Trinity College
Hist. 247: Latin@s in the U.S.A.
Prof. Luis A. Figueroa
Unit I: Introduction: Issues
of History and Ethnic Identity among U.S. Hispanics/Latin@s
Jan. 19 Introduction.
Jan. 21 Who is Latino/Latina [or
Latin@] Anyway? Labels and Shifting
Ethnic Identities.
Read: Suzanne Oboler, "So Far from God,
So Close to the United States": The Roots of Hispanic Homogeneization," in
Romero, Challenging Fronteras, 31-54.
Jan. 26 Web Workshop #1: Using the Web
for Writing Assignments.
Class
Meets in MCEC 152.
Special Event: Faculty Panel Discussion on
Latin and Caribbean Migrations, with Professors Leslie Desmangles [Haitians], Dario
Euraque [Hondurans], and Luis Figueroa [Puerto Ricans]; Rittenberg Lounge, 7:00pm.
Jan. 28 Why Study the History of:
Latinos/Latinas, Latin@s, Hispanics?
Read: David Weber, The Spanish Frontier
in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 302-60; and Edna
Acosta-Belén and Carlos E. Santiago, "Merging Borders: The Remapping of
America," in Figueroa, Hist. 247 Reader.
Writing Assignment: Complete Unit I YAPP
Discussion by Sunday, Jan. 31.
Feb. 2 Web Workshop #2: Using the
Web for research.
CLASS MEETS IN
LIBRARY.
Feb. 2, 7:00pm = Special Event
Film "El Norte" — Part of Trinity
College’s Migrations/Diaspora Series,
McCook Auditorium, 7:00pm. A discussion will follow the movie.
Feb. 4 Special Guest: Guillermo
Gómez-Peña. See "Special Assignment"
Feb. 6 Special Event: "BORDERSCAPE 2000"
A La Pocha Nostra production with Guillermo
Gómez-Peña and Roberto Sifuentes, in collaboration with Sara Shelton Mann. Goodwin
Theater, Austin Arts Center, 8pm. A unique opportunity to experience the work of
Gómez-Peña, one of the most acclaimed Border-American artists/performers/authors of our
time.
Unit II: Spanish and U.S.
Colonialisms, and the Roots of Mexican-American/Chican@ Identity
Feb. 9 Spanish Conquests and
Colonialism and the Evolving Views of
Spanish Borderlands History.
Class Meets in MCEC
152.
Read: Vargas, ch. 2 [docs. 1-5], and
ch. 3 [docs. 1-5, and essays by Castañeda, and Poyo and Hinojosa]. See YAPP
assignment.
Feb. 11 Mexicans and U.S.
Territorial Expansion, 1820s-1850s.
Read: Vargas, chapters 4 & 5. See YAPP
Assignment.
Unit III: Becoming Americans,
Mexican-Americans, or Chican@s? Community Formation and the Struggles for Justice and
Ethnic Identity, 1900s-1970s
Feb. 16 Mexican American
Communities and the Impact of U.S.
Expansion, 1870s-1910s.
Class Meets in McCook 102.
Read: Vargas, chapter 6-7. See YAPP
Assignment.
Feb. 18 Early 20th Mexican
Americans Experiences: from the World
War I to the Great Depression, 1910s-1930s
Read: Vargas, chapters 8-9. See YAPP
Assignment.
"READING WEEK"
-- Feb. 22-26
Feb. 24 9am -
Special Reading Week Activity:
Immigration, Inner City
Life, and Urban Renewal in Hartford, CT. A set of activities that will include a
presentation on Trinity's urban initiatives, a tour of Puerto Rican neighborhoods and
community organizations, an immigrant community service agency, the Hartford Office of the
US Immigration and Naturalization Service, and lunch at a local Colombian restaurant.
March 1 Deadline for posting
online copy of Paper #1 on "Chicano
History"
Websites for March 2 & 4:
- Chicano!
PBS Website [Timeline]
- Chicano Murals in: Los Angeles |
San Diego
- LULAC - League
of United Latin American Citizens
- United Farmworkers
Union
- Farmworkers
website
- Brown Berets
- MECha - Chicano Student
Organization
- National
Moratorium Committee
- Unión
del Barrio
- Nation of Aztlan
- National Council of
La Raza
- Chicana Feminits
website
- Plaza de la
Raza
- Electric Mercado
- Teatro Campesino
Mar. 2 Mexican Americans during
World War II and the Cold War
periods,
1940-early 1960s
Read: Vargas, chapters 10-11. Class Meets
in MCEC 152.
Mar. 4 Civil Rights Struggles and
the Rise of the Chicano Movement.
Read: Vargas, chapters 12-13.
Mar. 5 Writing Assignment:
Posting of Revisions to Online Essay
on Mexican-American history, including critical commentaries
on other essays, as per class lottery.
