Mexico: From the Aztec Empire to the Drug War

Catalog description

This course provides a survey of Mexican history and culture over a variety of periods, from the rise of the Aztec empire, to Spanish conquest and colonization, to national independence, to the Mexican Revolution and contemporary Mexico. A wide range of topics will be addressed, such as: race, ethnicity, and indigeneity; state formation and politics; national identity and the politics of memory; the border, migration, and the deportation regime; and the drug war. Students will discuss historical and anthropological scholarship on Mexico, but will also consider cultural documents of various kinds, like Mexican music, art, cinema and food. This course is interdisciplinary, bringing together the perspectives of both history and anthropology. A majority of readings for the course are primary documents-historical, but also cultural texts-and hence a good amount of time is spent considering issues around primary source interpretation in historical and cultural terms. This course stresses the importance of taking account of difference (social, cultural, historical) as we consider large questions about history, politics, and in some cases, policy. This course meets the Dietrich Gen Ed "Humanities" requirement.