Professor: Wilson Valentín-Escobar
Fred C. Andersen Fellow in
American Studies
Tue/Thur
1:15 - 3 p.m.; Goodsell
Observatory Room 3
Office: Goodsell Observatory
Room 203 Phone: x7018
Email: wvalenti@carleton.edu
Office
Hours: Tuesday 3: 15 – 5 p.m. / Thursday
10 – 11: 30 a.m. and by appointment
Utilizing
an interdisciplinary framework, this course will introduce you to Latina/o
communities in the United States, focusing on their expressive and performance
practices, including music, mural art, theatre, sport, language and film/media.
To gain a deeper understanding of community formations across the United
States, we will first review some historical essays and books on U.S.
Latinos. In order to understand
what “is” Latina/o Studies, we will then examine the intellectual
goals of the field and discuss how they overlap with, yet are distinct from,
Latin American Studies. Concurrently, presupposing the “coloniality of
power” as it is articulated in the historical and contemporary location
and development of Latina/o communities, we will unravel the multileveled
meanings and practices that constitute Latina/o popular cultural expressions.
That is, our goal is to transcend the entertaining and exotic gazes imposed on
Latinas/os and their cultural expressions; critically observing, critiquing,
and analyzing them from a cultural studies framework will accomplish this.
Throughout the semester, we will also discuss how Latinos are
“remapping” the U.S. landscape and how their expressive and
performance practices are facilitating this process. In addition, we will examine Latina/o identities and their
contextual transformations. Finally, in our analysis of popular culture, you
will gain an appreciation of cultural studies as a tool of analysis and the
many benefits this interdisciplinary field can contribute to everyday and
academic knowledge. In so
doing, you will develop an understanding on how a collective Latina/o identity
and consciousness is materially inscribed and imagined.
With
the United States now recognized as the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking nation
in the world, it is no wonder there is growing interest in Latina/o
Studies. While forty percent of
all Puerto Ricans live in the United States and close to a half a million
Dominican immigrants and citizens claim New York City as their home, an equal
number of Salvadorans reside in Los Angeles. How and why did these migration patterns develop? More so, what impact are Latina/o
communities having upon the United States? How are these demographic expansions
impacting U.S. cultural life? What
impact are Latinos, as well as other communities of color, having upon various
academic disciplines and fields of study, particularly American Studies? This is a partial list of questions
that we will entertain during the course of the semester.
• Complete assigned readings in advance
of each class meeting
• Regular attendance, class
participation, and lead a class session with a fellow student --20%
• Five 2-page response papers due every
other week (9/20*,
10/3, 10/17, 10/31, 11/14) --40%
(*Exception: the first paper assignment is expected
to be 3-4-pages in length and will depart from the normal response paper
format; more information to follow)
• In-Class presentation of final paper on
November 19th
• 8-10-page final paper due Monday,
November 25th -- 40%
Attendance: Your attendance and class participation
is crucial to the success of this seminar. Thus, more than two [2] unexcused absences will affect your
final grade, not just your participation grade. After your second unexcused absence, your course grade may
drop as much as one letter grade for each additional absence.
Reading Load: The
reading load will be consistently “heavy” throughout the
semester. You are expected to have
read the assigned readings in advance of each class in order to participate in
seminar discussions. While we may
not have sufficient time to discuss all the assigned readings during class time
you are still accountable for knowing them.
Class Discussions: Early in the semester, I will pair off
students into groups. With my
assistance, each group will be responsible for co-organizing and leading a
class discussion. During the
second week of the semester, I will distribute a handout on how to lead a class
and formulate discussion questions.
Response Papers: Five 2-page response papers will be due the
beginning of class every other Thursday at the dates listed above. Response
papers provide an opportunity to reflect and respond to the course readings as
well as draw from previous assignments, class discussions, and/or audio or
visual mediums used in class.
Apart from extraordinary circumstances, which include a family emergency
and/or illness, all papers must be submitted on time. Late submissions will automatically be penalized one-half
grade. Response papers will be
graded on a Check Plus, Check, Check minus and No Check scale. To facilitate this requirement, I will
distribute a “Response Paper Guideline” that you can refer to.
Should you run into any
difficulty with writing, I strongly suggest you utilize the Write Place in the
Academic Support Service Center (ASC), located on the second floor of Scoville
Hall. The ASC phone number is x.
