Blancas, Negras Y Morenas: Race in Another America

Catalog description

This course explores the historical and contemporary factors that affect the construction and of an ethnic or racial identity among Latin American immigrants and their youth in the US. Drawing on history, sociology and literary fiction on the social construction of race and ethnic identities, students learn about the challenges of living in a host society which uses a very different racial schema than those used in the nation of origin. Questions and themes guiding this course include: why are race, ethnicity and gender important categories in the construction of a minority or majority identity? Why are skin color and phenotype so important predictors of social mobility in Latin America and the US? What is the role of the government or that of the Census in the construction, erosion or diffusion of racial identies and boundaries? How may the history of Latin America imperialism, colonization, mestizaje, indigenismo, and modernization help us better capture the social construction of race and its key role in determining majority and minority relations and intergenerational inequality.