"Key Words: Theoretical Approaches to Chicana and Chicano Studies," University of California Los Angeles

UCLA

César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies

Spring 2019

Course Description: This course is an introductory survey to the theoretical concepts in the study of Chicanas and Chicanos through a focus on knowledge production and the relationship between power/knowledge. Structured around “key words,” students will gain proficiency in understanding Chicana and Chicano Studies as an analytical lens through which to understand history and social, political, economic and cultural relationships of power. Key words this quarter will include: colonialism, history, patriarchy, Aztlán, borderlands, mestizaje, mestiza consciousness, nation, Chicana (and women of color) feminism, Marxism, globalization, transnationalism, cultural hybridity, rasquache, zapatismo, the decolonial imaginary, postmodernity, postcolonialism, diaspora, coloniality, sexuality, Queer theory, familialism, and indigeneity, among others. While theoretical knowledge is abstract by nature, the course is designed to help students gain applied analytical thinking through intensive reading, writing and analysis.

Honors Seminar CS189 (Course # 144-835-200)

Required Texts (On reserve at College Library and the Chicano Studies Research Center Library):

Deborah R. Vargas, Nancy Raquel Mirabal, and Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Keywords for Latina/o Studies (New York: New York University Press, 2017). For a 20% discount, enter the code (SPRING19) at https://nyupress.org/books/9781479883301/
Electronic Reader. Throughout the quarter your readings will be made available on our course website under the week they are assigned (look for the tab on the left side of the course website). Look for the (E) behind the assigned reading in the syllabus.

Recommended Texts:

Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987.
Emma Pérez, The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.
Richard T. Rodríguez, Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009.
Alicia Camacho Schmidt, Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the US-Mexico Borderlands. New York: New York University, 2008.

Course Objectives:

To develop the analytical writing and critical reading, thinking, and communications skills necessary to thrive in our increasingly multiracial environment and globalized world where capital, technologies, peoples and cultures cross borders with ever more frequency.
Along with CCS 10A and CCS 10B, to gain an understanding of a broad spectrum of theories and approaches to serve as an intellectual foundation for majors or minors in CCS to build upon.

Course Policies: Your attendance and engaged participation in lectures and sections are critical to your success in this class. No late assignments will be accepted without a legitimate, documented excuse.

Please refer to the Dean of Students Website (http://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/conduct.html) for information on the university policy on academic integrity and plagiarism. All assignments must be turned in at the beginning of class the day they are due and must be typed with 12-pt font, double-spaced and have standard margins and formatting. The final assignment must be completed to pass the course.

Distribution of Final Grade:

Attendance and Participation 10%

Critical Reading Response Papers: 70%

Final Project: 20%

Attendance and Participation: Regular attendance in class and active participation in discussion are required and will be included in your final grade. Having more than one absence in discussion section will lower your grade by 1/3 a grade (i.e. B- to C+). Attendance will be taken in lecture and arriving late/leaving early will be factored into your final grade. If you are unable to attend class or discussion section, please let your TA know ahead of time. Active participation means that you contribute to both class and section discussion by critically engaging the ideas in the readings, as well as your fellow students. Complete all readings before the day they are assigned in lecture and come to each discussion section prepared with your own questions and/or points of discussion.

Analytical Reading Response Papers: Over the course of the quarter, you will produce five critical reading response papers. These two-page, double-spaced require you to analyze the readings and provide your critical response or reflections on the ideas presented in the readings and lectures. This means thoughtfully engaging with the main ideas of the readings by briefly delineating the authors’ argument and then providing your own critical analysis of the ideas. More than a summary of the readings, this assignment requires your analysis of the arguments presented in the readings. Any response paper that merely summarizes the readings, instead of analyzing the salient issues, will only be eligible to receive a satisfactory (C) grade. Your response papers are due at beginning of class on the Wednesday of Weeks Two, Four, Six, Eight, and Ten.

Course Project: Your final project will be an analytical paper focusing on a cultural text or political/social process concerning Chican@s/Latin@s that utilizes at least three theoretical concepts discussed in the course (i.e. intersectionality, Azltán, mestiza consciousness, etc.). You will then present your analysis in the form of either a ‘zine (i.e. a fanzine or underground magazine produced to circulate information broadly) or as a Chican@pedia on our social justice Wikipedia website. Pick a topic that interests you. This is your opportunity to explore and develop your thinking about the central issues we have studied all semester.

Use your imagination. Your project can be on a specific topic or event (i.e. environmental racism, Chican@s in film, Chican@ low riding/car culture, Chicanas and body image, an historical topic, a specific Chican@ leader, the War on Terrorism, a book or movie, an interview, etc.). Be specific about how these concepts help you to understand and analyze the phenomena you are studying. We will discuss how to do your project in lecture.

