Latino History (is US History)

THE PURPOSE OF THIS COURSE

Even before the US existed as a republic, people from “Hispanic” and Indo-America have been incorporated into life and work in the United States . Often perceived by Anglo others as members of an “alien” culture regardless of legal or generational status, Latinos have had to deal with specific forms of incorporation into US society. These forms often reference the immigration experience of Europeans, the colonial experience of Native Americans, and the highly racialized story of African Americans. In many ways Latinos have their own unique path through the American maze. Through histories of coercion, migration, labor recruitment, family networks, religious conversion, wars of occupation, economic need, political exile, etc., millions of people from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the rest of Latin America, have somehow become “American,” while still remaining (or becoming) a racial or cultural “other” to most Anglo-Americans and the State. This course will examine the process of departure and arrival—the forces pushing and pulling people from Latin America to the United States. We will also examine how “Spanish,” “Latins,” “Hispanics,” “Latinos” adjust, integrate, assimilate, resist, and adapt to the many forces that affect their lives in the US over the last century and a half, creating new ethnic, racial and local identities in the process. By studying the experience of Latinos and Latin American immigrants with racism and discrimination, identity formation, ethnic culture, community formation, work and labor struggles, and social mobility we will map out the heterogeneous mosaic of Latin American and Caribbean diasporas in the US. The study of Latino History is a young discipline, with many gaps and grey areas. It also exists in a complex and tense dialogue (often a monologue) with “larger” Anglo-centric US history. During the last two decades there has been a boom in research and writing in this field and we will be taking advantage of some of its products, although its fruits are still uneven.

 

LEARNING GOALS

• Become familiar with the main themes of Latino economic, political and social history in the context of Latin American, US, and regional histories.
• Understand the origins and causes of large-scale migration/incorporation of Mexicans, Dominicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other Latinos.
• Understand the complex and varying racializations of Latinos in the US
• Analyze the characteristics of Latino labor history and community formation processes.
• Distinguish between the distinct regional Latino experiences within the US.
• Understand the economic importance of migrant/immigrant labor to the US’s economy.

 

ACCESS

In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, if you have special needs that require adaptations or accommodations, please make arrangements with the Services for Students with Disabilities. If you have medical information to share with me please communicate with me as soon as possible. All discussions will remain confidential.

All students are expected to be familiar with the university’s Course Attendance policy and the institutional position concerning religious observances, available here. To avoid potential absence-related penalties, students of faith should notify the instructor during the first week of classes, in writing, of anticipated absences due to religious or spiritual obligations.

 

REQUIREMENTS

Your participation in this class constitutes an agreement between us. I expect you to follow the guidelines presented below and I, in, turn will do my best to facilitate, in a variety of manners, a body of knowledge that can be polemical and open to interpretation, and that requires your work to process and analyze. Most important, I expect from all students a reasonable degree of enthusiasm and interest through active engagement with course materials. I expect you to come to all class sessions prepared and on time. I will provide you with feedback on your progress and present these materials to you in a coherent and organized manner.

• Determination of Grade:
  • Three 8-10 page discussion papers based on course readings (25% each, with credit given for improvement)
  • Class participation, reading discussions, short assignments, attendance (25%)
  • Participation and improvement will decide borderline cases
  • Please remember that an A is from 94 to 100 points. See the department grading scale
• Participation and attendance:
  • Your participation in class activities, including attendance, will be an important component of your final grade. More than two absences will reduce your class participation grade by half of a full grade for each absence
• Weekly work:
  • You will have short assignments almost every week. Short assignments will be graded with a plus, a check or a minus and will accumulate towards grades of A, B, or C (if they are all handed in). The usual grade will be a check which will indicate satisfactory completion (B). A minus indicates the absence of important components. Lower grades will result from missing homework items.
  • These short assignments form part of the participation grade include occasional short response papers. They should be about one page long and need not be typewritten as long as your handwriting is legible. Occasionally we will break down into small discussion groups in order to tackle a particular question or designate students as discussion leaders for a session.
• Discussion Papers:
  • I will provide the topics for these three papers. They will be based on class readings and discussion. These papers will need to be 8-10 pages in length and reflect your participation in class, your completion of readings, and your own analysis of these materials. They will also provide the basis for class discussion. The third paper theme will be more open-ended and should reflect the results of our course work as well your own additional research.
  • Format for papers is easy: no cover page, print your name, 1” margins, 10 or 12 pt. fonts, footnotes (not endnotes or in-text notations). All papers to the Sakai dropbox. I expect all of you to discuss your papers with me individually before AND AFTER they are completed.
• Films:
  • There will be a few film showings as part of this course, some of which will be at-home work. If shown outside of class time they will be on Sakai, or on reserve at the Latino & Hispanic Caribbean Studies Dept. ask our administrative Assistant for the title and view it in with our equipment.
• Online Course – Sakai and Web Materials:
  • The use of Sakai is not an optional and is a vital part of our course. You should check it once or twice a week and your email daily. This course relies completely on SAKAI for access to readings, submission of work, communication, etc. Please learn how to use the system ASAP and ask for help if you need it. The links from the web pages take you directly to the reading. If for some reason this does not work, you can access Sakai directly at sakai.rutgers.edu. Many of the readings are in PDF format. In order to read or print PDF format documents you must have Adobe’s Acrobat Reader installed. In order to read documents in MS-Word format you must have MS-Word or a word processor that can import files in MS-Word format (most of them can). 

