Writing Homework Help

Choose TWO topics and then write a two-page write up for each one of those topics. Try to go as much in depth as you can.

Here are the directions:

Category: Podcasts/Documentaries- Writeup and Analysis. Any we’ve listed in our Modules that are listed as recommended (or that you didn’t write about already), or any related to our course themes from:

*“Throughline (Links to an external site.)” from NPR (sample episodes: “There Will be Bananas;”; “The Real Black Panthers (Links to an external site.);” “Puerto Rico”)

*”LatinoUSA (Links to an external site.)” from FuturoMedia

* “Code Switch (Links to an external site.)” by NPR (sample ep’s: “Saving a Language You’re Learning to Speak (Links to an external site.)”)

* “Scene on Radio (Links to an external site.)” from Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

* “This Land (Links to an external site.)” on Native American History from Crooked Media

* “1619 (Links to an external site.)” from New York Times

* “The Climate Bomb in the Amazon (Links to an external site.)” by Foreign Policy

*“How RBG became ‘Notorious’ (Links to an external site.)” from podcast “The Experiment” 2021 on RBG’s strategy to achieve gender equality before the law.

*The Racist Architecture of Homeownership: How Housing Segregation has Persisted (Links to an external site.) (NPR audio story/transcript, 5/4/21)

* Documentary series “We Shall Remain” (the episodes we didn’t assign). These are available through our GC Library Database Kanopy.

*Documentary series “The Asian Americans” including ep. “The Chinese Exclusion Act” (2020, PBS, GC Library Database Kanopy)

For podcast write ups: listen and take notes all the way through. The write up: a two page write up of its main themes (give us specific examples), how they relate to some of our course themes, and why they’re important to our understanding of the Americas.

Category: Film Analysis (relating to our course themes and readings): A two-page film/documentary analysis (or analysis of any of the primary sources in our Wood and Alexander reader that you were not assigned). See one of the following films, clipped below and analyze two or three major themes from it, tying it to our course material, making connections to our lectures, our themes and specifically, our readings (not Wikipedia’s or some random website).

* A two page analysis of the film “Even the Rain (Links to an external site.)“(Tambien la Lluvia), a 2010 film by Icíar Bollaín, and our Chasteen Ch. 11 “Neoliberalism”. You’re relating the film to this important chapter and discussing how they fit into to our course themes (From the Conquest to Neocolonialism through Neoliberalism in the 21st Century). Be expansive and show complexity. The film is available at the Grossmont College library (DVD # 1855), on Netflix, and several other commercial streaming services.

*: A two page analysis of the film “Che (Links to an external site.)” by Steven Soderbergh Part II, Che in Bolivia (Links to an external site.). The film is available from our GC library’s website (Links to an external site.), go to Databases, then Kanopy and enter the full title- you have full access). You’re relating the film to our readings on the Cuban Revolution (from Neocolonialism, through Revolution, to Reaction), the U.S.-Latin America relationship during the Cold War, and our documents in Wood (specifically Che’s “The Essence of Guerrilla Warfare” in our Wood reader). Be expansive and show complexity.

*Other films/documentaries you can write up as extra credit essays (always in relation to our readings, chapters and articles on that particular topic). Our library has most of these films through our GC library databases (Links to an external site.): Kanopy and Films on Demand. Analyze the film in relation to our course readings (our lectures, documentaries, and articles…)

*American Historical Association or Council on Foreign Relations webinars: attendance and a one page write up on what you learned and how these relate to our course themes.

* Film: A two page analysis of the film “The Liberator (Links to an external site.)” (El Libertador, 2013 by Alberto Arvelo), a film about Simón Bolívar and his role in the Latin American independence movements. You’re relating the film to our readings from Independence to Post-Colonial Blues and our documents in Wood (specifically Bolívar’s “War to the Death” in our Wood reader). Be expansive and show complexity. The film is available at the Grossmont College library, on Netflix, and several other commercial streaming services.

* Film: “I, the Worst of All” (about Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, gender, education, the Church and colonial legacies in general. See our lecture notes and Chasteen for historical context. The film is available from our GC library’s website (Links to an external site.), go to Databases, then Kanopy and enter the full title- you have full access).

* Film: “Romero (Links to an external site.)”. Relate to our readings on Liberation Theology and articles about Romero in Canvas. About Archbishop Romero in El Salvador, Liberation Theology, the Cold War

* Film “No” (2012 by director Pablo Larraín (Links to an external site.)) about Chilean civil society’s campaign to defeat the plebiscite of the U.S. backed dictator of Chile, Gen. Augusto Pinochet. See our lecture notes, and readings for Cold War historical context.

* Film “On the Edge of Democracy” (Links to an external site.) (by Petra Costa, 2019). On the unravelling of two Brazilian presidencies in the 21st century and the rise of ultra nationalist Pres. Jair Bolsonaro.

*Film “Judas and the Black Messiah (Links to an external site.)” (Dir. Shaka King, 2021) About Black Panthers; U.S. 1960s Civil Rights & FBI Responses to Civil Rights movements

* Film: “Kill the Messenger“- about the CIA, the Contras, and the “Drug War”. Tie to our lecture/discussion on Cold War, Nicaragua.

Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999. See LATimes article in Canvas under Cold War/Nicaragua: “The CIA, the Contras and the Crack Connection Ten Years Later”

* Film: “La Otra Conquista” (“The Other Conquest”). About the Spanish Conquest of Mexico and aftermath of the Conquest. (Read Camila’s Townsend’s article in our reader and one in Canvas for historical context). Library owns

* Film: “The Gringo in Mañanaland (Links to an external site.)” About the ways that Latin America has been portrayed by Hollywood from the beginning of film through most of the 20th century and the consequences of that on U.S. policy in the region. (linked here (Links to an external site.))

* Film: “Missing” (about Chile and the US during the Cold War). Tie it to our Cold War lectures, readings, and Chasteen’s ch’s 8 “Revolution” and 9 “Reaction”

* Film: “The Motorcycle Diaries”– film about Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s account of his travels across Latin America and his political awakening. Grossmont DVD-1871

* Film: “Lumumba“: about the US and Africa during the Cold War – where “Che” went after Cuba. This one is set in the Congo in the 1960s, a country that had recently become independent from brutal Belgian colonization. Tie to Cold War

Other options: Novel Analysis (this one can add up to 3 points on your final grade)

Read one of the following historical novels, clipped below and analyze two or three major themes from it, tying it to our course material, our lectures, and our readings.

“The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende (set in Chile from the Neocolonial era through the Cold War, especially during the dictatorship of Gen. Pinochet)

“Perla” by Carolina de Robertis (about Argentina’s “Dirty War” during the Cold War and the thousands of children who became “orphans” and given up for adoption by the dictatorship).

“The Feast of the Goat” by Mario Vargas Llosa (about the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, that dictator you saw in our film “Black in Latin America: Haiti and the Dominican Republic)