DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

SPN 328C/LAS 370S: Introduction to Literatures and Cultures
New World Sovereignties in Conflict
Professor César A. Salgado

Unique Number: 44470/38950 Office Hours TTh 12:20-2 BEN 3.140

Meets: TTH 2-3:30 BEN 1.104 Email address: cslgd@austin.utexas.edu

DESCRIPTION

This course is organized to give a panoramic view of the role of culture in disputes over
sovereignty in the Ibero-American world system. We want to see how the encounters between
discrepant cultures, populations, belief systems, and epistemologies from indigenous America,
Iberia, Africa, and Asia in the New World led to complex local and global struggles for
sovereignty from 1492 to the present day. We will see how the colonial and
modern/postcolonial experience in the New World has often put into question what
sovereignty means throughout Western and non-Western history.

We will consider several scenarios of conflict over New World sovereignty and culture
throughout the centuries: Spanish explorers vs. Taino inhabitants in the Caribbean of the late
fifteenth century; colonizers vs. Aztecs in Mesoamerica between 1519 and 1521 and beyond;
Incas vs. Conquistadors in the Andes between 1532 and 1535; friars vs. encomenderos and
European shipwreck survivors vs. first peoples in mid-sixteenth century New World territories,
including Texas; English pirates vs. Spanish officials in the Philippines and early forms of
feminism vs. the Church under the late seventeenth century New Spain viceroyalty;
independence rebels vs. royalists, conservatives vs. liberals, in South America from 1810 to
1854; criollo revolutionaries and Afro- descendant abolitionists vs. slave owners and Spanish
authorities in nineteenth century Cuba and Puerto Rico; protests against United States military
interventions in the Americas after 1898; females revolutionaries fighting male-led dictatorships
in Mexico and Cuba in the Twentieth Century; and turn-of-the-century indigenous rights
movements in Central America.

Discussion and analysis will focus on a selection of literary and documentary texts by some
important authors and figures of the "colonial", "independence," and contemporary periods.
Some of the following issues will be addressed: the nature of literary production in contexts of
ethnic and cultural conflict; the transformation and differentiation of New World literary
expression through the incorporation of lexicon, idioms, metaphors, and other linguistic
elements from native languages; the growing tension and distancing between Peninsular and
Spanish American criollo identities and ideals; the relationship between writing, power, and
social status in colonial and postcolonial contexts; and the role of creative writing in the
construction of a new forms of national, community, and personal sovereignty during
independence and after.

TEXTBOOKS AND CLASS MATERIALS

Required:
*Spanish 328C Primary Texts Packet (available at JENN'S Copies, 2518 Guadalupe St)
*Rolena Adorno & Roberto González Echevarría, Breve historia de la literatura hispanoamericana
(Google ebooks/Canvas)
* Juan Francisco Manzano, Autobiografía de un esclavo (COOP)
Optional:
Arturo A. Fox, Latinoamérica: Presente y pasado (Purchase online)
Films (to be screened in class):
Cabeza de Vaca (Nicolas Echevarría, dir., México 1991)
Yo, la peor de todas (María Luisa Bemberg, dir., Argentina 1990)
El otro Francisco (Sergio Giral, dir., Cuba 1975)

GRADING CRITERIA
Three compositions 60% (20% each)
Canvas Homework 24%
Class Participation and Attendance 16%

You will be expected to respond briefly to weekly informal questionnaires that I will be posting
on the course's CANVAS page. They are meant to facilitate and confirm reading comprehension
and inspire class discussion. I will post the questionnaire on the class meeting before the day the
questionnaire is due. Answer are due each Tuesday at noon.

For example, if answers are due on Tuesday Sept. 3, the questions will be posted by 2PM on
Thursday Aug. 29. Each exercise will consist of three to five questions. You should be able to
answer each of them in no less than two, no more than five, sentences. You are expected to
answer at least twelve of these questionnaires throughout the semester. You should post
answers by noon before the class meeting at the very latest. These assignments will not be
evaluated with a letter grade but will count for homework points.

Three 3 to 5 page formal essays based on a provided list of topics will be the main writing
requirement for this class. I will mark grammar mistakes, evaluate soundness of argument and
analysis, and make stylistic annotations and suggestions on each of these. Each of these papers
will receive a letter grade.

COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1: Rituals of Sovereignty and Occupation in the New World: Columbus' Travel Diary
Aug. 29: Introduction to the Course
Reading: "A Definition of Sovereignty," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online)
Cristobal Colón, selections from "Diario de viaje" (until Oct. 13, 1492) (primary text online)

Week 2: Taíno Sovereignty and Culture: The Question of Extermination and Survival of First
Peoples of the Caribbean
Sept 3: Introduction to Caribbean Indigenous Cultures.
Primary texts: Cristóbal Colón, "Carta a Santángel" (1943) (Packet)
F. Ramón Pané, Relación acerca de las antigüedades de los indios (1500) (packet, c.1-5)
Secondary: Rolena Adorno, pasajes sobre Colón y Fray Ramón Pané (pdf on Canvas)
Francisco Scarano, ‘‘Los taínos: sociedad y cultura“ (Packet, only skim)
Sept 5: Writing/ Converting/Colonizing the Taínos: Fray Pané's Relación
Primary: Fray Ramón Pané, Relación acerca de las antigüedades de los indios, finish
Secondary: José Arrom, "F. Ramón Pané, descubridor del hombre americano" (Canvas)

Week 3: Aztec vs. Iberian Sovereignties in the Conquest of the Aztec Empire
Sept 10: Conquering Words and Two Empires: Hernán Cortés' Segunda relación
Primary: Hernán Cortés, selections from Segunda carta de relación (1520) (Packet)
Bernal Díaz, selections from Verdadera Historia de la Conquista (1632) (Packet)
Secondary: R. Adorno, pasajes sobre Cortés y Bernal Díaz (Canvas)
Sept 12: Nahua Scribes Report Alternative Versions of Mesoamerican Conquest
Primary: Bernal Diaz, selections from Verdadera Historia, continued (Packet)
Fernando de Alva Ixtlixochitl’s, selections from Crónica Mexicayotl (Packet)
Week 4: Sovereignty Clashes in the Andean Region and Mestizo Writing
Sept 17: Evoking Inca Sovereignty in the Andes Region
Primary: Selections from El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentarios reales (1609) (Packet)
Secondary: R. Adorno, pasajes sobre el Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (Canvas)
Sept 19: Early Mestizo Writers Narrate the Conquest of Perú
Primary: Selections from El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentarios reales (continued)
Selections from Guamán Poma de Ayala, Corónica y buen gobierno (1615/1616)
Secondary: R. Adorno, pasajes sobre Guamán Poma de Ayala (Canvas)

Week 5: Legal Battles for the Custody of Indigenous Peoples Between Church and State
Sept 24: Mendicant Friars Fight the Encomienda System in the New World
Primary: F. B. de las Casas, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (1542) (Packet)
Secondary: Rolena Adorno, pasajes sobre Bartolomé de las Casas (Canvas)
Sept 26: Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Defends First Peoples Against Genocide
Primary: Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Brevísima relación (Packet), finish
First Paper Due on Thursday 26 in class or earlier

Week 6: Shipwrecks and the Territorial Collapse of Spanish Sovereignty

Oct 1: Tales of Shipwreck and Captivity in the American Southwest
Primary: Selections from Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios (Packet)
Secondary: Rolena Adorno, pasajes sobre Alvar Nuñez (Canvas)
Oct 3: Tales of Shipwreck and Captivity, continued
Screening in class of Cabeza de Vaca, a film by Nicolás Echevarría (1991)

Week 7: Piracy as a Challenge to Spanish Sovereignty in the Caribbean and the Pacific
Oct 8: Pirates in the Caribbean: Alonso Ramírez Reports from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Beyond
Primary: Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez (1680) (Packet)
Secondary: R. Adorno, pasajes sobre Sigüenza y Góngora (Canvas)
Oct 10: Pirates in the Pacific: Alonso Ramírez Narrates His Misfortunes in the Philippines
Primary: Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez (1680) (Packet)
Secondary: R. Adorno, pasajes sobre Sigüenza y Góngora (Canvas)

Week 8: A Woman Defends Her Intellectual Sovereignty in Baroque New Spain

Oct 15: New World Baroque Viceregal Culture and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Primary: Selections of poems by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1689) (Packet)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, "Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz" (1691) (Packet)
Secondary: R. Adorno, pasajes sobre Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Canvas)
Oct 17: Screening of Yo, la peor de todas, María Luisa Bemberg's 1995 film on Sor Juana

Week 9: Revolution and National Sovereignty: Independence Wars in South America

Oct 22: Words from El Libertador. Simón Bolívar’s New World Republicanism
Primary: Simón Bolívar, Carta de Jamaica (1814) (Packet)
Oct 24: Simón Bolívar, Carta de Jamaica, cntd.

