FALL 2001

This information effective for Fall 2001.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes..

Latin American and Latino Studies

[LALS-080M] [LALS-142A] [LALS-166] [LALS-173]

80M. Mayan History and Literature

Instructor: Carter Wilson

Please note: This syllabus is from Spring 1998

Today over four million people, most in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras - but some also in south Florida, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz - are characterized by certain affinities of culture, history, and language as being Mayans. Though the living themselves are responsible for some monumental achievements (survival for 500 years in the face of genocide, a vibrant oral literature tradition, art, for one woman the Nobel Peace Prize), worldwide "the Maya" are most widely known for the stunning art and architecture their ancestors accomplished before the Invasion (or "Conquest").

The modern record on the Maya has become so extensive that one leading archeologist (Linda Schele) now makes the provocative claim that ancient Mayan culture should no longer be thought of as having been destroyed, but only as being dispersed - i.e., that the entire world of the Preinvasion still exists, although in an atomized or distributed form.

Course Description:

Many travelers through Mayan areas remain relatively unaware of the fact that in both the Preinvasion and the long period since, Mayan history is characterized by conflict. LALS 80M deals with major instances of uprising and rebellion of Mayan people against oppressor groups from colonial times to resistance in Guatemala in the 1970s and '80s and the struggles of the EZLN (the "Zapatistas") and other groups in Chiapas now.

The course concentrates on the last 500 years, and on individual lives, but it also attempts to describe the Mayan achievement as a whole thing. It is a beginning course in literature, history, and ethnography. Some aspects of Preinvasion art will be touched on, though not at the high level Professor Dean deals with them in her Art History course on the Maya.

There is a good deal of visual presentation: photography and film/video.

A central problem raised in the course is the issue of the nature of the interpretive record of the last five hundred years. Where do these interpretations come from? What are their politics? Friar Diego de Landa, the first ethnographer of Yucatán Maya (1566), was also the person responsible for the destruction of 5,000 "pagan" idols. John L. Stephens, the 19th century gringo explorer, supposed the Indians he employed to clear jungle temples might be the descendants of the builders, but he had no proof. Even today, TV documentaries on Mayan sites heavily feature white, English-speaking archeologists as their heroes and heroines and tacitly maintain the "unknowability" of the Mayan workers who also appear in the film.

Format: Two lecture-discussion meetings a week
General Education Requirement met: "E"

Course Requirements:

* Regular attendance and participation in discussions
* Four short papers

Reading List:

A required reader will be available for purchase the first day of class.

The other required items are available at the Bay Tree Bookstore. All items, including the reader, will also available in McHenry on 24 hour reserve. The texts represent a fairly large dollar investment, but for those with ongoing interest in the subject, they will form part of a permanent personal library.

A note on the reading, the pace of the course, and the "class trip":

I have tried to hold the reading to between 100 and 150 pages a week (3 to 4 hours), with a few exceptions (the Rigoberta Menchú autobiography is long for a week's reading). Most of the reading is fairly attractive - though the Popol Vuh initially may seem very opaque. Students aren't formally "tested" on the books and articles, but having read them should be reflected in papers and in discussions.

There is no final exam in LALS 80M, and the course is set up so that it is over at the end of the 10th week (all papers returned, or nearly). The scheme means that if students do the work in the time allotted, they will find themselves completely free to study for exams, write their other papers, and so forth after June 11.

On April 28 (and 29) instead of lecture we will visit McHenry Library in smaller groups to see Special Collections' copies of the Mayan Codices. There will be a sign-up sheet and everyone will need to commit to one of these 40-minute sessions (2 and 2:40 and 3:20 on Tuesday or 1 PM Wednesday the 29th).