4015. You can walk-in or schedule an appointment with Steve Davis (sdavis@carleton.edu), the director of the Write
Place. The Center’s website is: http://www.acad.carleton.edu/campus/ADSC/adsc1.html.
Writing tutors are available at the Center Monday-Thursday: 9-Noon, 2-5 p.m.,
8-12 midnight; Friday: 9-Noon, 2-5 p.m.; and Sunday: 8-12 Midnight. Writing tutors are also available at
the Gould Library Monday-Thursday 8 p.m. – 12 midnight.
All paper assignments
should have a cover page containing your name. Each subsequent page should be numbered and have your first
and last name on the header; page numbers should be placed in the bottom
footer. All page margins should be
exactly one inch
and the type font should be nothing larger or smaller than 12 points. Lastly, please refer to the Carleton
pamphlet “Academic Honesty in the Writing of Essays and Other
Papers” for assistance on the proper use of acknowledging your sources.
Final Paper: 8-10-page final paper
will be due at 3 p.m. in my Goodsell Observatory office (Room 203) on Monday,
November 25th.
Library Assistance: Mollie Freier, (x. 7105,
mfreier@carleton.edu) is the
Librarian specializing in American Studies. On the first day of class, Ms. Feier will provide a library
instruction session that will help you complete your first writing assignment. In addition, if time permits, she will
also inform us of other resources relevant to the field of Latina/o studies.
Ms. Freier is available for individual consultation and instruction and is more
than happy to meet and assist you during the course of the semester. Please take advantage of this
extraordinary resource!
(A) Journal articles are available as a Course
Reader (CR)
at the Reserve Desk at the Gould Library.
It is your responsibility to photocopy these articles.
(B)
All
required and suggested texts are available at the campus Bookstore in Sayles-Hill (x.
4147):
Required:
1. Harvest
of Empire: A History of Latinos in
America
by Juan Gonzalez (Penguin Books, 2000)
2.
From
Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican
Culture and Identity by
Juan Flores (Columbia University Press, 2000)
3.
Latino/a
Popular Culture
co-edited by Michelle Habell-Pallán and Mary Romero (NYU Press, 2002)
4.
Signs
from the Heart: California Chicano
Murals
co-edited by Eva Sperling Cockcroft and Holly Barnet-Sánchez (University
of New Mexico, 1996)
Suggested:
5.
The
Latino Studies Reader: Culture,
Economy and Society
co-edited by Antonia Darder & Rodolfo Torres (Blackwell, 1998)
A.
Goal:
The principal goal of
this seminar is to improve your understanding of U.S. Latinos, develop critical
thinking skills, and apply cultural studies perspectives beyond the classroom.
B.
Objectives:
When
you have completed this Seminar, you should be able to:
1.
Develop
general and particular knowledge of Latina/o History(ies).
2.
Identify
the intellectual concerns of Latina/o studies and how they are similar and
distinct to Latin American Studies.
3.
Gain
an understanding of various Latina/o expressive and performance practices.
4.
Analyze
how the concepts of orientalism and tropicalization shape the everyday life of
Latina/o communities.
5.
Apply
critical theory and cultural studies perspectives beyond the classroom.
• Overview of the Seminar (Review
Syllabus; Formal Introductions)
• Library Visit
with Mollie Freier, American Studies Liaison
Fri, Sept 20 Response Paper #1 Due
In-Class Video: Americanos
• Edna Acosta Belén and Carlos E.
Santiago, “Merging Borders,” in
The Latino
Studies Reader,
pp. 29 – 42
• Juan Flores, “ The Latino
Imaginary,” in From Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp. 191 – 203
Tue, Sept 24 Read:
• Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire, pp. 3 – 163
Recommended:
• J. Jorge Klor de Alva, “Aztlan,
Borinquen, and Hispanic Nationalism in the United States,” in The Latino Studies
Reader, pp.
63-82
• Gilbert Gonzalez and Raúl
Fernández, “Chicano History:
Transcending Cultural Models,” in The Latino Studies Reader, pp. 83-100
• Dionicio N. Valdés, Barrios
Norteños: St. Paul and
Midwestern Mexican Communities in the Twentieth Century, pp. 6 - 128
Thurs,
Sept 26 Read:
• Juan Gonzalez, Harvest
of Empire, pp.
