Comida Con Causa Country Research

Project Benchmarks & Deadlines

1. Country Snapshot Poster & Presentations
- Monday 3/19
2. Project Groups Formed - Tuesday 3/20
3. Interviews - Week of 4/9
4. Mesa College Library Research - Monday
4/23
5. Country Research Paper - TBD
6. Exhibition Product & Community Cooking
Night - 6/12

Benchmark 1 - Country Snapshot Poster & Presentations - Due Monday 3/19

1. You and a randomly assigned partner will choose a Latin American country.
2. You will conduct online research of your country’s key people and events from the 20th and
21st centuries (you may go back further in time if you think it is relevant). It can be
something that happened outside of your country, as long as it impacted your country.
3. You will create a timeline on a poster of at least 10 people or events (social, political,
economic, or cultural).
a. Each person or event must be annotated with a 2-3 sentence description,
indicating what happened and its significance, and how it’s related to food
justice (if relevant).
b. Include photos, quotes, interesting facts, statistics etc. of some of the events
and people.
c. The timeline should include country population, major imports and exports,
per capita income, (visit ​https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/​ for accurate
information), a traced map of your country with major cities and geographic
landmarks, and changes in political governance over time (monarchy,
dictatorship, communism, democracy, etc).
4. You will present your poster to the class and they will be displayed in the classroom.
Therefore, produce several prototypes (drafts) leading to beautiful work and take the time
to create an attractive design.
5. Your presentation will inform your peers who may be interested in researching a different
country for the rest of the project.
6. Ultimately, you will form groups of 3, united by a country, and conduct interviews, write
research papers, produce a cookbook, and conduct a live cooking demo for exhibition.
Latin American Country Snapshot– List of Countries, Historical Figures, and Important
Events

These lists are far from exhaustive but will help with your online research.

1. ​Argentina

Historical Figures:

Juan Peron
Eva “Evita” Peron
Isabel Martinez de Peron
General ​Juan Carlos Onganía

Important Events: Military Coup of 1943, Juan Peron’s arrest in 1945, Military Coup of
1955, Election in 1946, Eva’s vice presidential nomination in 1951, Eva Peron’s charitable
and feminist works, Women’s suffrage (1947), Agrarian reform 1968, The Dirty War,
Falklands War.

2. ​Bolivia

Historical Figures:

Evo Morales
President Colonel David Toro
Rene Barrientos
Simon Ituri Patino
Victor Paz Estenssoro, National Revolutionary Movement (MNR)
Lidia Tejada
Juescelino Kubitschek
Important Events: Chaco War (1932-35), Expropriation of Standard Oil Company property
(1937), 8 coups d’etat (1940-50s), Agrarian reform (1952), Military rule (post-1964), Saint
John’s Night massacre (1967), Nationalization of Gulf Oil’s subsidiaries (1969).

3. ​Chile

Historical Figures:

Augusto Pinochet
Colonel Manuel Contreras
Salvador Allende
Orlando Letelier
Victor Jara / New Song Movement
Eduardo Frei

Important Events: Women’s suffrage (1949), Agrarian reform (1964), Election of 1970, The
coup of 1970, Operation Condor, The Caravan of Death, Nationalized copper industry
(1971), The “Disappeared,” The New Song Movement, Pinochet’s arrest and trial.
4. ​Colombia

Historical Figures:

Camilo Torres
Jorge Eliecer Gaitan
Pablo Escobar
Cali Cartel
FARC
M-19 Guerrilla Movement
Cesar Gaviria

Important Events: Banana massacre (1928), Colombia-Peru War (1932), Magical Realism,
Gaitan assassination (1948), Women’s suffrage (1949), Social Agrarian Reform (1961)

5. ​Cuba

Historical Figures:

José Julián Martí Pérez

Geraldo Machado
Fulgencio Batista
Fidel Castro
Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Important Events: Platt Amendment, “Sergeant’s Rebellion” of 1933, Coup of 1952, Attack
on barracks at Moncada, July 26 Movement, Cuban Revolution of 1958/9, Agrarian reform
(1959), The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Bay of Pigs, Disintegration of Soviet Union (early
1990s).

6. ​Dominican Republic

Historical Figures:

Rafael Trujillo
Juan Bosch
The Mirabal Sisters

Important Events: Coup of 1930, Betancourt assassination attempt, The Luperion Invasion /
Movement of the 14​th​ of June 1959/60, Murder of the Mirabal Sisters, Assassination of
Trujillo.

7. ​El Salvador

Historical Figures:

Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez

Monsenor Oscar Romero
 Roberto D’Aubuisson
MS-13

Important Events: Peasant uprising (1932), The coup of 1979 and the Revolutionary
Government Junta (JRG), Salvadoran National Guard and the Massacre of 22 January,
Assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Arrest of Major Roberto D’Aubuisson, National
Democratic Organization (ORDEN) and death squads, Farabundo Marti National Liberation
Front (FMLN), The Massacre of El Mozote.

8. ​Guatemala

Historical Figures:

Jorge Ubico
Juan Jose Arevalo
Jacobo Arbenz Guzman
Castillo Armas
Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes
CIA / United Fruit Company
Miguel Angel Asturias

Important Events: Spiritual Socialism (1944), Coup of 1944, 1945 Constitution and Agrarian
Reform, Election of 1951, Operation PBFortune, Agrarian Reforms - Degree 900 (1952), MS
Alfhem Incident (1954), Operation PBHistory (1954).

9. ​Mexico

Historical Figures:

Porfirio Diaz
Francisco Ignacio Madero González
Emiliano Zapata
General Victoriano Huerta
Jose Vasconcelos (La Raza Cosmica)
Lazaro Cardenas
Jose Lopez Portillo
Miguel de la Madrid
Carlos Salinas de Gortari
Subcomandante Marcos / Zapatistas Army of National Liberation
Felipe Calderon

Important Events: Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), 1917 Constitution, Women’s suffrage

(1953), Tlatelolco massacre (1968), North American Free Trade Association (1994),
Chiapas uprising of January 1994, First Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle (1994), Councils
of Good Government.
10. ​Nicaragua

Historical Figures:

Jose Santos Zelaya

Carlos Fonseca and the Sandinistas
Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas
Anastasio Somoza Debayle
Violeta Chamorro

Historical Events: Founding of the Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) (1961), Liberation
Theology, Earthquake of 1972, Assassination of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro (1978),
Assassination of Anastasio Somoza, The Black Sandinistas, Election of 1984, Contras,
Iran-Contra Affair (1985-86).

11. ​Peru

Historical Figures:

Sendero Luminoso
General Manuel Odria
Jose Mariategui, The Shining Path
Alberto Fujimori
Abimael Gusman
Alejandro Toledo

Important Events: El Nino 1983, 1980 guerrilla group began an armed struggle against the
Peruvian government, 1948 Coup, 1879 war of the Pacific, 1856 slavery abolished, 1990
return to market-based economy, 1911 Machu Pichu “rediscovered”.

12. ​Venezuela

Historical Figures:

Juan Vicente Gomez

Romulo Gallegos
Romulo Betancourt
Marcos Perez Jimenez
Rafael Caldera
Hugo Chavez
Nicolas Maduro

Important Events: Women’s suffrage (1947), Agrarian reform (1960), Government

ownership of foreign oil companies (1976), current food crisis,