This course introduces students to the history of Mexican and Mexican American peoples in the United States. It begins in the precolonial Americas with an emphasis on North America and the region that later became the U.S. Southwest, and it ends in our present moment. It contextualizes historical moments, processes, and ideologies that continue to shape the lives of Mexican Americans: conquest, capitalism, heteropatriarchy, mestizaje, and white supremacy. Rooted in social history, the course emphasizes the struggles of everyday people to improve the circumstances of their lives. It asks students to examine U.S. history from the perspective of communities often erased in national narratives.

Over the course of the semester, we will consider 1) the Spanish colonial project; 2) the U.S. colonial project; 3) the European, Indigenous, Asian, and African origins of ethnic Mexican communities; 4) migration and violence in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands; 5) transnational intellectual movements and labor radicalism; 6) postwar civil rights and liberation movements; 7) Chicana feminism; and 8) illegality and belonging in the twenty-first century. We will read first-hand accounts (primary sources) and selections from historical monographs and other scholarly works (secondary sources). We will also look at visual culture and other artistic productions as historical sources, and watch several films on different aspects of Mexican American history.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills