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

• Joan Moore and Raquel Pinderhughes, eds., 1993. In the Barrios. Latinos and the Underclass Debate. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

• Antonia Darder et al., eds., 1997. Latinos and Education. A Critical Reader. New York: Routledge.

• Various Authors. Web Readings on Dr. Santos' World Wide Web site.

This course explores the sociology of the varied Latino experiences in the United States in this century. We will first explore the Mexican American experience, from the legacies of conquest in the U.S. Southwest, to the large migration flows in and out of the U.S. since the turn of the century and the growth of the communities, to the emergence of a new sense of social and cultural identity and the accompanying political movements of Mexican Americans. Next we analyze the mix of socioeconomic conditions and challenges facing Latinos in contemprary urban America - the barrio experience discussed within the framework of the so-called "underclass debate". Specifically, we will study Latinos in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Chicago, and the Border Region with Mexico. Finally, we focus on Latinos and education, the way the current politics of multiculturalism, identity, and language affects and is affected by Latinos, especially in the educational arena.

There is also a large selection of readings placed in Dr. Santos' website for students to read on their own and for use in their group research projects and class presentations. The course strongly emphasizes group learning.

Attendance:

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 with Dr. Santos ahead of time.

Reading Assignments and Groupo Presentations in Class:

Students are expected to come to each class fully prepared to discuss the assigned textbook chapter(s) for the day, around which Dr. Santos will give his lectures the first hour. The students will form groups of four-to-six students. These groupos will take turns at selecting, every Friday, two readings from Dr. Santos' website, and announcing their choices to allow everybody to read them for the subsequent Friday, when the grupo will present and discuss their selection during the last half-hour.

Accessing the Web Readings:

When students try to access the actual readings placed in Dr. Santos' web site, that is, those listed in the syllabi webpage, they will have to enter two password codes to get through: for "username" enter [see instructor], and for "password" enter [see instructor]. You only need to do this once per session.

Grupo E-mail:

Students in this class will be given FirstClass email accounts on campus, a MUCH better and user-friendly email system than the VAX accounts students use. The privilege ends at the end of the term. It is up to each grupo to set up their own email communications. Students with home accounts may use them, so long as they share their addresses with their grupo.

Grupo Research Projects:

Students in each grupo will also be asked to select a topic, and organize and carry out a group research project on a pertinent historico-sociological topic relating to the Latino Experience in the United States. The subject of each project may be panethnic (all latinos) or ethnic (one latino ethnic group); the period may be historic (back to last century), or contemporary, or both; the spatial dimension may be as small as a city or a group of cities, and as large as the United States; the topics may range through the whole gamut of social, political, economic, demographic, and cultural conditions, trends, and issues facing Latinos or impacted by them. The grupos must consult their topics and individual sub-topics with Dr. Santos and receive his authorization no later than May 1.

Individual Research Paper Guidelines:

Though the final product should reflect the grupo effort, each student will individually write his or her own contributing paper for the volume. For the guidelines on how to write a good research term paper click here, (or look it up in Dr. Santos' Syllabi webpage).The deadline for turning in the research volume is the time and day of the final exam (when it is scheduled to start). The volume should be bound, have a title page, a table of contents listing each individual title and student author, and if possible, continuous page numbering and a single, common bibliography, though the latter two aspects are not required.

Private E-Mail to Dr. Santos:

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

so long as you type in the subject heading something like "SOC335 PRIVATE MESSAGE TO DR. SANTOS". Dr. Santos prefers much more for students to either come to his office during office hours, see him after class, or call him by phone, rather than to receive private e-mail messages from students, which often get lost in the flood of electronic traffic he gets from other courses (over 5,000 per term!). Ask yourself these questions before you send him an email message: (1) Is it something I can simply talk to him in his office, by phone, or after class? (2) Will he realistically be able to help me by email with a short & simple reply? (3) Is it that urgent or necessary, can it wait or be done by myself?

Exams:

There will be a mid-term exam on Monday, May 8. There will be a final exam on Wednesday, June 10, 11:00 - 1:30 pm. Both exams will be based on the lectures and the textbooks. Both exams will consist of short essays. Please bring pencils and a large blue exam notebook to each test. The final exam will only cover the second half of the course.

Grading:

Each exam is worth 35 points. The grupo class presentations is worth 10 points (5 for each individual presentation and 5 for the overall effort). The research project is worth 20 points (15 for each individual chapter and 5 for the whole volume). The final letter grade will be assigned, on a scale of 0 to 100, as follows:

Office Hours:

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, the web readings, or their groupo interactions.

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