167 – 267
• Juan Flores,
“The Lite Colonial:
Diversions of Puerto Rican Discourse,” in From Bomba to
Hip-Hop, pp.
31 – 47
What is Latina/o Studies? How did the field develop? What are its principal goals? What are
the historical and institutional distinctions between Latina/o and Latin American
Studies?
Tue,
Oct 1 Read:
• Juan Flores, “Latino Studies: New
Contexts, New Concepts,” in From Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp. 205 – 218
• Frances Aparicio, “Reading the
Latino in Latino Studies” (CR)
• Pedro
Caban, “The New Synthesis of Latin American and Latino Studies”
(CR)
• Dionicio N. Valdés, “The
Struggle for Knowledge: Chicano
Studies” (CR)
Recommended:
• Carlos Muñoz, Jr. “The
Quest for Paradigm: The Struggle
for Chicano Studies” (CR)
• “El Plan de Santa Barbara”
Manifesto Document (CR)
What is a Latina/o identity? What are some of
the possibilities and inadequacies of this term? Why and how are Latina/o identities changing? Is the
Latina/o identity a race? How do
discussions of gender further problematize discussions of ethnicity and
race? Why is it important to
discuss identity?
Thurs,
Oct 3 Response
Paper #2 Due
Read:
• Stuart
Hall, “Who Needs Identity?” (CR)
• Maria de los Angeles Torres,
“Transnational Political and Cultural Identities: Crossing Theoretical Borders”
(CR)
• Suzanne Oboler, “Hispanics? That’s What They Call Us” (CR)
• Juan
Flores, “Pan-Latino/Trans-Latino: Puerto Ricans in the “New Nueva
York,” in From Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp. 141 - 165
• Mérida Rúa, “Colao
Subjectivies: PortoMex and
MexiRican Perspectives on Language and Identity” (CR)
• Silvio
Torres-Saillant, “Visions of Dominicannes in the United States”
(CR)
Recommended:
• Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” (CR)
• Daniel Mato,
“Problems in the Making of Representation of All-Encompassing U.S.
Latina/o-“Latin” American Transnational Identities” (CR)
• Seth Kugel,
“The Latino Culture Wars” (CR)
• Juan Flores, “ ‘Qué
Assimilated, Brother, Yo Soy Asimilao’: The Structuring of Puerto Rican Identity” (CR)
• María de los Angeles Torres,
“Encuentros y Encontronazos:
Homeland in the Politics and Identity of the Cuban Diaspora” in The
Latino Studies Reader, pp. 43 - 62
Tue, Oct 8 Read:
• Linda Martín Alcoff, “Is
Latina/o Identity a Racial Identity?” (CR)
• Eduardo Mendieta, “The Making of
New Peoples: Hispanizing
Race” (CR)
• Ofelia Schutte, “Negotiating
Latina Identities” (CR)
• Roberto P. Rodriguez-Morazzani,
“Beyond the Rainbow: Mapping
the Discourse on Puerto Ricans and ‘Race’,” in The Latino
Studies Reader, pp.
143 – 162
• Robert Smith,
“’Mexicanness’ in New York: Migrants Seek New Place in Old Racial Order” (CR)
• Pablo Morales, “Latinos and the
‘Other Race’ Option:
Transforming U.S. Concepts of Race” (CR)
• Adrian Burgos, Jr., “Learning America’s Other
Game: Baseball, Race, and the
Study of Latinos,” in Latino/a Popular Culture, pp. 225 – 239
Recommended:
• Juan Flores, “Nueva York –
Diaspora City: U.S. Latinos
Between and Beyond” (CR)
• Jorge Klor de Alba, Earl Shorris, and
Cornel West, “Our Next Race Question: The Uneasiness between Blacks and Latinos,” in The
Latino Studies Reader, pp. 180 – 189
What is popular culture? How is“orientalism” a
useful concept in analyzing Latina/o history and subjectivity? How is it different and similar to the
“tropicalization” concept? How are Latinos creatively subverting
“orientalist” depictions of their community(ies) through the arts?
Thur,
Oct 10 In-Class Video: The Couple in the Cage
Read:
• Mary Romero and Michelle
Habell-Pallán, “Introduction,’ in Latino/o Popular
Culture, pp.
