Dr. A. Lauria-Santiago
Contact Info

First paper assignment--Nineteenth-Century Mexico

Write a response to the following paragraph by using the materials we have used in class.  Feel free to take a position and develop your own response to the paragraph's argument and assumptions.  In doing so, review and discuss whatever aspects of Mexico's history can help your argument.  In the end, I am more interested in HOW you argue a position than in how the position relates to the quote. In other words, the quote is mostly a device to get you going.  Clearly, you will have to selective in how you do this. Make sure to be concrete and specific in the use of evidence, drawing on all the different kinds of materials we have read.

"Mexican history in the nineteenth century can be easily sumarized this way: Mexico was a failed State, that did not constitute a Nation, layered over a paralyzed economy. Altogether the years between the 1820s and 1880 demonstrate how Mexicans lacked the necessary characteristics for success in these three areas. Clearly, only a progressive dictatorship could bring sucess to Mexico. After the Porfiriato consolidated Mexico solved this ancestral problems as best it could and was well on it's way to modernization."

Make sure you are familiar with:

       Plagiarism policy
       Style guidelines

It is crucial that you write this essay in your own words.  Fragments from your book notes strung together do not constitute a paper!  I am giving you sufficient time to review the materials, prepare an outline and meet with me, and I encourage you to do so.  I can make appointments at other hours in case my office hours are not suitable.

The paper is due Friday Oct 8th.  Please send me the papers via the Blackboard DROPBOX.