Class Schedule:

Week One:

Tuesday April 7: Introduction: "Indians" and Indigenismo

Film clip, Eisenstein, "Que Viva Mexico"

Thursday April 9: Colonian Life in Yucatán and the Canek Rebellion

Week's reading: Ermilo Abreu Gómez, Canek (reader); D. H. Lawrence, "Indians and Entertainment" (reader)

Week Two:

Tuesday April 14: The War of the Castes

Thursday April 16: The Cruzob and Other Heirs of the Colonial System Today

Week's reading: Nelson Reed, The Caste War of Yucatán and Gary Bevington, Maya for Travelers (selections, reader)

Week Three:

Tuesday April 21: Epigraphers All

Thursday April 23: "People of the Year-Bearer"

Film, "Appeals to Santiago"

FIRST PAPER DUE

Week's Reading: Michael Coe, Breaking the Mayan Code, (Preface, Prologue, Chapters 1-2 and 8-10) and John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (selections, reader)

Week Four:

Tuesday April 28: Special Collections Visits

Thursday April 30: The Draw of the Corporate Community; the return of Juan Pérez Jolote

Reading: Ricardo Pozas, Juan the Chamula; Christine Eber, Women & Alcohol in a Highland Maya Community (first selection, Chapters 3-4, reader)

Week Five:

Tuesday May 5 and Thursday May 7: In Dreams (and Tales) Begin Responsibility

SECOND PAPER DUE

Reading: Robert Laughlin and Carol Karasik, Mayan Tales from Zinacantán, Introduction, dreams pages 25-50 (Romin Teratol) and 103-130 (Tonik Nibak); tales 131-159, and 210-224

Week Six:

Tuesday May 12 and Thursday May 14: Genocide in Guatemala; the story of Rigoberta Menchú

Visit of Guillermo Delgado May 14

Week's reading: Rigoberta Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú

Week Seven:

Tuesday May 19: "We Are a New Wind" - the Zapatistas

Film: "The Sixth Sun"

Thursday May 21: Other Chiapas Movements

THIRD PAPER DUE

Week's reading: George Collier, Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, Introduction, Preface, and pages 1-87; Christine Eber, Women & Drinking (Chapters 10-12, reader)

Week Eight:

Tuesday May 26: NO CLASS (EXCHANGE DAY)

Thursday May 28: "The Book of the Dawn of Life"

Film: "Popol Vuh: the creation myth of the Maya"

Reading: Dennis Tedlock, Popol Vuh, Preface, Introduction, into Part One

Week Nine:

Tuesday June 2 and Thursday June 4: "Popol Vuh"

FOURTH PAPER DUE (June 4, Thursday)

Week's Reading: Popul Vuh, pages 61-156 (concentrate on 104-156)

Week 10:

Tuesday June 10: Eternal Return: Fact and fiction of Landa (reconstructing life in the Yucatán before 1511)

Thursday June 12: Conclusions

Week's reading: Landa, Yucatan before and after the Conquest (reader)

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142A. Central America: Revolution, Intervention, and Social Change

Fall 2001
Instructor: Susanne Jonas
Office: Merrill 110, x9-3232, 9-2855-message
Office Hours: Tuesday, 1-4, Wednesday, 11-12, or by appointment
E-mail: sjonas@cats.ucsc.edu

Course Description:

This course (Gen Ed code E) aims to give students the broadest possible understanding of the situation in Central America today, with a particular focus on Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. It also highlights Honduras and Costa Rica as a contrast (in part, to prepare students planning to go to Costa Rica for EAP). Specifically, the course is designed to examine the region from the perspectives of the principal Central American actors and to explain the historical and socio-economic roots of the popular and revolutionary movements in Central America; to provide a comprehensive understanding of U.S. policies in the region; and to evaluate the results of the peace processes ending the civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. In the wake of the Fall, 1998, devastating Hurricane Mitch, the course will also focus on strategies for sustainable reconstruction and development in the region and the role of new social actors in such development. Finally, the course includes a section on Central American immigrants living in California and elsewhere in the US - their situations in the U.S. and their links to their home countries and communities.

Course Materials and Resources: The required readings for the course are: (1) a course Reader, and John Booth & Thomas Walker, Understanding Central America. Additional optional reading: Susanne Jonas, Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala's Peace Process; and Thomas Walker and Ariel Armony (eds.), Repression, Resistance and Democratic Transition in Central America. The Reader will be sold in class; the books are available for purchase at Bay Tree Bookstore.

In addition, there will be a list of recommended/optional readings, which will be on reserve at McHenry Library as available. Additional course materials and resources will include films, videos, tapes, and guest speakers from varying points of view.

Course Requirements and Evaluations: Required work includes: (1) a take-home midterm examination; (2) a take-home final exam; (3) class presentations, as they come up, on topics of study; (4) periodic reports on items in the news; and (5) other classroom assignments. Students will be evaluated on the basis of written and oral work in the class. In addition to fulfilling course requirements, students should keep up with course readings, and come well prepared in order to contribute to lively discussion and debate in the class. Finally, this class places particular emphasis on following contemporary developments in Central America in the major news media.

Note:

  1. Class attendance is mandatory; all absences must be excused.
  2. If for some reason you should need to take an "Incomplete" in this class, you must negotiate it ahead of time with the Instructor - including the deadline for turning in the work.

 

Topics/Sessions

Note: For readings included in each section of the Reader, see Reader Table of Contents.

I. Overview of the Region; Historical Background and Roots of the Crises in Central America (September 25, 27)

Readings:

M 9/25
W 9/27

B/W Chapters 1-3
Reader, Sec. I

II. Guatemala: Legacies of the 1954 U.S. Intervention, the 36-years' Civil War, and the Peace Accords (October 2, 4, 9)

Readings:

M 10/2

W 10/4
M 10/9

Reader, Sec. II, Jonas
B/W Chapters 4 (on Guatemala) and 8
Reader, Sec. II thru Fauriol (Fauriol optional)
finish Reader, Sec. II

III. El Salvador: Origins of the Civil War, U.S. Involvement, the Peace Accords, and Post-War Situation (October 11, 16, 18)

W 10/11 Film: Romero

Readings:

W 10/11

M 10/16
W 10/18

Reader, Sec. III thru Platform
B/W Chapters 4 (on El Salvador) and 7
Reader, Sec. III thru Arms Control Caucus (Gleijeses optional)
finish Reader, Sec. III (Lungo, Kufeld optional)

Receive Midterm: October 23
Midterm Due: October 30, at beginning of class

IV. Nicaragua: The Sandinista Revolution, the U.S.-sponsored Counterrevolution, the Post-Sandinista Era; Summary on Theories of Revolution and Regime Change (October 23, 25, 30)

Readings:

M 10/23
W 10/25
M 10/30

B/W Chapter 4 (on Nicaragua)
B/W Chapter 6
Reader, Sec. IV - begin readings on Nicaragua

V. Costa Rica and Honduras: Non-Revolutionary Countries (November 1, 6)

Readings:

W 11/1


M 11/6

B/W Chapter 5
Reader Sec. IV: catch up/finish Nicaragua readings (Dunbar-Ortiz optional)
B/W Chapters 4 (on Costa Rica and Honduras) and 9

VI. United States Policy and Alternatives: The "New Cold War," the Reagan Doctrine, the Central American Peace Process, and the Panama Invasion (November 8, 13, 15)

Readings:

W 11/8
M 11/13

Reader, Sec. VI through Sharpe (Sharpe optional)
B/W, Chapter 10

Film:

W 11/15

The Panama Deception

Readings:

W 11/15

Finish Reader, Sec. VI

VII. Post-War Central America in the 1990s and 21st Century, Central Americans in the U.S., and Hurricane Mitch: Neoliberalism, Cross-Border Organizing, Migration, Mitch, and a Sustainable Future (November 20, 27, 29)

Guest Speaker:

M 11/20

Eric Holt-Giménez

Readings:

M 11/20

Reader, Sec. VII, Envio, Lucentini, and articles on Hurricane Mitch

Holiday

W 11/22

Thanksgiving Eve - no class

Readings:

M 11/27 & W 11/29

finish Reader, Sec. VII

Receive Final: November 29
Final Due: December 6

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166. Latino Families in Transition

Winter 2001
Instructor: Patricia Zavella
Office Hours: Wed. 1-3 in Merrill 156
459-4182, zavella@cats.ucsc.edu

Please note: This syllabus is from Winter 2001

Course Description:

Through an interdisciplinary, feminist, cross-border approach, this course explores the complex nature of Latino families in the United States, which, like other families in the US, are undergoing profound changes. We will be discussing multiple types of family structures - nuclear, single-parent, extended, transnational, racially-ethnically mixed, gay and lesbian - and different meanings of family, some of which come out of a community context or sense of belonging for various reasons. Placing families within a historical context of post sixties social upheavals, such as migration, feminism, "reconstituted" or multiple-earner households, nativism, or community changes, we examine how family members adapt, resist, and/or construct alternative visions and practices of family life.

Required Texts: Available at The Literary Guillotine, 204 Locust St., Santa Cruz, 83l-457-1195.

Recommended texts:

Course Requirements:

  1. This seminar will be reading-intensive and thus requires attendance and active participation in class discussion. Every class meeting students must turn in a list of discussion questions about each of the readings. You cannot miss more than three classes and pass the course.
  2. A take-home midterm exam based on course readings. Distributed January 30, due Feb. 6.
  3. A take-home final exam, distributed March 8, due March 15, the last day of class.
  4. A 10-15 page research paper on issues related to the family. Topic must be approved by the instructor. Or a family history project, based on oral histories with members of a Latino family (and possibly others) which addresses the following: how did they came to settle where they reside currently, their class status and trajectory (upward and/or downward mobility); their racial-ethnic background and how they express them; and other relevant aspects (e.g., divorce, immigration, bankruptcy, activism, etc.) that help you reconstruct how they define family, how family members work, and what family means to them. This paper should be more than descriptive; you must interpret the family's experiences in light of the theoretical readings that we do in this course. Due March 19.

 

Course Schedule

January 4: Introduction to the Course and to each other

January 9: Theorizing Latina/o Diversity and Family Studies

Renato Rosaldo, "Grief and a Headhunter's Rage," Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Cultural Analysis. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989, pp. 1-21.

Patricia Zavella, "Reflections on Diversity Among Chicanas," Race, Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek, eds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994, pp. 199-212.

María de los Angeles Torres, "Transnational Political and Cultural Identities: Crossing Theoretical borders," Borderless Borders: U.S. Latinos, Latin Americans, and the Paradox of Interdependence, Frank Bonilla, Edwin Meléndez, Rebecca Morales and María de los Angeles Torres, eds. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.

January 11: Family Life in the "New World Order"

Rebecca Morales and Frank Bonilla, "Restructuring and the New Inequality," Latinos in a Changing U.S. Economy. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1993, pp. 1-27.

Néstor P. Rodríguez, "The Real 'New World Order': The Globalization of Racial and Ethnic Relations in the Late Twentieth Century," in The Bubbling Cauldron: Race, Ethnicity, and the Urban Crisis, Michael Peter Smith and Joe R. Feagin, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995, pp. 211-225.

Maxine Baca Zinn, "Social Science Theorizing for Latino Families in the Age of Diversity," in Understanding Latino Families: Scholarship, Policy, and Practice. Thousands Oakes: SAGE Publications, 1995, pp. 177-188, reprinted in American Families: A Multicultural Reader, Stephanie Coontz, et al., eds. New York: Routledge, 1998.

Vilma Ortiz, "The Diversity of Latino Families," in Understanding Latino Families: Scholarship, Policy, and Practice, Ruth E. Zambrana, ed. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1995, pp. 18-39.

Recommended: Rebecca Morales and Frank Bonilla, eds. Latinos in a Changing U.S. Economy. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1993.
Maxine Baca Zinn, "Family, Feminism, and Race in America," reprinted in American Families: A Multicultural Reader, Stephanie Coontz, et al., eds. New York: Routledge, 1998, pp.

January 16: Transnational Migration

Cecilia Menjívar, Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America, pp. 1-114.

Guest speaker: Manuel Pastor: Latinos in California's Economy

Recommended: Leo R. Chávez, Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1992.
Dianne Walta Hart, Undocumented in L.A.: An Immigrant's Story. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1997.
Patricia Zavella, "'The Tables are Turned': Immigration, Poverty, and Social Conflict in California Communities," Immigrants Out!: The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States, Juan Perea, ed. New York: New York University Press, 1997, pp. 136-161.
Robert R. Álvarez, Jr. Familia: Migration and Adaptation in Baja and Alta California, 1800-1975. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

January 18: Poverty, Social Networks and Confianza

Cecilia Menjívar, Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America, pp. 115-243.

Film: "Shadow of the Law," Frank Christopher, director (58 min. 1990)

Recommended: Carlos Vélez-Ibañez, "U.S. Mexicans in the Borderlands: Being Poor Without the Underclass," in Joan Moore and Raquel Pinderhughes, eds. In The Barrios: Latinos and the Underclass Debate. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1993, pp. 195-210.
Patricia Zavella, "Living on the Edge: Everyday Lives of Poor Chicano/Mexicano Families." In Mapping Multiculturalism, Avery Gordon and Christopher Newfield, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996, pp. 362-386.

January 23: Childhood, Language Use and Complex Cultural Repertoires

Ana Celia Zentella, Growing Up Bilingual; Puerto Rican Children in New York, pp. 1-79.

Antonia Castañeda, "Language and Other Lethal Weapons: Cultural Politics and the Rites of Children as Translators of Culture," Mapping Multiculturalism, Avery Gordon and Christopher Newfield, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996, pp. 201-214.

Film: "Border Vision Fronteriza, Through the Eyes of Children"

Recommended: Concha Delgado-Gaitan and Henry Trueba, Crossing Cultural Borders: Education for Immigrant Families in America. Bristol, PA: The Falmer Press, 1991.
Denise Segura and Jennifer Pierce, "Chicano Family Structure and Gender Personality . . ." in

January 25: Adolescence and the Pull of Youth Culture

Ana Celia Zentella, Growing Up Bilingual; Puerto Rican Children in New York, pp. 137-178.

January 30: Sexuality

Karen Mary Dávalos, "La Quinceañera: Making Gender and Ethnic Identities," Frontiers, vol. XVI, no. 2/3, 1996, pp. 101-127.

Ana Castillo, "La Macha: Toward a Beautiful Whole Self," in Chicana Lesbians, The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About, Carla Trujillo, ed. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, pp. 24-48, 1991.

Patricia Zavella, "'Playing with Fire': The Gendered Construction of Chicana/Mexicana Sexuality," The Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy, edited by Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 402-418.

Recommended: Mimi Nichter and Nancy Vuckovic, "Fat Talk: Body Image among Adolescent Girls," in Nicole Sault, ed., Many Mirrors: Body Image and Social Relations. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994, pp. 110-128.

February 1: Teenage Pregnancy

Pamela I. Erickson, The Latina Teen Mothers," Latina Adolescent Childbearing in East Los Angeles. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998, pp. 62-98.

Recommended: Sonia M. Perez, with Luis A. Duany, Reducing Hispanic Teenage Pregnancy and Family Poverty: A Replication Guide. Washington, DC: National Council of La Raza, 1992.
Ana María Alonso and María Teresa Koreck, "Silences: 'Hispanics,' AIDS, and Sexual Practices," Differences A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 1:101-124, 1989.

February 6: Femininity and Motherhood

Denise A. Segura, "Working at Motherhood: Chicana and Mexican Immigrant Mothers and Employment," in Mothering: Ideology, Experience, and Agency, Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Grace Chang, and Linda Rennie Forcey, eds. New York: Routledge, 1994, pp. 211-233.

Iris López, "Sterilization and Reproductive Freedom Among Puerto Rican Women in New York City," Urban Anthropology, special issue on Latino Ethnography 22(3-4), 1993, pp. 299-324.

