Purpose of the Course
Requirements
Books
Links Page
Trabajadores en las Fincas by Frank Díaz Escalet
| Latino History |
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Purpose of the Course Requirements Books Links Page |
Trabajadores en las Fincas by Frank Díaz Escalet |
Dr.
A. Lauria Santiago
Contact
info
For as long as the US has existed as a Republic, people from "Hispanic" and Indo-America have been incorporated into life and work in the United States but often perceived by others as members of an "alien" culture. Through coercion, migration, labor recruitment, marriage networks, religious conversion, wars of occupation, economic need, political exile, etc., millions of people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the rest of Latin America, have somehow become "American," while still remaining "other" to most Anglo-Americans. This course will examine the process of departure and arrival--the forces pushing and pulling people from Latin America to the United States. We will also examine how "Spanish," "Latins," "Hispanics," "Latinos" adjust, integrate, resist, and adapt to the many forces that affect their lives in the US over the last century and a half, creating new ethnic, racial and local identities in the process. By studying the experience of Latinos and Latin American immigrants with racism and discrimination, identity formation, ethnic culture, community formation, work and labor struggles, and social mobility we will map out the heterogeneous mosaic of Latin American and Caribbean diasporas in the US.
The study of Latino History is a young discipline, with many gaps and grey areas. It also exists in a complex and tense dialogue (often a monologue) with "larger" anglo-centric US history. During the last two decades there has been a boom in research and writing in this field and we will be taking advantage of some of its products, although its fruits are still uneven.
Your participation in this class constitutes an agreement between us. I expect you to follow the guidelines presented below and I, in, turn will do my best to facilitate, in a variety of manners, a body of knowledge that is both polemical and shifting and that calls for your own interpretation and dissection. Most important, I expect from all students a reasonable degree of enthusiasm and interest through active engagement with course materials. You will have to complete all requirements in order to receive a grade in this course. I expect you to come to all class sessions prepared and on time. In return, I will provide you with feedback on your progress.
Short assignments will be graded with a check, a plus or a minus. The usual grade will be a check which will indicate satisfactory completion. A minus indicates the absence of important components which will be specified.
Participation: Your participation in class activities, including attendance, will be an important component of your final grade. The short assignments that form part of the participation grade include occasional short response papers. They should be about one page long and need not be typewritten as long as your handwriting is legible. Occasionally we will break down into small discussion groups in order to tackle a particular question or designate students as discussion leaders for a particular session.
Discussion Papers: I will provide the topics for the first two of these papers. They will be based on class readings and discussion. These papers will need to be 6-7 pages in length and reflect your participation in class, your completion of readings, and your own analysis of these materials. They will also provide the basis for class discussion. The third paper will reflect the results of independent research projects.
All papers will have to be properly footnoted and formatted according to Prucha’s handbook which is available in the bookstore and online through our webpage. This implies the usage of footnotes and not parenthetical citation. Students are required to be familiar with departmental and College guidelines on plagiarism and the submission of written work--READ IT! Please note that stringing together fragments of notes taken from the reading materials does note constitute paper-writing! Your papers will require analysis of relationships, not mere recitation of facts or stories. Late papers will be penalized for each day of lateness at the rate of a grade per day. There will be a writing center tutor assigned to this course and I encourage you to take advantage of this resource. You are also required to meet with me individually to discuss your strategy for the first paper assignment.
Films: There will be two or three film showings as part of this course. Attendance is required.
Final Exam: There will be a two hour comprehensive exam scheduled during exam period.
Determination of Grade:
- Two short papers: 15% each
- Class participation: 30%
- Research Paper: 20%
- Final Exam: 20%
- Participation and improvement will decide borderline cases
Web Materials: Please notice that this web page is not an optional component of the course but a vital “parallel track” to our class discussions and readings. You should check it once or twice a week and your email daily.
Electronic Reserve Reading System
This course relies on the library's E-Res system for most of its reserve readings. Please learn how to use the system ASAP. The links from the web pages take you directly to the reading. If for some reason this does not work, you can access the E-Res system direcatly and enter our course info.
Many of the readings are in PDF format. In order to read or print PDF format documents you must have Adobe's Acrobat Reader installed. In order to read documents in MS-Word format you must have MS-Word or a word processor that can import files in MS-Word format (most of them can).
The following books have been ordered by the bookstore. Other readings for this course are available on reserve or will be photocopied for you.
Week 1 -- [Sept 5] Introduction: Looking at Latinos in the US
Week 3 -- [Sept 17, 19] The Historical Formation of Communities in the US: Mexican Americans in the West I
Week 4 -- [Sept 24, 26] The Historical Formation of Communities in the US: Mexican Americans in the West II
Week 5 -- [Oct 1, 3] The Historical Formation of Communities in The United States: Mexican Americans in the Southwest
Week 6 -- [Oct 8, 10] Catch-up Time and Discussion of Research Projects
Week 7 --[Oct 17] Popular Culture and the Formation of Communities in New York City
Week 8 -- [Oct 22, 24] Popular Culture and the Formation of Communities in New York City
Week 9 -- [Oct 29, 31] The Formation of Communities in New York City and Philadelphia
Week 11 -- [Nov 12, 14] Culture and Politics in New York
Week 12 -- [Nov 19, 21] Cubans and South Florida
Week 13 -- [Nov 24] Latino Political Movements--1960s-1970s
Week 14 -- [Dec 3, 5] The "New" Migrations--Revolution and Emigration in the US Empire
Week 15 -- [Dec 10] The "New" Migrations--Creating New Communities and Latino Spaces