Introduction to Chicana and Latino History

A. COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course surveys Chicana and Latino History in the United States. We will use a critical ethnic studies framework to discuss how Chicano and Latina racial formation shaped the economic, social, and political contours of American citizenship. Major themes include borders, migration, and identity. This course will require discussion, small group work, and participation on the course website. This syllabus is subject to change.

B. OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Identify and explore major themes, ideas, and events from Chicana/Latino history

• Place this history in the framework of U.S. history

•  Address the social relevance of such history for issues related to citizenship

• Apply archival, analytical, and digital literacy skills to Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

C. ASSIGNMENTS

Analytical Paper: You will be responsible for an analytical paper exploring a course topic in further detail. A one-page description of the paper topic and a preliminary reference list is due on Week 5. You will have the opportunity to workshop and receive comments prior to turning in your papers (Week 10). An 8-10 page, double-spaced paper, with appropriate footnotes and an expanded bibliography, is due on the last week of class (Week 11).

Blogger: Working in a small-group, students will develop and upload a Blogger site to our shared webpage. This page will be built around a primary source related to course readings or a relevant current event. The group will then lead the class through a weekly Twitter reflection exercise.

Twitter Reflection: Once a week, you will tour a Storify site designed by your fellow classmates. You will be asked to reflect on their site, in relationship to the week’ via Twitter.

Grading:

• 10% Participation and Attendance

• 10% Weekly Questions

• 20% Preliminary Paper Proposal and Reference List 

• 25% Storify Assignment

• 35% Final Research Paper

E. REQUIRED TEXTS

Briggs, Laura Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. University of California Press, 2003.

Course Reader

Chapter Excerpts Available on course website

F. READING SCHEDULE

Week 1: Introduction and Course Overview

Ruiz, Vicki. “Nuestra America: Latino History as United States History.” The Journal of American History. December 2006.

Omi, Michael and Winant, Howard. “Toward a Racial Formation Perspective.” Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. Second Edition. Routledge, 1994. P. 48-76

Screening: “Race: The Power of an Illusion”

Discussion of analytical essays and bibliography

Week 2: Borders and Borderlands

Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands: La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1987.

Chavez-Garcia, Miroslava. “Chapter 1 Gender and the Conquest and Colonization of California” and “Part 2 Women in American California.” In Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s-1880s. Univ. of Arizona Press, 2004. P. 1-24, 89-151

Week 3: The Economics of Race

Almaguer, Tomás. “Introduction” and “Part 1 Racial Ambiguities, Class Realities, and ‘Half Civilized’ Mexicans in Anglo California.” Racial Fault Lines. University of California Press. 1994. P. 1-107

Week 4: Transnational Linkages

Briggs, Laura Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. University of California Press, 2003. P. 1-108

Week 5: Immigrants and Migrants

*One-Page Description of Topic and Preliminary Reference List Due Today in Class* 

Briggs, Laura Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. University of California Press, 2003. P. 109-211

Week 6: The Reconfiguration of Identity

Sánchez, George J. Part 2. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945.  Oxford Univ. Press, 1993. P. 87-128.

Alvarez, Luis. Chapter 3. The Power of the Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance During World War II. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. P. 77-112.

Week 7: Multiracial Spaces

Garcia, Matt. “Chapter 6 Memories of El Monte: Dance Halls and Youth Culture in Greater Los Angeles, 1950-1974” and “Chapter 7 Sol Y Sombra: The Limits of Intercultural Activism in Post-Citrus Greater Los Angeles.” A World of Its Own: Race, Labor, and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles, 1900-1970. University of North Carolina Press, 2001. P. 189-256

Ribeiro, Alyssa. “ ‘A Period of Turmoil’: Pittsburgh’s April 1968 Riots and Their Aftermath.” Journal of Urban History. April 2012.

Week 8: “Chocolate Suburbs”

Avila, Eric. “Chapter 4 A Rage for Order: Disneyland and the Suburban Ideal” and “Chapter 5 Suburbanizing the City Center: The Dodgers Move West.” Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles. University of California Press, 2004.

Carpio, Genevieve, Irazábal, Clara, and Pulido, Laura. “Right to the Suburb?: Rethinking Lefebvre and Immigrant Activism.” Journal of Urban Affairs. Volume 33 Issue 2, May 2011.

Week 9: The Politics of Memory

Kropp, Phoebe S. "Citizens of the Past? Olvera Street and the Construction of Race and Memory in 1930s Los Angeles." Radical History Review.81 (2001): 35-60. 

Flores, Richard R. “Chapter 2 History, Memory-Place, and Silence: The Public Construction of the Past.” Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol. University of Texas Press, 2002. P. 15-34

Hayden, Dolores. “Chapter 8 Reinterpreting Latina History at the Embassy Auditorium.” The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. MIT Press, 1997. P. 188-209.

Week 10: Reflections

* Paper Workshop*

Sanchez, George J. “Back to the Future: Latino History As A Predictor of the Future of U.S. Society,” Latinos: Past Influence, Future Power. Los Angeles: Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, 2004.

Week 11

Analytical Paper Due in my box by 5 P.M.