History of Colonial Latin America

Test questions for Furtado, Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave in the Eighteenth Century

Due 11-16-09 via WebCT

Question  1

• Brazil imported roughly 4 million captive Africans from the early 1500s to the 1850s.
• For many working on the sugar plantations of the NE coast, life expectancy was less than 10 years.
• Yet Chica da Silva, born a slave in the 1730s, died a wealthy and free woman in 1796. What factors made this possible?  [be specific!]
• What does her admittedly exceptional story reveal about colonial Brazil?

OR

Question 2

• Since 1868 and especially since 1973 (p11-12) the name Chica [Xica] da Silva represented at least two appealing myths in Brazilian history. What were those myths?
• What aspects were false, according to Furtado?
• Are there any aspects of those myths that might be considered true, based on what we know of Chica from the Furtado biography? [be specific]

• Mexico — Claudia

• Peru — Neil
• Paraguay — Josh
• Cuba — Trimeka
• Venezuela — Katia
• Brazil — Katy
• Nicaragua — Brent
• Argentina — Mati
• Colombia — Priscylla
• Ecuador — Alex
• Undecided? Richard, Louis, Chance, Reid, Julie
• Still left: Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador

As I get ready to leave for this conference, I’m not able to churn out the on-line lectures as the rate I had hoped. I have two up on WebCT now [and no quizzes yet] when I had hoped to have 4. There will be another up early tomorrow and I hope to have the quizzes up for those up by Wednesday night, if I can find an internet connection. Those three will be all for this week; then I’ll try to have another batch of 3 or 4 up next weekend. See you next week — and enjoy The Mission!

Speaking of missions, this image is of a colonial-era statue of St Philip of Jesus. He was born in Mexico, became a Franciscan priest, and was martyred in the Japanese city of Nagasaki while on a mission in that country in 1597.

Rather than use our classroom, which is locked at 9am, I’ve reserved room 417 in the library from 9am to 10am Wed. 10-21 and Fri. 10-23. I also put the DVD on reserve at the library too.

When you go on Wednesday morning, tell them you’re from Dr. Garrigus’s class and that you need to take over the reservation in your name. They just need your UTA ID  in order to give you the room key. Then ask them for the DVD which should be at the reserve desk. You can come back at any time and watch the DVD there on your own.

Please email me if you have any questions!

Dr. G>

A former student of mine sent me this flier about the upcoming

BREAKING THE SILENCE CONGO WEEK IN THE DFW

Here’s their Facebook page:

There’s a party at UTA on Saturday night capping off the week; if you attend and write a short description of the event — 3/4s of a page; doesn’t have to be typed — I’ll count that for extra credit towards class participation.

Celebrating Congolese Heritage (Party, celebration, talent show): Saturday, October 24^th 7:00Pm to9:00 Pm

Location: UTA, 701 S. Nedderman Drive Arlington TX 76019

already taken:
brazil, nicaragua, Argentina

We’re only having 2 on-line lectures this week instead of our usual 4. They’re each about a minute longer than normal. There will be 2 quizzes — but they won’t be up until Tuesday morning. Good luck on your tests!

As people email me with museum requests I’m going to log them here so you can see what is taken. Email me now, before someone takes the museum you wanted to visit!

• Kimball Art Museum (Fort Worth) [Katia]
• Dallas Museum of Art [Mati]
• Dallas International Museum of Cultures [Alex]
• Mexic-Arte Museum [Josh]
• Meadows Museum at SMU [Claudia]
• Nasher Sculpture Museum (Dallas) [Julie]
• Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth) [Priscylla]

The test question [due Monday Oct. 12 by 5pm] is the one from our sheet that begins … “why are some myths so sticky”. Don’t forget to paste in the grading grid from last time and pay special attention to the areas that needed work. For this question [like all of them] you need to combine specific historical details [on the myths] with an overarching thesis. Be sure the thesis is in the first paragraph or page! Good luck!

If you’ve been checking your grades on the WebCT gradebook, you will have seen a change recently. I changed from a percentage system to a points system, since a lot of students have told me they find it easier to keep track.

I changed the value of your Mann score to reflect the 240 point value of that assignment. I also just added the first of 3 class participation [CP] grades, based on a 65 point score. so 58.5 or higher [90% of 65] would be an A for class participation.

Heres the grading table from the syllabus, updated to show the new point system.