Important Dates:

• Thursday, August 25: First day of Fall 2022 classes
• Wednesday, August 31: Last day to add a course
• Friday – Sunday September 2-4: No classes scheduled
• Monday, September 5: College Closed – Labor Day Observed
• Monday – Tuesday September 26-27: No classes scheduled
• Thursday, September 29: Conversion day, classes follow Monday schedule
• Tuesday- Wednesday October 4-5: No classes scheduled
• Monday, October 10: College closed – No classes scheduled
• Thursday-Friday November 24-25: College closed – No classes scheduled
• Saturday-Sunday November 26-27: No classes scheduled
• Tuesday, December 13: Last day of classes

The full academic calendar, including many other important dates, is available on the Office of the Registrar’s website.

Course Schedule:

UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION

Class Session 1: Thursday, August 25th

• Course Introduction
• Syllabus and CUNY Academic Commons Site
• Reading and Note-taking Overview
• Terminology and Reference Text: Fountain-Stokes, Mirabal, N. R., & Vargas, D. R. (2017). Keywords for Latina/o Studies (Fountain-Stokes, N. R. Mirabal, & D. R. Vargas, Eds.). New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479892532

Class Session 2: Tuesday, August 30th
Introduction to Puerto Rican Studies, Latinx Studies, and PRLS Departmental Background  

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Blog Post: Note-Taking Techniques When Reading Book Chapters – “Analog Note-Taking When Highlighting is Not Possible” by Raul Pacheco-Vega
2. Book Chapter: “Camuyana en Brooklyn: Reflecting on My Journey Through Puerto Rican and Latino Studies” by Gisely Colón López in Puerto Rican Studies in the City University of New York: The First Fifty Years *

In-Class Texts:

1. Discussion Guide
2. Poet/Poem of the Day: U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, “The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversation to be Bilingual” and PBS NewsHour interview with Ada Limón
3. Documentary: Gold, & Sporn, P. (2021). Making the impossible possible: the story of Puerto Rican studies in Brooklyn College. Grito Productions.

Class Session 3: Thursday, September 1st
The Invention of Latin America

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Blog Post: “An Updated Description of My Color-Coding Scheme for Highlighting and Scribbling”  by Raul Pacheco-Vega
2. Article: Gobat. (2013). The Invention of Latin America: A Transnational History of Anti-Imperialism, Democracy, and Race. The American Historical Review, 118(5), 1345–1375.

In-Class Texts:

• Discussion Guide

Class Session 4: Tuesday, September 6th
Latinidad Part One

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Blog post: “Reading When a Paragraph Starts with a Topic Sentence and When It Doesn’t” by Raul Pacheco-Vega
2. Journal article: “Transnational Renderings of Negro/a/x/*: Re-centering Blackness in AfroLatinidad” by Omaris Z. Zamora
3. One of the following:
   • Media: The Root, “Afro-indigenous Poet Alan Pelaez Lopez Breaks Down Why Blackness is Radical in Latinidad”
   • Media: The Root, “Breaking Down the Anti-Blackness of Latinidad” with Felice León
   • Article: Buzzfeed, “Talking to My Family About Colorism is an Act of Self-Love” by Lilliam Rivera

In-Class Texts:

1. Review Reading Response Paper Task and Rubric
2. Poet/Poem of the Day: Alan Pelaez Lopez, “Alan Pelaez Lopez Reads 3 Poems at NYU’s Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics”
3. Essay: “The X in Latinx is a Wound, Not a Trend” by Alan Pelaez Lopez

Class Session 5: Thursday, September 8th
Latinidad Part Two

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Blog Post: “Finding the Most Relevant Information In a Paper When Reading: A Three-Step Method (The AIC Technique) by Raul Pacheco-Vega
2. Book chapter (introduction): García Peña. (2022). Translating Blackness : Latinx colonialities in global perspective. Duke University Press.
3. *One of the following:
   • Media: NPR Code Switch. What Does It Mean To Be Latino? The ‘Light-Skinned Privilege’ Edition 
   • Media: NPR Music. Tego Calderón: Reggaeton on Black Pride 

In-Class Texts:

• Discussion Guide
• Poet/Poem of the Day: Ariana Brown, “23”
• Article: “When it Comes to Latinidad, Who is Included and Who Isn’t?” by Janel Martinez

UNIT 2: PUERTO RICO CASE STUDY

Unit 2 Poetry

Poet/Poem of the Day #1: Rosario Ferré, “Coming Up the Archipelago”/ “Subiendo por el archipiélago” (shared in class)

Poet/Poem of the Day #2: Piri Thomas, “Puerto Rican Obituary”

Poet/Poem of the Day #3: Caridad de la Luz aka La Bruja, “Nuyorico”

Poets/Poems of the Day #4: Mariposa, “Ode to Diasporican (pa’ mi gente)”

