The Latino Experiences in the United States SOC 335                                                       Fall 2009 Instructor: Dr. Gonzalo Santos santos_class@csub.edu Office: DDH-AA205     Phone: 654-2191 Class Time: 9:30 - 10:50 am   Classroom:   Edu. Bld. Room 127    Office Hours: 2:00 - 3:00 pm, MW

• Jose A. Cobas  Jorge Duany  Joe R. Feagin, eds., 2009. How the United States Racializes Latinos: At Home and Abroad. Paradigm Publishers ISBN-10: 1594515999.

• Arlene Dávila, 2008. Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race. NYU Press. ISBN-10: 0814720072.

• Leo R. Chavez, 2008. The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Stanford University Press. ISBN-10: 0804759340.

• David Bacon, 2008. Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. New York: Beacon Press. ISBN-13: 9780807042304.

This course explores the sociological experiences of the Latino peoples in the United States through four distinct. salient and dramatic aspects: Firstly, from their experiences of racialization. Up until recently, members of Congress, major newspapers, and entrepreneurs in the United States openly racialized Latinos and Latin Americans. Latinos and Latin Americans were deemed inferior mongrels that had to be saved from their ways. Such ideology served mainly to justify the armed invasions of sovereign neighboring nations, dispossession of land, and economic exploitation, both within the expanding U.S. and throughout its hemispheric reach. Using the Cobas, Duany, and Feagin anthology, we will study how noted Latin American, Latino, and U.S. social scientists have recently addressed the extent and costs of racialization of Latinos under U.S. hegemony. Immigration restrictions, instauration of U.S.-style racism, violence, and suppression of Spanish and intergroup conflict are some of the current developments they analyze.

Secondly, we will explore, using the Dávila book, the contemporary contradictory representations of Latinos in the public sphere as both a problem (immigrant) and an opportunity (voters, consumers). Dávila elegantly unravels the media driven sleight-of-hand that simultaneously celebrates an all-American (and almost entirely manufactured) Latino middle class while demonizing recent Latino immigrants and the poor folks who resemble them. This unacknowledged-yet-pervasive media schizophrenia is a reflection of the unresolved and much contested "place" of Latinos in the post-civil rights social order, marked by extensive North American integration and massive immigration of Latin Americans.

Thirdly, we interrogate and challenge, using the Chavez book, the "Latino Threat Narrative"—the idea that Latinos are incapable of integration and are ominously taking over, undermining our institutions, and changing America for the worse. We will thoughtfully analyze the conflicted meanings of citizenship in an increasingly globalized world.

The last topic, using the Bacon book, will be studying the structural and ideological origins of the ongoing resurgence of racism and xenophobia against Mexican undocumented immigrants specifically, which has become the central racialization phenomenon in the United States in this first decade of the 21st. Century, and which, as a result, has sparked a mighty, impressive social movement in the United States, the immigrant rights movement responsible for mobilizing untold millions to protest and march in 2006.

The course will be run in a seminar format. Students will form thirteen groups ("grupos") of up to four students each, and, after the first week of class, will take turns introducing and analyzing the assigned readings for each session, followed by class discussion, with Dr. Santos participating. That way each student will make two class presentations during the quarter. Every student group will present twice to the class.

Attendance is mandatory (please, no tardiness or early departures, as these will be penalized). ALL students must come prepared to discuss the readings - either through their formal presentations, or, when they are not presenting, by bringing to class their reading assessments.  The reading assessments must be turned in to Dr. Santos at the beginning of each class session. (No late submissions will be accepted)

The students will also collaborate within their groups to produce a research project on topics related to the Latino experiences in the United States -- each student will therefore also write a research term paper.

Class Presentations: At the beginning of the course, the students will be organized in groups of up to four.  On those dates identified in the schedule below, groups will make PowerPoint presentations on their assigned readings -- groups can expect to present twice in the quarter. Class discussion will follow the presentations.

Please email Dr. Santos an electronic copy of your presentation. Time allotted per individual presentation will be 5 to 8 minutes. Each presenting student will introduce, describe, highlight, and summarize his/her own portion of the assigned readings, and on the last slide raise one relevant, interesting question for subsequent discussion. As a precaution, please bring your presentations in a USB-type memory stick and also email it to your own Runner email account. DO NOT BRING YOUR POWERPOINT PRESENTATION IN FORMAT ".pptx" or "ppsx", as the class computer WILL NOT READ IT (only use "ppt" or "pps" formats). When it's your turn to present, please show up early to set it up & test it. It is each group's responsibility to coordinate their presentations so that there will be minimum overlap between them.

Each presentations will be graded based on: (a) the analytical strength of the presentation (how well it organized and covered the selected aspects), (b) critical thinking, added materials, and originality, (c) the quality of the question posed at the end, (d) the quality of the visuals used, and (e) the quality & style of the oral delivery.

