In this course we will study diaries and accounts of travelers in Latin America since the first Europeans came in contact with the continent for the first time. What did they see? What did they want to see? How did the describe it? How much influence did their account have in the construction of continental imaginary? We will start with el Diario of Cristóbal Colón, the letters of Cortés from Tenochtitlan, the description by Cieza de León in Peru, the narration of Cabeza de Vaca in North America, Núñez de Pineda y Bascuñán in Chile, and some travelers in 18th and 19th Century: Humboldt, Darwin, Azara, and others. We will continue with some travelers in the 20th Century, among them the transformative trip of Ernesto Che Guevara through the continent before he joined the Cuban revolution, as recorded in Diarios de motocicleta. (1unit)

This course is cross-listed with Literature.

Required texts : 1) Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Las Américas (Random House, 2004); 2) Ernesto Che Guevara, Diarios de motocicleta: Notas de un viaje por América Latina (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2005); 3) Fernando Operé, Historias de la frontera: el cautiverio en la América hispánica (Buenos Aires: FCE, 2001); 4) materials in course pack form to be purchased at Middlebury.