HISTORY OF MEXICO Brungardt HIST-A410-001 Bobet ??? MWF: 11:30-12:20pm Fall 2014 DESCRIPTION: This course surveys the history of Mexico from the beginning to the present. The course counts towards a major in History and in Latin American Studies. GRADES: Loyola's final letter grades are: F, D, D+, C-, C, C+, B-, B, B+, A-, and A, and in this course they can be averaged by using the numbers 0 through 10 and /or the numbers 0 through 100 as follows: A = 96-100% = 10 B- = 84-86 = 6 D+ = 73-74 = 2 A- = 93-95 = 9 C+ = 81-83 = 5 D = 70-72 = 1 B+ = 90-92 = 8 C = 78-80 = 4 F = 0-69 = 0 B = 87-89 = 7 C- = 75-77 = 3 Your final grade is divided equally among your quizzes, discussions, and final exam so that 1/3 (33.33%) of your final grade comes from each of the following three items: your quizzes, discussions, and final exam. Quizzes (1/3 of final grade) Ordinarily at the beginning of every class, promptly at 11:30 there will be a quiz that is worth at least ten points, sometimes more, so that bonus points will carry over for those quizzes where you do poorly. There will be approximately 35 quizzes as we work our way through the semester and through the MWF scheduled classes, each one keyed to the assigned reading and/or activity for that day. Five of these 35 quizzes will be dropped and will not count against you although if you attended class on that day and did score any points, those points will carry over and will be included in your total points scored. There is an inherent advantage for those who do attend class regularly. If you took all 35 quizzes and scored 10 on each one of them, you would have a total of 350 points, which when divided by 30—since five quizzes are dropped—would give you 11.66 or 117% or an A for a grade for your quizzes. Nevertheless, no one always scores 10 or more on every quiz and you will need some bonus points from time to time to up your point total. No make-ups are given for these quizzes, ever! Anyone who is not in their seat when the quiz is handed out is automatically late, and while they may take the quiz, they must hand it in at the same time as the others. It is imperative, therefore, that you are in class and on time. The quizzes are designed so that you will read and study beforehand the basic content to be covered that day in class. It is the mastery of this detail that will lead you to a synthesis and coherent overview of the history of Mexico. If for any reason a class is canceled, the quiz for the day class was not held plus the regular quiz will be given to test the student on the material assigned for both days. Therefore, there would be two quizzes given on the day classes meet for the first time after a canceled class, and three quizzes given on the day classes meet for the first time after two classes had been canceled one after the other. This has happened in the past when New Orleans was under the threat of a hurricane. History of Mexico 2 A typical quiz question might be a single ID, an identification, key term, summary term, phrase, or question. They can be found in the syllabus after “IDs:” for each of the dates on which you will have class. A typical ID or key term would require you to identify the item in terms of: 1) what the item is (person, place, thing, artistic movement, political institution, book, etc.) and where it is found geographically, 2) what the dates are for its existence, and, most importantly, 3) why it is important. In this case 2-3 points would be scored for correctly identifying the item and its geographical context, another 2- 3 points would be acquired for providing the correct chronology, and 5-6 points would be credited for correctly indicating its importance. This would total ten points. Your bonus question might be another ID. Typical IDs might be Cuauhtémoc, Aztecs, Cortés, Hidalgo, La Reforma, The Porfiriato, Zapata, NAFTA, PRI, and so on. In the syllabus there is a list of IDs from your textbook The Course of Mexican History (CMH) and/or your companion book Drug War Mexico (DWM) for each class date, and it is from this list that the IDs will be selected for the quiz and on which you should obviously concentrate when you study. IDs from CMH appear first and then after the semi-colon (;) those from DWM follow. Some dates, such as 1519, 1910 or 1968, are so fundamentally important in dividing one period from another that they may stand alone as an ID, in which case you should be able to state what happened in that particular year and why it marked a watershed in the history of Mexico. Another quiz or bonus question might provide you with a blank map of Mexico with rivers, seas, and lines dividing land from water or states from states but with no names, and you would be asked to locate five places correctly on the map. For example, Mexico