CHICANO 188 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gender Studies, Eurocentrism
22 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Week 1
Lecture 1: What is Chicana/o Studies?
Fifty years old in the US
Mexican-centric
In some contexts includes people of Latin America and Central America
Constantly moving and evolving, but there are foundations
Part of family of ethnic studies
Primarily taught in colleges and universities
Defining
Interdisciplinary: we are a field
Pooling from different fields: law, gender studies, women’s studies, etc
Developing its own academic identity
Recognizing chicanxs are not foreign to the land
We are studying ourselves while reclaiming land
Europeans painting us as undocumented and foreign is the reason we need chicanx
studies as an intervention to eurocentric history, counter-hegemonic: challenges idea
that we don’t belong
Instead of beginning history with columbus we start with indigenous folks
Origins
Chicanxs talked about in stereotypical and deficit ways in research before intellectual
revolution
Simultaneously depended on the stereotyping of chicanxs to uphold their superiority
Decentering whiteness, and europe and the birth of history and source of knowledge
and then asks what is our source of knowledge and history? While also recognizing our
relation to whiteness
Is an intellectual project and a production of student activism
1968: First program developed at Cal state LA
1968: SF state developed college of ethnic studies
Majority of chicanx programs and departments in california and texas
Achievements/challenges:
Exists on 170 campuses
Majority of midwest and east coast departments called Latino/a studies
Journal of Aztán founded in 1969 founded at UCLA funded by chancellor Young
Threat of consolidation
Week 2
Lecture 2: Theories of Resistance
Origins of social movement theory
-Can argue that the moment of contact b/w indigenous people and Spanish was first
point of resistance
-hospitality as form of resistance (Thanksgiving)
-hospitality of native americans misconceived as them perceiving pilgrims as
gods/goddesses
-working class resisting building of universities in Europe
-built over communities/land
-universities as institutions that have implicated gentrification
-resistance in educational system predates Chicanos/as
-responding to universities taking from communities and not giving back
-McCarthy and Zald (1973,1977), Gamson(1968), Oberschall, Tilly publishing these
theories in sociological journals
-Trying to answer why these social movements are happening
-Same time youre having a Black Panther movement, lgbtq movement, women’s
movement, etc. you have scholars trying to name it
Early works: social movements happen when there are“expanding political opportunity
structures”
-eurocentric, patriarchal
-saying people are being GIVEN these opportunities to resist; when there’s an opening
in these structures of power
Redefining SMT
-some movements develop (and succeed) when “windows of opportunity” are closed
(Zepeda-Millán 2017, pg.7)
-proving the initial inception of social movement theory is limiting
2006-political door was closed for immigration rights
Republican president1.
Republican congress2.
HR 44373.
What is a social movement
-Large groupings of people, sometimes informal
-Sometimes begins at a dinner table→develop a movement
-Ideas begin in informal settings (kitchen table becomes politicized)
-various strategies used, organizing
-who and why do people get involved?
-Has a lot to do with the urgency and will to make a demand
-Demand: social change, challenge to power holders
-don’t have to be oppressed to be involved; movement visibility sometimes requires big
names (gloria estefan in mega marches, george clooney for parkland) and involvement
of those with privilege
-Critique: often, social movements are reformist (connected with the democratic and
political process within institutions)
-Results: Political, economic, social, cultural changes
-organizations, departments, institutions
Resistance
-We need to understand the chicano/a resistance within the context of their
oppression..in this frame, resistance and nonresistance is understandable (Hurtado,
1996)
-Unveils the power in the oppression (could be arrested if you resist, children go
hungry, etc.)
-people either resist or not based on their relationship to the state
-resistance can be organized and “may consist of small, everyday actions, seeming
insignificant that can nevertheless validate the actor’s sense of dignity and worth”
(caldwell, 1995)
-graduation as form of resistance
-“I’ve been forced to learn your language, and in learning your language I have
learned to curse you in it”
-“micro-resistance” -we need to look into the historical past, archives and memory to
document them (Robin D.G. Kelley)
Critical race theory (coined by Crenshaw)
-Theoretical lens that allows you to zoom into race
-Explanatory framework
-Gives us the academic language to name and explain our oppression and our resistance
-works toward identifying and challenging racism and other forms of subordination
Student movements in 1968: US, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, Congo, France, Italy,
Vietnam
-there are people outside of the US facing struggles, we are not the center of the
universe
Week$1$
Monday,(April(2,(2018
2:24(PM
Document Summary
In some contexts includes people of latin america and central america. Constantly moving and evolving, but there are foundations. Pooling from different fields: law, gender studies, women"s studies, etc. Recognizing chicanxs are not foreign to the land. Europeans painting us as undocumented and foreign is the reason we need chicanx studies as an intervention to eurocentric history, counter-hegemonic: challenges idea that we don"t belong. Instead of beginning history with columbus we start with indigenous folks. Chicanxs talked about in stereotypical and deficit ways in research before intellectual revolution. Simultaneously depended on the stereotyping of chicanxs to uphold their superiority. Is an intellectual project and a production of student activism. 1968: first program developed at cal state la. 1968: sf state developed college of ethnic studies. Majority of chicanx programs and departments in california and texas. Majority of midwest and east coast departments called latino/a studies. Journal of azt n founded in 1969 founded at ucla funded by chancellor young.