Students are required to be familiar with departmental and University guidelines on plagiarism and the submission of written work. For a general discussion of what constitutes plagiarism (you might not know how complicated this can be) see this document. For the University’s Plagiarism (Academic Integrity) policies see this. If you have questions about this please do not hesitate to ask me. I take this policy very seriously.

Please note that stringing together fragments of notes taken from the reading materials does not constitute paper-writing! Your papers will require analysis of relationships, not mere recitation of facts or stories. Late papers will be penalized for each day of lateness at the rate of a grade per day.

This is a “live” syllabus—it will be updated and minor changes in readings and assignments will be posted. The headline at the top of the syllabus (“version #”) indicates what version you are looking at and new items will be marked with this:

 

ORGANIZATION AND SCHEDULE

Week 1 Introduction: What are Latinos and where do they come from? Demographics, Colonial Histories, and Research

• • Morin, Latino/a Rights and Justice in the United States: Perspectives and Approaches (North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2005): Ch. 2.
  • Almaguer, “At the Crossroads of Race: Latino/a Studies and Race Making in the United States,” in Critical Latin American and Latino Studies eds. Juan Poblete (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 2003): 206-222.
  • Caban. “Three Decades of Latino Studies.” Latino Studies. 1,1 (2003): 5-35.
  • Horsman, “Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism,” in Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror, 139-144.
  • Horsman. “Anglo Saxons and Mexicans.” The Latino Condition.

Documents:

• • US Census: “Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin 2010″
  • The Hispanic Population: Census Brief
  • “We the People”: Hispanics in the United States
  • “Race and Hispanic Origin of the Population by Nativity: 1850 to 1990″
  • Pew Research Center: Hispanic Trends
  • Social Explorer

Short Work: (For in-class use, review a few ahead of time)

• • Cabeza De Vaca
  • Coronado
  • Juan de On~ate
    • Map
  • La Florida
    • Map
    • Georgia
    • First settlement in Pensacola 1559
    • Tristan de Luna
  • Las Carolinas
  • Archeology of Spanish Forts
  • South Carolina-Paris Island
  • Hernando de Soto
  • Spanish Louisiana
  • Spanish New Orleans
  • Spanish Texas
  • Spanish Expansion into Texas
  • New Spain
  • Borderland Maps in PDF

Week 2 Republic or Empire? Territorial Incorporation of Spanish-Speaking Peoples, 1770s to 1880s

• • Acun~a. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. Chap 3-4, 7.
  • Resendez, “National Identity and the Shifting U.S.- Mexico Border 1821-1848,” Journal of American History (86) (Sept 1999).
  • Menchaca,” The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Racialization of the Mexican Population,” in Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans. ch. 8.

Short work:

• • Race-Cases
  • Pueblo, Navajo, and other Native Americans
  • For Wed: Write a one page discussion of how New Mexico Hispanos, other former Mexican subjects, and indigenous people’s experienced the incorporation into the US after the 1850s.

Documents:

• • Map of Indigenous Nations
  • James Monroe, Message to Congress, December 2, 1823
  • Mexico at Independence, 1821
  • Revolt, Republic of Texas, Campaigns, 1835-1836
  • Map of the US invasion of Mexico, 1846-1848
  • Review of the US invasion of Mexico
  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Feb. 1848

Week 3 Republic or Empire: Colonial Incorporation of Spanish-Speaking Peoples, 1880-1910s

• • Almaguer. Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California. Chap 1-2.
  • Camarillo, “The Development of the Chicano Working Class in Santa Barbara, California 1860-1897.” In Perspectivas en Chicano Studies. 41-68.
  • Poblete. Islanders in the Empire: Filipino and Puerto Rican laborers in Hawai’i. Ch. 1

• • Recommended:
    • Gomez. Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. Ch. 1-3

• • Useful Textbook Summary:
    • Gonzalez. Harvest of Empire. Chaps 2-3.

