Teaching the Modern Latin American Survey: Lessons from the Liberal Arts Institution

As graduate students we are trained at large research universities, and if we are lucky enough, gain some experience teaching the LA survey before we land a tenure-track position.  Approaches to and models of the LA survey at that stage of one’s career are most likely influenced by our mentors and professors, but also the student population, where large classes sizes in introductory surveys tend to be the norm.  However, I teach at a small, liberal arts college of roughly 1700 students.  I propose a discussion that examines what it means to teach the modern survey in the liberal arts college context, and highlights the success I have experienced with a thematic and comparative approach (in contrast to the traditional country study approach).  My approach to the modern survey begins with some big questions that frame the entire class.  What is modern?  How is it defined, and who is defining it?  For what purpose? What are the historical consequences of the struggle to define modernity?  Within this broad question I present an ongoing tension about the process of modernization:  which world view eventually triumphs in Latin America:  an Enlightened vision that is based on rationality, secularism (ie political, economic, and social institutions based not in religion/religious justifications), and value of the individual; or a non-Enlightened vision of the world, where ideas about hierarchy and deference to authority structure political, economic, and social systems, and corporate bodies (the church, military, community interests, traditional family structures) take priority over individual needs and liberties.  Another way I sometimes frame this is the struggle between modernity (enlightened) vs. tradition (non-enlightened).  This dichotomy offers interesting discussions throughout the semester, as students work to question it, challenge it, and contextualize it within the realities of modern Latin American history.