Poet/Poem of the Day #5: Raquel Salas Rivera, “the independence (of puerto rico)”

Poet/Poems of the Day #6: Martín Espada, “Letter to My Father” and “After the Goose that Rose Like the God of Geese” (Poetry Unbound podcast episode)

Class Session 7: Thursday, September 15th
Puerto Rico Case Study Part One

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Select one of the following:
   • Book chapter: “Puerto Ricans: Citizens Yet Foreigners” by Juan Gonzalez in Harvest of Empire *
   • Book chapters: Acosta-Belén and Santiago (2018) Puerto Ricans in the United States *
     • Chapter 1 (password-protected)
     • Chapter 2 (password-protected)
2. Media: La Brega Podcast. “What is la Brega?” 

In-Class Text:
Poet/Poem of the Day: Caridad de la Luz aka La Bruja, “Nuyorico”

Class Session 8: Tuesday, September 20th
Puerto Rico Case Study Part Two

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Select one of the following:
   • Article: Bonilla. (2020). The coloniality of disaster: Race, empire, and the temporal logics of emergency in Puerto Rico, USA. Political Geography, 78, 102181–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2020.102181
   • Article: Godreau, & Bonilla, Y. (2021). Nonsovereign Racecraft: How Colonialism, Debt, and Disaster are Transforming Puerto Rican Racial Subjectivities. American Anthropologist, 123(3), 509–525. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13601
   • Book chapter: “Introduction: Aftershocks of Disaster” in Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm by Yarimar Bonilla & Marisol LeBrón *
2. Media: La Brega Podcast – “The End of the Promises” 

In-Class Texts:

1. Poets/Poems of the Day: Mariposa, “Ode to Diasporican (pa’ mi gente)”

Class Session 9: Thursday, September 22nd
Puerto Rico Case Study Part Three

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Article: Richard Fausset (2017) “Amid Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Ruins, a New Push for Statehood”. The New York Times.
2. Article (password-protected): Blocher, J., & Gulati, M. (2018). Puerto Rico and the right of accession. Yale J. Int’l L., 43, 229.
3. Media: U.S. House of Representatives. House Committee on Natural Resources. Public Forum on Puerto Rico Status Act Discussion Draft. (selected clips – timestamps shared in class)

In-Class Texts:

1. Poet/Poem of the Day: Raquel Salas Rivera, “the independence (of puerto rico)”
2. Puerto Rican Independent Journalist, Bianca Graulau IG: @BiancaGraulau

UNIT 3: IMMIGRATION

Class Session 10: Tuesday, October 4th
Historical and Contemporary Latinx Immigration

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book chapter (password-protected): “Historical and Contemporary Latino Immigration” in Latinos in the United States: Diversity and Change by Rogelio, Sáenz and Maria Cristina Morales. *
2. Select one of the following:
   • Memoir excerpt: “Staten Island” in The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
   • Memoir excerpt: Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernández Castillo 
   • Memoir excerpt: A Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernández

In-Class Texts:
NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs – A Demographic Snapshot: NYC’s Latinx Immigrant Population (10/28/2021)

Poet/Poem of the Day 1: Richard Blanco, “Looking for the Gulf Motel” (Poetry Unbound podcast episode on the poem) 

Poet/Poem of the Day 2: “Dear Jenni, Dear Marcelo” by Marcelo Hernández Castillo

Class Session 11: Thursday, October 6th
Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Select one of the following chapters:
   • Book chapter: “Contemporary Afrocubana feminisms: race, gender, and sexuality in Havana” by Devyn Spence Benson in Birkenmaier. (2021). Caribbean migrations: the legacies of colonialism (Birkenmaier, Ed.). Rutgers University Press. *
   • Book chapter: “Dominicans: From the Duarte to the George Washington Bridge” in Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez *
   • Book chapter: “Transnational Hispaniola: The First Decade in Support of a New Paradigm for Haitian and Dominican Studies” by Kiran C. Jayaram and April J. Mayes in Birkenmaier. (2021). Caribbean migrations : the legacies of colonialism (Birkenmaier, Ed.). Rutgers University Press. *
2. Media: LatinoRebels. “Reflecting on the Anti-Black History of Excluding Haiti from Latinidad”
3. Media: CUNY Dominican Studies Institute. Dominican Historic Neighborhoods interactive map.

In-Class Texts:

1. Poet/Poem of the Day: Elizabeth Acevedo, “Hair”
2. Article: NYU The Latinx Project “Spectacles of Violence: A Conversation with Ayanna Legros”
3. Media: Harvest of Empire documentary 

Class Session 13: Thursday, October 13th
Mexico

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book chapter: “Mexicans: Pioneers of a Different Type” in Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez *
2. Essay: Rodríguez, R. Joseph. “In the Antropoetas and Muses We Trust: Reading and Teaching the Poetics about the Borderlands and Chihuahuan Desert.” Pennsylvania Literary Review, Volume 10, Number 2, Summer 2018, pp. 57-85. 

