Chicano/a Lifestyles: History, Power, Culture (CCS 320)
Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
Fall 2015
All art from CEMA Collection at U.C. Santa Barbara (Artists: Patssi Valdez, Louie
González, and Salvador Torres).
Professor María Ibarra
Course Time: 9:30-10:45 PM
Course Location: NE 073
Course Days: T-Th
Section: 20591
Contact Information:
Office Hours: T-Th, 11-12:00 PM
Office Location: AL 396
e-mail: m1ibarra@mail.sdsu
Course Description:
This course introduces students to some of the lived experiences—or “lifestyles”-- of Chicana/os
and Mexican immigrants in the United States from 1848 to the present, with particular emphasis
on the contemporary era. It frames these lifestyles within national and transnational forces that
brought specific communities into being and then uses “power” and “culture” as analytical lenses
to better understand the development of (1) ethnic identity formation; (2) work, family and
gender relations; and (3) popular cultural expressions, practices and beliefs. The course
considers various forms of resistance, affirmation, and accommodation, as well as the relevance
of cultural continuity and change in local, transnational, and comparative contexts.
Abbreviated course catalog description:
Social relations and cultural evolution in Chicana and Chicano communities, female-male
relationships, and family. Influence of Spanish-Mexican cultural heritage and US industrialcapitalist society. Comparative cross-cultural social science methodology.
Learning Goals:
By the end of the semester, students should be able to:
*Identify three key national and transnational forces that helped shape Chicano/Mexicano
communities in the United States.
*Assess ethnic identity formation in historical and comparative context, including contemporary
forms of Chicano/a collective and individual identity.
*Compare sources of oppression and agency in the lives of Chicano/as and Mexican immigrants
in historical and contemporary context.
*Analyze gender relations in historical and contemporary Chicano communities
*Critique the reification of culture and discuss the significance of continuity and change.
*Compare normative ideas about family to contemporary forms of family.
*Apply social science methods.
The instructor will draw from a range of multi-disciplinary readings and her own ethnographic
research in Southern California, as well as use film, musical recordings, and guest lectures to
help illustrate course themes and social science research methods.
General Education Goals:
This course fulfills G.E. Requirements (Explorations of Human Experience) in the Social and
Behavioral Sciences. Upon completing this area of foundations, you will be able to:
1) Explore and recognize basic terms, concepts, and domains of the social and behavioral sciences;
2) Comprehend diverse theories and methods of the social and behavioral sciences;
3) Identify human behavioral patterns across space and time and discuss their interrelatedness
and distinctiveness;
4) Enhance your understanding of the social world through the application of conceptual
frameworks from the social and behavioral sciences to first-hand engagement with
contemporary issues.
Required Texts:
You will need to purchase the following two books. These are available at Aztec Books or
through Amazon:
1. Castañeda, Antonia (ed) 2007. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. Special Issue,
Gender on the Borderlands. University of Nebraska Press.
2. Sanchez, George. 1993. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in
Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
I will also place required readings for the course on Blackboard (BB). These readings include:
Brandes, Stanley. 2003. Is There a Mexican View of Death? Ethos 31 (1):127-144.
Le Texier, Emmanuelle. 2007. The Struggle Against Gentrification in Barrio Logan. In Chicano
San Diego, Richard Griswold Del Castillo, ed. Pgs. 202-221.
Mandeel, Elizabeth. 2014. The Bracero Program 1942-1964. American Journal of International
Research, September 4(1):171-184.
Mariscal, Jorge. 2012. Left Turns in the Chicano Movement. Monthly Review, July-August.
Pgs. 59-68.
Matthiessen, Peter. 1969. Selections from Sal Si Puedes (Escape If you Can): Cesar Chavez and
the New American Revolution. Berkeley: U.C. Press.
Pérez, Gail. 2012. “Women Muralists Return to Chicano Park,”
http://newamericamedia.org/2012/07/women-muralists-return-to-chicano-park.php,
accessed August 15, 2012.
Pérez, Laura. 2007. Fashioning Exploitation and the Garment Industry. In Chicana Art, The
Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities. Pgs. 98-109.
2
Pérez-Torres, Rafael. 2012. Mestizaje in the Mix: Chicano Identity, Cultural Politics, and
Postmodern Music. In Music and the Racial Imagination. Radano, Ronald and Philip V.
Bohlman, eds. Pp. 206-230.
A note on Blackboard: This course uses Blackboard, a web-based course aid. To access
Blackboard go to: https://blackboard.sdsu.edu/. Blackboard contains an announcement page that I
will use to post information and last-second changes. For example, if class were to be canceled,
students would likely be able to find out about it first through Blackboard. Any technical questions
regarding Blackboard should be directed to SDSU’s Instructional Technology Services department.
