Recovering star formation histories: Integrated-light analyses vs
  stellar colour-magnitude diagrams
  Accurate star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies are fundamental for
understanding the build-up of their stellar content. However, the most accurate
SFHs - those obtained from colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of resolved stars
reaching the oldest main sequence turnoffs (oMSTO) - are presently limited to a
few systems in the Local Group. It is therefore crucial to determine the
reliability and range of applicability of SFHs derived from integrated light
spectroscopy, as this affects our understanding of unresolved galaxies from low
to high redshift.
  To evaluate the reliability of current full spectral fitting techniques in
deriving SFHs from integrated light spectroscopy by comparing SFHs from
integrated spectra to those obtained from deep CMDs of resolved stars.
  We have obtained a high signal--to--noise (S/N $\sim$ 36.3 per \AA)
integrated spectrum of a field in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)
using EFOSC2 at the 3.6 meter telescope at La Silla Observatory. For this same
field, resolved stellar data reaching the oMSTO are available. We have compared
the star formation rate (SFR) as a function of time and the age-metallicity
relation (AMR) obtained from the integrated spectrum using {\tt STECKMAP}, and
the CMD using the IAC-star/MinnIAC/IAC-pop set of routines. For the sake of
completeness we also use and discuss other synthesis codes ({\tt STARLIGHT} and
{\tt ULySS}) to derive the SFR and AMR from the integrated LMC spectrum.
  We find very good agreement (average differences $\sim$ 4.1 $\%$) between the
SFR(t) and the AMR obtained using {\tt STECKMAP} on the integrated light
spectrum, and the CMD analysis. {\tt STECKMAP} minimizes the impact of the
age-metallicity degeneracy and has the advantage of preferring smooth solutions
to recover complex SFHs by means of a penalized $\chi^2$. [abridged]
