HIS 350R
The origins of the contemporary Latino experience lay in World War II and the social movements that followed in its aftermath. Between World War II and the present, Latinos went from being a majority rural to majority urban population, Spanish-speaking to bilingual, farm-workers and ranch-owners to wage earners, from segregated barrios to multi-racial suburbs, from junior high-school to college graduates. People even moved from being Mexican American to being Chicano. This seminar course will require students use archival sources – from radio to personal papers – to explore the many cultural dimensions of this vast American social transformation.
Possible Texts:
Onda Latina: Digitizing the Mexican American Experience: http://www.laits.utexas.edu/onda_latina/dase/modules/ol/index
Adrian Burgos and Frank Guridy, ed. Beyond the Barrio: Everyday Life in Latino/a America
Ian Haney Lopez, Racism on Trial: the Chicano Crusade for Justice
Gina Perez, The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement and Puerto Rican Families
Labor Rights are Civil Rights: Mexican American Workers in 20th century america
Deborah Paredez, Selenidad: Selena and the Politics of Memory
Maggie Rivas Rodriguez, Mexican-Americans and World War II
Memoirs (Choice of one):
Ernesto Galarza, Barrio Boy
Evelio Grillo, Black Cuban, Black American
Cherrie Moraga, Loving in the War Years
Piri Thomas, Down these mean streets
Grading
Participation: 20%
Thematic Review: (five pages) 20%
Analysis: Onda Latina Radio Program (three pages) 10%
Primary Source Exercise: (three pages) 10%
Research Presentation: 10%
Research Paper: 30%