All papers will be at 5-7 pages and include a bibliography of your sources produced in Chicago citation method (see course web site for Chicago Style Sheet). All projects must be approved by your TA beforehand. Please submit a typed research topic outlining the topic of your project by WEDNESAY, MAY 25th. Include a description of your topic, the reason why you are interested in it, how you plan to address the topic in your analysis and include five sources your have identified to help you contextualize your analysis. The final paper is due TUESDAY, JUNE 7th BY 3PM along with your ‘Zine (turn in one copy and upload a scanned digital copy to the Chican@pedia page). If you are doing the Chican@pedia! only make sure your TA knows where you have posted it under CS 101.

Honors Credit: CS-101 offers an opportunity for you to earn Honors credit. To receive honors credit, you must enroll in the honors section as well as enroll in a one-unit honors seminar, CS 89, taught by Professor Blackwell. This section will be restricted to students already in the Honors Program or whose credentials qualify them to take a course for honors credit. The criteria are:

a minimum of a 3.0 GPA and
research paper writing experience (i.e., already taken a class that requires a research paper and you have received at least a ‘B’ on the paper or, you need to show evidence of an advanced English class in high school in which you wrote a research paper and received a grade of ‘B’ or better). If possible, please bring the graded research paper to the first day of the section.

Attention: To earn your honors credit, you will have to complete research and a digital project.

Respect: The purpose of this course is to expose you to a broad spectrum of ideas and perspectives. We know from experience that some of these topics—particularly those concerned with racism, sexism, and sexuality—evoke many deep feelings in all of us. We, the faculty and teaching assistants, view this course as a safe environment where students can express their views and openly debate the complicated and multifaceted aspects of these issues. Therefore, we encourage you to take this opportunity to discuss these issues in an honest and open manner. However, we must caution that with this openness comes an important responsibility—that of being respectful of others. While we may disagree and debate, personal attacks on individuals will not be permitted. This applies whether the person is a professor, student, TA, or visitor to the class.

New readings to incorporate:

http://bostonreview.net/forum/walter-johnson-to-remake-the-world

Blackwell, Boj Lopez, and Urrieta, “Introduction to Critical Latinx Indigeneities.” (E)

Laura Pulido, “Geographies of race and ethnicity III: Settler colonialism and nonnative people of color.” (E)

Anibal Quijano, “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America” (E)

Tuck and Yang, “Decolonization is not a Metaphor.” (E)

Foundational Texts: Anna NietoGomez, “La Feminista” (1973) (E)

Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. This Bridge Called my Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. (E)

Espinoza, Cotera, and Blackwell, Introduction, Chicana Movidas (E)

Gloria Anzaldúa. Borderlands/La Frontera, Selections. (E)

Relational Formations of Race and Strange Affinities

Lao-Montes and Buggs, “Translocal Space of Afro-Latinidad” (E)

Alicia Arrizon, Queering Mestizaje (Introduction). (E)

Sandoval, Chela. 1991. “U.S. Third World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World.” (E)

Selections, Alfonso Gonzalez, Reform without Justice: Latino Migrant Politics and the Homeland Security State. (E)

Selections, Jonathan Xavier Inda, Targeting Immigrants: Government, Technology, and Ethics, Introduction (E)

Selections, Karma Chavez, Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities, Introduction (E)

Moraga, Cherríe. “Queer Aztlán.” The Last Generation. Boston, MA: The Last End Press, 1993. 145-174. (E)

Juana María Rodríguez, Queer Latinidad Selections. (E)

Frank Galarte, “On Trans*Chican@s: Amor, Justicia, y Dignidad.” (E)

Deborah Vargas, “Ruminations on Lo Sucio as a Latino Queer Analytic.” (E)

Stuart Hall – Cultural Identity and Diaspora

Nation - Angie Chabram and Rosa Linda Fregoso, “Chicana/o Cultural Representations: Reframing Alternative Critical Discourse” (1990) (R)

Course Outline:

Week One

Monday, April 1st: Chicana and Chicano Studies: An Overview

Wednesday, April 3rd: Colonialism, Gender Violence, and Patriarchy

Octavio Paz, selections from The Labyrinth of Solitude (R)

Adelaida Del Castillo, “Malintzín Tenepal: Preliminary Look into a New Perspective.” (R)

THIS NEEDS TO BE PAIRED WITH EMMA PEREZ

Recommended: Grisel Gómez-Cano, “Preface,” and “Patriarchy in Mexico-Tenochtitlan-Gendered Narratives,” The Return of Coatlicue: Goddesses and Warladies in Mexican Folklore (2010).

Week Two: Reworking Mestizaje: Border Thinking and Mestiza Consciousness

Monday, April 8th:

Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, Saldívar Hull Introduction, Chaps 1-3

Wednesday, April 10th

Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, Chaps 4-7

Film_: The Border Crossed Us_

? DUE: CRITICAL READING RESPONSE PAPER #1

Week Three: The Decolonial Imaginary

Monday, April 15th: Decolonizing Histories: Decentering Modernity and Nation

Pérez, The Decolonial Imaginary, Introduction and Chapter Two

Wednesday, April 17th: Third Space Feminism, Diaspora, and Inter/Nationalism

Pérez, The Decolonial Imaginary, Chapter Three and Four

Week Four: Theories of Chicano Oppression/Visions of Change

Monday, April 22nd Nationalism

Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, Yo Soy Joaquin: Un poema épico, 2000

El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan

Richard Rodriguez, Next of Kin Intro

El Plan de Santa Barbara

Perez,Laura Elisa. 1999.El desorden, Nationalism, and Chicana/o Aesthetics. InBetweenWoman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State, eds. CarenKaplan, Norma Alarco ́n and Minoo Moallem, pp. 19–46. Durham: Duke UniversityPress.Sandoval,Chela.

