UCLA CHICANA/CHICANO STUDIES 1OA

Introduction to Chicana/o Studies: History and Culture

Fall 2018 • Mon & Weds: 11 am – 12:15 pm • 100 Moore Hall

Professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba

Office: 7367 Bunche Hall
Phone: (310) 206-7695 (main office)
Email: agdealba@g.ucla.edu
Office Hours: R 2-3, and by appointment

Course description:
This is a 5-unit Humanities-based introduction to three central issues in Chicana/o history and culture:
Identity, Gender, and Representation. The course is structured on Roberto Fernández Retamar's
interpretation of the characters in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Using Prospero as a metaphor for the
European colonizer and Caliban as a metaphor for the New World native, a product of “American” soil
and European colonization, Retamar offers us a way of interpreting mestizo/a culture from the mestizo/a’s
point of view. In Caliban, we find an indigenous hero who has no choice but to learn his colonizer’s
language while negotiating the contradictions of colonized mind to survive in the Brave New Colonial
World. Thus, Caliban is an appropriate symbol for all people of so-called Hispanic descent in the
Americas. We will see how Caliban's dilemma as well as his resistance applies to Chicano/a history and
culture by exploring such issues as labels, colonized mind, sexism, homophobia, stereotyping, and
alienation. We'll explore the goals and tenets of the Chicano Movement and the cultural production that
emerged from it in the visual arts. And we'll spend some time contemplating the role of gender and
sexuality to the ongoing revolution of Chicana/o/x empowerment. And don’t be alarmed that Caliban, as a
biologically-male character, is being used as a signifier for all genders of “la Raza.” Caliban will be
experiencing several transformations in the course (and, hopefully, so will you!).

Goals of the Course:

In an introductory course that provides an overview of the issues rather than a detailed study, the focus is
going to be on breadth rather than depth; therefore, we will move quickly through a number of topics,
readings, and issues. To get the most out of a survey course, it is important that you attend and participate
actively in both the lecture class and your discussion section. One of our expectations for you in the
course is that you learn to generate analytical questions on the course material, and that you work with
your TA and your classmates to seek responses to those questions. Keep in mind that seeking responses
to questions is not the same as seeking answers. One of the objectives of the course, then, is for you to
learn how to ask open-ended questions and, concurrently, to learn how to negotiate between contradictory
responses. Another important goal is to introduce you to a series of innovative writing techniques that will
help you produce not only a better written and more coherent final paper for this class, but that will also
arm you with more confidence for all your writing projects in other classes. Like Caliban, we must use
Prospero's tools to master Prospero's language, rather than be mastered by it. This analogy will make
more sense to you after the first lecture.

Course Requirements:
Discussion Section Participation 10%
iClicker Points (bring your iClicker to every lecture) 15%
Course Blog (due by midnight every Sunday) 20%
Midterm (Week 6) 25%
Final 30%
 2

Required Texts:
1. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa
2. Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders by Profe Alicia Gaspar de Alba
3. Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race by Laura Gómez
4. Song of the Hummingbird by Graciela Limón
5. De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century by Elizabeth “Betita”
Martínez (not available in Kindle; PDFs of individual chapters will be accessible on the course
website to enrolled students)
6. The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi
7. The Chicano Movement for Beginners by Maceo Montoya
8. The Tempest by William Shakespeare. An annotated version of The Tempest is also available
online.
9. iClicker 2 (ISBN 9781319149581)

Supplies
Aside from your texts, you will need an iClicker 2 (information below), a good college dictionary (the
one bundled with your Word processing program isn’t what I have in mind), and a blue book for your
midterm. You will also need access to a computer for accessing the course website, posting weekly to
course discussion blog and to write and submit your final paper. I want no laptops on your desks or other
electronic devices to distract you or for you to distract your classmates. TA’s will be monitoring the class
to make sure you are complying with this “no electronic devices” rule.