Documents:

• • 1885 Territorial Census of New Mexico
  • Albert Beveridge Campaign Speech, “The March of the Flag,” 16 September 1898.

Short Work:

• • For Thursday: Produce a table detailing how race, law, and practice worked out in each region/state between the 1830s and 1860s based on ALL the readings. Indicate with initials which reading each item is coming from.
  • Timelines of US interventions abroad
  • Timelines II
  • The Spirit of US approach to Latin America
  • Timeline of US/Latin American Relations

Movie:

• • In-class video clips on the 19th century

Week 4 The Formation of Communities: 1880s-1950s: Texas & Arizona

• • Montejano. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986. Ch. 8-10.
  • De Leon and Stewart. “Lost Dreams and Found Fortunes-Mexican and Anglo Immigrants in South Texas, 1850-1900.” Western Historical Quarterly.
  • Arreola. Tejano South Texas. Ch. 7 (ch. 8 is not assigned). Very short reading.

• • Pick one:
    • Benton-Cohen. Borderline Americans: Racial Divisions and Labor War in the Arizona Borderlands. Ch. 7.
    • Benton-Cohen. “Making Americans and Mexicans in the Arizona Borderlands”. In Mexico and Mexicans.

• • Recommended:
    • Montejano. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986. Ch. 4.

Movie:

• • Los Mineros—Will be shown on 10/1
  • Salt of the Earth (On the Internet for free!)—Will be shown on 10/3

Short work:

• • For Wed: One page outline: What Makes Texas Different or Unique?
  • Atlas of Hispanic American History Maps—in class
  • La Junta, Texas
  • Los Mineros—Mexican Miners in Arizona
  • Mexican-American Sharecropping in the South
  • Juan Seguin: Mexican Supporter of Texas Independence, betrayed by Anglos…
  • She is Mexican American!?
  • The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez—Performed and Movie Data
  • The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez—Text
  • The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez—Analysis
  • The Bisbee Deportation of 1917

First Paper:

• • Due XXX by Midnight to the Sakai drop-box
  • Make appointments for in person or Skype session to discuss ideas, outlines, and drafts with me. I can also review items and answer questions by emails until Friday Oct. 12.

Week 5 [10/1 & 10/3] The Formation of Communities, 1880s-1950s: California and New Mexico

• • Obrego Pagan.”Los Angeles Geopolitics & the Zoot Suit Riot.”
  • Sanchez. Becoming Mexican American. Ch. 3-4.
  • Vargas. Labor Rights Are Civil Rights. Ch 1 & 5.

• • Highly Recommended:
    • Alamillo. Making Lemons out of Lemonade: Mexican Americans, Labor and Leisure in a California Town. Ch. 2.
    • Ayala. “Felicita ‘La Prieta’ Mendez and The End of Latino School Segregation in California.” Centro Journal.

Documents:

• • The Bracero Archive
  • Clint Eastwood allied to New Mexico’s Hispanos…??
  • El Zorro!!
  • Corrido de Joaquin Murrieta
  • East LA
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Chavez
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%BAl_H%C3%A9ctor_Castro

Movie:

• • 1930s Deportation
  • 1930s Deportation

Homework:

• • Due Wed. Oct 5 via dropbox: One page: How do cities and urban life add new themes or issues to the Mexican Immigrant and Mexican American experience?

Week 6 The Formation of Communities, 1900s-1960s: The Midwest

• • Driscoll. The Tracks North. Ch. 6.
  • Fernandez—”From the Near West Side Beyond el Barrio” (Chicago)
  • Fernandez. “Becoming Latino: Mexican and Puerto Rican Community Formation in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  • Nodin Valdes, “Betabeleros: The formation of an Agricultural Proletariat in the Midwest, 1897-1930,” Labor History.

• • Highly Recommended:
    • Arredondo. Mexican Chicago: Race, Identity and Nation, 1916-1939. Ch. 2-3.
    • Rosales and Simon. “Mexican Immigrant Experience in the Urban Midwest: East Chicago, Indiana, 1919-1945.” In Forging a Community: The Latino Experience in Northwest Indiana, 1919-1975.
    • Louise. “Chicano Settlements in Chicago.” in En Aquel Entonces.

