OSHER 975 - The Present as History in Latin America: Gold. Silver. Lithium. Water?

Current events and issues in Latin America can never be divorced from their historical roots. Natural resource extraction is certainly a case in point. The 2010 movie "Tambien la Lluvia" (Even the Rain) will provide an "historical" focal point. It depicts an effort to film, in Cochabamba, Bolivia, a dramatization of the Spanish conquest. However, the turmoil surrounding a US firm's control of Cochabamba's water supply takes center stage, highlighting parallels between the extraction of gold by the Spanish colonizers and the control of the town water supply. The first class will view the film. The second class will survey some of the current controversies surrounding natural resource exploitation, focusing mainly on lithium extraction from the expansive salt flats of Bolivia and Chile. When we reach back into the 19th and 20th centuries, we find US corporations' role in resource industries to be a major contributor to the continuing controversies.