Pennsylvania State University

Department of History, College of the Liberal Arts

Fall 2010

HISTORY 497A
THE SPANISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN AND ITS DIASPORA

Faculty Information:
Solsiree del Moral Office Phone: (814) 863-0086
Assistant Professor Email: sxd46@psu.edu
Office: 301 Weaver Bldg Office Hours: Thursday, 1:00-2:00 pm
Mailbox: 105 Weaver Bldg

Course Information:
3.0 Credits
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30-3:45 pm
102 Business Building

Course Description:
The islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, known as the
“Spanish Caribbean,” share a history of slavery, colonialism, and migration deeply
rooted in the broader pan-Caribbean experience. This course examines the
nineteenth and twentieth century history of the three islands, including the
emigration and founding of Caribbean diasporas in the United States. We begin with
a study of the comparative economic and political history of the nineteenth-century
Spanish Caribbean, gauging the islands’ internal, regional, and international
relationships with the Caribbean and Atlantic economies. The nineteenth century
history generated similar, yet divergent, paths for each Caribbean island in the
twentieth century, paths deeply marked by the emergence of the US as a modern
empire. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic engaged nation-building
processes in unique ways, but always interconnected with the political and economic
Latin American and US historical cycles. Equally significant in our historical analysis
of the Spanish Caribbean are the particular trajectories of Cuban, Puerto Rican, and
Dominican migrations to the US, the founding of diaspora communities, and their
relationships with each other and the home islands. Our goal in this course is to
employ a local, regional, and Atlantic lens in the study of the historical patterns of the
Spanish Caribbean, to better understand the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and
migration.

Course Objectives:
Through a combination of lectures, readings, and discussions we will work
through the main historical cycles and debates of nineteenth- and twentieth-century
Spanish Caribbean history. By the end of the semester, students will have:

1. Acquired critical knowledge of Caribbean history. The readings will work through
the historical cycles of the Caribbean in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,
including slavery, emancipation, Spanish and U.S. Empire, national revolutions,
contemporary colonialism, populism, and migration. In addition to examining the
internal history, students will have developed an understanding of the Spanish
 Caribbean within the broader circum-Caribbean, Latin American, and US comparative
contexts.

2. Further developed critical reading, writing, and verbal skills. The writing
assignments, student presentations, and class discussions will help students engage
the construction of arguments, supporting evidence, and conclusions. Together we
will question how authors select sources, apply methods and build arguments,
leading to the construction of historical narratives.

Course Requirements:
Course assignments are intended to help students develop and refine critical
reading and writing skills and to complement class discussion and student
presentations.

1. “Student Portfolio” — 20% of final grade

Each Thursday class meeting will be organized as a discussion seminar where
we engage the week’s readings and lecture content. In preparation for that
conversation, students will write a weekly two-paragraph, one-page review of
assigned readings. The first paragraph will contain a summary of the reading content
and main lines of argument. The second paragraph will be a critical reflection of the
arguments, historical methods, and theoretical concepts.
The one-page review is required at each Thursday class meeting (weeks 2
through 15), except the week of your book presentation, the two weeks which
correspond to your book essays, and two additional “free” weeks. Therefore, each
student is responsible for 8 one-page reviews, each due at the beginning of the
Thursday class meeting in hardcopy format. In addition, please deposit an electronic
version in ANGEL to run through the plagiarism program, “turnitin.” Book reviews will
not be accepted after the beginning of the class meeting. No exceptions. Use a
standard 12-inch font (not Arial), one-inch margins, single or double-spaced.
Individual reviews will not receive a letter grade, but will be evaluated for
writing and analysis and will receive a “check,” “check plus,” or “check minus.” I will
read, evaluate, and return the weekly review. Please compile them together into a
“student portfolio” which is due at the end of the semester. The final portfolio grade
will reflect the student’s progress and improvement in writing, synthesis of content,
and critical review.

2. “Book Presentation” — 20% of final grade

The course is organized into three units. Each unit ends with a “book
discussion” (Childs, Findlay, Hoffnung-Garskof). Each student will participate in the
presentation of one book, by organizing in groups of five to ten students. Student
facilitators will begin class with a 20 minute presentation that summarizes the book,
presents the main arguments and contributions, and provides two to three questions
to begin discussion. In addition, student facilitators will, in collaboration with me,
guide discussion during the remainder of the class session.
This group activity requires students independently schedule two to three
meetings to review book, discuss strategy, organize presentation, and prepare the
required presentation outline (due 24 hours before scheduled book seminar).
Students will be evaluated individually and as a group. I recommend you meet with
me during scheduled office hours before your presentation to review your materials.

