(Cross-listed with LAST 120) Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course will present historical and culturally diverse materials. Major themes we will study include: cultural encounters, political and religious conquests, race as a social and historical category, decolonization, the creation of new nation states, economic inequality, gender relations, political and cultural revolutions, military dictatorship and, finally, the return to democracy. A historical framework will structure and inform our study of Latin America. (One course).