The course will focus on history, culture and people in Central America and the Caribbean, since the late 18^th century – the Haitian slave revolt – to present. We will follow the formation of racial and ethnic frameworks in the region as the consequences of European conquest, the extinction of native population and the Atlantic slave trade; we then proceed to learn about the liberation from the European colonialism, soon to be substituted with U.S. hegemony; we will learn about the consolidation of economic structures and the crucial role played by international corporation in shaping everyday life as well as national sovereignty in the region; special attention will be given to human aspects: we will trace the intensive processes of migration  which created transnational social networks and the constitution of individual and collective identities among the habitants of Central America and the Caribbean.