Film: La Operación, Ana Maria García, director (2908, 40 min. 1985) Midterms Due

Recommended: Carlos Vélez Ibañez, "Se Me Acabó la Canción": Sterilization Abuse," in Mexican Women in the United States: struggles past and present, edited by Magdalena Mora and Adelaida R. Del Castillo, eds. UCLA: Chicano Studies Research Center Publications, 1980.

February 8: Masculinity and Fatherhood

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Michael A. Messner, "Gender Displays and Men's Power: The 'New Man' and the Mexican Immigrant Man," in American Families: A Multicultural Reader, Stephanie Coontz, et al., eds. New York: Routledge, 1998, pp. 342-358 .

Jose Limón, "Carne, Carnales and the Carnivalesque: Baktinian Batos, Disorder, and Narrative Discourses," American Ethnologist, vol. 16, no. 3, August 1989.

Matthew C. Gutmann, "Seed of the Nation: Men's Sex and Potency in Mexico," The Gender/Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy, edited by Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 194-206.

Recommended: Matthew C. Gutmann, The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

February 13: Generational Differences and Learning to Defenderse

Ana Celia Zentella, Growing Up Bilingual; Puerto Rican Children in New York, pp. 213-288.

Mary Romero, "Life as the Maid's Daughter: An Exploration of the Everyday Boundaries of Race, Class, and Gender," in Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S., Mary Romero, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, and Vilma Ortiz, eds. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 195-209.

Recommended: Elisa Facio, "Gender and the Life Course: A Cast Study of Chicana Elderly," in Building With Our Hands: New Directions in Chicana Studies, Adela de la Torre and Beatriz M. Pesquera, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, pp. 217-231.

February 15: The Household Division of Labor

Beatriz Pesquera, "In the Beginning he Wouldn't Life Even a Spoon": The Division of Household Labor," in Building With Our Hands: New Directions in Chicana Studies, Adela de la Torre and Beatriz M. Pesquera, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, pp. 181-195.

M. Patricia Fernández-Kelly and Anna M. García, "Power Surrendered, Power Restored: The Politics of Work and Family Among Hispanic Garment Workers in California and Florida," in Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S., Mary Romero, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, and Vilma Ortiz, eds. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 215-228.

Lynet Uttal, "Racial Safety and Cultural Maintenance: the Child Care Concerns of Employed Mothers of Color," in American Families: A Multicultural Reader, Stephanie Coontz, et al., eds. New York: Routledge, 1998, pp. 597-606.

Recommended: Scott Coltrane and Elsa O. Valdez, "Reluctant Compliance; Work-Family Role Allocation in Dual-Earner Chicano Families," in Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S., Mary Romero, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, and Vilma Ortiz, eds. New York: Routledge, 1997, pp. 229-246.

February 20: La Casa Dividida

Norma Elia Cantú, Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.

Patricia Zavella, "Engendering Transnationalism in Food Processing: Peripheral Vision on Both Sides of the U.S.-Mexico Border," Las Nuevas Fronteras del Siglo XXI: Dimensiones Culturales, Políticas y Socioeconómicas de las Relaciones México-Estados Unidos, Norma Klahn, Alejandro Álvarez Béjar, Federico Manchon, and, Pedro Castillo, eds. La Jornada Ediciones: Centro de Investigaciones Colección: la democracia en México, 2000 (in press).

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo & Ernestine Avila, " I'm Here, But I'm There: The Meanings of Latina Transnational Motherhood," in Gender and Society 11(5), 1997, 548-571.

Guest speakers: Ann López and friends, speaking on struggles of farm worker families

Recommended: López Castro, Gustavo. 1986. La Casa Dividida: Un estudio de caso sobre la migración a Estados Unidos en un pueblo michoacano. El Colegio de Michoacán: Asociación Mexicana de Población.

February 22: Mixed Families

Erika Aignor Varoz, "Cutting and Pinning Patterns," As We Are Now, Mixblood Essays on Race and Identity, William S. Penn, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

Cherrie Moraga, "The Breakdown of the Bicultural Mind," The Last Generation. Boston: South End Press, pp. 112-131.