Short Work:

• • For Thurs: What does Chicago and the midwest add to what we already know about Mexican American history based on the Southwest? One page.
  • Mexicans in Chicago—Review
  • Frontera—Online Coverage of The Border
  • Diego Rivera’s Murals in Detroit
  • East Chicago, Indiana
  • A virtual walking tour of Working Class Chicago History (load the page, search “Mexican” on page for specific sites)

Documents:

• • http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mex-war-map.jpg

Movie:

• • The Braceros
  • Chicano Rock
  • Bracero (in Spanish)
  • Operation Wetback
  • Zoot Suit (1981)

Week 7 Mexican American Movements for Civil Rights, Power and Improvement: 1950s-1970s

• Pick THREE:
  • Vargas. Labor Rights Are Civil Rights: Mexican American Workers in Twentieth-Century America. Ch. 6.
  • Montejano. Quixote’s Soldiers—Local history of Chicano Movement. Ch. 6 & 7.
  • Navarro. Mexicano Political Experience in Occupied Aztlán: Struggles and Change. Ch. 4 & 5.
  • Gonzalez & Gonzales. En Aquel Entonces: Readings in Mexican-American History. Ch. 16, 23, 25.
  • Ybarra, Vietnam Veteranos: Chicanos Recall the War (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004): 3-11 and 209-222.
  • Montejano. Quixotes Soldiers: A Local History of the Chicano Movement. Ch. 6-8.
  • Gonzales, “The Chicano Movement, 1965-1975,” in Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 191-222.
  • Escobar. “The Dialectics of Repression: The Los Angeles Police Department and the Chicano Movement, 1968-1971.” The Journal of American History 79:4 (March 1993): 1483-1514.
  • Vargas. “THE EARLY MEXICAN AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS.”
  • Flores. “Community of Limits and the Limits of Community: MALDEF’s Chicana Rights Project, Empowering the “Typical Chicana ” and the Question of Civil Rights, 1974-1983.”

Work:

• • For Wed: What changes triggered or caused the civil rights struggles described in these readings? 1 page or less.

Documents:

• • “El Plan Espirtual de Aztlan”
  • Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, “I Am Joaquin”
  • Exploring the Chicana Feminist Movement

Short Work:

• • Lalo Alcaraz—Chicano Cartoonist
  • Pochanostra—Chicano Performance Artist
  • New Mexico Land Grant
  • Reies Lopez Tijerina through the archive
  • Audio discussion of Reies Lopez Tijerina’s struggle

Movie:

• • American Experience: A Class Apart (Hernandez vs Texas, 1954)
  • Chicano!, Parts I and 3
  • Telles,”The Fight in the Fields, Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle.”
  • Children of the Harvest

Week 8 Border History: Migration, Deportation, Legality, 1900-2000

• • Hernandez. Migra! A History of the US Border Patrol. Ch. 5-9.
  • No Class on Wed. Please consider attending the Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference on our Campus—More info to follow.

Documents:

• • TBA

Movies:

• • Mon: Border Videos
  • Journey From Mexico—PBS—Latino Americans
  • Texas Archive of the Moving Image

Short Work:

• • For Monday: one page or less: how does the study of the Border reflect or involve larger problems of US history and society?
  • Extra Credit/Epic Opportunity: participate in a few of the sessions of the Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference at Rutgers: Oct. 25-28.

Week 9 Puerto Rican Migration History

• • Garcia-Colon, Ismael. “”We Like Mexican Laborers Better”: Citizenship and Immigration Policies in the Formation of Puerto Rican Farm Labor in the United States.” Centro Journal 29, no. 2 (Summer 2017): 134-71.
  • Fernandez, Lilia. “Of Immigrants and Migrants: Mexican and Puerto Rican Labor Migration in Comparative Perspective, 1942-1964.” Journal of American Ethnic History 29, no. 3 (Spring 2010): 6-39.
  • Edgardo Melendez. “Puerto Rican Migration, the Colonial State, and Transnationalism.” Centro Journal. 2015.
  • Optional: You can also review the section by Juan Gonzalez on Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans (8-9 pages) copied into this week’s readings folder (chapter 4 of Harvest of Empire).

Documents:

• • Memoirs of Bernardo Vega. Selected Pages. (in Sakai)
  • In-class review of documents

Short Work: For Wed, pick one:

• • Outline how the Puerto Rican experience of migration, community formation and work seems similar or different from the Mexican American experience.

Week 10 Puerto Ricans Communities in New York City and elsewhere, 1930s-1960s

• • Thomas & Lauria Santiago. Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights. Chaps. 1-2.
  • Lauria-Santiago. Book Manuscript. Chapter 9.

