My students often complain that my Hispanic Civilization course is too dark. They are right. If you are not already wildly enthusiastic about the culture, it’s easy to get tired of all the genocide, dictatorships, military coups, economic misery, and corruption. I’ve been trying at least to end the course on a positive note, but in the year that passed since I taught that course, the already slim reasons for enthusiasm evaporated.
Before, I could end the course with, “Finally, Spain established a functioning democracy. The economy is growing, and Spain overcame its long-lasting marginalization in Europe when it became not only a member of the EU but its model member and success story.”
All that is now shot to hell because Spain hasn’t been able to come up with a government in over 6 months, its economy is in shambles, and it’s once again marginalized in Europe.
Or I could say something like, “There is hope that the government of Evo Morales will improve the standard of living of the indigenous population of Bolivia, etc”, but Evo Morales has turned into the same ridiculous type of dictator we see throughout the course, and the whole of Bolivia is following, with great dismay the pathetic soap opera of Evo and his idiot mistress.
At least, I could say, “El Chapo has been captured”, but we all know how that ended.
Venezuela is falling apart, Cuba sucks as much as ever, and Argentina’s narrow escape from the clutches of Putin is hardly enough to cause massive enthusiasm. I’m afraid my course will be more negative and depressing than ever. What am I to say at the end of the semester? “But the literature that comes out of all this is sensational”? I’ll feel like a dumbass.
Clarissa's Blog 
“What am I to say at the end of the semester?”
I’m assuming you’re preparing them for the trauma to come at the beginning of the semester.
Toward the end you could stress the non-linear nature of progress. Human civilizations do not continually evolve in the same direction but are prone to cycles and interruptions (look at progress in Ukraine, hardly a tidy linear process at all but rather a disorienting series of stop-start-stop dislocations that are nerve-wracking for all involved).
Even if most individual countries are trending downward right now (they’re hardly the only ones, what country isn’t trending downward at present?) They (except maybe for Venezuela) are unlikely to lose the progress that’s been made and will likely emerge stronger.
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This is very profound. Now even I feel better about it.
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Ma’am, with all due respect, why do you like our crummy culture? None of the countries function, the people are racist fucks and the men are useless wankers. Please don’t say because we have a “vibrant” culture or that the men are “romantic” or handsome, they’re neither. This is why I’m an Anglophile, the British aren’t fuck ups and they are rich.
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Love cannot be explained. 🙂
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