Rina Benmayor, "You Speak Spanish Because You Are Jewish?" Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios. Durham: Duke University Press, in press.

Kevin R. Johnson, "My Family/Mi Familia," How Did You Get to Be Mexican? A White/Brown Man's Search for Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999.

Recommended: Roger Sanjek, "Intermarriage and the Future of in the United States," in Race, Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek, eds. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

February 27: Domestic Violence and Abuse

Michelle J. Anderson, "A License to Abuse: The Impact of Conditional Status on Female Immigrants," The Yale Law Journal 102, 1993, pp.1401-1430.

Yvette Flores-Ortiz, "La Mujer y La Violencia: A Culturally Based Model for the Understanding and Treatment of Domestic Violence in Chicana/Latina Communities," in Chicana Critical Issues, Margarita Melville, Tey Diana Rebolledo, Christine Sierra, and Deena Gonzáles, eds. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1993, pp. 169-182.

Recommended: National Latino Alliance, For the Elimination of Domestic Violence, Conference Report from National Symposium on "La Violencia Doméstica: An Emerging Dialogue Among Latinos," Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, 1997.

March 1: Gay and Lesbian Families

Cherríe Moraga, "A Long Line of Vendidas," in Loving in the War Years: lo que nunca pasó por sus labios. Boston: South End Press, 1983, pp. 90-117.

Lionel Cantú, "A Place Called Home: A Queer Political Economy of Mexican Immigrant Men's Family Experiences," Queer Families and the Politics of Visibility, edited by Mary Bernstein and Renate Reimann. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000 (in press).

Recommended: Tomás Almaguer, "Chicano Men: A Cartography of Homosexual Identity and Behavior," Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, vol. 3, 1991, pp. 75-100.

Trujillo, Carla, ed. Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1991.

March 6: Cultural Representations and Family Icons

Ana Castillo, "Introduction," and Yeye' Woro (Luisah Teish), "The Warrior Queen: Encounters with a Latin Lady," in Goddess of the Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe, Ana Castillo, ed. New York: Riverhead Books, 1996.

José Limón, "La Llorona, The Third Legend of Greater Mexico: Cultural Symbols, Women, and the Political Unconscious," Renato Rosaldo Lecture Series Monograph, vol. 2, series 1984-85, Spring 1986, pp. 59-93.

Rosa Linda Fregoso, "The Mother Motif in La Bamba and Boulevard Nights," in Building with Our Hands: New Directions in Chicana Studies, Adela de la Torre and Beatriz M. Pesquera, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, pp. 130-145.

Recommended: Lisa A. Flores and Michelle A. Holling, "Las Familias y Las Latinas: Mediated Representations of Gender Roles," in Mediated Women: Representations in Popular Culture, Marian Meyers, ed. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc., 2000.

March 8: The Politics of Family

Beatriz M. Pesquera and Denise A. Segura, "There Is No Going Back: Chicanas and Feminism," Chicana Critical Issues, Norma Alarcón, et al., eds. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1993, pp. 95-115.

Mary Pardo, Mexican American Women Grassroots Community Activists: Mothers of East Los Angeles, Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, 1990, pp. 1-7.

Tim Golden, "Just Another Cuban Family Saga," The New York Times, April 23, 2000.

March 13: Student Presentations

March 15: Student Presentations, Conclusion, Course Evaluation

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173. Latin American Immigration to the U.S.

Fall 2001
Instructor: Susanne Jonas
Office: Merrill 110, x 9-3232, 9-2855-message
Office Hours: Tuesday, 1-4, Wednesday, 11-12, or by appointment
e-mail: sjonas@cats.ucsc.edu

Course Description:

This interdisciplinary course (Gen Ed code E) addresses Latin American immigration to the U.S. from a variety of perspectives. Areas to be covered include:

  1. Background and history of immigration to the United States - the U.S. as an immigrant nation.
  2. Major social-economic and political conditions in Latin America causing immigration to the U.S. - and U.S. business needs for immigrant labor;
  3. Specific immigration processes and experiences (border and non-border, Latin American and Asian);
  4. Issues facing Latino immigrants and their communities in the U.S. (special focus on women) - and their contributions to the U.S.;
  5. Immigrant labor organizing;
  6. Cross-border binational and transnational communities and experiences;
  7. Immigration laws and current debates about U.S. immigration/refugee policy - among these, debates about economic impact, new varieties of racism, the new Latino vote, and immigration as an issue of democracy in the U.S.

