ANTHROPOLOGY 169
Latinos in the U.S.
Prof. Luis A. Vivanco, T-Th 9:30-10:45, Rowell 110
Spring 2003
Do you want this syllabus in PDF format?
Course Description
Latinos represent the fastest-growing 'ethnic minority' in the United States, and it is projected that within five years they will be the largest. Popular culture, consumer capitalism and political debates have increasingly trained their attention on Latino/a populations, indicating that Latinos/as are challenging taken-for-granted realities in this country - including the central American myth of the "melting pot" - and themselves being transformed by their relationships and experiences here. But is it true, and what does it mean, that we are experiencing a 'Hispanicization of the United States, [and] an Angloization of Hispanics,' as scholar Ilan Stavans claims? What cultural traits do Latino/as have in common or difference with other 'Americans,' and how do they relate to non-Latino populations? How do different Latin American nationalities and social classes and their U.S.-born kin relate to each other in the U.S. context? How do Latinos/as relate to the politics of race, ethnicity and multiculturalism? This course seeks to answer such questions, in the process introducing you to anthropological approaches to socio-cultural identities and hybridities.
In its breadth and scope, this course serves two purposes. First, from a disciplinary perspective, it introduces you to the anthropological study of contemporary multicultural societies and the transnational political-economic and cultural linkages that contribute to their ongoing transformations. It does this through an examination of the character of corporate and individual identity formation, the maintenance of identity under conditions of culture contact, and the processes by which identity changes. Second, from the perspectives of area and ethnic studies, this course introduces you to the major Latino peoples, their immigration, migration and settlement patterns, concepts of identity, socioeconomic and labor conditions, politics and activism, experiences of discrimination and colonialism, political ecology, religion, gender relations and sexualities, arts, bilingualism, and cross-border realities.
While we will examine particular national, ethnic and racial communities, this course is not about these groups as the main 'objects of study.' Rather, we will explore course issues from the perspective that 'Latino/a' represent political and cultural categories in processes of invention, construction, and reconstitution in the contemporary United States and the Americas more generally. Consequently this course is about encounters, relationships, dislocations and conflicts between and within communities ('national,' 'ethnic' and 'racial') and the hybrid and shifting socio-cultural identities and political-economic relationships that result. These encounters and relationships are not limited to the geographical territory of the United States: indeed, this course will argue that 'Latino/a' as American identities cannot be adequately understood without taking into account broad regional and cross-border political-economies and perspectives.
The following texts are available for purchase at the University Store:
Required Books:
1. Darder and Torres (1998) The Latino Studies Reader: Culture, Economy & Society. Blackwell.
2. Portes and Stepick (1993) City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami. University of California Press.
3. Velez-Ibanez (1996) Border Visions: Mexican Cultures of the Southwest United States. University of Arizona Press.
4. Boyle (1995) The Tortilla Curtain. Penguin.
Recommended Book (You are not required to purchase this book, but you may wish to read/own this for further background):
1. Suro (1998) Strangers Among Us: How Latino Immigration is Transforming America. Vintage.