Absences
You are required to attend both my lecture class and your discussion section on a regular basis. You will
be allowed a generous 1 free absence from your discussion section. After that first absence, each
absence from your discussion section will lower your overall course grade by half a point. I expect you to
demonstrate your commitment to the course by attending every lecture class. If you fail to show up to the
lecture class, or if you consistently come in late or leave early, your TA will take note and dock your
participation grade accordingly. More significantly, continued absence from the lecture will negatively
impact your iClicker 2 points. If an emergency comes up that will require an extended absence from the
course (more than one), you must inform me AND your T.A. beforehand, or as soon as you find out. It
will not do you any good to let us know after the fact, unless it's a medical emergency and you have a
doctor's note or some other document to excuse your absence.

The Reading Schedule

Most weeks, you will have a heavy reading load. Readings should be completed before you go to the first
lecture of each week (Mondays). A good rule of thumb is to complete your Blog entry for the week by
Sunday night, and to have all your reading for the week completed by Monday. If you wait until your
discussion section meets, you will likely fall very far behind and will not have much grounding in the
lecture class. Even if you fall behind, you should catch up as soon as you can. You’ll need to have
completed all of the reading before you can write a good Final Paper, and you won’t have time at the end
of the quarter to cram it all in. Not to mention, of course, that your Midterm is coming up in Week 6, and
will cover all the readings from the first five weeks. So, please do your best to stay on schedule.

Discussion Section Participation (10%)

Participation is a subjective grade, based on how much you engage in class discussions and on the quality
of your engagement. If, for example, you're never absent from section, but say nothing at all, your grade
will be lower than if you miss your 1 free class but join in on the discussion the rest of the time.
Likewise, you can be very talkative and still get a lower grade than someone who speaks up less often
 3

than you do but who contributes more substantially to the discussion by sticking to the topic and focusing
on the texts. Personal anecdotes are illuminating and often serve to show the connections between your
life and the readings; however, they should not become the reason for the discussion, nor should the
discussion be made to accommodate everyone's personal story. Analysis is primary!

iClicker 2 (15%)
All students must purchase an iClicker 2 and bring it to every lecture class, beginning the first day. Please
make sure to purchase this version. Prior versions do not function properly. We will not give credit for
any missing assignments due to technical issues using prior versions of the iClicker 2.2. The iClicker 2 is
available at the Bookstore, through Amazon.com, or from the iClicker website.

This device will be used to poll students on reading comprehension and lecture participation. You will
accumulate comprehension votes, or points, with the iClicker 2 exercises that will then translate into 15%
of your course grade.

Here are the instructions for registering your iClicker 2 through the Moodle site:
https://moodle2.sscnet.ucla.edu/docs/Registering_your_iClicker

Please register your iClicker 2 on the CS 10A website before class:

https://moodle2.sscnet.ucla.edu/course/view/18F-CHICANO10A-1

If you need technical support, please contact (866) 209-5698 or via email support@iclicker.com
from 9AM-11PM EST, M-F. The iClicker 2 website (www.iclicker.com) also has support
documentation, video tutorials, and FAQs for students.

We consider bringing a fellow student's iClicker 2 to class to be a violation of university policies on

academic integrity. If you are caught with a remote other than your own or have votes in a class that you
did not attend, you will forfeit all clicker points and may face additional disciplinary actions.

Please realize that you will be using iClicker 2 in every lecture class and the points resulting from its use
will make up 15% of your course grade (please refer to grading section to see the breakdown of
this percentage). Please remember that it is your responsibility to come prepared to participate with a
functioning device every day. However, we do realize that difficult circumstances do arise. For this
reason, we will drop all scores from Monday of Week One from your total participation grade.

Finally: Using iClicker 2, short “terminology” quizzes will be given in each lecture during the quarter,
which will cover terms from the current lecture as well as from the lectures of the previous weeks. The
point: keep up with your reading, take good notes, remember authors’ names, the dates of important
events, and be able to connect characters with titles and stories; needless to say, a study group will help
you best prepare for lectures and discussions!

Course Blog (20%)

The course blog, chicanxCS10A.blogspot.com, is intended as a virtual discussion space where you may
comment on course texts and lectures. This course is too large to have sustained discussion during lecture
and your discussion section will probably not have enough time to talk about the many topics and themes
presented in any given week. To aid you with your reading retention skills, we will provide prompts
based on the readings and lectures at the beginning of each week, and your posts will be due on/before
midnight the following Sunday.