While drawing on materials from throughout the U.S., some sections of the course focus in detail on California, with its large communities of Mexicans and Central Americans.

Course Readings and Materials: Required readings are a Course Reader (to be sold in class), and two texts (available at Bay Tree):

Requirements and basis for evaluation of students: a midterm exam and a final exam (both take-home); active participation in class discussions, including occasional presentations; periodic written reports on immigration-related items in the news, and written statement (or story) on student's own identity in relation to course issues.

Note:

  1. Class attendance is mandatory; all absences must be excused.
  2. If for some reason you should need to take an "Incomplete" in this class, you must negotiate it ahead of time with the Instructor - including the deadline for turning in the work.

 

Topics/Sessions:

I. Background and History: U.S. as an Immigrant Nation

History of Immigration Trends and Policies (September 25, 27)

Readings:

Reader: Section I

II. Latin American Migration to the U.S.: Causes and Experiences

Economic Factors (October 2)

Readings:

Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 1
Chavez, Ch. 1-2
Reader: Section II (a)

The Revolving Door: Mexican Migration (October 4)

Readings:

Reader: Section II (b) ("Border Fatalities" optional)
Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 2

Refugees from Civil Wars: Central Americans (October 9)

Readings:

Reader: Section II (c)

Border Crossings, Border Violence (October 11)

Video:

El Norte

Readings:

Chavez, Ch. 3

Understanding Immigration Laws (October 16)

Guest Lecture:

Mark Silverman

Readings:

Reader: selected articles in Section IV (a)

Varieties of Immigration Experiences and Non-Border Arrival (Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Cubans, Asians) (October 18, 23)

Student Presentations

(October 18)

Guest Lecture:

Judy Yung (October 23)

Readings:

Reader: Section II (d) (readings will be divided up for presentations)

** Get Midterm: October 23

** Midterm Due: October 30, due at beginning of class

III. Immigrant Communities and Immigrant Labor in the U.S

Work/Community Situations: Urban, Rural and Semi-Rural (October 25)

Readings:

Chavez, Ch. 4-9
Reader: Section III (a)

Video:

selections from La Ciudad

Immigrant Women (October 30 and November 1)

Readings:

Reader: Section III (b), and catch up on previous readings

Identity and Binationality (November 1, 6)

Video:

Mayan Voices, American Lives

In-class Discussion Groups

Readings:

Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 4 (Chapters 5 & 6 optional)
Chavez, Ch. 10
Reader: Section III (c)

Immigrant Labor in the Context of Economic Restructuring (including NAFTA) and Theoretical Aspects (November 8)

Video:

The Downsizing of America

Readings:

Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 3
Reader: Section III (d) (Bonacich optional)

Immigrant Labor Organizing (November 13)

Guest Lecture:

David Bacon

Reading:

Reader: Section III (e) (choose 3-4 articles)

IV. Immigration Laws, Policies, and Debates

Prop. 187 and Beyond: Laws, Politics and the Latino Vote (November 15)

In-class debates

Readings:

Reader: Section IV (a) (some articles read previously)
Portes/Rumbaut, Chapter 8

Latinos and African Americans, Anti-Immigrant Environmentalism, and Debates over Economic Impact (November 20)

Guest Lecture:

John Isbister

Reading:

Reader: Section IV (b)

Thanksgiving Eve (November 22) - No Class

 Rethinking Citizenship, Immigration as an Issue of Democracy in the U.S. (November 27)

Readings:

Reader: Section IV (c)

The Future of Immigrant Struggles (November 29)

Readings:

Reader: finish Section IV

Get Final: November 29

Final Due: December 6

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