Ecologies of Culture: Latin American Environmental Aesthetics
Santiago Acosta
Yale University
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Fall 2024
In the age of rising sea levels, mass extinction, and carbon-driven climate change, can culture and the arts remain unchanged? This course focuses on the intersections between aesthetics and ecological practices in the context of the Anthropocene, a proposed geological epoch wherein humans have become a major geological force shaping the planet. It challenges traditional approaches by examining how culture and the arts can help to understand and respond to environmental crises. Discussions and readings emphasize the role of culture and aesthetics as agents and producers of environmental knowledge, highlighting their potential to challenge socio-ecological relations. Throughout the semester, students will explore various themes, including colonialism, anthropocentrism, human-animal relations, fossil capitalism, indigenous ontologies, and the impact of extractive industries on territories and bodies in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latinx world. Students will engage with works by established and emerging artists, aiming to produce ecocritical knowledge about the current climate and environmental crisis. The course also offers a panoramic view of Latin American culture by examining some key historical events and authors whose works can shed light on cultural and ideological processes at the root of climate change. By the end of the semester, students will be able to formulate research questions that are critical to the field of Latin American environmental humanities, as well as produce papers that are relevant to a broader debate about culture and ecology. Lastly, the course hopes to motivate students—beyond the classroom—to examine their place in an increasingly warming world.
Sample Readings:
• Francisco Serratos, El Capitaloceno: Una historia radical de la crisis climática
• José de Acosta, Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1589)
• Hugo García Manríquez, Anti-Humboldt: Una lectura del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte
• Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza, Chocó
• Verónica Gerber Bicecci, La compañía
• Arjuna Neuman and Denise Ferreira da Silva, Ancestral Clouds, Ancestral Claims
• Erick J. Mota, Habana Underguater
• Ailton Krenak, La vida no es útil
Image: Tomás Saraceno, The Aerocene Project
Energizing Latin America
Santiago Acosta
Yale University
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Spring 2024
This class presents an in-depth examination of how modern societies are entangled with the energy systems that have fueled their own potential demise. Recognizing the current ecological crisis as the main challenge of our times, the class invites students to reflect on how culture, ideas, and narratives shape our relationship with the earth. Contrary to the common perception of energy as a passive resource that is “just there” for the taking, the course posits it as dependent on narratives, labor practices, and political projects that constitute nature as the “raw matter” of modernity. Such narratives and practices often remain hidden, subtly influencing our trajectory in manners that evade daily recognition. Therefore, one of the primary objectives of this class is to unveil the often invisible systems of energy that dominate modern life. For this reason, our sessions will delve into how artists and thinkers have sought to imagine sustainable futures by exposing the impacts of energy’s covert yet extensive presence. Focusing on the history and cultural production of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the course is deeply informed by the histories of colonialism, imperialism, and resistance across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Latinx world. We will start by analyzing the roots of the current climate crisis through the lens of oil capitalism, reflecting on the problem of how to “read” the pervasive influence of petroleum on modern societies. Our focus will then shift to the politics and cultural representations of oil in Venezuela—Latin America’s largest oil producer and an early “petro-state” in the region—, from the beginnings of oil extraction in the early twentieth century to the contemporary nostalgia for the golden era of the 1970s and 80s oil booms. We will also address the cultural politics of petroleum extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon and current struggles over fuel accessibility through Mexican “petrocinema.” The second half of the course delves deeper into other energy regimes, including the political ecology of hydroelectric dams, the imaginaries of the Nuclear Age, struggles over energy justice in Puerto Rico, and conflicts concerning lithium (used in electric car batteries) in the Chilean deserts. Finally, the last section explores the promises and pitfalls of wind and solar energies, as we collectively attempt to envision alternative worlds and more sustainable ways of relating to the earth.
