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Spring 2003
This information effective for Spring 2003. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Latin American and Latino Studies
[LALS-080M] [LALS-173]
80M.
Maya History and Literature
MWF
9:30-10:40 a.m., Porter Academic 144
(plus one required section meeting per week)
Monday, 2:00-3:10 p.m., Porter Academic 249
Tuesday 8:30-9:40 a.m., Cowell Academic 216
Thursday, 10:00-11:10 a.m., Crown Classroom 203
Instructor:
Carter Wilson
Office : College 8 Room 324, Hours TBA
Telephone: 459-4405; messages: 459-3516; FAX: 459-3518
E-mail: georgec@ucsc.edu
Teaching
assistant:
Gloria Chacon
E-mail: gchacon@ucsc.edu
Course Description:
Today perhaps between seven and nine 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 Mayas. Though the living themselves are responsible for some monumental achievements (survival for over 500 years in the face of genocide, a vibrant oral literature tradition, their "folk" 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, made the provocative claim that ancient Maya 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.
Many present-day travelers through Maya areas remain relatively unaware of the fact that in both the Preinvasion and the long period since, Maya history is characterized by conflict and resistance. 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 half millennium and on individual lives, but it also attempts to describe the Maya achievement as a whole thing. It is a beginning course in literature, history, and ethnography. Some aspects of Preinvasion art will be touched on, although not at the high level Professor Dean deals with 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 since the Invasion. Where do these interpretations come from? How and why have they been generated? What are their politics? Friar Diego de Landa, the first ethnographer of the 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 Maya sites heavily feature white, English-speaking archeologists as their heroes and heroines and tacitly maintain the "unknowability" of the Maya workers who also appear in the film (some of them English-speakers perfectly capable of addressing an English-language audience themselves). Leading liberal journalists writing about the Zapatistas will still describe Mayan languages as "indecipherable." Why the ongoing misapprehensions?
Format: Three lecture meetings a week and a required section
General Education Requirement met: "E," "T3"
Course Requirements:
- Regular
attendance at lecture and participation in discussions both in the larger
class and in section. (A roll will be taken.).
- Four short
papers, three of three pages each and one of four-to-five.
- Quizzes and in-class writing.
Reading List:
A required reader will be available at the Bay Tree.
The other
required items are also available at the Bay Tree Bookstore. Slug Books
also may be carrying the texts.
- Rigoberta
Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú (W.W. Norton)
- Ricardo
Pozas, Juan the Chamula (University of California)
- Dennis Tedlock, ed., The Popol Vuh (Touchstone)
Reading, pace, class "trip"
I have tried to hold the reading to between 100 and 150 pages a week (3 to 4 hours). Where the reading for one class meeting is more than that, the following reading is likely to be shorter.
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 you do the work in the time allotted, you will find yourself completely free to study for exams, write papers for other courses, and so forth, after the end of the first week in June.
In the sixth week of the quarter, the whole class will visit McHenry Library in smaller groups to see Special Collections' copies of the Maya Codices and other Prehispanic and 16th century documents.
Class Schedule
1. Wednesday, April 2: Introduction
2. Friday,
April 4: "Native peoples" and Indigenismo
Film clip: Sergei Eisenstein, "Que Viva Mexico"
Reading: Ermila Abreu Gómez, Canek history and legend of a Maya hero (reader) (through April 11)
3. Monday, April 7: The Colonial Arrangement in Yucatán and the Canek Rebellion
4. Wednesday, April 9: The War of the Castes
5. Friday,
April 11: The Cruzob and the Sacredness of Village Life
Reading: Gary Bevington, selection from Maya for Travelers (reader); and Carter Wilson, selection from Hidden in the Blood (reader)
6. Monday,
April 14: Rebellion in the Highlands (1712 and 1867)
Reading: Kevin Gosner, selection from Soldiers of the Virgin (reader)
First Essay Due
7. Wednesday,
April 16: Juan Perez Jolote and the Closed Corporate Community
Reading: Ricardo Pozas, Juan the Chamula (for 4/16 and 4/18)
8. Friday, April 18: Juan the Chamula and Authenticity
9. Monday,
April 21: Cargos and the Festival of Games
Film: Thor Anderson, "Sacred Games"
Reading: Christine Eber, Women & Alcohol in a Highland Maya Community, Chapter 3 (reader); "Covo," Maya Calendar without Stress (selection) (reader)
10. Wednesday, April 23: Fiestas as the Cosmos Mapped
11. Friday,
April 25: Guatemala and The Thirty Year War
Reading: Rigoberta Menchú, I, Rigoberta Menchú (4/23-4/30)
12. Monday, April 28: The Life of Rigoberta Menchú
13. &
14. Wednesday, April 30 and Friday, May 2: The Rigoberta Menchú
Controversy and the Guatemalan Indigenous "Revitalization" Movement.
