 & 56-9 only. |
| BB | W 9/11 | Requerimiento [online] |
| 4
BB |
M 9/16 | Columbus, Christopher. “A Letter Concerning Recently Discovered Islands”
Tzvetan Todorov, “Columbus and the Indians,” in The Conquest of America, 34-50. |
| BB | W 9/18 | Margarita Zamora, “‘If Cahonaboa learns to speak …’: Amerindian Voice in the Discourse of Discovery,” Colonial Latin American Review 8:2 (1999): 191-205. [Online] For the English version of the Spanish excerpts of Columbus’s Diary which are in Zamora’s article, read pages 199-208 of Journal of the First Voyage of Columbus. |
| 5
* |
M 9/23 | Visit First Blacks in the Americas and complete worksheet.
*** Diary Entry 1 due at 5pm *** |
| * | W 9/25 | Assignment of roles in The People v. Columbus, et al. |
| W 10/2 | Library Class 2: Evaluating Sources
*** Diary Entry 2 due at 5pm *** |
|
| 7* BB | M 10/7 | Anne McClintock, “Lay of the Land: Genealogies of Imperialism,” in Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (1995), 21-31.
*** Information Literacy Classes Reflection Essay due 10/9 at 5pm *** |
| 8 | W 10/16 | Evaluation meetings starting at 3:30pm Cohen Library 2/204 |
| 9 BB | M 10/21 | Las Casas & Valladolid Debate
Bartolomé de las Casas Debates the subjugation of the Indians, 1550 Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda’s Democrates Alter or “On The Just Causes of War against Indians”, 1547 Excerpt from Bartolomeo de Las Casas’s “In Defense of the Indians” 1550 |
| W 10/23 | Evaluation meetings starting at 3:30pm Cohen Library 2/204 | |
| 10 | M 10/28 | Role Play Oral Presentations: The People v. Columbus, et al. (Columbus) |
| W 10/30 | Role Play Oral Presentations: The People v. Columbus, et al. (Columbus’s Men) | |
| 11 | M 11/4 | Role Play Oral Presentations: The People v. Columbus, et al. (The Crown) |
| W 11/6 | Role Play Oral Presentations: The People v. Columbus, et al. (The Taínos) | |
| 12 | M 11/11 | Role Play Oral Presentations: The People v. Columbus, et al. (The System of Empire) |
| Mexico | ||
| * BB | W 11/13 | Candelaria, Cordelia. “La Malinche” in The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States edited by Cathy Davidson and Linda Wagner-Martin. Oxford University Press (1995): online.
Karttunen, Frances. “Rethinking Malinche” The Other Conquest, dir. Carrasco *** Diary Entry 3 due at 5pm *** |
| 13
*BB |
M 11/18 | The Nahuas and Bernardino de Sahagún
Florentine Codex Book XII Read chapters 1, 2, 8, 39 |
| BB | W 11/20 | NYPL Special Collections: Manuscripts and Codices with Paloma Celis Carbajal, Curator for Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Studies & Kylpe Triplett, Rare Books Librarian
We will leave together after Prof. Grove’s class and head to the lobby of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library, 476 5th Ave, New York, NY 10018 where class will begin at 5:30pm. |
| 14 | M 11/25 | Primary Source Assignment Instructions
*** Diary Entry 4 due at 11:59pm *** |
| The Andes | ||
| * BB | W 11/27 | The Conquest of the Incas & Guamán Poma de Ayala. First New Chronicle and Good Government excerpt. Read only pages 5-6.
Guns, Germs Steel, dir. Tim Lambert *** Primary source assignment due at 11:59pm *** – Meet in STC3 |
| 15 * BB | M 12/2 | Adorno, Rolena. “Don Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala.” In Guamán Poma de Ayala: The Colonial Art of an Andean Author. Edited by Rolena Adorno, et al., 32-45. [BlackBoard]
“El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega,” in Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library, edited by Sonia G. Benson, et al., 41-50. and Preface to the Reader *** Research paper final draft due at 5pm *** |
| W 12/4 | Commemoration, Protest, and Celebration
Feb. 2, 1512: Taíno Leader Hatuey Executed in Cuba Even the Rain / Tambíen la lluvia, dir. Icíar Bollaín *** Diary Entry 5 due at 5pm *** – Meet in STC3 |
|
| 16
* BB |
M 12/9 | Commemoration, Protest, and Celebration
*** Diary Entry 6 due at 5pm *** – Meet in STC3 |
| W 12/11 | Show & Tell w/Cartonera Readings & Pot Luck starting at 3:30pm
*** “Conquest Diary” Cartonera due at 3:30pm *** We will meet in Cohen Library, NAC 5/337 at 3:30pm. |
|
Disclaimer: This syllabus is subject to change according to the needs of the class, as deemed appropriate by the instructor. You will be informed of any changes in advance.
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