City, Veracruz, Coahuila, Acapulco, and Guadalajara might appear. You would need to correctly locate these items on the blank map. The Course of Mexican History book has a map of all of Mexico on page 426 and Drug War Mexico has one on page xii. You need to study these two maps with great diligence, since a similar blank map will appear from time to time on quizzes. Blank maps will be provided to you before you take a map quiz, and you can use these blank maps to practice locating possible map questions. Quizzes on Mariano Azuela’s Los de abajo (The Underdogs) and Juan Rulfo’s El llano en llamas y otro cuentos (The Burning Plain & Other Stories will be multiply choice questions in which each question will have four possible choices of which only one is probably correct. A close reading of the novel and short stories will show whether you understand how the structure, characters, setting, and choices open to the characters and to the two authors profoundly deepen our understanding of Mexico’s conflicted history. Native Spanish speakers may write their quizzes and final exam in Spanish if they prefer. Discussion: (1/3 of final grade) grade determined by participation and especially by the quality and relevance of the remarks made. The professor will ask questions directly of student to which student will respond correctly or incorrectly. Students who are able to take these "correct answers" as building blocks or starting points and 1)cite analogous situations, 2)offer appropriate criticism of the comparisons made, and 3)synthesize the question at hand have gone a long way to mastering the art of discussion and will be rewarded accordingly with a higher grade. Synthesis by definition includes an ever- increasing hierarchy of correct response, analogy, and criticism. Synthesis is the culmination. History of Mexico 3 Correct responses are made up of self-evident facts, dates, chronology, events, personages, and sequences of events that can be clearly established from the assigned readings. These "facts" or "correct responses" offer a starting point with which a student can make comparisons or analogies with what the student already knows. This provides linkage with a larger construct that the student can then subject to criticism and analysis. After a certain amount of reflection, appropriate conclusions can be drawn. This synthesis provides nuance, depth, and dynamic explanation to the larger issue. Final Exam: (1/3 of final grade). Final exam is divided into four parts, each one worth 25% of the exam grade. Parts I & II each usually have 5 identifications of which you should answer four and eliminate one in each part. Parts III & IV each have two essay questions of which you should answer one and eliminate the other one in each part. Study the obvious and most important items that are discussed in class, that appear in your textbooks, and on your quizzes, because these are ordinarily what are selected for examination. FINAL EXAM is Monday, December 15, 11:30-1:30 p.m. in Bobet ???. BOOKS: Azuela, Mariano. Los de abajo (The Underdogs). Any edition. Native Spanish speakers should read the Spanish edition. Meyer, Michael C., Sherman, William L., & Deeds, Susan M. The Course of Mexican History. 9th ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2011. Abbreviated as CMH. Rulfo, Juan. El llano en llamas y otro cuentos (The Burning Plain & Other Stories. Translated & Published by the University of Texas Press. Native Spanish speakers should read any Spanish edition. Watt, Peter & Zepeda, Roberto. Drug War Mexico: Politics, Neoliberalism and Violence in the New Narcoeconomy. London & New York: Zed Books, 2012. Abbreviated as DWM. Course Calendar INTRODUCTION OF THE COURSE M 08-25 Why Study Mexico? Geography & Map of Mexico (CMH, p. 426, DWM, p. xii) IDs: the States of Mexico and their capitals PRE-COLOMBIAN MEXICO W 08-27 The First Mexicans (CMH, pp. v-x, 3-10; DWM, p. vi-xii, Figures & Tables, Abbreviations, Acknowledgments, Map, Introduction, 1-3) IDs: Periods in Mexican Pre-History, Olmec Culture & Influence, Olmec heads, ball court, chinampa, San Lorenzo, La Venta, highland valleys, Cuicuilco, Monte Albán, written language; Felipe Calderón, PRI, Culiacán, Tamaulipas, Ciudad Juárez MEXICO’S GOLDEN AGE F 08-29 The Classic Period (CHM, 11-29; DWM, 1-9) History of Mexico 4 IDs: Periods in Mexican History, Valley of Mexico, Classic Period, Tláloc, Quetzalcóatl, Teotihuacán, Cholula, Puebla, Monte Albán, The Maya, Tikal, Palenque; PAN, “availability of basic official data”, drug traffickers, Pablo Acosta, Rafael Caro Quintero, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo, El Capo Guzmán Loera, Sinaloa cartel M 09-01 Labor Day Holiday W 09-03 The Post-Classic Period & the Aztecs (CMH, 30-73;) IDs: Post Classic Period, Toltecs,