Week 10: Caudillismo and the Paradox of Popular Sovereignty After Independence
Oct 29: 19th Century Argentina in Romantic Writers Denounce Juan Manuel Rosas
Primary: Esteban Echevarría, “El matadero” (1839, 1871) (packet)
José Mármol, selections from Amalia (packet)
Oct 31: Demonizing Rosas’ Power Base: Domingo F. Sarmiento on Gaucho Culture.
Primary: Selections from D. F. Sarmiento, Facundo o Civilización y barbarie (1845) (packet)
Second Paper Due in Class on Thursday March 9
Week 11: Caribbean Anti-Slavery Movements and Literature: Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico
Nov 5: Slavery, Plantation Society, and Literature in Cuba after the Haitian Revolution
Primary: Juan Francisco Manzano, Autobiografía de un esclavo (1840) (COOP)
Nov 7: Race, Incest, and Romantic Sovereignty in 19 Century Anti-Slavery Drama
th

Primary: Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, La cuarterona (Packet)

Screening of play performance, directed by Roberto Ramos Perea (2008)

Week 12: The Struggles for National Sovereignty in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1868-1898
Nov 12: José Martí and the Cuban Wars of Independence (1868-78, 1895-98)
Primary: José Martí, "El presidio político en Cuba," "La República española frente a la
Revolución cubana" (1870) (pdfs CANVAS); “Nuestra América” (1892) (packet)
Nov 14: Modernista Writers Respond to U.S. Intervention in the Spanish American War
Primary: Fin-de-siècle poems by Rubén Darío, essay by J. E. Rodó (packet)

Week 13: Rural Revolt and the Legacies of the Mexican Revolution
Nov 19: Land Sovereignty According to Zapata and Villa. The Role of Soldaderas
Primary: Plan de Ayala (1911) (packet)
Selections from Elena Poniatowska's Hasta no verte, Jesus mío (pdf on Canvas)
Nov 21: Betrayal in the Mexican Revolution
Primary: Plan de San Luis Potosí

Week 14: Feminist Struggles in the Geopolitics of the Cuban Revolution

Nov 26: Origins of The Cuban Revolution and Its Consequences in the Caribbean
Primary: Selections from Fidel Castro, La historia me absolverá (1953) (Packet)

Week 15: The Fight for Comunalidad and Indigenous Sovereignty in Central America
Dec 3: Rigoberta Menchú's Testimony and the Cultural Resilience of Mayan Sovereignty
Primary: Selections from Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú (Packet)

Dec 5: Course Conclusion & Evaluations

Third and Last Paper Due on Monday Dec 9, 5:00 PM or earlier

Make-up Policy. If you fail to turn in homework and essays on the dates due, you lose the full
points, regardless of reason or cause. Only serious illness or accident or a fully documented
family emergency will count as a valid excuse.
Students with Disabilities. The instructor will make himself available to discuss appropriate
academic accommodations for students with a disability. These students may be required to
provide documentation from the Office of the Dean of Students-Services for Students with
Disabilities.
Religious Holidays. By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least
fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holiday. If you must miss a class, an
examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holiday, you will be
given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.
Emergency Situations: Familiarize yourself when you can with the following recommendations
regarding emergency evacuations from the Office of Campus Safety and Security, 512-471-5767,
http://www.utexas.edu/safety/
Academic Honesty: UT expects its students to abide to an Honors Code that forbids any mode
of plagiarism in written assignments submitted as original work. You can familiarize yourself
with these expectations by consulting this link: http://catalog.utexas.edu/archive/2012-
13/general-information/student- services/discipline/