For more than five thousand years, Mexico has provided a wealth of insights into the human experience, beginning from extraordinary ancient civilizations, to the age of conquest and the Spanish Empire, to epic initiatives to create a nation and ensure its survival. This course considers critical moments in the country’s history and its problematic relationship with the United States—forming ancient civilizations; participating in empire; contesting institutions and sovereignty; creating a nation; fostering revolution and stability—and how they were (or were not) resolved. It will conclude with a discussion of current challenges of immigration, democracy, and drug violence. To personalize the experience, participants will be introduced to Zelia Nuttall, a prominent anthropologist who lived from 1857 to 1933 and who added much to what we know about Mexico’s past. Participants may wish to purchase a book about her life and times, but there are no required readings.
Elusive Neighbor: Mexico from Ancient Times to Modern Challenges
Group Leader: Merilee Grindle
Venue: Chilton
Meets on: Thursdays 10 AM
Starting: Oct 9
Sessions: 6
Class Size: 25
Teaching Style: Lecture and discussion
Weekly Preparation: None
Merilee Grindle is a professor emerita from Harvard University, where she taught international development at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has been the president of the Latin American Studies Association and the director of Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. She has written a dozen academic books and recently published a biography of Zelia Nuttall (In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl: Zelia Nuttall and the Search for Mexico’s Ancient Civilizations).