History 433
Public History: Black Pobladores and the Founding of Los Angeles
Thursdays, 4:00-6:45 pm
California State University, Northridge
Fall Semester 2015
SH184
Instructor:
Email:
Phone:
Office hours:
Location:
TAs:
Jessica Kim, PhD
jessica.kim@csun.edu
(818) 677-4330
Thursdays 1:00-3:00 and by appointment
ST 632
Melanny Conde
melanny.conde.559@csun.edu
Laura Fisher
laura.fisher.672@csun.edu
Stephanie Narrow
stephanie.narrow.820@my.csun.edu
Esperanza Sanchez esperanza.sanchez.16@my.csun.edu
Course Description and Objectives
This course takes students out of the classroom, away from traditional textbooks, and into the
rich world of public history. More specifically, students will have the unique opportunity to
practice “hands-on” history through researching and curating an entire exhibit that will be hosted
at the Pio Pico House at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. Rather than simply
reading and discussing history, students will become active participants in creating a historical
experience for a public audience.
Exhibit Description
Summary
El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the California State University, Northridge Public History Program,
the USC-Huntington Institute on California and the West, and the National Parks Conservation
Association are collaborating on a project that will culminate in an exhibit on the role of
individuals of African descent in the founding of Los Angeles. While emphasizing the diverse
racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds of the forty-four pobladores who founded the pueblo on
the edge of the Los Angeles River in 1781, the exhibit will also trace the connections between
this specific event and the broader history of communities of African descent in Mexico and the
American West.
Historical Context
In New Spain’s northern frontier—regions now belonging to northern Mexico and the American
southwest—an intermixed community of Indians, Africans, and Europeans emerged as a
majority of the area’s sparse population in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Spanish
colonists intermarried or bore children with the region’s indigenous communities as well as
Africans brought as slave labor for the region’s plantations and mines. Spanish colonists created
a complex system of racial classification to identify the region’s multifaceted racial mixtures,
commonly referred to as the casta system. Los Angeles’ first families emerged from these
complicated racial backgrounds and became integrated into the Spanish colonists’ intricate
system of racial classification.
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Charged with helping to populate and develop Alta California in the early 1780s, lieutenant
governor Fernando Rivera y Moncada began recruiting from New Spain’s diverse population to
help settle the new pueblo of Los Angeles. According to the pueblo’s founding documents,
Moncada enticed settlers from across New Spain’s complex racial matrix, including mestizos,
negros, mulattos, and indios, with promises of land grants in the new settlement. As a result, the
group that arrived in southern California in the summer of 1781 was a polyglot assemblage of
multiracial and multiethnic families. It included Pablo Rodriguez and his wife Rosalina María,
both identified as indios as well as Luis Manuel Quintero and his wife María Petra, identified
respectively as negro and mulata.1
As a result, the birth of modern Los Angeles, today one of the world’s most ethnically and
racially diverse cities, arose from a small group of settlers who traced their lineage to Spanish,
African, and indigenous roots. A diverse population, including people of African ancestry,
continued to define the City of Los Angeles as it grew through the Spanish, Mexican, and early
American periods, from its founding in the eighteenth century through the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
Exhibit Themes
Drawing from both primary and secondary source research, the exhibit will trace the following
periods and themes:
 The forced migration of African slaves to the Americas, particularly their arrival and
labor in the region known as New Spain.
 The development of the system of racial categorization known as the casta system and
its role in organizing racial and ethnic boundaries in Spanish colonies, particularly New
Spain.
 The settlement of New Spain’s northern territories, particularly Alta California, and the
role of mixed race families and individuals in these settlement patterns.
 The racial and ethnic lineage of Los Angeles’ original founding families.
 The continued prominence and significance of mixed race individuals and families in
early Los Angeles history, including but not limited to figures such as Pio Pico, Biddy
Mason, etc.
 The broader history of African Americans in California and the American West, from
fugitive slaves to the role of Buffalo Soldiers in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.
Installation
While research for the exhibition is at its beginning stage, the exhibit will include textual as well
as visual components related to the themes outlined above. Didactic labels and panels will be
researched and written by CSUN students. Students will also identify relevant and appropriate
visual materials and will work with El Pueblo staff to secure permission for reproduction. El
Pueblo staff will also identify and contact contemporary artists whose work relates to the themes
of the exhibit. Students and El Pueblo staff will coordinate with an exhibit designer to produce
and arrange labels, wall panels, and visuals.