If you are enrolled, expect to receive an invitation from Blogger to your preferred email to join the CS
10A discussion blog during Week 0. Your Week 0 blog post is due on/before midnight on Sunday,
 4

September 30. Posts should be 300 words each. Posts cannot be less than 300 words to count. There is no
penalty if they are longer than 300 words.

For the Week 0 Post (due on/before midnight Sunday, September 30 to make sure we can resolve any
issues early), introduce yourself to the course. Include your preferred name and pronouns, your
major/year, your reason for being enrolled in this course and anything else you consider important for
your classmates to know about you. This Week 0 post should be titled: YourLastName,YourFirstName.
Include a recent photo so that we can get to know each other even though this is a very large lecture
course. Most important and in order to receive credit for each of your posts, this first post and all posts
should be labeled as follow: DiscussionSectionLastNameFirstName.

CAVEAT: you are required to participate in weekly discussions via the online blog. If you would prefer
to post your assignments under a pseudonym so that these entries are not identifiable (except to us),
please speak with me before the first assignment due date so that I know which pseudonym you’re using
and can assign your grade based on your work.

All of your weekly posts are listed in the course syllabus by week. Remember to check spelling and
grammar before submitting your posts. Since this is a course discussion space, you are encouraged to read
each of your discussion section mates’ posts and to comment on at least 5 of these posts during the
quarter.

Your blog posts are graded according to the completed number of entries. It is the easiest 20% of your
course grade, as long as you put in the effort and keep up with the work. Your T. A. will establish her or
his own schedule for making sure you are keeping up with your entries. You will have a total of 11
required posts (10 weekly posts plus 1 post during Week Zero) and you may do up to 2 additional
entries for extra credit.

The Midterm (25%)

This exam will be taken during lecture in Week 6 and will cover all of the readings and lectures from the
first half of the course. It requires a “blue book” or “examination book” which you can purchase at the
campus bookstore. I suggest you bring a couple blue books with you on the day of the exam. You will not
be able to use your texts or notes while you take the exam, and no pencils, please. The midterm cannot be
made up unless you have a documented emergency or other verifiable, justifiable reason for being absent
on the day of the midterm.

The Take-Home Final Paper (30%)

This is NOT a research paper, but an in-depth response to two questions that will ask you to summarize
and analyze a number of the course readings in light of the issues and terms that we have discussed
throughout the term. The assignment will be posted to the course website on Tuesday of Week 10, and the
final paper will be due on TURN-IT-IN on Wednesday, December 12 at 5 p.m., so you will only have
8 days in which to produce a coherent, analytical, and well-written response to both questions. Get to
work on these questions as soon as you get the assignment. The primary criteria for grading your Final
Paper are: 1) how effectively does the paper respond to all parts of each question? How well does the
student understand the terms, concepts, and historical material we covered this quarter? And, 2) in what
specific ways has the course expanded the students’ knowledge of identity, gender, and representation in
Chicana/o history and culture? The more material you can cite and reference to develop your answers—
from course lectures to readings to characters we encountered during the quarter—the better your grade
on the Final Paper. Also, keep in mind that organization, development, grammar, punctuation, and
spelling, all count toward your paper’s evaluation; so, if you have problems in any of these technical
areas, consult a writing tutor ASAP. Please think of a catchy title for your paper. Your Final Paper must
be submitted via TurnItIn. Obviously, you won’t have time to catch up on reading you didn't do over the
 5

quarter. This is why it's imperative that you not fall behind in the reading schedule. NO EMAILED, OR
HANDWRITTEN FINALS ACCEPTED. No exceptions. Submitting a Final Paper is mandatory for
passing the course.

Late Finals
Finals not turned in by 5pm on the Wednesday of Finals Week will not be accepted by TurnItIn and will
be considered late. Hard copies of late finals will be accepted ONLY through Friday of Finals Week. Late
finals will be penalized one half-letter grade for each day that they’re late. Do not assume you can drop
off your Late Final whenever you want. You must make arrangements with your TA to submit a
late Final. WARNING: If you do not turn in a final paper, you will fail the course.

