HIST 2328 Mexican American History

HIST 2328: MEXICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

Instructor: Dr. Linda J. Quintanilla

Email: [email protected]

 

Course Description

The course is a survey of the challenges and achievements of the Mexican-origin minority in United States history. The history of immigration is also address, including immigration laws and immigration patterns.

Core Objectives

  • Critical Thinking Skills – to include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information
  • Communication Skills – to  include effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written and visual communication
  • Social Responsibility – to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities
  • Personal Responsibility – to include the ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making guidelines

Program Learning Outcomes – After completing the course, students will:

  • Evaluate historical development in an essay
  • Read primary source documents
  • Analyze historical evidence by writing an analytical essay
  • Explain the importance of chronology and how earlier ideas and events shaped later events

Course Organization:

The course is primarily a lecture course, although there will be many assignments that require class participation, including group work. There is also an emphasis on reading and writing because learning is most likely to occur when students are actively engaged in course work. Written assignments are analytical essays based on primary and/or secondary sources

 

Required Text and Supplies:

En Aquel Entonces; Readings in Mexican-American History, eds. Manuel

G. Gonzales and Cynthia M. Gonzales (Indiana University Press, 2000)

Chapter 7: “Foreigners in their Native Land,” A Different Mirror, Ronald Takaki

* Copies of Chapter 7 distributed in class

Blue Book

Scantrons for Exams

 

 

 

 

 

Instructional Methods and Student Conduct:

This is a lecture course but class activities will be assigned. There will also be film excerpts and group work.

Take lecture notes. Good lecture notes will improve your grade.

**** RESPECT YOUR INSTRUCTOR AND YOUR CLASSMATES à

Come to class on time and stay until class ends.

Turn off or silence cell phones. Do not use them or any devices that distract from class work.

Participation:

Complying with participation requirements will raise your grade and increase your learning.

Beginning Participation Grade is 75.

Add 5 points each for: two or less tardies; one or less absences; no late work;

contributing to class discussions.

Inappropriate or rude behavior will lower the participation grade.

Attendance and tardies:

Attend regularly.

Tardies disrupt your instructor and your classmates. Be on time.

Plagiarism:

Work that includes plagiarism will be returned ungraded or with a failing grade. Revisions may be made, if the instructor consents.

 

Course Requirements:

Written assignments: A minimum of 50% of the student’s semester average must come from essays. (Program/Discipline Requirement).  In-class essays are 2-3 paragraphs.

At home essays are 1 ½ page to 2 pages, typed.

Presentations: Oral presentations are 5-10 minutes; should include power point slides.

Exams: Objective part of exams include timelines, maps, and multiple-choice questions.

Notes are allowed for multiple-choice part and the essay part of exams.

 

Assignments %  semester grade

Participation                15

Oral Presentation

Presentation    10

Essay                 5

Essays, in class &        25

take home

Exam 1                        15        [objective part 5; essay 10]

Exam 2                        15        [objective part 5; essay 10]

Final                            15        [objective part 5; essay 10]

 

General Comments:

Take lecture notes by hand. Studies show that students learn more from hand

written notes than those taken on their laptops.

Turn work in on time, word processed and stapled.

At home written assignments must be in font style “Times New Roman,” font size             12 font, and double-spaced.

** You are responsible for material covered in class whether you attend or not.

Get lecture notes from another student, not your instructor.

Late work & make-up work:

Assignments are due CLASS TIME – when class begins.

Late work is penalized –

15 points for late work turned in after the class on the day due

20 points for work turned in the following class.

Work more than one class late is not accepted.

Make-ups for Exams 1 & 2 are all essay questions.

There are no make-ups for in-class quizzes or the final.

HCC and Instructor’s Grading Scale:

A 90-100%

B 80-89%

C 70-79%

D 60-69%

F 59% and below

This syllabus is meant as a guide and is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor. If there are any changes made, the student will be notified in a timely manner.

 

 

Lecture Topics and Reading Assignment:

Week 1 2/16 & 2/28 – Overview of course

Historical context:

European heritage; Spain

Indigenous heritage, the Mexica (Aztec)

Discussion: historical monuments

 

Week 2 2/23 & 2/25 – Spanish Empire

Manifest Destiny, essay due 2/25

 

Week 3 3/1 & 3/3 – Independence for Mexico

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Week 4 3/8 & 3/10 – Independence for Texas

Naturalization Act of 1790

Fourteenth Amendment

Reading: Romo, “Urbanization of Southwestern Chicanos in

Early 20th Century,” in Aquel Entonces Essay due March 8

FIRST EXAM   3/10

SPRING BREAK  - Week of March 14

Week 5 3/22 & 3/24 – Mexican Immigration, Work, Urbanization

Americanization, World War I, 1910-1929

Immigration Act of 1924

Act of March 4, 1929

Violence at the Border; Plan of San Diego (1915)

Plan of San Diego:

www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ngp04

Reading: Orozco, “Regionalism, Politics, & Gender in Southwest                                        History,” in En Aquel Entonces Essay due March 24

 

 

Week 6 3/29 & 3/31 – Roaring 20s, Labor, Great Depression, Repatriation

Labor activist Emma Tenayuca

Letter from Club Chapultepec (1937)

“On the Day They Were Defeated” (1938)

Reading: Chacon, “Labor Unrest and Industrialized Agriculture                                          in California,” in En Aquel Entonces Essay due March 29

Labor Strikes, essay due 3/29

Week 7 4/5 & 4/7 – Great Depression  (continued)

Documentary: The 800 Mile Wall

Week 8 4/12 & 4/14 – 4/12 – Computer Research Class

4/12 – “On the Day They were Defeated,” essay due

4/14 – SECOND EXAM 4/14

 

Week 9 4/19 & 4/21 – World War II, LA riots; Braceros

The 50s, censorship, suppression; Immigration &

Nationality Act of 1952; Operation Wetback (1954)

4/19 –Marin “Mexican Americans on the Home Front,” essay due

4/21 – Oral presentation outline due

Movies: Zoot Suit; Bless Me Ultima

Chicano/a Movement; farm workers movement; Crystal City

Hart-Cellar Act 1965:

library.uwb.edu/guides/USimmigration/1965_immigration_

and_nationality_act.html

Chicano/a Movement (continued)

 

Week 10 4/26 & 4/28 – Immigration; contract labor; undocumented immigration

Oral Presentations 4/26 and 4/28

Post-Movement Era; Immigration Reform & Control Act (1986)

Oral Presentations

Militarization of the Border; NAFTA; Maquiladoras

.  – Globalization and Border Control

Maria Jimenez, interviews: www.inmotionmagazine.com

Week 11 5/3 & 5/5 – Nativism; Illegal Immigration & Immigrant Responsibility Act                                            (1996); Proposition 187 (California)

5/3 – McCann, “Who Profits from Arizona-style Law?” essay due

FINAL  Tuesday May 10