BA Spanish and Portuguese

This unit explores the role that culture played as a field of struggle during the Cold War in Latin America. From US interventions in Central America and the Caribbean in the 1950s, through the Cuban Revolution and Che Guevara’s call for continent-wide uprisings during the 1960s, right up to the authoritarian regimes and civil wars of the 1970s and 1980s, Latin America was a key battleground in a period marked by the split between capitalist and communist ideologies. Culture was one way in which Latin Americans, often in response to cultural interventions on the part of the US and the USSR, sought to position themselves.  

Students will reflect on how different cultural forms (such as literature, film, art, photography, magazines, essays, testimonio, etc.) in different Latin American countries engaged with the social and political impact of the Cold War. Analysis of those texts will be situated within the wider history of the period in Latin America, with a particular focus on key cultural policies and events (e.g. the activities of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the creation of Prensa Latina, the Padilla Affair, etc.) that shaped cultural production. 

Medium of Language: English, though some primary texts will only be available in Spanish.

Available on: SPLA

Available as Free Choice: Yes (though please note language requirements) 

• To provide a historical overview of how the Cold War (c.1947-c.1989) developed in Latin America 

• To highlight the role that key cultural events and policies (drawn up by both foreign powers and Latin American nation states) played within that history 

• To reflect on how participants in the cultural field variously promoted, commented on and resisted the different ideological positions that characterised the Cold War 

• To analyse and compare a range of cultural texts from different Latin American countries 

• To explore the multiple and changing relationships between cultural production and politics 

By the end of this unit students will be able to: 

• communicate knowledge of key historical events in the Cold War as it played out in Latin America 

• identify different ideological standpoints taken by diverse actors, both foreign and domestic, during this period, with a particular focus on the cultural field 

• understand some of the ways that cultural producers (artists, novelists, filmmakers, journalists, etc.) engaged with the politics of the Cold War 

By the end of this unit students will be able to: 

• synthesise historical trends in the Cold War and draw comparisons between different national and political contexts 

• analyse the role that culture played in the specific socio-political contexts of Cold War Latin America 

• engage critically with diverse cultural texts (broadly understood) that address different aspects of the Cold War 

• discuss the theoretical relationship between culture and politics in relation to the Cold War in Latin America 

By the end of this unit students will have enhanced their ability to: 

• communicate ideas in written form 

• deploy effective research strategies 

• undertake close-reading of cultural texts 

• work in groups 

• engage critically with primary sources in the target language 

By the end of this unit students will have enhanced their ability to: 

• demonstrate independent, analytical and critical thinking 

• utilise research into historical events, cultural policies and cultural texts  

• present an argument in written form 

• work constructively in group activities 

• use theory to analyse cultural texts where appropriate 

Resit Assessment

Beverley, John (2004) Testimonio: On the Politics of Truth 

Brands, Hal (2010) Latin America’s Cold War 

Franco, Jean (2002) The Rise and Fall of the Lettered City: Latin America in the Cold War 

Grandin, Greg (2004) The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War  

Iber, Patrick (2015) Neither Peace nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America 

Keller, Renata (2019) ‘The Revolution Will Be Teletyped: Cuba's Prensa Latina News Agency and the Cold War Contest Over Information’, Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol.21(3), pp.88-113. 

Larsen, Neil (1992) ‘The "Boom" Novel and the Cold War in Latin America’, Modern Fiction Studies, Vol.38(3), pp.771-784 

Pettinà, Vanni (2018) Historia mínima de la Guerra Fría en América Latina 

Stites Mor, Jessica and Maria del Carmen Suescun Pozas, eds. (2018) The Art of Solidarity: Visual and Performative Politics in Cold War Latin America