Film: Palante, Siempre Palante!

Wednesday, April 24th: Internal Colonialism and Chicanx Takes on Marxism

Elizabeth Martinez and Ed McCaughan, “Chicanas and Mexicanas within A Transnational Working Class,” (R)

Chapter 7 “Latino Futures? Cultural Political Economy and Alternative Futures”

Chapter 6 “Latina/o Labour in Multicultural Los Angeles

? DUE: CRITICAL READING RESPONSE PAPER #2

Week Five: Rethinking the Chicano Movement

Monday, April 29th: Rethinking Movimiento: Masculinity, Nationalism and Family

Rodríguez, Next of Kin, Introduction and Chapter One

Wednesday, May 1st: The Emergence of Chicana Feminisms

Martha Cotera, Selections from The Chicana Feminist (R)

Blackwell, “Contested Histories: las Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, Chicana Feminisms and Print Culture in the Chicano Movement, 1968-1973.” (R)

Film: A Crushing Love

Week Six: The Struggle for Inclusion: Gender and Sexuality

Monday, May 6th

Aida Hurtado, “‘Sitios y lenguas’: Chicanas Theorize Feminisms” (R)

Deena J. Gonzalez, “Speaking Secrets: Living Chicana Theory,” (R)

Luz Calvo and Catrióna Rueda Esquibel, “Latina Lesbianas, BiMujeres, and Trans Identities: Charting Courses in the Social Sciences.” (R)

Wednesday, May 8th

Rodríguez, Next of Kin, Chapter 4 and Afterword

? DUE: CRITICAL READING RESPONSE PAPER #3

Week Seven: Transnationalism: Neoliberal Policies and Economic Globalization

Monday, May 13th: Gender, Labor, and Violence on the Border

Sharon Ann Navarro, “Las Voces de Esperanza/Voices of Hope: La Mujer Obrera, Transnationalism, and NAFTA-Displaced Women Workers in the US-Mexico Borderlands.” (R)

Alicia Camacho Schmidt, “Ciudadana X: Gender Violence and the Denationalization of Women’s Rights in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico” (R)

Film: Maquilapolis

Wednesday, May 15th: Neoliberalism, Globalization, Postmodernity

Victor Valle and Rodolfo D. Torres, “Latinos in a ‘Post-Industrial’ Disorder,” (R)

Raymond Rocco, “The Theoretical Construction of the ‘Other’ in Postmodernist Thought: Latinos in the new urban political economy,” (R)

Film: Sleep Dealer

Week Eight: Politics of Protest

Monday, May 20th: Immigrant Organizing

Alfonso Gonzalez, “The 2006 Mega Marches in Greater Los Angeles: Counter-hegemonic moment and the future of El Migrante Struggle.” (R)

Blackwell, “Líderes Campesinas: Nepantla Strategies and Grassroots Organizing at the Intersection of Gender and Globalization” (R)

Todos Somos Arizona? Selected Readings

Wednesday, May 22nd: Zapatismo: Rethinking Indigeneity

George Collier, “The New Indigenous Movement.” (R)

Fox and Rivera-Salgado, “Building Civil Society among Indigenous Migrants.” (R)

FILM: The Sixth Sun

? DUE: CRITICAL READING RESPONSE PAPER #4

Week Nine: Youth, Institutions, and Subcultures

Monday, May 27th: Holiday: No Class

Wednesday, May 29th: Education: Social Reproduction or Social Liberation?

Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.” (R)

Solorzano and Yosso, “Critical Race and LatCrit theory and method: Counterstorytelling.” (R)

Monday, June 3rd: The Politics of Representation: Art and Subcultures of Los Angeles

Ramón Garcia, “Against Rasquache: Chicano camp and the politics of identity in Los Angeles,” (R)

Denise Michelle Sandoval, “Cruising Through Low Rider Culture: Chicana/o Identity in the Marketing of Low Rider Magazine,” (R)

DUE: TOPIC FOR FINAL PROJECT

Week Ten: Chicana and Chicano Cultural Production and Music

Wednesday, June 5th:

Rodríguez, Next of Kin, Chapter Three

Michelle Habell-Pallán, “El Vez Is ‘Taking Care of Business’: The inter/national appeal of Chicano popular music,” (R)

Victor Hugo Viesca, “The Battle of Los Angeles: The Cultural Politics of Chicana/o Music in the Greater Eastside.” (R)

? DUE: CRITICAL READING RESPONSE PAPER #5

FINAL PROJECTS DUE on Tuesday, June 07, 2011 BY 3:00PM