Book presentation days: Thursday, September 23, Childs

Tuesday, October 19, Findlay
Tuesday, December 7, Hoffnung-Garksof
 3. Two “Critical Book Reviews” — 20% each, 40% of final grade
In addition to the “book presentation,” for the remaining two books students
will write two separate 5-page book reviews that summarize the book and provide
critical reflection. Note that each student will participate in the presentation of one
book and will write a review of the remaining two books.
Organize a five-paragraph essay, with an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Succinctly summarize the author’s argument and supporting evidence and present
your careful and critical analysis. Note that the paper is both a summary and critique,
not a book report with one brief critique paragraph. I will provide a “book review
guidelines” handout that contains strategies for organizing the paper, as well as
sample papers. The evaluation of the book review will gauge your ability to
summarize and critique readings, to highlight the arguments developed within the
book, and to relate the arguments to the rest of the materials presented in the unit.
Write clearly and succinctly. Draft, print, edit, review, and reprint. Turn in a
final copy, not a draft. Book reviews will be double-spaced, with one-inch margins,
using a standard font. Submit both a paper and electronic version at the beginning of
the scheduled class meeting.

Book reviews are due: Thursday, September 23, Childs

Tuesday, October 19, Findlay
Tuesday, December 7, Hoffnung-Garksof

Late policy: Paper deadlines are clearly established. Late papers will be accepted, but
the final paper grade will be lowered by one full letter grade for each day it is late.

4. “Class Participation” — 20% of final grade

Student attendance and critical engagement at each class meeting is
required. Active class participation means regular attendance, careful and critical
reading of class materials, full engagement in book discussions, and attention and
feedback during student presentations. Come to class prepared to ask questions and
engage others in discussion and debate. Ask questions and share stories, as long as
all opinions and perspectives are heard and respected. Feel free to disagree and
debate, but not to dismiss or diminish each other’s opinions.
In addition, each student will be responsible for leading class
discussion for one specific reading (chapter/article) during Thursday
meetings. This requires a ten-minute presentation of the reading (summary
and argument) and providing questions for class discussion. See sign-up
sheet.
Please note, after three absences, I lower your class participation grade. Class
begins promptly at 2:30pm. If you are more than ten minutes late, it will count as an
absence.

Grading Policy:
The final course grade is composed of your student portfolio, book
presentation, book reviews, and class participation.

Student portfolio 20%

Book reviews 20% each, 40% total
Book presentation 20%
Class participation 20%
Grade Scale:
Distinguished A 100-95 Good B- 79-75
Excellent A- 94-90 Satisfactory C 74-70
Superior B+ 89-85 Unsatisfactory D 69-65
Very Good B 84-80 Failure F 64 or less

Attendance Policy:
Attendance is mandatory. I reserve the right to lower the final course grade
due to excessive absences (more than three absences).

Statement of Academic Integrity:

“Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and
responsible manner. Academic integrity is a basic guiding principle for all academic
activity at The Pennsylvania State University, and all members of the University
community are expected to act in accordance with this principle. Consistent with this
expectation, the University's Code of Conduct states that all students should act with
personal integrity, respect other students' dignity, rights and property, and help
create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of
their efforts. Academic integrity includes a commitment not to engage in or tolerate
acts of falsification, misrepresentation or deception. Such acts of dishonesty violate
the fundamental ethical principles of the University community and compromise the
worth of work completed by others.” Source:
http://www.berks.psu.edu/Academics/integrity.htm?cn2

Required Text:
1. Required Books:
All required books are available for purchase at the Penn State Bookstore
located in the Bookstore Building, 1 Pollock Road, University Park Campus. They are
also “on reserve” in the Penn State University Library “course reserve” system.

Childs, Matt. The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic
Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.

Flores, Juan. The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning (New
York: Routledge, 2009).

Findlay, Eileen. Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico,
1870-1920 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999).

Hoffnung-Garskof, Jesse. A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York After
1950 (Princeton: Princeton Universty Press, 2008).

Turits, Richard. Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and

Modernity in Dominican History (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003).

2. Required “History 497A Reading Packet”:

Students are required to purchase the course “reading packet” from the Sign
Factory. The reading packet includes all class readings (articles & chapters) from
weeks 1 through 15, except for the required books. The Sign Factory is located on
228 S. Allen Street in State College (814-234-7446) and is open Monday through
Friday 9am-5pm.
 COURSE SCHEDULE

Note: Readings preceded by an arrow are contained in the course packet. Readings
preceded by a bullet can be purchased at the bookstore and are physically available in the
course reserves room.

Week 1, August 24 & 26: Introductions

 Franklin W. Knight and Colin A. Palmer, “The Caribbean: A Regional Overview,” in The
Modern Caribbean, ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 1-19.

UNIT 1: THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY SPANISH CARIBBEAN

Week 2, August 31 & September 2: Cuba, a Modern “Slave Society”

 Francisco A. Scarano, “Labor and Society in the Nineteenth Century,” in The Modern
Caribbean, ed. Franklin Knight and Colin A. Palmer (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1989), 51-84.
 Rebecca J. Scott, “Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Cuba: A View from the Sugar
District of Cienfuegos, 1886-1909,” Hispanic American Historical Review 78, No. 4 (Nov.,
1998): 687-728.