1 - 21
• Juan Flores, “Pueblo
Pueblo: Popular Culture in
Time,” in From Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp. 17 - 29
• Frances Aparicio and Susana
Chávez-Silverman, “Tropicalizations” (CR)
• Juan
Velasco, “Performing Multiple Identities: Guillermo Gomez-Peña and His ‘Dangerous Border
Crossings’,” in Latino/a Popular Culture, pp. 208 – 221
• Alberto
Sandoval Sanchez “Paul Simon’s The Capeman:
The Staging of Puerto Rican National Identity as Spectacle and Commodity
on Broadway,” in Latino/a Popular Culture, pp.
147 – 161
Recommended:
• Peter
Burke, “The Discovery of Popular Culture” (CR)
• Stuart
Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing the Popular” (CR)
• John
Fiske, “Understanding Popular Culture” (CR)
• Chandra
Mukerji and Michael Schudson, “Rethinking Popular Culture” (CR)
• Bill Aschcroft and Pal Ahluwalia, “Orientalism”
and “Culture as Imperialism” in Edward Said: Paradox of
Identity, pp. 57 - 113
Read:
• Maria Elena Cépeda,
“Columbus Effect(s)” (CR)
• Tanya Kateri Hernández,
“The Buena Vista Social Club:
The
Racial Politics of Nostalgia,” in Latino/a Popular Culture, pp. 61 – 72
• Frances Negron-Muntaner,
“Barbie’s Hair:
Selling Out Puerto Rican Idenity in the Global Market,” in Latino/a
Popular Culture, pp.
38 – 60
• Melinda Russell, “Give Your Body
Joy, Macarena” (CR)
Why do Richie Pérez and Judy
Baca engage in a cultural struggle?
What do they aim to accomplish?
What role does identity play in the struggle over the production of
knowledge?
Thur, Oct 17 Response Paper #3 Due
Read:
• Arlene Davila, “Culture in the Battlefront: From Nationalist to Pan-Latino
Projects” (CR)
• Richie Pérez, “Committee Against Fort
Apache: The Bronx Mobilizes
against Multinational Media” (CR)
• Judith F. Baca, “Our People are the Internal
Exiles” (CR)
• Denise A. Segura & Beatriz M. Pesquera, “Chicana
Feminisms: Their Political Context
and Contemporary Expressions,” in The Latino Studies Reader, pp.
193 - 205
How are Latinos reconfiguring and reinventing
urban spaces? Why are
“casitas” more than just wooden frames in urban settings? What significance do they play in urban
landscapes? What slice of the
“Apple” are Dominicans taking? In what ways are urban spaces being
“Latinized”?
Tue, Oct 22 Read:
• Mike Davis, “Magical
Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the
U.S. Big City” (CR), pp. 3 - 43
• Juan Flores, “Salvación
Casita: Space, Performance, and
Community,” in From Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp. 63 - 77
• Nilda Flores-Gonzalez, “Paseo
Boricua: Claiming a Puerto Rican
Space in Chicago” (CR)
• Howard Jordan, “Dominicans in New
York: Getting a Slice of the
Apple” (CR)
• Nicholas de Genova, “Race, Space,
and the Invention of Latin America in Mexican Chicago” (CR)
Recommended:
• Rachel Rinaldo, “Spaces of
Resistance: The Puerto Rican
Cultural Center and Humboldt Park” (CR)
• Luis Aponte-Pares, “What’s
Yellow and White and has Land All around it? Appropriating Place in Puerto Rican Barrios,” in The
Latinos Studies Reader, pp. 271 – 280
What role do murals play in constructing a
sense of place? In defining urban
Latina/o spaces? How can murals
provide an alternative account of history? How do murals help to construct memory and identity? Why have murals been criminalized in
the popular press?
Read:
• Eva Sperling Cockcroft & Holly
Barnet-Sanchez, Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals
What role do film and
television images play in constructing identity? Describe the various media depictions of Latinos in the
media? How are Latinos responding?