About Office Hours

In a large course like 10A, the only face-to-face contact I, as the professor, have with my students is
through office hours. I encourage you to get to know me as well as your T.A. by coming to see us during
office hours at least once during the quarter. Stop by for a visit, to get more feedback on an assignment,
to discuss the course, or to get more input on a particular reading. If you’re a Chicana/o Studies major or
minor, it’s especially important that you get to know your professor.

Your T.A. will hold a minimum of one office hour per section, per week. Check with her or him for exact
times.

Students with Disabilities

Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for
Accessible Education (CAE) at (310)825-1501 [TDD: (310) 206-6083 ]or in person at Murphy
Hall A255. When possible, students should contact the CAE within the first two weeks of the term
as reasonable notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. We can only honor
accommodations made through CAE. For more information visit www.cae.ucla.edu.

Safe Space:
Although in the current political regime, “safe spaces” don’t actually exist, we want to think of 10A as a
space in which students feel safe enough to discuss some of the more volatile topics that we will be
covering in class. A space designated as “safe” is first of all a place of respect, a place where differences
are respected, and a space where no sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic or otherwise bigoted remarks
will be tolerated. Some of the issues we're going to discuss during the course are sensitive topics for some
of us. Because they form the basis to our identities, these topics are close to the heart, and, for some,
difficult to discuss. Sensitivity and mutual respect for difference are essential in this class. The decision to
act affirmatively--to acknowledge rather than deny that we live in a world of power differentials based on
race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and language--is even more necessary now than ever
before.

Weekly Schedule
Readings should be completed before you go to the first lecture of each week; a good rule of thumb
is to have all of your reading for the week completed by Monday, but certainly before your
discussion section meets to discuss the material for the week. It’s very important that you do your best
to stay caught up with the reading assignments, especially around Midterm and Final time, but throughout
the quarter; you will get a much better understanding of the lectures if you’ve done the readings
beforehand.
 6

10A SYLLABUS 2018

Week Zero: Go to Week 0 of the course website and click on “The Tempest.” Read the play before Week
1. It will help you understand the Caliban and Ariel metaphors. Also, don’t forget to write your Blog Post
0 on the course blog, to which you received an invitation (via email/course Announcements) to add
yourself as a contributor. Contact your section TA for help with this.

Blog Post #0: Check blog. www.chicanxCS10A.blogspot.com to select your own specific discussion
section blog or directly log in to the discussion section blog you already accepted invitation to. These
discussion blogs are private and for invited users only.

Week Zero: Read and/or watch “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare. Links are under Week Zero.

Week One: Caliban and Ariel: Colonialism and Historical Amnesia

M 10/01 Prospero, the Colonizer
Reading: Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized: Part I (Portrait of the Colonizer)
Course website: “I Am Joaquín” by Corky Gonzales

W 10/03 Caliban, the Colonized

Reading: Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized: Part II (Portrait of the Colonized)
Blog Post #1: Check Blog

Week Two: The Double Conquest: La Conquista (16th century)

M 10/08 “The Spanish Conquest”
Reading: Graciela Limón, Song of the Hummingbird (full novel)

W 10/10 “The Colonial Legacy of the Sistema de Castas and the Identity Wheel”
Reading: Martínez, Ch. 1 “A Word about the Great Terminology Question”), Ch. 2
(“Seeing More than Black and White”), Ch. 5 (”Reinventing America”)

Blog Post #2: Check blog

Week Three: The Double Conquest: Manifest Destiny (19th century)

M 10/15 Manifest Destiny, Or, The Anglo Conquest of the Mexican North
Reading: Laura Gómez, Manifest Destinies: Chapters 1-2
Elizabeth Martínez, Ch. 4 (“Whose Chicano History Did You Learn?”)