Sample Readings:
• Fernando Coronil, El estado mágico: Naturaleza, dinero y modernidad en Venezuela
• Carlos Contramaestre, Cabimas-Zamuro
• Edgar Nito, Huachicolero
• Carlos Machado Quintela, La obra del siglo
• Margot Benacerraf, Araya
• Macarena Gómez-Barris, The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspectives
• After Oil Collective, Solarities: Seeking Energy Justice
Image: Allora & Calzadilla, 2 hose petrified Petrol Pump (2012)
Rethinking Nature and Culture from Latin America
Santiago Acosta
Yale University
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Graduate Seminar – Spring 2024
The present ecological crisis, characterized by climate change, species extinction, global pandemics, and the unequal distribution of environmental harm has brought about a transformation in critical thought. The “environmental humanities” denotes the integration of interdisciplinary perspectives analyzing the relations between humans and nature to critique dominant modes of production and consumption and envision alternate ways of inhabiting the earth. This graduate seminar provides a critical overview of some of the key approaches and debates in this growing field, with an emphasis on Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx culture and history. Over the course of the semester, students will carefully examine diverse contemporary frameworks generated both in the Global South and the Global North, such as posthumanism, new materialisms, ecofeminism, eco-Marxism, world-ecology, and the energy humanities. By engaging with recent works by philosophers, environmental historians, critical geographers, and scholars in literary and cultural studies, students will gain a strong foundation in human and nonhuman relations within the broader context of the environmental history of capitalism. Students will participate in class discussions, write weekly responses, lead and moderate academic-style presentations, write a book review, and produce a final research paper.
Sample Readings:
• Ericka Beckman. Capital Fictions: The Literature of Latin America’s Export Age.
• Victoria Saramago. Fictional Environments: Mimesis, Deforestation, and Development in Latin America.
• Sean Nesselrode Moncada. Refined Material: Petroculture and Modernity in Venezuela.
• Carolyn Fornoff. Subjunctive Aesthetics: Mexican Cultural Production in the Era of Climate Change.
• Héctor Hoyos. Things With a History: Transcultural Materialism and the Literatures of Extraction in Contemporary Latin America.
Image: from Carolina Caycedo, The Serpent River Book (2017)
Latin America: Environment and Society
Santiago Acosta
SUNY Old Westbury
Department of History and Philosophy
Spring 2023
This course explores the historical relationships between people and environments in Latin America. Through an interdisciplinary lens combining approaches from the social sciences and the humanities, students will explore the region’s history and the socio-ecological impacts of colonialism, extractive industries, energy use, and climate change, among other issues. We will begin by delving into the history of sugar and its connections with slavery in the Caribbean, the role of Amazon rubber extraction in the Industrial Revolution, and the influence of US colonialism in shaping the production of bananas in Central America. The course will also examine the lives and struggles of Bolivian miners during the 1950s and the impact of Venezuelan petroleum on society and politics in the twentieth century. Climate justice struggles in Puerto Rico and the US-Mexico border will also be explored, alongside new ecofeminist movements and indigenous challenges against extraction. This course also incorporates cultural examples from literature, art, and film that provide a unique perspective on nature-society relations and offer alternative ways of relating to the earth. This General Education course in the Major Cultures domain aims to equip students with the tools to comprehend Latin America’s historical and environmental impact on the world while fostering critical thinking skills to approach complex issues that are relevant to the challenges facing the region today. Taught in English.
Sample Readings:
• Jason W. Moore and Raj Patel, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
• Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
• Miguel Tinker Salas, The Enduring Legacy: Oil, Culture, and Society in Venezuela
• Domitila Barrios de Chúngara, Let Me Speak! Testimony of Domitila, A Woman of the Bolivian Mines
• Thea Riofrancos, Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador
• Sam Moore and Alex Roberts, The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right
Image: Central American Banana Plantation (1902-1911), Tulane University Library
Ciencia ficción latinoamericana
Santiago Acosta
University of California, Davis
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Spring 2021
Este curso invita a explorar la ficción especulativa y ciencia ficción latinoamericanas del siglo XXI a partir de los ejemplos más relevantes de la narrativa y el cine recientes. Estudiaremos aquellos rasgos que diferencian a este género de su contraparte anglosajona, así como los vínculos entre las obras y el contexto político y social de Latinoamérica. Más que hacer un repaso histórico, nos interesa analizar las temáticas comunes del género en la región, incluyendo: la crítica a nociones eurocéntricas del progreso, la indagación en el trauma histórico de la colonización por medio de la ucronía, el cuestionamiento de la dominación económica y cultural de Estados Unidos, el impacto de nuevas tecnologías como las redes sociales y la inteligencia artificial, y los cambios en la noción de “lo humano” frente a las realidades de la cibernética y la amenaza de la crisis ecológica del presente.
