Key Theories & Frameworks
Latin America's underdevelopment is caused by its position in the global capitalist system. Core (developed) nations exploit periphery (underdeveloped) nations through unequal exchange. Development requires import-substitution industrialization (ISI) or breaking from the system.
The global economy is divided into core, semi-periphery, and periphery. Latin America occupies the periphery — exporting raw materials, importing manufactured goods. The system is designed to transfer wealth from periphery to core.
Colonialism didn't end with independence — colonial power structures persist in knowledge, culture, race, and economics. The "coloniality of power" explains persistent inequality through racial hierarchies and epistemologies imposed by European colonialism.
Christian theology through the lens of the poor. God has a "preferential option for the poor." The Church should work for structural justice, not just charity. Influenced base communities (CEBs), social movements, and liberation movements across Latin America.
Challenges Eurocentric knowledge production. Latin America as the "first periphery" of modernity. Border thinking (pensamiento fronterizo) — knowledge produced from the margins of Western modernity.
Structural adjustment, privatization, trade liberalization imposed through the "Washington Consensus." Results: deindustrialization, increased inequality, privatization of public services, and social resistance movements.
Core Concepts
Money sent by migrants to home countries. Latin America receives $150+ billion/year. In some countries (Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador), remittances exceed 20% of GDP. Critical for poverty reduction but creates dependency.
Case Studies & Examples
Overthrew Porfirio Díaz's 35-year dictatorship. Complex civil war: peasants (Zapata), villistas, constitutionalists. Resulted in the 1917 Constitution — land reform, labor rights, secular state. Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled for 71 years.
US-backed military coup overthrew democratically elected Salvador Allende. Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship: 3,000+ killed, 30,000 tortured, neoliberal economic reforms (Chicago Boys). Transition to democracy (1990) but persistent inequality.
Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) declared war on the Mexican state on NAFTA's first day. Demanded Indigenous autonomy, land, democracy, and justice. Created autonomous municipalities, used internet for global solidarity. Ongoing experiment in Indigenous self-governance.
Fidel Castro's revolution overthrew Batista. Established socialist state, survived US embargo (60+ years), achieved universal healthcare and education. Post-Soviet "Special Period" economic crisis. Ongoing tensions between socialist achievements and political repression.
Practice Questions
A: Dependency theory (Prebisch, Frank) argues Latin America was integrated into the global capitalist economy as a supplier of raw materials and consumer of manufactured goods. This unequal exchange systematically transfers wealth to developed core countries. ISI was the initial response — protect domestic industries to reduce dependency.
A: Quijano (2000): coloniality refers to persistent power structures established by colonialism that survive formal independence. These include racial hierarchies, Eurocentric knowledge systems, and economic exploitation. Colonialism ended politically, but coloniality persists in culture, knowledge, and economics.
A: ISI (1930s-1980s): protected domestic industries through tariffs, state investment in infrastructure and industry, import restrictions. Initially successful — Mexico, Brazil industrialized rapidly. But led to inefficient industries, debt, balance of payments crises, and eventual replacement by neoliberalism in the 1980s-90s.
A: Liberation theology (Gutiérrez, 1971): interprets Christianity through the lens of the poor. God has a preferential option for the poor. The Church should work for structural justice. Influenced base ecclesial communities, social movements, and liberation movements. Criticized by Vatican and US for Marxist influences. Leonardo Boff was silenced by the Vatican.
A: Causes: neoliberal failures, rising inequality, Indigenous mobilization, US hegemony backlash, commodity boom funding social programs. Consequences: reduced poverty, expanded healthcare/education, regional integration (ALBA, UNASUR), challenged US dominance. Decline: corruption, commodity bust, political polarization, US pressure.