ABSTRACT

A paradigm crisis ensues, leading to an overthrow of the long-accepted framework, a period of confusion, contestation, debate, struggle, and, eventually, the construction of a new paradigm. The paradigm informing the international left’s old middle-run strategy was shared by broad sectors of Latin America’s progressive forces, from those of clear Marxist-Leninist orientation, to social democrats, to those of more nationalist and/or populist persuasion. The United States reasserted its influence over Mexico in the 1920s and in the 1940s and '50s, and Cuba slipped into quasi-dependence on the Soviet bloc after the early 1960s. Combined with events more particular to national developments in Cuba and Mexico, the global changes contributed to a critical accumulation of doubts among broadly-defined left in those nations. The structural position of Cuba and Mexico within the world-system affects the nature and role of intellectuals, distinguishing them from their counterparts in the core. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.