Hispanics in the U.S.

Catalog description

The presence of peoples of Hispanic and Latin American descent in what is now the United States predates the country's founding. Yet, their identities are generally tied to imaginaries of immigration and foreignness. This course examines the history of people of Latin American descent in the United States, how their identity is construed by the media, the state, and how they contest the often-derogatory ideas about themselves through activism and cultural production. Specifically, we will read literary texts, study films and music created by Latino/a/x artists and analyze their ethical implications within their historical context. Throughout the course, we will reflect on the question of what it means for a nation to label a group of people as “others” and, by contrasting how that minoritized group thinks about itself, consider ways to fight discrimination within a multicultural society. The course will be taught in English with some material in Spanglish.