Documents:

• • In class—Prof’s research documents and Centro Oral Histories

Movie:

• • That Old Gang of Mine

Week 11 Puerto Ricans Communities in New York City and elsewhere: 1960s-2000

• • Thomas & Lauria Santiago. Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights. Chaps. 3-5.

Short Work:

• • Bring major points from each of the Puerto Rican related readings to class. 1-3 sentences for each. READ UP!! This is the last chance to discuss materials for your next paper!!

Documents:

• • ASPIRA Report
  • Young Lords Party—13 Point Program

Movies:

• • From Mambo to Hip Hop
  • Our Latin Thing—Fania—1972
  • Pa’lante: The Young Lords.
  • Antonia Pantoja: Presente
  • HITN: NYC Latino Politics

Second Paper:

• • Due XXX by midnight or earlier to the Sakai drop-box

Week 12 Cubans since the 1890s

• • Genier & Perez—Legacy of Exile Cubans in the United States. Ch. 1-5. [Very light, intro. read)

• • Strongly Recommended:
    • Garcia. Havana, USA. Ch.1.

• • Pick any one reading from the folder based on your interests. Lots there but don’t skip on this! (Labor, gender, demographics, migration, miami, exile politics, pre-revol. migration, NY musicians, etc.)

Documents:

• • How We Got Here Immigration and Ybor City, 1886-1921
  • Tampa cigar workers: a pictorial history.

Short work:

• • Afro-Cuba Web
  • Select one way to compare the experience of Cubans with that of Puerto Ricans or other Latino ethnic groups

Movie:

• • El Super
  • Video lecture: Making of Cuban Roots/Bronx Stories
  • Cuban Roots/Bronx Stories

Third Paper:

• • Third Paper due Dec XX by Midnight

Week 13 Dominicans in the Northeast since the 1960s

• • Hoffnung Garskof. A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York after 1950. Foreword, Ch. 4-6, maps, notes.

Week 14 Central American, Colombian, and Mexican Immigrant Communities since the 1980s

• Everyone reads this one:
  • Nora Hamilton & Stoltz Chinchilla. Seeking Community in a Global City: Guatemalans and Salvadorans in Los Angeles. Chaps. 4.

• Pick one of these:
  • Fink. The Maya of Morganton. Work and Community in the Nuevo New South. Ch. 1-3 (70).
  • Smith. Mexican New York: Transnational Lives of new Immigrants. Chap. 2 18-53 (dual context of transnational life)
  • Repak. Waiting on Washington. Ch. 4-5.
  • Garcia. Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration. Ch. 2-4.

Short Work:

• • Be prepared to discuss the relationship between migration and war and the patterns that determine settlement and experience within the US for Central Americans

Document:

• • What is “Temporary Protected Status” for Salvadorans? Ask the migra and some some minor research on this via google.

Week 15 Latino Communities New and Old—Recent Political and Social Movements—1990s-2010

• Read three of these:
  • Blanton-Sanchez. Ideology and Whiteness in the Making of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement
  • Galvez—Articulating Labor Rights for Mexican Immigrants.
  • Guglielmo—Fighting for Caucasian Rights.
  • Hiller_Linstroth_and_Ayala_Vela—Belongingness_of_Mayas_in_Southern_Florida.
  • Martinez—Flowers from the Same Soil Latino Solidarity in the Wake of the 2006 Marches.
  • Melo—A_Transnationalism_in_NY_Study_of_Remittance_Sending_by_Ecuadorian_Migrants Actions
  • Mirabal—Beyond the Cuban Exile Model.
  • Morales—Living in Spanglish
  • Munoz Laboy—Beyond_MSM_Sexual_Desire-Sexual Desire Among Latino Men
  • Perea – Latino-a Condition – Death by English – Ch.84
  • Plascencia—Citizenship through Veteranship.
  • Portes & Zho—New Second Generation Segmented Assimilation and Variants
  • Portes Guarnizo—Transnational entrepreneurship Alternative Form of Immigrant Economic Adaptation
  • Torres-saillant—Afro Latinos and the Racial Wall
  • Zamudio et al—Immigrant rights protest in the Rural West
  • Alvarez—Telling To Live—Vignettes-of_a_Working_Class_Puerto_Rican_Girl_in_Brooklyn_New_York
  • Corazon de Dixie: Mexicans in the US South.

Documents:

• • TBA

Short Work:

• • Research Sources Web Page