1
See William David Estrada, The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 2008).
2
In addition to the “bricks and mortar” project, the exhibit may be supplemented with interactive
tours, a speaker/lecture series and a trip(s) to Sequoia National Park.
Working as a Team
Much like the staff at a museum, our class will work in teams to create the exhibit described
above. Each team will have a specific goal to achieve and will work together (and with the
support of Dr. Kim and a TA) to create a plan to achieve their goal, and to implement that plan.
The finished product will be a well-designed, informative, and interactive historical exhibit that
will open in February 2016.
Research Team (Laura Fisher)
 Write script/labels for exhibit
 Complete additional research as needed
 Assist in reviewing and editing exhibit website, brochure, etc.
 Source and fact check all exhibit materials
Design Team (Stephanie Narrow)
 Structure the exhibit as a whole
 Research and select images and artifacts (secure images and rights)
 Design and create exhibit interactive elements
 Write and present budget proposal
Outreach Team (Melanny Conde)
 Create and implement an outreach and public relations plan, including, but not limited to
the following—Build relationships with partner organizations, identify and coordinate
with exhibit participants (lecturers, artists, musicians, etc.),
 Design and build exhibit website
Education Team (Esperanza Sanchez)
 Identify the exhibit’s potential audience and develop educational materials geared toward
that audience
 Write and design exhibit brochure
 Write docent script
 Coordinate class to help staff exhibit
Course Website
www.csunhist433.weebly.com
Course Books
William Estrada. The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 2008.
W. W. Robinson. Los Angeles from the Days of the Pueblo. Los Angeles: The California
Historical Society, 1981.
Course Articles and Excerpts (available online)
Alex Borucki, David Elits, and David Wheat. “Atlantic History and the Slave Trade to Spanish
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America.” American Historical Review, April 2015.
Jack D. Forbes. “The Early African Heritage of California.” In Lawrence B. de Graaf, Kevin
Mulroy, and Quindard Taylor, Seeking El Dorado: African Americans In California. Los
Angeles: Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 2001.
Robert Kelley. “Public History: Its Origins, Nature, and Prospects.” The Public Historian, Vol.
1, No. 1 (Autumn, 1978).
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “The ‘Browncoats’ are Coming: Latino Public History in Boston.”
The Public Historian, Vol. 23, No. 4 (Fall 2001).
Nina Simon. The Participatory Museum, chapters 1, 2, and 4. Santa Cruz: Museum 2.0, 2010.
Course Assignments
Attendance and Participation 20%
Reading and Research Blogs 20%
Museum Response Papers (2) 20%
Team Assignments
30%
Final Response Paper
10%
Grading Scale
A
93-100%
A90-92
B+
87-89
B
83-86
BC+
C
C-
80-82
77-79
73-76
70-72
D+
D
F
67-69
60-66
>60
Attendance and Participation
Attendance is required and part of your grade. You must also come to class prepared to discuss
that week’s themes and readings as well as participate actively in class and team discussions and
assignments.
20% of final grade.
Reading and Research Blogs
Prior to each class meeting, you will submit notes to the course blog on the assigned readings.
Your blog will respond to a specific question or provide information from your own research
relevant to the exhibit.
20% of final grade.
Museum Response Papers
In the first half of the semester, you will visit El Pueblo as well as a historical museum or exhibit
of your choosing. After visiting each location, you will write an essay that addresses a series of
questions and analyzes the effectiveness of the exhibit. Each analytical essay should be 3-4
pages long, 12-point font. You must make an original argument, avoid summarization, and take
an analytical position on the historical theme.
20% of final grade.
Team Assignments
Due to the collaborative nature of this course, a substantial portion of your overall grade will be
based on your participation in your group and in the course overall. The instructor and TAs will
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assess your performance and the performance of your team based on timely completion of your
team’s projects, the quality of your team’s projects, your involvement in your team’s success,
and your peers’ evaluation of your contributions. In other words, you can ensure a good grade in
this category by making sure that your team meets deadlines, that your team submits high quality
work, that you have actively contributed to your team’s success, and that your team recognizes
your contributions.
30% of final grade.
Final Response Paper
Your final paper will reflect on your experience in the class and your contributions to the final
exhibit. In 5-7 pages you will discuss your overall experience, the process of exhibit design,
how the exhibit will impact a public audience, the significance of the exhibit, and how the
process of creating exhibit enriched your development as a historian.
