This course serves as an introduction to Latin American history and culture by exploring six macro-regions: the Southern Cone, the Andes, the Brazilian coast, the Amazonian Rainforest, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica. By looking at documents, works of art, articles, and films, students will acquire familiarity with critical historical and current problems in Latin American societies and practice their academic skills of argumentation and presentation in Spanish. This course will pay particular attention to the racial and ethnic struggles of various minority groups for political participation, problems regarding foreign and local extraction of natural resources, and the political disputes between nation-states with their peripheral regions. As part of this course, you will read and watch works created by diverse Latin American authors: indigenous pre-independence leaders (Tupac Amaru II), Cuban modernist poets (José Martí), exiled Chilean documentarists (Patricio Guzmán), and afro-descendent environmental activists (Francia Márquez). Taught in Spanish.