Tue, Oct 29 Read:
• Ellen Seiter, “Semiotics,
Structuralism, and Television” (CR)
• Charles Ramirez Berg,
“Stereotyping in Films in General and of the Hispanic in
Particular” (CR)
• Chon A. Noriega, “Imagined
Borders: Locating Chicano Cinema
in America/América” (CR)
• Carlos E. Cortes, “Chicanas in
Film: History of an Image”
(CR)
Recommended:
• National Council of La Raza, “Out
of the Picture: Hispanics in the
Media” (CR)
• E. Ann Kaplan, “Feminist
Criticism and Television” (CR)
• Stuart Hall, “Culture, Media and
the ‘Ideological Effect’” (CR)
In-Class Video: TBA
Read:
• Richie Pérez, “From
Assimilation to Annihilation:
Puerto Rican Images in U.S. Films” (CR)
• Alberto Sandoval Sánchez,
“West Side Story: A Puerto
Rican Reading of ‘America’” (CR)
• Arlene Davila, “Talking
Back: Spanish Media and U.S.
Latinidad,” in Latino/o Popular Culture, pp. 25 – 37
• Liz Kotz, “Unofficial
Stories: Documentaries by Latinas
and Latin American Women” (CR)
Recommended:
• Rosa Linda Fregoso,
“Intertextuality and Cultural Identity in Zoot Suit (1981) and La Bamba (1987)” (CR)
How are code-switching, bilingualism,
inter-lingualism and other trans-cultural lingustic practices subverting English?
How are they employed in popular culture and everyday life? What relationship
do these transcultural languages have with Latina/o identities?
• Juan Flores and George Yúdice,
“Living Borders/Buscando América: Languages of Latino
Self-Formation” (CR)
• Frances Aparicio, “On Subversive
Signifiers: Tropicalizing Language
in the United States” (CR)
• Juan Flores, “Broken English
Memories: Languages in the
Trans-Colony,” in From Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp. 49 – 61
• Rosaura Sánchez, “Mapping
the Spanish Language along a Multiethnic and Multilingual Border,” in The
Latino Studies Reader, pp.
101 – 125
Recommended:
• Maria Elena Cépeda, “Mucho
Loco for Ricky Martin: or the
Politics of Chronology, Crossover, and Language within the Latin(o) Music
Boom” (CR)
• Guadalupe Valdés,
“Code-switching as Deliberate Verbal Strategy” (CR)
How is rap music a product of a more
complicated genealogy than is commonly referred to in the popular press? What
are some of the common ties between Afro-Caribbean musical genres and rap?
Describe how both salsa and merengue music are signifiers of a transnational
and translocal Latinidad? How is
Tejano Music constructing a Tejano identity? How do El Vez and Carlos Santana
contribute to and complicate public notions of Chicanismo?
•
Frith, Simon, “Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music” (CR)
• Robert Farris Thompson, “Hip Hop
101” (CR)
• Juan Flores, “Puerto Rocks: Rap, Roots, and Amnesia,” in From
Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp.
115 – 139
• Juan Flores, “Cha-Cha with a
Backbeat: Songs and Stories of
Latin Boogaloo,” in From Bomba to Hip-Hop, pp. 79 – 112
Recommended:
• Mandalit del Barco, “Rap’s
Latino Sabor” (CR)
• Raquel Rivera, “Hip-Hop and New
York Puerto Ricans,” in Latina/o Popular Culture, pp. 127 – 143
• Simon Frith, “Music and
Identity” (CR)
• Peter Manuel, “The Soul of the
Barrio: 30 Years of Salsa”
(CR)
• Raúl Fernandez, “The
Course of U.S. Cuban Music: Margin
and Mainstream” (CR)
• Daisann McLane, “Salsa for the
High-Tops Generation” (CR)
• Ana Patricia Rodríguez,
“Encrucijadas: Rubén
Blades at the Transnational Crossroads,” in Latino/a Popular Culture, pp. 85 - 101
• Jorge Duany, “Ethnicity,
Identity, and Music: An
Anthropological Analysis of the Dominican Merengue” (CR)
• Paul Austerlitz, “Merengue in the
Transnational Community” (CR)
• Deborah R. Vargas, “Bidi Bidi Bom
Bom: Selena and Tejano Music in
the Making of Tejas,” in Latino/a Popular Culture, pp. 117 – 126
• Michelle Habell-Pallán,
“El Vez is ‘Taking Care of Business’: The Inter/National
Appeal of Chicano Popular Music” (CR)
•
Chris Heath, “The Epic Life of Carlos Santana” (CR)