Reading Assessments: To ensure that everybody come to every class prepared to discuss the assigned readings, students who are not presenting must bring to class one written "reading assessment" per chapter assigned, each up to two pages in length, double-spaced text. Dr. Santos will randomly select a couple of students to read their assessments and/or questions in the discussion periods. No late reading assessments will be accepted, unless the student has a pre-authorized absence from Dr. Santos. DO NOT SEND YOUR READING ASSESSMENTS BY EMAIL.

CONTENT: Please always write on top of your reading assessments your name, the date, and the reading you are assessing. In contrast to the presentations, these "reading assessments" must not summarize or merely describe the readings, but must critically respond to them: express what the you think about them; identify the areas of strong agreement and disagreement with the author, explaining why you do, as well as the areas or topics you find most interesting to discuss, or anything in particular that impressed you greatly, caused you confusion, or surprise. Whatever you write, you should explain your specific academic and/or personal reasons for doing so. The reading assessment cannot and should not cover every issue found in the assigned readings for the day; you must be selective and demonstrate judgment in the choices of topics you make to analyze (by the way, early topics are always suspect!). A very bad assessment will reveal the student read very little or very superficially just to do the assignment (it's called "going through the motion"). A good assessment will demonstrate the student really read the material and did a serious effort to select and critically grapple with some of the main issues raised. At the end of each reading assessment, students should always write their own question for class discussion.

Note: Students presenting on a given day do not need to submit any reading assessment.

Research Papers:  Students in each grupo will also be asked to chose a pertinent historical/sociological topic relating to the Latino experiences in the United States, and design, organize, and carry out a written group research project on it. The selected subject may be panethnic (all Latinos) or ethnic (one Latino ethnic group); it might focus on the immigrant and/or the U.S. settlement experiences; the period covered may be historic (19th., 20th. centuries), or contemporary (1990s to now); the spatial dimension may be as small as a city or local area, a state, a region of the U.S., or as large as the entire North America & Caribbean area; the topics may focus on the social, political, economic, demographic, and/or cultural conditions, trends, institutional dynamics, or social movements, or burning issues affecting Latinos or affected by them (health, education, political participation, etc.). There are literally hundreds of interesting topics - so brainstorm! The students must obtain approval from Dr. Santos for both their overall grupo topic and for each of their individual subtopics no later than October 30. Grupo delegates may visit Dr. Santos at his office during his office hours posted above.

Extra Points: Perfect attendance will be rewarded with up to five extra points. Another way to get extra credit is to attend those campus or public events Dr. Santos announces in class and write a two-page report on each of them. Another way is this: there are two general studies courses that students are strongly encouraged to take if they wish to develop their research skills, and if they do (either or both) will receive extra credit in this course: These courses will enable students to develop the necessary competencies to navigate their way around the complexities of researching print and electronic sources.  For further information contact librarian Christy Gavin (email: <cgavin@csub.edu>, phone: 661-664-3237).

Plagiarism: To prevent students from wittingly or unwittingly engaging in plagiarism, Dr. Santos strongly recommends students to carefully read and abide by the document CSUB Classifications of Plagiarism found at: http://www.csub.edu/tlc/options/resources/turn_it_in_help_page.shtml

Anyone found guilty of engaging in plagiarism will automatically fail the course and be reported to the Office of Student Discipline and Judicial Affairs for further disciplinary action.

Grading:

Each grupo class presentation is worth 10 points each. The research project is worth 40 points (35 points for the individual paper, and 5 points for the quality of the conceptual and physical organization of the grupo volume as a whole). The reading assessments are worth the remaining 40 points. The extra credit students may receive for taking the suggested General Studies courses will depend on their final grade in those courses, and may range from zero to 6 points (up to 3 extra points per course). Perfect attendance will also be rewarded with 5 extra points; absences and tardiness/leaving early will be penalized with one point off per instance. The final letter grade will be assigned, on a scale of 0 to 100, as follows:

Office Hours & E-Mail to Dr. Santos:

All students are encouraged to visit Dr. Santos regularly during his posted office hours, to go over their presentations, to ensure their grupo research project topics and subtopics, their individual research papers are well focused, or to discuss any question from the class lectures, the textbooks, or their grupo class presentations. Consultation and approval of the grupo research topics must be done in person at Dr. Santos office by representatives of each grupo - no mails on that topic, please.

Dr. Santos much prefers students come to his office during office hours, or to call him by phone, rather than to receive e-mail messages that require more than a very short one-line reply - he appreciates the ease and fun of talking face-to-face, as opposed to typing! But if you wish to send Dr. Santos a brief, to-the-point message, you may do so at his email address above.

My GRUPO # is: _____                         We present on these dates: ___________ and ___________

My Own Research Subtopic:___________________________________________________________

My  GRUPO members are:

___Name______________________Phone_____________________Email_________________________________

1._____________________________________________________________________________________________

2._____________________________________________________________________________________________

3._____________________________________________________________________________________________

4._____________________________________________________________________________________________