Week 3, September 7 & 9: Puerto Rico, Slavery within a Peasant Society

 Jorge Luis Chinea, “West Indian Immigrants in Puerto Rico: Socioeconomic Profiles,”
in Race and Labor in the Hispanic Caribbean: The West Indian Immigrant Worker
Experience in Puerto Rico, 1800-1850 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005), 66-
99.
 Ileana Rodríguez-Silva, “Libertos and Libertas in the Construction of the Free Worker
in Postemancipation Puerto Rico,” in Gender and Slave Emancipation in the Atlantic
World, ed. Pamela Scully and Diana Paton (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), 199-
222.

Week 4, September 14 & 16: A Century of War in the Dominican Republic

• Richard Turits, “Freedom in el Monte: From Slaves to Independent Peasants in
Colonial Santo Domingo,” in Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime,
and Modernity in Dominican History (Stanford, 2003), 25-51.
 Pedro L. San Miguel, “Racial Discourse and National Identity: Haiti in the Dominican
Imaginary,” in The Imagined Island: History, Identity, and Utopia in Hispaniola (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 35-66.
Week 5, September 21 & 23: Documentary & Book Seminar
• Matt Childs, The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic
Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006).

UNIT 2. NATION-BUILDING (?) IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE

Week 6, September 28 & 30: Race and Empire in Cuba

 Louis Pérez, “Metaphor as Paradigm,” in Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor
and the Imperial Ethos (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 95-175.

Week 7, October 5 & 7: Puerto Rico: Territory with a Small “t”

 Arcadio Diaz-Quiñones, “1898,” Hispanic American Historical Review 78, no. 4,
(November 1998): 577-581.
 Lanny Thompson, “The Imperial Republic: A Comparison of the Insular Territories
under U.S. Dominion after 1898,” Pacific Historical Review 71, no. 4 (November 2002):
535-74.

Week 8, October 12 & 14: Nation-Building in the Dominican Republic

• Richard Turits, “Imagining Modernity: Peasants, Property, and the State in the
Century after Independence,” 52-79, and “Peasant-State Compromise and Rural
Transformation under the Trujillo Dictatorship,” 80-114, in Foundations of Despotism:
Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History (Stanford, 2003).

Week 9, October 19 & 21: Book Seminar & Documentary

• Eileen Findlay, Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico,
1870-1920 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999).

UNIT 3. COLONY, NATION, & DIASPORA IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY

Week 10, October 26 & 28: Option #1 -- Populism in the Dominican Republic
• Richard Turits, “Bordering the Nation: Race Colonization, and the 1937 Haitian
Massacre in the Dominican Frontier,” 144-180, in Foundations of Despotism: Peasants,
the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History (Stanford, 2003).
  Lauren Derby, “Haitians, Magic, and Money: Raza and Society in the Haitian-
Dominican Borderlands, 1900 to 1937,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 36
(July 1994): 488-526.

Week 11, November 2 & 4: Option #2 -- Consolidating Colonialism in Puerto Rico

 Jorge Duany, “Introduction,” 1-11, “The Construction of Cultural Identities in Puerto
Rico and the Diaspora,” 12-38, “A Postcolonial Colony? The Rise of Cultural Nationalism
in Puerto Rico during the 1950s,” 122-136. In The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move:
Identities on the Island and in the United States (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 2002).

Week 12, November 9 & 11: Option #3 -- The Cuban Revolution

 Franklin W. Knight, “Cuba: Politics, Economic, and Society, 1898-1985,” in The
Modern Caribbean, ed. Knight and Colin A. Palmer (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1989), 169-184.
 Alejandro de la Fuente, “Part IV: Socialism, 1959-1990,” in A Nation for All: Race,
Inequality, and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 2001), 259-339.

Week 13, November 16 & 18: Caribbean Migrations and Transnational Identities,
Part 1
• Juan Flores, “Of Remigrants and Remittances,” 33-49, “Caribeño Counterstream,” 51-
72; “Tales of Learning and Turning, 81-148,” in The Diaspora Strikes Back (Routledge,
2009).

Week 14, November 30 & December 2: Caribbean Migration and Transnational

Identities, Part 2
 Jorge Duany, “Reconstructing Racial Identity: Ethnicity, Color, and Class among
Dominicans in the United States and Puerto Rico,” Latin American Perspectives 25 (May
1998): 147-172.
 Alex Stepick and Carol Dutton Stepcik, “Power and Identity: Miami Cubans,” in
Latinos: Remaking America, ed. Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco and Mariela M. Páez
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 75-92.

Week 15, December 7 & 9: Book Seminar

• Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York After
1950 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008).