CHST 1B: Introduction to Chicana Studies

CHST 1B: Introduction to Chicana Studies

Course Syllabus

Winter Quarter 2005

T/TH 2:00-3:15 p.m.in ChemistryRm. 1179

______

Professor Edwina Barvosa-Carter

Professor Barvosa-Carter

1704 South HallOffice Hours: Tue 3:30-4:30 p.m.

tel. (805) 893-5714 & by Appointment

fax: (805) 893-4076

e-mail:

Teaching Assistants: TA Office Hours: to be announced in Section

Desirée Enayati:

Brenda Arellano:

Sarab Shanti Khalsa:

Patricia Ramirez:

Pablo Landeros:

Oscar Fierros:

M 6:00- 6:50 GIRV 1108 20/20 Patricia Ramirez
R 1:00- 1:50 SH 1623 26/26 Patricia Ramirez
R 4:00- 4:50 SH 1623 26/26 Patricia Ramirez
T 6:00- 6:50 GIRV 1108 20/20 Brenda Arellano
R 11:00-11:50 SH 1623 26/26 Brenda Arellano
R 10:00-10:50 SH 1623 26/26 Brenda Arellano
W 1:00- 1:50 SH 1623 26/26 Oscar Fierros
W 6:00- 6:50 GIRV 1108 20/20 Oscar Fierros
R 12:00-12:50 SH 1623 26/26 Oscar Fierros
T 12:00-12:50 SH 1623 26/26 Pablo Landeros
T 11:00-11:50 SH 1623 26/26 Pablo Landeros
R 5:00- 5:50 GIRV 1108 19/20 Pablo Landeros
W 2:00- 2:50 SH 1623 26/26 Sarab Khalsa
F 11:00-11:50 GIRV 1108 20/20 Sarab Khalsa
F 12:00-12:50 HSSB 1223 26/26 Sarab Khalsa
M 7:00- 7:50 SH 1623 Desirée Enayati

I. Course Description:

Introduction to Chicana Studies will acquaint students with the main currents in Chicana Studies. Using gender as a major category of analysis, the course will examine major concerns in Chicana Studies including the social construction of social relations, the intersection of gender identity with other identities, cultural mestizaje, and sexuality. Through the lens of these issues the course will also examine the major socio-economic and political issues of concern among Chicanas and within Chicana studies including labor exploitation and organizing, educational equality, and political participation. These topics will be explored through a critical engagement with interdisciplinary readings, poetry, Chicana popular culture, and film.

II. Course Assignments and Grading:

Participation and Attendance10% of final grade

Mid-term Examination (2/3)25% of final grade

Critical Essay (2/24)25% of final grade

Final Exam (3/15)40% of final grade

Please Note: No make-up quizzes or exams will be administered. Please contact Professor Barvosa-Carter or your TA before the due date if for any reason you anticipate being unable to complete an assignment. Attendance at lectures and section is mandatory and participation in discussions is a crucial component of your coursework. More than two unexcused absences will significantly lower your final grade. Attendance will be taken.

III. Course Readings:

Required Books:

Vicki Ruiz (1998) From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth Century America, OxfordUniversity Press.

Cantu, Norma and Olga Najera-Ramirez, eds. (2002) Chicana Traditions:

Continuity and Change, Illinois UP.

Hurtado, Aida (2003) Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on

Sexuality and Identity, NYU Press.

Gaspar de Alba, Alicia, ed. (2003) Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and

Chicana/o Sexualities. Palgrave Press/Macmillan.

Arredondo, Gabriela, et al., eds. (2003) Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader.

Duke UP.

Course Reader – Available from Grafikarts in Isla Vista, 6547 Pardall Rd.

Books for the course can be purchased at the UCSB bookstore and are available on reserve, along with the reader, at Davidson Library. If for any reason you have difficulty obtaining the reading materials, please notify your TA or Professor Barvosa-Carter.

IV. Course Outline:

DateTopic & Reading Assignment:

1/4Introduction to the Course

Part I. Chicana Identities: Concepts & Perspectives

1/6Chicana Identities: Histories and Contexts

Readings: Introduction to Chicana Feminisms “Chicana Feminisms at the

Crossroads” and Vicki Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows (Ruiz) Chapter 1.

1/11Chicana Diversity and the Intersection of Identities

Readings: PatriciaZavella, “Reflections on Diversity Among Chicanas” (Reader)

Gloria Anzaldúa, “The Ethnic Test: Who’s the “Real” Chicana;” Norma Alarcón, Chicana Feminisms: In the Tracks of ‘The’ Native Woman (Reader); Omi & Winant, “Racial Formation” pp. 53-61 (Reader); Film: Salt of the Earth

1/13Chicana Conceptions of Self: Gloria Anzaldúa & Mestiza Consciousness

Readings: Poetry: “So Not to Be Mottled,” “Mestiza,” “Legal Alien” and “To

Live in the Borderlands Means You” (Reader); Gloria Anzaldúa “La Conciencia de la Mestiza and The Mestiza Way” (Reader); Sonia Sandoval-Hull, “Mestiza Consciousness and Politics” (Reader).

