This course offers a historic and comparative study of the cultures and societies of Central and South America and the Caribbean region. Hispanic, native, and Afro-Creole cultures are analyzed with special emphasis on ethnicity, class, and nationhood. This course also reviews the historical factors that shaped and defined contemporary Latin and Caribbean cultures, including the Iberian conquest and the marginalization of indigenous peoples, the slave trade and the plantation economy, and the problems of post-colonial development.