Their e-mail is scc@rohan.sdsu.edu and their website is: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/its
Course Requirements and Assignments:
In order to receive a passing grade for this course, you must successfully complete the following
assignments:
Three Examinations
Midterm #1: October 6; Midterm #2: November 10; Midterm #3: December 1.
The first two exams will address the preceding 5 or 6 weeks of lectures, films, and readings and
consist of both multiple-choice and short essay questions. The third exam will address the
preceding two weeks of lectures, film, and readings.
You are required to bring a RED PARSCORE form to each of the exams.
FIRST exam only: Parscore sheet should be a “Student Enrollment Sheet,” which is the
LARGE 8.5x11 form.
SECOND and THIRD exam, you may bring the smaller, half sheet.
You have one hour and ten minutes to complete exams 1 and 2; you have twenty-five minutes to
complete exam #3.
Please note: The exams will be handed out promptly at the beginning of the class hour. If you
walk in late, and someone in class has already finished and walked out of the classroom, you will
not be given an exam. You will receive an “F” on the exam.
Food Photo/Description and Brief Presentation, Due: November 12.
Bring a picture of your favorite food from childhood, one that reminds you of your family, and in
a one-page essay describe why it reminds you of your family. Based on this one-page, you are
required to then give a brief oral presentation in class. Depending on enrollment it will be 1-2
minutes long. Additional instructions provided in class.
Please include the following information: (1) When is the food eaten--on a regular basis or at a
special event? (2) Who is in charge of getting the ingredients and preparing it? (3) Who shares
the food and in what setting?
While the discussion on the day that your assignment is due will be about Chicano/a food, you do
not need to bring an example of such if you did not grow up in a Mexican or Chicana/o family.
Family Genealogy Paper and Group Presentation
Due last week of class – you will be assigned to a group and will present on either
December 8 or 10. Papers are due on the day of your presentation.
3
Your task is to first draw a genealogy (following anthropological convention as will be described
in class) focusing on two generations of kin in your family (your parents’ generation and your
generation).
Thereafter you will
(1) color code on the chart those individuals who are closest to you (those people that you see on
a regular basis, share love, meals, holidays with); after this is completed,
(2) write-up, in a paper, a description of those people you are closest to and why. What are the
things you do together on a regular basis and on an occasional or special basis? What do you
share in common? What makes them family other than biological relatedness? Are there people
who are not on this diagram who you consider to be family? How do your family form(s)
compare/contrast to normative ideas about family, as discussed in class?
(3) Finally, based on class enrollment, you will form a group of 3-8 people and make a group
presentation about the commonalities and differences within the families in the group. Please
also be explicit about how your family either follows or defies normative ideals, as described in
class. (For example do you find that many of your group members have divorced parents? Have
transnational families? Have equal numbers of siblings? Live in a three generational
household?). Each group will have approximately fifteen minutes to make their presentation and
creativity, enthusiasm, and visual aids are highly favored. You must both do the written portion
of the assignment AND present in class in order to receive full credit. More information will be
provided in class and you will know what group (and date of presentation) you belong to by the
5th week of the course.
Grade Calculations
Exam #1
Exam #2
Exam #3
Food Presentation
Family Genealogy Paper/Presentation
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
32.5
32.5
10.0
5.0
20.0
points
points
points
points
points
Percent range
92.6%-100%
90%-92.5%
87.5%-89.9%
82.6%-87.4%
80%-82.5%
77.5%-79.9%
72.6%-77.4%
70%-72.5%
67.5%-69.9%
62.6%-67.4%
60%-62.5%
0-59.9%
Essential Policy:
4
Policy for assignments: All assignments must be submitted in-class to the instructor and
NEVER by e-mail on the day they are due. I do not open or accept e-mail papers.
Policy for late work: All course assignments are due on the dates specified, at the beginning of
class. No late assignments/papers will be accepted.
Policy for late attendance: Walking in late to class is disruptive, and I ask that you do not do it.
If you are late to class, you must see me at the end of the lecture.
Extra Credit Policy: No extra credit is assigned for this course.
Policy for Off-Campus Events: All students must sign a “Warning, Waiver, and Release of
Liability Form” prior to participating in a required off-campus event.
SDSU Honor Policy:
Institutions of higher education are founded to impart knowledge, seek truth, and encourage
one’s development for the good of society. University students shall thus be intellectually and
morally obliged to pursue their course of studies with honesty and integrity. Penalties for
offenses are part of Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, sec 41301(a) see
http://www.rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/senate/policy/pfacademics.html.
Americans with Disabilities Act Policy:
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it
is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services (SDS) at (619) 594-6473. To avoid
any delay in the receipt of your accommodations you should contact SDS as soon as possible.
Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodation based upon
disability cannot be provided until you have presented your instructor with an accommodation
letter from SDS.
Syllabus Change Policy:
Except for changes that substantially affect implementation of the grading statement, this
syllabus is a guide for the course and is subject to change with advance notice.
5
Course Program: Lectures and Readings
Part I: History
Week #1. August 25-27
Welcome to CCS 320! Introduction to course and each other
History and Colonial Legacies
Readings:
George Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American (Chaps 1-3—See Reading Guide #1 at the end of
the syllabus)
Week #2. September 8-10
War, Conquest and Their Legacies: Race and Class Differentiation and Inequality (1848-1880)
The Great Mexican Migration, Gendered Activism, and the Development of Working Class
Communities in the U.S. (1880-1929)
Readings:
George Sanchez (Chaps. 4-5, 9); Cohen, Katherine (optional--in Frontiers, pgs. 30-50).
Week #3. September 15-17
The Great Depression: Get Rid of the Mexicans! (1929-1939)
World War II and Braceros: Bring the Mexicans Back! (1942-1964)
VIEWING assignment: Go to:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/bracero/introduction, it is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling
National History Project. On the right side of the introduction page there is a table of contents box.
Please read each of the mini “chapters.” Live link on blackboard in course documents.
Readings:
González, Gabriela (“Politics of Benevolence and Radical Reform,” in Frontiers, pgs. 200-229);
Sanchez, George (Chap. 10); (Mandeel, Elizabeth, BB).
Week #4. September 22-24
Zoot Suiters, Mexican Americans, and The Chicano Movement
United Farm Workers (1964-1970)
Film excerpts from The Struggle in the Fields in class.
VIEWING assignment: Please watch second half of film on YouTube.
There is no live link, so please google search “The Struggle in the Fields” – it is part of PBS series
on the Chicano/a Civil Rights movement. OR from online version of syllabus, you can copy and
paste the following to your browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIgIaI5AVpY; viewing guide will be provided.
Reading:
Sanchez (Chap. 12); Mariscal, Jorge (BB); Selections from P. Matthiesson (BB); Falcon,
Priscilla (“National Floral Strike,” in Frontiers, pgs. 140-154).
6
Week #5. September 29-October 1
Lecture and discussion on assigned text Becoming Mexican American:
Why does the title begin with “Becoming”? Bring book to class.
Some topics from book: methods of inquiry; theoretical paradigms on ethnic identity formation;
revisionism; reflexivity and scholarship.
October 1: Catch-up Day
Readings: Please make sure to finish Becoming Mexican American by this week.
************************************************************************
Part II: Power
Week #6. October 6-8
10/6: Midterm #1
10/8: Approaches and meanings of power
Urban Redevelopment and The Struggle for Physical Space.
Case Studies: Chavez Ravine (Los Angeles) and Chicano Park (San Diego)
Reading: Le Texier, E (BB)
Week #7. October 13-15
The Struggle for Physical Space
Film excerpts: Chicano Park (part 1)
The Struggle for Symbolic Space
Mural Art in Chicano Park and other Urban Spaces
Film excerpts: Chicano Park (part 2)
Reading:
Perez, Gail http://newamericamedia.org/2012/07/women-muralists-return-to-chicano-park.php,
accessed August 12, 2015 (Live link on BB).
Week #8. October 20-22
Globalization and Immigration
Manufacturing Case Study: U.S. Sweatshops and the “Forever 21 Campaign”
Film excerpts Made in L.A.
The Informal Economy Case Study: Mexican Maids and Caretakers in Southern California
Readings:
Hu-Dehart, Evelyn (in Frontiers, pgs. 244-260)
Ibarra, Maria (in Frontiers, pgs. 124-140).
Week 9. October 27-29
Chicano/as and Religion in Historical and Contemporary Context
Day of the Dead Observances in Latin America and the United States
Film excerpts: La Ofrenda
7
Reading: Brandes, Stanley (BB)
******************************************************************
Part III: Culture
Week #10. November 3-5
What is culture? What does it mean to reify culture?
Is there A Mexican View of Death? (Bring Stanley Brandes article with you);
*Tutorial: Making Genealogies
Food, Mestisaje, and Power in Historical and Contemporary Contexts
Readings: TBA
Week 11. November 10-12
11/10: Midterm #2
11/12: Papers/Individual presentations on food
Week 12. 17-19
Visual and Performing Arts
Mestisaje in the Mix: Chicano/a Music
VIEWING assignment: Go to:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/latinmusicusa/#/en/exp/latinpop/universe (Live link on BB). It’s part
of the “Latin Music USA” website. Explore the music of “Tejano,” “Rock en Espanol,” and
“Latin Pop.” For each of the aforementioned titles, be sure to explore the “Read,” “Listen,” and
“Watch” for each title. You are expected to have done this before class.