Algunos de los autores que leeremos son: Daniel Salvo (Perú), Solange Rodríguez Pappe (Ecuador), Ramiro Sanchiz (Uruguay), Samantha Schweblin (Argentina), Teresa Pilar Mira de Echeverría (Argentina), Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia) y Fernando Contreras Castro (Costa Rica).
Imagen: Luis Carlos Barragán.
Las formas de la violencia en Latinoamérica
Santiago Acosta
University of California, Davis
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Winter 2021
Este curso estudia las diversas manifestaciones de la violencia en Latinoamérica a través de la cultura, el arte y los movimientos sociales más significativos de las últimas décadas. A través del análisis de obras literarias, cinematográficas y artísticas de los siglos XX y XXI, las estudiantes integrarán herramientas críticas fundamentales para analizar períodos de profundos cambios y conflictos sociales en el continente.. Nuestra meta será comprender la manera en que la producción cultural ha representado, resistido y rememorado las formas de la violencia, tanto política como simbólica, de género, sistémica e incluso la “violencia lenta” de la devastación ambiental. Más que el análisis formal de las obras, buscaremos comprender la cultura misma como un campo de fuerzas donde se juegan la política, la identidad y el poder. De esta forma, los materiales y las discusiones serán también relevantes para preocupaciones más amplias sobre derechos humanos, justicia social, participación política y memoria histórica.
Ejemplos de materiales:
• Patricio Guzmán, Nostalgia de la luz
• Jayro Bustamante, La llorona
• Selva Almada, Chicas muertas
• Obras de Doris Salcedo
• Max Mönch, Kings in Paradise: The Vieques Case
Imagen: Atrabiliarios, Doris Salcedo.
“I Carry the Indies in My Hand”: The Rise of the Capitalist Ecology in the New World
Santiago Acosta
Columbia University
Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures
Fall 2018
This course examines the rise of capitalism during the conquest and colonization of the Americas. We will part from the idea that our planet has entered a new geological era (the “Capitalocene”) characterized by the ecological impact of colonial and capitalist global expansion. The concept of “capitalist ecology” (a historically evolving field made up of nature, capital, and the institutions of political power) will allow us to identify the place of nature in the development of the modern world. The readings will trace the ideological and material constitution of commodities such as gold, silver, sugar, and pearls, among others, which comprised a transatlantic network of economic and ecological exchange. Central to this new global economy were notions of anthropocentrism, patriarchy, and slavery, that made possible the appropriation of nature, women, and colonies. In order to identify them, we will analyze pre-Columbian mythologies and narratives from the Spanish conquest, as well as scientific and natural history treatises, legal texts, maps, paintings, and illustrated codices that describe the transformation of New World natures into the source of European power.
Sample Readings:
• Marc de Civrieux, Watunna: Un ciclo de creación en el Orinoco
• Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Sumario de la natural historia de las Indias
• Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale
• Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Códice Florentino
• Werner Herzog, Aguirre, the Wrath of God
• Francisco de Quevedo, “Retrato de Lisi que traía en una sortija”
Image: Anselm Kiefer, Ich halte alle Indien in meiner Hand.
Latin America in Revolt
Santiago Acosta
Columbia University
Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures
Fall 2015 and Spring 2016
Insurrections, revolutions, and revolts have been a fundamental aspect of Latin American history since Columbus first landed in the New World. Whether against foreign political or economic domination, the state’s despotic power, or the pervasive influence of international Capital, the people—well as the elites—have always found alternative and more direct ways to bring about political change. This course will introduce students to some of the key uprisings that have shaped the social and political history of the continent. We will analyze Latin Americanist thought, historical and literary texts, and film narratives. While the primary focus will be on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we will also consider events that took place during the colonial and Independence periods. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to have a better grasp of Latin American historical and cultural past, as well as of the debates that continue to resonate today.
Sample Readings:
• Jon Beasley-Murray, Posthegemony: Political Theory and Latin America
• Nellie Campobello, Cartucho
• Luis Estrada, La Ley de Herodes
• Gioconda Belli, El país bajo mi piel
• Osvaldo Lamborghini, “El niño proletario”
• Nettie Wild, Un lugar llamado Chiapas
• José Roberto Duque, Salsa y control
Image: Francisco Frasso Solórzano.