• Richard Griswold del Castillo and Arnoldo de León, 1997. North to Aztlan: A History of the Mexican Americans in the United States. New York: Twayne Publications.  ISBN: 0805745874

• Ramón Grosfoguel, 2003. Colonial Subjects: Puerto Ricans in a Global Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press.  ISBN: 0520230205

• María de los Angeles Torres, 2001. In the Land of Mirrors: Cuban Exile Politics in the United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.  ISBN: 0472087886

• Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Mariela Páez, Eds., 2002. Latinos: Remaking America. Cambridge & Berkeley: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, and The University of California Press.  ISBN: 0520234871

COURSE CONTENT

This course explores the historical sociology of the diverse Latino peoples in the United States. We focus on the Mexican American experience, from their 19th-century conquest and incorporation into the U.S. Southwest, to their racialized/alienized working-class experiences in the first six decades of the 20th century; to their ethnic rebellion in the late 1960s and early 1970s - the Chicano Movement -, to their present-day dual, contradictory evolution as a domestic "entitled" component of the emerging Latino panethnicity, yet nurtured by the largest international "unentitled" migrant flows reflecting North American integration.

We also analyze in detail the U.S. colonized/neocolonized, ethnicized and migration experiences of two Caribbean Latino peoples in the United States, the Puerto Ricans and the Cuban Americans, each cast by successive U.S. internal racial orders and by much larger world processes - the U.S. ascendancy (Spanish American War) and attainment of global hegemony (Cold War). 

Lastly, we explore the emergence of Latino panethnicity in the last three decades as  a major pillar of the new "multicultural society" order in the United States. Latino socioeconomic, political, and cultural indicators and conditions will be presented and compared to the other U.S. panethnicities.

Attendance:

Student class participation is essential, therefore attendance to class is mandatory. Unauthorized absences, tardiness, and/or early departures will be penalized. If you need to be excused (or leave early/arrive late) please call or talk to Dr. Santos ahead of time. 

Lectures and Grupo Presentations:

Dr. Santos will lecture on the first hour of class. Grupo presentations and class discussion will take up the second hour. Students are expected to come to class fully prepared to discuss the assigned readings for each session. If a student did not read the assigned reading, he or she should abstain from idle talking and focus on listening - "no investigation, no right to speak." Informed student participation, on the other hand, will be encouraged, noted and rewarded by Dr. Santos.

The students will form groups of up to six students. Each grupo will be assigned two class presentations during the term, in which the students will summarize, critically respond to, and discuss the assigned readings for that day. When a grupo presents, each student will be given the opportunity to make a brief presentation (five to six minutes) based on a written outline one or 2 pages long, to be turned in to Dr. Santos afterwards (cards also allowed, but students turn in the outline pages only). Following the individual presentations, there will be a grupo discussion on each other's presentations, hopefully interesting, followed by full class discussion.

It is the responsibility of the grupos to meet beforehand and divide up the specific topics or approaches each student wants to cover, and organize the sequence of the individual presentations, to avoid duplication or disorder. It is strongly advisable for the groups to first read the material, then divide up the topics or approaches. The students may chose a debate format, or divide the main issues raised, etc..

Students are encouraged to create their own overhead transparencies, but make sure they are BIG FONT and not too busy.

A good individual presentation will (a) identify a major, significant aspect or issue or fact brought out in the readings (frame a question or two, or an assertion or two, explicitly); (b) fully summarize what the author claims or argues in relation to it; and (c) respond to (b) with a critical assessment, supplemented by further analysis, and relevant information. The individual presentations will be graded based on organization & clarity, relevancy of topic selection, accuracy, and critical analysis. The grupo presentations will also be assessed a grade based on the quality of the division and organization of topics/approaches, and the critical thinking quality of the follow-up discussion.

Grupo Term Paper Research Projects:

Students in each grupo will also be asked to select a pertinent historical/sociological topic relating to the Latino experience in the United States, and organize and carry out a group research project on it. The subject may be panethnic (all Latinos) or ethnic (one Latino ethnic group); the period covered may be historic (as far back as last century), or contemporary (80s & 90s); the spatial dimension may be as small as a city or a local area, and as large as North America & the Caribbean; the topics may focus on the social, political, economic, demographic, and cultural conditions, trends, institutional dynamics, social movements, and polemical issues affecting Latinos or affected by them. There are literally hundreds of possible interesting topics. The students must obtain approval from Dr. Santos for both their overall grupo topic and their individual subtopics no later than February 5.

Students must complement at least three sources from materials in the library with three web sources. Here are some web readings students can cite from, though they are password restricted (Dr. Santos will share the access codes in class).

Readings on Latino Identity

Readings on Latino Immigration

Readings on Latino Socioeconomic Conditions

Readings on Latino Political Conditions

Readings on Puerto Ricans & Puerto Rico

Readings on Cuban Americans & Cuba

Though the final product should reflect the grupo effort, each student will individually write his or her own contributing paper for the volume, between 5 and 6 pages in length (apart from bibliography and charts), double-spaced, font 10, one-inch margins. For the guidelines on how to write a good research term paper go directly to: http://www.csub.edu/~gsantos/Guide-Paper.html. Each individual paper should have a well-stated, sharply focused research hypothesis, a summary of the literature read and the key descriptive data on it, and a critical analysis section leading to a conclusion. Papers will be graded for clarity and organization, quality of analysis, and accuracy and relevance of descriptive data.

The deadline for turning in the research volume is Thursday, March 18, 5:00 pm, at Dr. Santos' office. The volume should be bound, have a title page, a table of contents listing each individual title and student author, and the actual papers; continuous page numbering and a single, common bibliography are not required; each paper should start with the title and author at the top, be numbered, and have a bibliography at the end.

Grading:

The grupo class presentations are worth 20 points each (15 points for the individual oral presentation, 5 points for the overall group effort). The research projects are worth 50 points (40 points for the individual paper and 10 points for the quality of the grupo volume as a whole). Class participation in general is worth 10 points (includes attendance, punctuality, preparation, and active participation in class discussions). The final letter grade will be assigned, on a scale of 0 to 100, as follows:
 

Office Hours & Private E-Mail to Dr. Santos:

All students are encouraged to visit the instructor regularly during posted office hours (see above) or by appointment, especially to ensure their group projects are approved, well chosen and organized, their individual research papers are well focused, or to discuss any question they may have from the class lectures, the textbooks, or their grupo class presentations. Approval/consultation of the grupo research topics must be done in person at Dr. Santos office by representatives of each grupo. 

If you wish to send Dr. Santos a brief, to the point, private message, you may do so at:

     santos_class@csub.edu

Dr. Santos prefers students either come to his office during office hours or call him by phone, rather than to receive private e-mail messages (huge e-traffic from another class). 

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

My First Presentation:_________________________________________________

My Second Presentation:_______________________________________________ 

My GRUPO  Research Topic:___________________________________________

My Own Research Subtopic:____________________________________________

My other GRUPO members:

    Name_____________________Phone_________________Email_________________

1._______________________________________________________________________

2._______________________________________________________________________

3._______________________________________________________________________

4._______________________________________________________________________

5._______________________________________________________________________

6._______________________________________________________________________