Latin America Reading

1
Latin America Reading

• 125-127 (before environmental)
• 127, 130 (on valley of mexico)
• 152 (patterns)-154 (before global reach)
• 155 (geopolitical)-156 (before revolution)
• 158-160 (on regional organization, end before
  insurgencies)
• 161--169

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Chapter 1 reading

• 1-20
• 35-44

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Latin America Overview

• Latin America is comprised of 17 countries
• Share a history of Iberian colonization
• Region is experiencing heightened economic
  integration
• Reflected in potential Free Trade Area of the
  Americas (FTAA)
• Extractive industries will continue to prevail
• Region has 490 million people -- 170 million of
  which are in Brazil, and 100 million in Mexico
• 75 of Latin Americans reside in cities
• Many megacities populations greater than 10
  million

5
Culture

• Racial caste system under Spanish blanco,
  mesitizo, indio, negro
• Languages
• About 2/3 Spanish speakers, 1/3 Portuguese
  speakers
• Indigenous languages in central Andes, Mexico,
  Guatemala
• Blended Religions
• 90 Roman Catholic
• Syncretic religions blending of different
  beliefs

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Informal Sector

• The provision of goods or services without the
  benefits of government regulation, registration,
  or taxation
• Housing construction, manufacturing in small
  workshops, street vending, garbage picking,
  street performing, line waiting
• 1998 60 of total non-agricultural employment
  was in informal sector

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Colonization

• Demographic Collapse
• There were many complex civilizations in Latin
  American before Europeans arrived
• 1500 population of 47 million 1650 5 million
• Causes disease, warfare, forced labor, collapse
  of food decline of the indigenous population
• Iberian Conquest and Territorial Division
• Treaty of Tordesillas
• Atlantic world divided between Spain and Portugal

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Regional Organizations

• Supranatural organizations governing bodies that
  include several states
• Subnational organizations groups that represent
  areas of people within the state
• Trade Blocks
• To foster internal markets and reduce trade
  barriers

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Trade blocks

• LAFTA Latin American Free Trade Association
• Central American Common Market
• Andean Group
• Mercosur 1991 Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay,
  Paraguay 
• NAFTA 1994 Mexico, U.S., Canada
• FTAA by 2005

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Dependency Theory

• Dependency theory
• Expansion of European capitalism created Latin
  American condition of underdevelopment
• Cores and peripheries
• Increased integration within Latin America and
  dominance of U.S. market
• Criticisms blame solely on external forces for
  economic woes, missing the cultural dimension

20
Development Strategies

• Import substitution
• policies that foster domestic industry by
  imposing inflated tariffs on all imported goods
  in the 1950s
• Manufacturing emphasized since 1960s
• growth poles planned industrial centers

21
Primary Export Dependency

• Dependency on the export of raw materials
• Agricultural Production
• Mechanization and diversification since the 1960s
• Locations Plata Basin, Llanos
• Peasant farmers being squeezed out

22
Primary Export Dependency

• Mining and Forestry
• Products silver, zinc. Copper, iron ore,
  bauxite, gold, oil, gas
• Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador export oil
• Mining becoming mechanized
• workers laid off
• Logging
• Exportation of wood pulp
• Short-term cash infusion
• Plantation forests of introduced species

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Maquiladoras

• Mexican assembly plants lining U.S. border
• Automobile and consumer electronic manufacturing,
  and apparel
• More than 4,000 exist
• Lower wages (10 per day) in Mexico cause job
  loss in the U.S.
• Duty-free imports

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Neoliberalism

• Neoliberalism and Globalization
• Neoliberal policies stress privatization, export
  production, and few restrictions on imports
• Eschew policies re state intervention and
  self-sufficiency
• Benefits include increased trade and more
  favorable terms for debt repayment most
  political leaders are embracing it
• Some signs of discontent with neoliberalism