Reading for 5/2: Raxché, "Maya Culture and the Politics of Development" (reader); and Kay B. Warren, "Reading History as Resistance: Maya Public Intellectuals in Guatemala" (reader)
15. &
16. Monday, May 5, and Wednesday, May 7: Mayan Writing
Monday, Second Essay Due
Reading: Mayan stories and poems (reader)
17. Friday,
May 9: "We Are a New Wind"—the Zapatistas
Film: Saul Landau, "The Sixth Sun"
Reading: John Womack, Jr., Rebellion in Chiapas (selection, reader)
Christine Eber, "Seeking Our Own Food" (reader)
18. &
19: Monday, May 12, and Wednesday, May 14: "Zapatismo" and its
Consequences
Monday, Third Essay Due
20. Friday,
May 16: Reading the Popol Vuh
Reading: (through end of quarter) Dennis Tedlock, ed., Popol Vuh, Preface, Introduction
21. Monday,
May 19: Adventures of the Hero Twins
Film: Patricia Amlin: "Popol Vuh: the creation myth of the Maya"
22. &
23. Wednesday, May 21, and Friday, May 23: Popol Vuh
Reading: Robert Laughlin and Carol Karasik, The People of the Bat, Mayan tales and dreams from Zinacantan (reader)
Popul Vuh, pages 61-156 (concentrate on 104-156)
Monday, May 26: Memorial Day Holiday
24. Wednesday,
May 28: Eternal Return: Fact and fiction of Landa (reconstructing life
in the Yucatán before 1511)
Reading: Diego de Landa, Yucatan before and after the Conquest (La relacion de las cosas de Yucatan) (part one)
25. Friday,
May 30: The Language of the "Daughters of Ixchel" (Maya weaving)
Film: Kathryn Lipke Viegsa and John McKay, "Daughters of Ixchel: Maya Thread of Change"
Fourth Essay Due
26. Monday,
June 2: New Age Invasion of Maya ("The Chariots of the Gods and the
Smog Problem")
Film clip: Quetzil Castaneda, "Incidents of Travel in Chichen Itza"
27. Wednesday, June 4: Conclusions
28. Fiesta!!
173. Latin American Immigration to the U.S.
Instructor: Susanne Jonas
Office: Merrill 110, x 9-3232, 9-2855-message
Office Hours: Tues., 1-4, Wed., 11-12, or by appt.
e-mail: sjonas@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:
- Background and history of immigration to the United States—the U.S.
as an immigrant nation.
- Major
social-economic and political conditions in Latin America causing immigration
to the U.S. and U.S. business needs for immigrant labor;
- Specific immigration processes and experiences (border and non-border,
Latin American and Asian);
- Issues
facing Latino immigrants and their communities in the U.S. (special
focus on women) and their contributions to the U.S.;
- Immigrant labor organizing;
- Cross-border binational and transnational communities and experiences;
- 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.
- Issues
for 2001—U.S./Mexico negotiations: Braceros, Legalization and other
issues; impact of the 2001 "wartime situation" for immigrants.
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 Bookstore):
- Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Immigrant America
- Leo Chavez, Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society
- Optional reading: Susanne Jonas and Suzie Dod Thomas (eds.), Immigration:
A Civil Rights Issue for the Americas
- Additional resources will include films, videos, and guest speakers from
varying points of view.
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.
Notes:
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: (Dates to be
adjusted for Spring 03)
I. Background and History: U.S. as an Immigrant Nation
– History of Immigration Trends and Policies (September 24, 26)
Readings: Reader: Section I
II. Latin American Migration to the U.S.: Causes and Experiences
– Economic Factors (October 1)
Readings: Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 1
Chavez, Ch. 1-2
Reader: Section II (a)
– The Revolving Door: Mexican Migration (October 3)
Readings: Reader: Section II (b) ("Border Fatalities" optional)
Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 2
– Struggles for Immigrant Rights in a Changing World
(October 8)
Guest Lecture: Catherine Tactaquin
– Refugees from Civil Wars: Central Americans (October
10)
Readings: Reader: Section II (c)
– Border Crossings, Border Violence (October 15)
Video: El Norte
Readings: Chavez, Ch. 3
– Varieties of Immigration Experiences and Non-Border
Arrival (Puerto Ricans, Haitians, Cubans, Asians) (October 17, 22)
Student Presentations (October 17)
Guest Lecture: Judy Yung (October 22)
Readings: Reader: Section II (d) (readings will be divided up for presentations)
** Get Midterm: October 22
** Midterm Due: October 29, due at beginning of class
III. Immigrant Communities and Immigrant Labor in the U.S.
– Work/Community Situations: Urban, Rural and Semi-Rural
(October 24)
Readings: Chavez, Ch. 4-9
Reader: Section III (a)
Video: selections from La Ciudad
– Understanding Immigration Laws (October 29)
Guest Lecture: Susan Alva
Readings: Reader: selected articles in Section IV (a)
– Identity and Binationality (October 31, November 5)
Video: Mayan Voices, American Lives (October 31)
In-class Discussion Groups
Readings: Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 4 (Chapters 5 & 6 optional)
Chavez, Ch. 10
Reader: Section III (c)
– Immigrant Women (November 5, 7)
Readings: Reader: Section III (b)
– Immigrant Labor in the Context of Economic Restructuring
(including NAFTA) and the new Bracero Program; Theoretical Aspects (November
12)
Video: The Downsizing of America
Readings: Portes/Rumbaut, Ch. 3
Reader: Section III (d) (Bonacich optional)
– Immigrant Labor Organizing (November 14)
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; Latinos and African Americans, Anti-Immigrant Environmentalism,
and Debates over Economic Impact (November 19)
In-class debates
Readings: Reader: Section IV (a) (some articles read previously) and IV (b)
Portes/Rumbaut, Chapter 8
– Thanksgiving Eve (November 21) – No Class
– Rethinking Citizenship, Immigration as an Issue of
Democracy in the U.S. (November 26)
Readings: Reader: Section IV (c)
– The Future of Immigrant Struggles (November 28)
Readings: Reader: finish Section IV
– Get Final: November 28
– Final Due: December 5