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  • I’m Miguel Centellas, a political science professor at Mount St. Mary’s University. Because of academic interests, I post frequently on Bolivian politics. I also occasionally discuss interesting books, pop culture, and daily life in Baltimore.
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"Reading" Latin America

October 15, 2007
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I’m teaching a multidisciplinary introduction to Latin American studies course next semester. It took me a while to conceptualize the course, but here’s the syllabus. Below are some of the texts I’m assigning (also in my Amazon bookstore). Comments are always welcome.


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Comments

Miguel,

I never studied Latin America when I was at Berkeley; bus ad and accounting were my things. Without going into how/why I came to Latin America, I've lived down here here in seven different countries since 1977. Over those years, I've always asked, why are these countries, so blessed in human and natural resources, so poor?

I just read the summaries of each of the books that you list in your partial syllabus and none of the summaries, at any rate, seem to address that question. Admittedly, your list is only partial, as I say, so there may be some books or readings in your syllabus that address the issue. If there are, I'd be interested in the names of those books, if I may be so bold as to ask.

Finally, I'll confess my bias in what I believe is the answer to the question I pose above regarding poverty in LA, and that's that culture lies at the base of development (or underdevelopment as Larry Harrison said) of these countries. There are a host of books that I've read on the subject in the LA context, and some of them may be in your syllabus, hence my interest in it. Thanks, regards, T

Posted by Tambopaxi October 16, 2007 4:55 AM

    Actually, A Small Place deals w/ the issue of underdevelopment quite a bit. It served as the foundation for the documentary film (which we'll also watch) Life & Debt. The film is about Jamaica & its economy, though the book is about Antigua.

    In addition to the books listed above, we're also going to read a basic textbook, which will deal w/ that issue in more detail. Though several of these touch on the issue. Particularly Chasing Che, The Underdogs, and No One Writes to the Colonel. In addition, we'll be watching two films on favela life in Brazil: Bus 174 & City of God.

    Posted by mcentellas October 16, 2007 8:12 AM


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