AML 4685 Race and Gender in Afro-Latino Literature and Culture
Dr. Tace Hedrick
Required Texts: Available at Goerings Bookstore
Juan González, Harvest of Empire
Evilio Grillo, Black Cuban, Black American
Cristina García, The Agüero Sisters
Nancy Morejón, With Eyes and Soul
Junot Díaz, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Piri Thomas, Down these Mean Streets (1967)
Erika Lopez, Flaming Iguanas
Black Artemis, Picture Me Rollin’
Course Reserves:
Olson, Steve. “The Archeology of Race.” The Atlantic Monthly. 287.4 (2001).
Flores, Juan. “‘Cha-Cha With a Backbeat’: Songs and Stories of Latin Boogaloo.” From Bomba
to Hip Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity. New York, NY: Columbia
University Press, 2000.
Romero, Mary, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, and Vilma Ortiz. “‘Qué Assimilated, Brother, Yo
Soy Asimilao’: The Structuring of Puerto Rican Identity in the U.S.” Challenging
Fronteras : Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S. New York, NY: Routledge,
1997.
Rivera, Raquel. “Ghettocentricity, Blackness and Pan-Latinidad”;“Butta Pecan Mamis.” New
York Ricans From the Hip Hop Zone. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan,
2003.
Dzidzienyo, Anani and Suzanne Oboler. “Flows and Counterflows”; “Afro-Mexico”; Neither
Enemies nor Friends : Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos. New York, NY: Palgrave
MacMillan, 2005.
Duany, Jorge. “Neither White Nor Black.” The Puerto Rican Nation on the Move: Identities on
the Island and in the United States. Chapel Hill, NC : University of North
Carolina Press, 2002. (ebook online)
Pozzi, Carlos. “Race, ethnicity, and color among Latinos in the United States.” This Side of
Heaven: Race, Ethnicity, and Christian Faith. Edited by Robert J. Priest and Alvaro L. Nieves.
New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Online Resources:
Vaughn, Bobby. The Black Mexico Homepage: Afro-Mexicans of the Costa Chica
http://www.afromexico.com/
Sailor, Steve. “Race Now Part #3: Where did Mexico’s Blacks Go?”
http://www.isteve.com/2002_Where_Did_Mexicos_Blacks_Go.htm
Chicano Rap Roots: Black-Brown Cultural Exchange and the Making of a Genre
McFarland, Pancho.
Callaloo, Volume 29, Number 3, Summer 2006, pp. 939-955 (Article)
DOI: 10.1353/cal.2006.0150
2
HTML Version | PDF Version (270k)
3
Class Schedule:
August
WEEK ONE
Th 25 Introduction to the Course
(NOTE: M 29 12:00 marks the end of late registration)
WEEK TWO
T 30 “The Archeology of Race”
September
Th 1 Discussion: African/Hispanophone diaspora
“Flows and Counterflows” (course reserve)
WEEK THREE: Afro-Cubans, Afro/Cuban/American
T6
Harvest of Empire : “Cuba”
Th 8 “Scripting Race, Finding Place”(course reserve)
WEEK FOUR:
T 13 Black Cuban, Black American
Th 15 Black Cuban, Black American
Assignment: Paper #1
WEEK FIVE:
T 20 Discussion: Santería esthetics
Th 22 The Agüero Sisters
Due: Paper #1
WEEK SIX
T 27 The Agüero Sisters
Th 29 With Eyes and Soul
October
WEEK SEVEN
T4
With Eyes and Soul
Th 6 Discussion
WEEK EIGHT: Dominicans, Dominican/Americans
T 11 From Harvest: “Dominicans”
Geographies of Home
Th 13 Geographies of Home
WEEK NINE
T 18 Drown
Th 20 Drown
Assignment: Paper #2
WEEK TEN: Afro-Mexican, Afro/Chicano
T 25 From Recovering History (course reserve)
4
“Partly Colored or Other White: Mexican Americans and Their Problem With the Color
Line” (course reserve)
Th 27 “Afro-Mexico” (course reserve)
Due: Paper #2
November
WEEK ELEVEN: Afro-Puertorican, Afro-Nuyorican
T1
From Harvest of Empire “Puerto Ricans”; “Puerto Rico, U.S.A.”
Th 3 “Neither White Nor Black” (Puerto Rican Nation on the Move e-book)
WEEK TWELVE
T8
From Boricuas
“Ghettocentricity, Blackness and Pan-Latinidad”;“Butta Pecan Mamis.” (reserve)
Th10 From Boricuas
WEEK THIRTEEN
T 15 From Boricuas
Th 17 Down These Mean Streets
WEEK FOURTEEN
T 22 Down These Mean Streets
Assignment: Paper #3
Th 24 Thanksgiving
WEEK FIFTEEN
T 29 Flaming Iguanas
December
Th 1 Flaming Iguanas
Due: Paper #3
WEEK SIXTEEN
T 6 Last Day
Course Requirements:
Occasional study questions: these will not be graded, but they are required: you will lose
two points off your end of semester score for every study question sheet you miss. These
must be typewritten and handed in.
Reading Quizzes: I will from time to time give reading quizzes, which are graded on a pass-fail
basis. Each failing grade will subtract one point from your end-of-semester score.
5
Reading assignments: You are responsible for reading and understanding all assignments,
whether we discuss them in class or not. This is non-negotiable. If you have a question about
something we have not discussed in class, you need to ask me to discuss it with you.
Assignments: Three 5-page papers; occasional reading quizzes; occasional study questions.
Paper assignments: These will not be research papers; they will be based on our readings (both
fiction as well as our scholarly articles) and discussions in class. For each assignment, I will give
you several choices for topics. The papers should be typed, double-spaced, and a full 5 pages
long, not including bibliography.
Class Policies:
Students with disabilities: Please consult with me as soon as possible so that I can make
appropriate accommodation for you.
Classroom deportment: Please make sure all cell phones are turned off. If you are more than 15
minutes late, do not come to class; if you are too tired to pay attention in class, or too sick, please
do not come to class. Instead, in either case have someone give you the notes for class.
Attendance: I allow two unexcused absences. If you email me beforehand, or if you have a good
explanation for your absence afterwards, the absence will be excused. Each unexcused absence
after the first two will result in two points off your final score. DO NOT email me after an
absence and ask to know what went on in class. Please find someone in class who you can ask to
take notes etc. for you in the event of an absence.
Grading:
Papers: 3 @ 12 points each
Paper Grades
Final Grades
A= 12
B+= 11
A=36-33
B+=34-32
B= 10
C+= 9
B=31-29
C+=28-26
C= 8
D= 6
F=4
C=25-20
D=19-13
F=12-0