W 10/17 Spotlight on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Reading: Gómez, Manifest Destinies, Chapters 3-4

Blog Post #3: Check blog

Week Four: Viva La Raza! The Chicano Movement in a Nutshell
M 10/22 The Tenets of Chicanismo, or, What Is Mestizaje, Cultural Nationalism, the Lost
Homeland of Aztlán, and Carnalismo?
Readings: Maceo Montoya, Chicano Movement for Beginners (full book)
 7

Martínez, De Colores: Ch. 11 (“Walking with Cesar”), Ch. 23 (“Whatever Happened to

the Chicano Movement?”), Ch. 25 (“Be Down with the Brown”), Ch. 26 (“They Were
Willing to Die”), Ch. 29 (“¡Raza Sí! Nationalism…?”)
Course website: “I am Joaquín” (the poem)

W 10/24 Guest Lecture: Professor Leisy Abrego

Reading: Course Website: Leisy Abrego, “On Silences: Salvadoran Refugees Then and Now”

Blog Post #4 Check blog

Week Five: Chicana Feminists on the Rise

M 10/29 Chingón Politics,
Martínez, Ch. 18 (“In Pursuit of Latina Liberation”), Ch. 19
(Chingón Politics Die Hard”), Ch. 20 (“Listen Up, Anglo Sisters”)

W 10/31 La Nueva Mestiza, The Shadow Beast, and Queer Aztlán

Readings: Anzaldúa: Chapters 2-7 (be finished with these readings by Monday when you come to class)
Course Website: Cherrie Moraga, “Queer Aztlán: The Re-Formation of Chicano Tribe”
Blog Post #5: Check blog

Week Six: MIDTERM

M 11/05 “Reflections on Caliban’s Journey/Midterm Review Exercise”

W 11/03 MIDTERM in lecture: don’t forget your blue exam books.

(hint: this is a comprehensive exam and will cover all of the readings and lecture material
of the first five weeks of the course.)
Readings: Everything from Weeks 0-5
Blog Post #6: Check blog

Week Seven: The American Sueño

M 11/12 Veteran’s Day Holiday. No class meeting. Be sure to do all of your reading for the week
before coming to lecture on Wednesday.

W 11/14 Guest Lecture: Reyna Grande

Blog Post #7: Check blog

Week Eight: The Border Nightmare

M 11/19 “Who is Killing the Young Women of Juárez?”
Reading: Gaspar de Alba, Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders (full novel)

W 11/21 Watch and discuss “Señorita Extraviada”

Reading: Course website: “Transfrontera Crimes: Representations of the Juárez Femicides in
Recent Fictional and Non-Fictional Accounts” by Marietta Mesmer
Blog Post #8 Check blog
 8

Week Nine: The Celluloid Curriculum and Black-Brown Relations in Los Angeles
M 11/26 " The Aliens are Coming: Stereotyping as a Cultural Weapon”

Readings: Martinéz, De Colores: Ch. 7 (“Immigrant Bashing on the Rise”) and Ch. 9 (“It’s a
Terrorist War on Immigrants”)

Course Website: Carlos Cortes, “Who Is Maria? What is Juan? Dilemmas of Analyzing
the Chicano Image in U.S. Feature Films”; Charles Ramírez Berg, “Immigrants, Aliens,
and Extraterrestrials: Science Fiction’s Alien ‘Other’ As, Among Other Things, U.S.
Hispanics”

W 11/28 Guest lecture: Professor Gaye Theresa Johnson

Reading: Course website: Gaye Theresa Johnson, “Spatial Entitlement: Race, Displacement, and
Sonic Reclamation in Postwar Los Angeles”

Blog Post #9: Check blog

Week Ten: Caliban's Resistance

M 12/03 "Alter-Native Citizens and the Master's Tools

Reading: Martínez, Ch. 15 (“Campus Racism”), Ch. 30 (“Remember Something Ancient, Imagine
Something New”), Introduction (“A Call for Rainbow Warriors”)

FINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT AVAILABLE TODAY ON TURN-IT-IN

TH 12/05 “Re-Membering Caliban"

Course Overview
Readings: Anything you still haven’t finished reading.

Blog Post #10 Check blog

Finals Week
Your Final Paper must be submitted via TurnItIn on Wednesday, December 12 at 5pm. NO EMAILED
OR HANDWRITTEN FINALS ACCEPTED. No exceptions. Finals not turned in by the cut-off time will
not be accepted by TurnItIn and will be considered late. Hard copies of late finals will be accepted ONLY
through Friday of Finals Week. Late finals will be penalized one half-letter grade for each day that they’re
late. Do not assume you can drop off your Late Final whenever you want. You must make
arrangements with your TA to submit a late Final. Submitting a Final Paper is mandatory for passing
the course.