Reading questions for Born in Blood & Fire

This is a list of questions to help you identify important concepts and themes from the reading.

In order to help you organize your thoughts and contribute to our discussion, I strongly encourage you to take reading notes. Write down the ideas you think are important, as well as any interesting facts or observations. Write down words you are unfamiliar with, as well as their definition. In particular, pay attention to and make a note of anything that you react strongly to - are you surprised by something that you learned here? Does it change the way you think about Latin America and its past?

1. What is populism? What role did the middle class and industrial workers have?

2. What was Import Substitution Industrialization?

3. What was the ECLA? What role did it play in postwar economic theory?

4. What is Peronism? What role did Eva Perón have in this movement?

5. Who was Carolina María de Jesus? What does her life story tell us about class and race issues in Brazil?

6. How were relations between Latin America and the United States during the Cold War?

7. Who was Ernesto Guevara? What kind of political ideologies did he develop before meeting Fidel Castro?

8. What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

9. What are focos? What was their goal?