The Latino Experiences in the United States SOC 335                                                       Winter 2011 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: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, MWF Teaching Assistant: Ms. Ana Montoya Econ865@yahoo.com Office: DDH-AA204 Office Hours: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, Fridays, or by appointment

• Camille Guerin-Gonzales, 1994. Mexican Workers And American Dreams. Immigration, Repatriation, and California Farm Labor, 1900-1939. Rutgers University Press. ISBN:0813520487

• David G. Gutierrez, 1995. Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity. University of California Press.  ISBN: 0520202198

• Luis Fraga, John A. Garcia, Rodney Hero, Michael Jones-Correa, Gary M. Segura, 2010. Latino Lives in America: Making It Home. Temple University Press.  ISBN:1439900493

• Kevin Johnson, 2009. Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink its Borders and Immigration Laws. New York University Press. ISBN:0814743099

This course explores the rich and diverse sociological experiences of the Latino peoples in the United States in four distinct angles. The first one, more geographically delimited, is the experience of the first large waves of Mexican worker migration, repatriation, and settlement in California's agricultural regions in the first four decades of the 20th century, just before the Second World War. The second one, on a broader geographical and historical scale, covers more than a century of US Southwest history and examines the ways that continuous Mexican migration to and from the region deeply transformed the political, social, and cultural life of the region, especially the evolution of the growing Mexican American communities' sense of social and cultural identity, shaping the trajectory of the emerging Mexican American civil rights movement up to the 1950s. These two historical explorations will prepare the student well to understand the rich historic roots and context of the first nationwide panethnic Latino revolt of the late 1960s up to the mid 1970s (e.g., the more famous Chicano Movement, or the United Farm Worker Union movement). These movements will then be the topics of the first research papers assigned, topics the students will then choose and explore on their own. The third domain of exploration is the contemporary sociological condition of all U.S. Latino communities, who together add up to over 50 million people, a third of which are immigrants, constituting the largest and fastest growing panethnic group in the United States, with increased levels of political mobilization, economic weight, and demographic impact. The fourth area intensely affecting the Latino communities in the U.S. that we will explore is the debate over reforming the U.S. immigration regime for the new century, specially as it relates to the U.S.-Mexico relationship. We will purposely study an alternative vision of how U.S. borders might be reconfigured, grounded in moral, economic, and policy arguments for open borders. Students will then explore other aspects of the immigration issue for their second research papers.

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. Every student group will present twice to the class during the quarter. That way each student will be asked to prepare and deliver two class presentations during the quarter, in coordination with his/her grupo.

Attendance is absolutely mandatory (please, no tardiness or early departures, as these too will be penalized). ALL students must come prepared to discuss the assigned readings for each class session - a policy that will be implemented by each student either by giving a formal presentation that day, or, when he/she is 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.)

Apart from the two group class presentations and the submitted reading assessments, the students will collaborate within their groups to identify, organize, divide up, research and write two research topic projects, consisting of individual research papers around a common topic related to the Latino experience in the United States.

Class Presentations: At the beginning of the course, the students will be organized in thirteen groups of up to four students each.  On those dates identified in the schedule below, groups will make their PowerPoint presentations on their assigned readings -- groups can expect to present twice in the quarter. Class discussion will follow the presentations. On Fridays, Ms. Ana Montoya, our Teaching Assistance, will lead the class discussions.

Please email Dr. Santos an electronic copy of your presentation. Time allotted per individual presentation will be 6 to 10 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. Each student should insert appropriate quotes, charts, and figures from the portion of the textbook he/she is covering, apart from his/her own narrative. Please avoid cluttered slides, full of tiny font text or messy backgrounds that render the text unreadable - make more slides! Images are welcome, as long as they are relevant, informative, and will be explained (especially charts).

As a precaution, please bring your presentations in a USB-type memory stick and also email it to your own email account. DO NOT BRING YOUR POWERPOINT PRESENTATION IN FORMAT ".pptx" or "ppsx", as the class computer MAY 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 was organized and covered the topics selected), (b) critical thinking, original materials added, and relevance of topics covered; (c) the relevance and quality of the question posed at the end, (d) the quality of the visuals used, and (e) the quality & style of the oral delivery (communication skills).

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, one-inch margins, font 12 text. Dr. Santos may randomly select a couple of students to read their assessments and/or questions in the discussion period. No late reading assessments will be accepted, unless the student has a pre-authorized absence from Dr. Santos. PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR READING ASSESSMENTS BY EMAIL.

CONTENT: Please always write on top of your reading assessments your name, the date, and the title of 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 choose to 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 "just 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.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Students presenting on a given day do not need to submit ANY reading assessments FOR THAT DAY.

Research Papers:  Students in each grupo will also be asked twice during the quarter to chose a pertinent sociological topic related to two periods of the Latino experiences in the United States, and design, organize, and carry out a written group research project on them. The first research project topic should be related to the great panethnic rebellion of various Latino communities in the United States, from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. The second research project topic should be related to the contemporary U.S. immigration issue. The students must obtain approval from Dr. Santos for both their overall grupo topic, as well as for each of their individual subtopics at least three weeks prior to the project deadlines. Grupo delegates may visit Dr. Santos for this purpose during his office hours posted above.

Extra Points: Perfect attendance (allowing for excused absences) 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.

Office Hours & E-Mail to Dr. Santos & Ms. Ana Montoya:

All students are encouraged to visit Dr. Santos and/or Ms. Ana Montoya regularly during their posted office hours: to plan for or go over their presentations (Ms. Montoya); to ensure their grupo research project topics and subtopics (Dr. Santos); to make sure their individual research papers are well focused, or to discuss any question from the class lectures, the textbooks, or their grupo class presentations (both). Consultation and approval of the grupo research topics must be done in person at Dr. Santos office by representatives of each grupo - no emails on that subject, please - at least three weeks before the research papers are due.

Dr. Santos much prefers students to come to his office during his 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. The same applies to Ms. Montoya. She will be in class on Fridays and hold office hours immediately after those classes.

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

My Own Research Subtopic # 1 is:___________________________________________________________

My GRUPO  Research Topic # 2 is:__________________________________________________________

My Own Research Subtopic # 2 is:___________________________________________________________

My  GRUPO members are:

___Name______________________Phone_____________________Email_________________________________

1._____________________________________________________________________________________________

2._____________________________________________________________________________________________

3._____________________________________________________________________________________________

4._____________________________________________________________________________________________