Part II. The Social Construction of Chicana Identities

1/18Quiz & Religion at the Intersections of Chicana Gender and Ethnicity

1/18Readings: Antonia Castañeda, “Sexual Violence in the Politics and Politics of

Conquest: Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta California” (Reader); Ruiz Ch 2; Yolanda Broyles-González “Indianizing Catholicism” in Chicana Traditions, (Ch 6). Aida Hurtado, Voicing Chicana Feminisms (Hurtado) Ch 4.

1/20Constructing Chicana Gender Roles in Childhood: Stories, Games, & Domestic

Discourses

Readings: “La Llorona” and “La Malinche” (Reader); María Herrera-Sobek

“Danger! Children at Play” (esp. 81-85) in Traditions (Ch 4); Ruiz Ch 3; Hurtado, Ch 2; Norma Alarcon: Chicana’s Feminist Literature: Revision through Malintzin (Reader).

1/27Constructions of Chicana Sexuality in Anglo-American Culture

Readings: Deena González “Lupe’s Song” in Velvet Barrios, pp. 251-264;

Antonia Hernandez, “Chicanas and the Issue of Involuntary Sterilization” (Reader) Antonia Castañeda, History and the Politics of Violence Against Women (Reader).

2/1Intersecting Social Identities and Hierarchies: Mestiza Consciousness and the

Reconstruction of Subordinating Social Meanings, Values, and Practices

Reading: Anzaldúa, “Mestiza as Bridges” (Reader); MaryRomero, “Life as the

Maid’s Daughter: An Exploration of Everyday Boundaries of Race, Class,

and Gender” (Reader).

2/3Midterm

2/8Re-envisioning Beauty

Readings:Hurtado, Ch 7; Chely Rodriguez, “Breaking the Model” (Reader);

María Figueroa “Resisting ‘Beauty’ in Real Women Have Curves” in

Velvet Barrios, pp. 265-282; Film Screening: Real Women Have Curves.

2/10Transforming Chicana Sexuality

Reading: Marisa Navarro, “Becoming La Mujer” (Reader); Chavez Leyva,

“Listening to the Silences in Latina/Lesbian History;” (Reader) Carla Trujillo, Chicana Lesbians: Fear and Loathing in the Chicano Community (Reader); “Talkin Sex” in Chicana Feminisms (Ch 7).

2/15Remaking Popular Chicana Imagery: Selena and Subversion of the Virgin/Whore

Dichotomy

Readings: Emma Perez “On Selena” from Decolonial Imaginary (Reader);

Willis and Gonzalez: “Reconceptualizing Gender through Dialogue:

The Case of the Tex-Mex Madonna (Reader); Traditions, Ch 12; Film:

Selena

2/17Broadening Restrictive Gender Roles through Cultural Production

Readings:Traditions, Ch8; Chicana Feminisms, Ch 6

2/22Rethinking la Familia

Readings: Hurtado, Ch 6; Rosa Linda Fregoso “Family Matters”

(Reader); Film Screening: Luminarias.

Part III. Ongoing Dilemmas & Transformations Yet to Be

2/24Essay Due & Chicana/Latina Domestic Labor: the Daily Dynamics of

Exploitation

Readings: Mary Romero Maid in the USA, Ch 1 (Reader); Pierrette

Hondagneu-Sotelo, Domestica Ch 2; Hondagneu-Sotelo and Riegos “Sin organizacion, no hay solucion: Latina Domestic Workers and Non-traditional Labor Organizing” (Reader)

3/1Labor and Gendered Political Struggles

Readings: Hurtado, Ch 5; Readings on the Juarez Maquiladoras (course website);

Elizabeth Martinez “Levi’s Button Your Fly – Your Greed is Showing” (Reader); Ruiz Ch 5.

3/3Chicana Education and the Status Quo

Readings: Denise Segura, “Slipping Through the Cracks” (Reader); Angela

Valenzuela Subtractive Schooling pp. 161-181 (Reader); Gilda Ochoa “

Let’s Unite” (Reader).

3/8Chicana Politics Taking Many Forms

Readings:Hurtado, Ch 9; Ruiz, 6; Mary Pardo “Becoming an Activist in Eastside

Los Angeles” (Reader) Takash, Paule Cruz “Breaking Barriers To Representation: Chicana Elected Officials in California” (Reader).

3/10 Xicanisma, Diversity, and Social Justice: On Building Solidarity

Reading:Martinez “Weaving a Net that Works” and “Raza Si, Nationalism…?”

(Reader); Gloria Anzaldúa “Making Alliances” “New Interconnections: From Unity to Solidarity (Reader) and “New Tribalism” (Reader).

3/ 15 Final Examination

1