10% of final grade.
Late Assignments
Late assignments will be docked one-third of a letter grade for each day late (A to A-, for
example). Exceptions will be made only in case of illness, verified by a doctor, or a verifiable
death or illness in the immediate family. In-class assignments may not be made up.
Academic Dishonesty
California State University, Northridge does not tolerate academic dishonesty. For further
clarification of university policies regarding academic honesty consult university policy at
http://catalog.csun.edu/policies_/academic-dishonesty/.
Students with Disabilities
Your instructor and the university provide reasonable accommodations to students with
documented physical and learning disabilities. The Office of Disability Resources and
Educational Services (DRES) coordinates all support services (http://www.csun.edu/dres).
Week 1—Course Introduction: What is Public History? A Crash Course
August 27
Exhibit:
“California’s Call: The Lure and Lore of the Golden State,”
Oviatt Library
Reading:
Kelley, “Public History”
Week 2—The Founding of Los Angeles
September 3
Reading:
Robinson, Los Angeles, entire
Borucki, et al, “Atlantic History and the Slave Trade…”
Forbes, “The Early African Heritage of California”
Assignment: Blog (on readings)
Week 3—The History of the Plaza
September 10
**Class will meet from 4:00-8:00 pm
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Workshop:
Research Workshop with Oviatt librarian Lynn Lampert
Reading:
Estrada, Los Angeles Plaza, entire
Assignment: Blog (on readings)
September 12
Fieldtrip to El Pueblo
Week 4—Researching Early Los Angeles
September 17
Reading:
Student selections based on research topics
Assignment: Blog (annotated bibliography)
Museum Response Paper #1 due
Workshops: Research
Exhibit Design
Outreach
Education
Week 5—Research and a Public Audience
September 24
Reading:
Student selections based on research topics (TBD)
Rodriguez, “The ‘Browncoats’ are Coming”
Assignment: Blog (on readings)
Week 6—Building an Exhibit
October 1
Reading:
Simon, Participatory Museum, Ch. 1, 2, and 4
Assignment: Museum Response Paper #2 due
Week 7—Building Our Exhibit, Part I
October 8
Research Team Assignment: Draft text on slave trade
Design Team Assignment: 3-4 abstracts for interactive exhibit elements
Images for slave trade
Outreach Team Assignment: Outreach plan
Education Team Assignment: Draft brochure
Week 8—Building Our Exhibit, Part II
October 15
Research Team Assignment: Draft text on Spanish settlement
Design Team Assignment: Finalized interactive exhibit elements
Images for Spanish settlement
Outreach Team Assignment: Implement outreach plan
Preliminary website
Education Team Assignment: Continue work on brochure
Begin docent script
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Week 9—Building Our Exhibit, Part III
October 22
Research Team Assignment: Draft text on El Pueblo’s black families
Design Team Assignment: Continue interactive exhibit elements
Images for El Pueblo’s black families
Outreach Team Assignment: Implement outreach plan
Continue website
Education Team Assignment: Continue brochure and docent script
Week 10—Building Our Exhibit, Part IV
October 29
Research Team Assignment: Connecting El Pueblo’s black families to the
broader history of Los Angeles and the West
Post all text for feedback
Design Team Assignment: Images for broader history of Los Angeles
Final budget
Post all images and budget for feedback
Outreach Team Assignment: Finalize promotional materials
Post all materials for feedback
Education Team Assignment: Finalize education materials
Post all materials for feedback
Week 11—Reviewing Our Work, Part I
November 5
Guest Reviewer—Research and Text
All Students Assignment:
Feedback on another team’s work
Week 12—Reviewing Our Work, Part II
November 12
Guest Reviewer—Images and Design
Research Team Assignment: Revised text
Week 13—Reviewing Our Work, Part III
November 19
Guest Reviewer—Outreach and Promotion
Design Team Assignment: Revised images and design
Week 14—Reviewing Our Work, Part IV
November 25
Outreach Team Assignment: Revised materials
November 26
Thanksgiving—No Class
Week 15—Final Touches
December 3
In-class work to finalize exhibit prior to Dec. 10
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Week 16—Finals Week: The Polished Exhibit!
December 10
Mock Exhibit
Final discussion
All Students Assignment:
Final Response Paper
Peer review
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