HIST 685A Church in Latin America
Focuses on the history of the Catholic Church in Latin America, from 1492 to the present. Readings will cover a variety of topics, including the Spanish missions, indigenous adoption and adaptation of Christianity, the Virgin of Guadalupe, syncretic African Catholicism in Brazil and Cuba, church/state conflicts after Independence, and Catholicism in twentieth-century Latin America. Although most readings focus on Latin America proper, the course will also cover Latin American migrants in the United States. As a result, the readings and discussions will give students a historical foundation for understanding Latin American and Latino Catholicism, Hispanic and Latino ministry, and the culture and traditions that produced notable Latin American Catholic leaders, particularly Pope Francis I.