No class: November 19. Instructor at AAA meetings in Denver.
Reading:
Pérez-Torres, Rafael (BB); Sanchez, George (chap 8). Muniz, Janet (BB).
Week #13. November 24 -26
Visual and Performing Arts
1/24: Chicano/as and Art: Resistance and Affirmation
11/26: No class: Thanksgiving break.
Reading:
Broyles-Gonzalez, Yolanda (in Frontiers, pgs. 87-103); Huacuja, Judith (in Frontiers, pgs. 104121); Perez, Laura (BB).
Week #14. December 1-3
12/1: Midterm Examination #3
12/3: Lecture and discussion: “The Family” in Historical/Global Context: Changing and
Heterogeneous Forms; Group meetings with instructor.
Week #15. December 8-10
12/8: Family Assignments and Presentations due, Groups 1-4
8
12/10: Family Assignments and Presentations due, Groups: 5-8
Last Day: Conclusions
9
CCS 320
Becoming Mexican American
Reading Guide #1
Chapter 1: Farewell Homeland
1. In the late 19th and dearly 20th century, what were the economic attractions of the U.S. for
Mexican immigrants?
2. What immigration laws passed in the late 19th and early 20th century contributed to a demand
for Mexican labor in the U.S.?
3. What were the push factors that led Mexicans north?
4. How did railroads facilitate the migration of Mexicans?
5. Describe the development and effects of the railroads in Mexico.
6. Why has Mexico (under P. Diaz) been described as a “nation of villages”?
7. What were some of the social/cultural characteristics of Mexican villages?
8. How was village “culture” changing under P. Diaz?
Chapter 2: Across the Dividing Line
1. How did migrants leave their hometowns and arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border?
(Describe the complex process, which includes internal migration).
2. What were the effects of Mexican migration on border towns?
3. What were the three patterns of male migration?
4. What is the difference between European chain migration and Mexican circular migration?
5. How did migrants pay for the costs of the trip?
6. Describe border crossings before and after 1917 (include head tax, literacy exam, Border
Patrol, and “arbitrariness.”)
Chapter 3: Newcomers in the City of Angels.
1. How did new migrants choose L.A. as a site of settlement (at least 3 factors).
2. What were the principal industries within which Mexicans labored?
3. What were the housing and living conditions like for many immigrants in Los Angeles?
Was there ethnic separation?
Chapter 4: Americanization
1. Describe the impact of Midwestern immigrant ideology on L.A.
2. What were Americanization Programs
3. How were Americanization Programs implemented?
4. What special role did Mexican women play in Americanization Programs?
Chapter 5. The New Nationalism Mexican Style
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What role did the Mexican government play in shaping Mexican/Chicano identity in the 1920s?
Who shaped the conception of Mexican nationalism being promoted in the U.S.?
What were the effects of “Mexicanization” programs? Were they successful--why or why not?
Who was Manuel Gamio?
What is indigenismo?
10
Chapter 6. Family Life and the Search for Stability
1. What is the difference between Handlin school academics and revisionist academics?
2. What school of thought does George Sanchez fall into?
3. What term best characterizes Mexican families during the Porfiriato? Rigid or Flexible?
4. What were marriage patterns like for Mexican women?
Skip chapter 7
Chapter 8. Familiar Sounds of Music: Music and the Growth of Mass Culture
1. What type of music was most popular amongst Mexican immigrants in 1920s Los Angeles?
2. What leisure activities did Mexican immigrants engage in?
3. What type of music and entertainment was popular amongst second generation youth in the
1930s?
Chapter 9. Workers and Consumers: A Community Emerges
1. How did Mexican immigrants adjust to dominant U.S. culture in the face of limited economic
advancement?
2. What difference did nativity play in terms of job opportunities?
3. How did a desire by Mexican families to move to East Los Angeles alter “traditional” notions
of work, gender, and child rearing?
4. What commodities were most important to Mexican families and why.
Chapter 10. Where is Home? The Dilemma of Repatriation
1. What responses did Mexicans have to the economic crisis and mass repatriations of the 1930s?
Chapter 12. The Rise of the Second Generation
1. What were some of the problems faced by second generation youth?
2. What was the Mexican American Movement (MAM) and what were its goals?
3. What were some of the “intergenerational tensions” amongst Mexican immigrant parents and
their children?
Rafael Perez-Torres, Mestisaje in the Mix
What is Chicano music? Who are considered Chicano musicians? How has Chicano music
changed in relationship to the historical changes in the Chicano community? How has Chicano
music helped shape and been shaped by popular music and popular culture? How has Chicano
music been a music accommodation and/or resistance? Does Chicano music have a political
agenda?
11