Border Crossings in the Latinx Americas

Catalog description

The concept of border implies a sense of contradiction. Borders are at once points of separation and of union. They are the site at which nations, cultures, and languages divide themselves from one another, and the point at which they converge. Borders are a method through which the nation defines and conceives of itself, and yet are often the focal point of its greatest anxieties. Similarly, when we think of borderlands, we tend to think of geographic areas surrounding national borders. However, for many migrant communities and US Latinxs, living in the borderlands is an experience that is not bound by geography. Rather, it is a continual negotiation of the borders of race, language, class, gender, sexuality, and citizenship that traverse all aspects of American society, which can take place anywhere from Nogales, Arizona, to Spanish Harlem, to North Carolina. In this course, we will address the complex forces that continuously form and reform our borders and borderlands, while focusing on Latin American and Latinx experiences of migration, diaspora, and border crossing. We will begin with border theory and an overview of the historical forces that produce the borders of the United States and that drive migration from Latin America and the Caribbean. We will then examine works of literature, film, visual art, and music from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Latinx United States that critique the violent bordering practices of the present, while dreaming of new ways of living with borders and new forms of life in the borderlands. Satisfies Hispanic Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement. Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Spanish 260 and Spanish 271 or Spanish 272, or their…