Unit IV: Puerto Ricans:
Colonialism, Diaspora, Nationalism, and Transnational Identity
Mar. 9 Trinity's Neighborhood
Revitalization Projects: A Briefing by
Trinity's Associate Vice-President Eddie Perez.
Class Meets in MCEC 152.
Map
of Trinity's Neighborhod
Mar. 11 Colonial Surplus
Population? Early Puerto Rican Migrations, 1898-1920s.
Read: "The Genesis of the Puerto Rican
Migration"; "Relative Overpopulation and Migration;"
and "The Policies of Exploitation and Racism: Puerto Ricans in Hawaii,
1902"; all in Figueroa, Hist. 247 Reader.
Mar. 16 The Growth of Puerto
Rican N.Y.C. to 1945. Class Meets in MCEC 152.
Read: Efraín Barradas, "How to Read
Bernardo Vega"; in Figueroa, Hist. 247 Reader; and César Andreu Iglesias,
ed., Memoirs of Bernardo Vega.
Mar. 18 "I Like to Live in
America!?" Post-World War II Puerto Rican Migration.
Read: James Dietz, "Migration and
International Corporations: The Puerto Rican Model of Development"; Tom Seidl, Janet
Shenk, and Adrian DeWind, "The San Juan Shuttle: Puerto Ricans on Contract
(1977)"; in Figueroa, Hist. 247 Reader.
Mar. 23 Puerto Rican Young Lords
and "The Status Question" [late 1960s-70s].
Class Meets in McCook 102.
Read: Carmen Vivian Rivera, "Our
Movement: One Woman's Story," in Figueroa, Hist. 247 Reader.
Video: "Pa’lante, Siempre
Pa'lante!" [The Story of the Young Lords Party], Written and Directed by Iris
Morales.
Mar. 25 Discussion: Puerto Rican
Politics and in the Post-Radical Era:
The Hartford Case.
Read: José Cruz, Identity and Power:
Puerto Rican Politics and the Challenge of Ethnicity.
Mar. 26 Online Essay Due: Five-page paper on Puerto Rican
Migration,
National Identity, and Class vs. Ethnic Politics.
March 27 - April 4 =
Spring Break
Unit V: Political Exile,
Ethnic Enclave, and the "Model Hispanic": The Complexities of the Cuban-American
Experience
Apr. 6 Cuban Migration and US
Ties Before The 1959 Revolution.
Class Meets in MCEC 152.
Apr. 8 Cuban Refuge Migration
and the Dynamics of Political Exile.
Read: Silvia Pedraza-Bailey,
"Cuba’s Exiles: Portrait of a Refugee Migration," in Figueroa, Hist. 247
Reader.
Apr. 13 Cuban Miami. Class
Meets in MCEC 152.
Read: Maria Cristina Garcia, Havana, USA:
Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994, pp. 83-168, in Figueroa, Hist.
247 Reader.
Web Exercise: Annotating Cuban-American
Websites.
- Trinity
Library Web-Searching Page
- Hist. 247 Initial
Websites
- YAPP Discussion on Cuban-Americans
Unit VI: Ethnic Identity [Take
Two]: New Latin American Migrations to the U.S.A.
Apr. 15 New Migrations, Part I:
Central Americans as the New "Mexicans"
or the New "Cubans"?
Read: Nora Hamilton and Norma Stoltz
Chinchilla, "Central American Migration: A Framework for Analysis," or Alejandro
Portes and Alex Stepick, "A Repeat Performance? The Nicaraguan Exodus," in Challenging
Fronteras, pp. 81-100, and 135-153.
Apr. 20 New Migrations, Part II:
Assimilation and Transnational Identity
Among Domincans. Class Meets in MCEC 152
Read: Julia Alvarez, How the Garcia
Sisters Lost their Accent; and Luis E. Guarnizo, "Los Dominicanyorks: The Making
of a Binational Society," in Challenging Fronteras, pp. 161-174.
Websites for Class Discussion:
1. U.S.
English-Only, Inc.
2. One Nation/One California
3. English First
4. Brown Beret's Bilingual Ed
Page
5. The
Bilingual Families Web Page [Norway-based site]
6. Flushing
Out Canards About Bilingualism
[part of Jim
Crawford's "Language
Policy" website]
7. Education Week online article on Bilingual Education
Unit VII: Culture,
Citizenship, and the Changing Landscape of American Cities
Apr. 22 Ethnic Identity, Cultural
Citizenship, and Urban Landscapes:
San Jose, California and New York City
Read: Renato Rosaldo and William V. Flores,
"Identity, Conflict, and Evolving Latino Communities: Cultural Citizenship in San
Jose, California"; and Luis Aponte-Parés, "What’s
Yellow and White and Has Land All Around It? Appropiating Place in Puerto Rican Barrios";
both in Figueroa, Hist. 247 Reader.
Apr. 27 Team-Work
on Final Project
Apr. 29 Final Discussion Session.
May 10 Final Exam, 9:00am
