In one of the recent posts, I gave a list of dates that I want students in my Hispanic Civilization course to remember. They are:
711, 1492, 1898, 1910, 1939, 1975.
Reader Diego made fun of my choice in his trademark sarcastic manner:
Of the 6 most important events in Spanish civilization, two are the invasion & passing of the aerobics and two are the invasion & passing of Franco. Hmmm….
There is an obvious Peninsularist bias in the selection of these dates. (I wanted to add 1605 and 1615 but that would make the bias even stronger).
Does anybody have other suggestions for the crucial Hispanic Civ dates?
Clarissa's Blog 
I suspect that you hit the main points with your current list. (Is 1910 an outlier?)
Other possibilities:
1713 (Utrecht)
1819 (Bolivar)
1821 (Mexico)
1848
1864 (enter Maximilian)
1867 (exit Maximilian)
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I don’t even know the dates you mentioned. 🙂
1910 is there because we talk about Mexican Revolution a lot.
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I would have added 1908 when the first Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil to work on the coffee plantations. Today the south of Brazil has the largest population of Japanese descendants (1.5 million) outside of Japan.
Another possibility is 1941 when Walt Disney and his artists went on a ten day journey around South America to promote US and Latino ties which were at a low point. They are refered to as El Grupo and reduced the fascist influences in South America – a great PR coup.
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To be blunt, I don’t think that the arrival of one set of immigrants in Brazil or Walt Disney’s goodwill tour are on the same order of magnitude as the Reconquista or the Spanish Civil War–not in terms of immediate fallout, lasting impact, or the number of people directly or proximately affected.
Clarissa is looking for crucial dates, not interesting factoids.
Does Portuguese-speaking Brazil fall within the scope of Hispanic Civ, for purposes of the class?
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No, we can’t fit the Portuguese-speaking world because, as it is, there is too much material.
I wouldn’t be prepared to teach anything about Brazil either. But we now have a new colleague who can, so that’s good news. I hope we will open a Portuguese program.
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We don’t do the Lusophone world in my course. It’s just the Spanish-speaking countries.
I had absolutely no knowledge of the facts you name, so thank you!
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1959: the Cuban Revolution
1979: Sandinista Revolution
The 1990s (as a decade): imposition of neoliberal economic policies in many Latin American countries
1973: Golpe de Estado against Salvador Allende.
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We talk a lot about the Cuban revolution in class and about la Guerra Sucia. Nicaragua gets almost no coverage and Chile not nearly as much as I’d like. Ideally, this should be a two-semester course but right now, I have to cram a lot into just 15 weeks.
However, the neoliberal economic policies on Latin American get a lot of coverage in this course. The issue is too crucial to be skipped.
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Sarcastic comments?
Here are some suggested additions to your dates.
206 BCE Battle of llipa – Scipio Africanus defeats the Carthagenians, ends their control of Iberia and after a few more battles secures Iberia for Rome, thus bringing the Latin language and civilization to the peninsula and securing a European future, for at least the next 900 years.
98 CE The ascent of Trajan as Roman Emperor, the first of the Iberian emperors and one of the “5 Good Emperors” according to Gibbon. The list also included Hadrian, Trajan’s successor and also born near present day Sevilla.
409 CE According to the Idatii Episcopi Chronicon (The Chronicles of Bishop Idatii of Galicia), “Alani et Wandali et Suevi” entered Iberia in this year.
1369 The rise of the House of Trastámara
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas
1521 The conquest of Tenochtitlán
1588 The destruction of the Spanish Armada and the beginning of the end of Spanish dominance in Europe
1605 Publication of the Quixote
1810 Grito de Dolores
1816 Declaration of Independence of the United Provinces of South America
1817 San Martín crosses the Andes
1820 Restoration of the Constitution of 1812 which set the stage for the true independence of the Latin American countries.
1830 The assassination of Grand Marshall Sucre
1836-1845 Loss of Tejas y Aztlán to the northern terrorists
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The sad thing is that if I put “1836-1845 Loss of Tejas y Aztlán to the northern terrorists” on the board, the students will copy the words down diligently and stare at me with limpid, innocent eyes. Then, I will ask them who the Northern terrorists are and they will stare at me some more with limpid, innocent eyes. 🙂
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