In-Class Texts:

1. Poet/Poems of the Day 1: Juan Felipe-Herrera, Borderbus and Social Distancing
2. Poet/ Poems of the Day 2: José Olivarez. Mexican Heaven. 
3. Photography and Book Chapters: “Preface” and “Return Migration in Context: Policies, Demographics and Terminology” in Living, Learning, and Languaging Across Borders: Students Between the US and Mexico by Tatyana Kleyn, Photography by Tim Porter
4. Media: Photography of Graciela Iturbide.
5. Media: 102  Earthworks. Miguel: Mexico Chapter 1

Class Session 14: Tuesday, October 18th
Central America & Colombia

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Select one of the following chapters from Harvest of Empire:
   • Book chapter: “Central Americans: Intervention Comes Home to Roost” in Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez *
   • Book chapter: “Colombians and Panamanians: Overcoming Division and Disdain” in Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez *
2. Media: Lido Pimienta. The Road to Miss Colombia. Documentary.

In-Class Texts:

1. Poet/Poem of the Day 1: Carlos Andrés Gómez, “Father” (Poetry Unbound podcast episode on this poem)
2. Poet/Poem of the Day 2: (21:22 – 24:25): Janel Pineda. “In Another Life”

Class Session 15: Thursday, October 20th
South America

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Article: Schut. (2021). “New White Ethnics” or “New Latinos”? Hispanic/Latino Pan-ethnicity and Ancestry Reporting among South American Immigrants to the United States. The International Migration Review, 55(4), 1061–1088. https://doi.org/10.1177/0197918321993100
2. Media/Poet/Poem of the Day: Sonia Guiñansaca, “Go back”, they say, ¡pero me quedo! Hemispheric Institute 2017-18 [minutes 34 – 45]

In-Class Text:
Poem/Poet of the Day: Sonia Guiñansaca. Calling Cards.

UNIT 4: ART AND ACTIVISM

Class Session 17: Thursday, October 27th
The Young Lords

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book Chapter: Foreword Melendez, M., & Torres, José. (2003). We took the streets : Fighting for Latino rights with the Young Lords (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin’s Press. *

In-Class Text:

1. Media: We will watch ¡Palante, Siempre Palante! The Young Lords Documentary or NYTimes Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health Care | Op-Docs in class together
2. Poet/Poem of the Day: Pedro Pietri, “Puerto Rican Obituary”

Class Session 18: Tuesday, November 1st
Chicano Activism

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Media (select one episode): Cisneros, Kaupp, D., Joyce, E., Dill, G., Gonzalez, J. J., Galan, H., Torres, L. R., Moreno, M., Morales, S., Racho, S., Cozens, R. S., & Moreno, M. (1996). Chicano! : history of the Mexican American civil rights movement. NLCC Educational Media [distributor].
   • Option #1: Episode 1: Quest for Homeland – This episode of Chicano! examines the beginnings of a national movement for social justice by profiling Reies Lopez Tijerina and the 1966–1967 land grant movement in New Mexico.
   • Option #2: Episode 2: The Struggle in the Fields – This episode of Chicano! chronicles the efforts of farm workers to form a national labor union under the nonviolent leadership of César Chávez.
   • Option #3: Episode 3: Taking Back the Schools – This episode of Chicano! paints a picture of the struggle to reform an education system that failed to properly education Mexican American students. 
   • Option #4: Episode 4: Fighting for Political Power – This episode of Chicano! focuses on the emergence of Mexican Americans political activism and the creation of a third political party, La Raza Unida.

In-Class Texts:
University of Washington Mapping American Social Movements Project

Poets/Poems of the Day:

1. Gonzales, Rodolfo Corky, I am Joaquin.
2. Anzaldúa, Gloria. “To Live in the Borderlands Means You.” Borderlands / La frontera: The New Mestiza (2^nd ed.). Aunt Lute Press, 2012, pp. 216-217. (e-file)

Class Session 19: Thursday, November 3rd
Music and Art

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book chapter (introduction): Dávila. (2020). Latinx art : artists, markets, politics. Duke University Press.
2. Article:  Dávila and LeBrón, “How music took down Puerto Rico’s governor Underground music overcame censors to gain popularity and political power”
3. Media: Contreras, “Alt.Latino Activists: Two Artists Who Mix Messages with Music”
4. Interview: ARTnews. “In a New Book, Scholar Arelene Dávila Writes About the Invisibility of Latinx Art in the Market.” 

In-Class Text:
Poets/Poems of the Day/Article with media: Fitzpatrick, “Latina Poeticians Rebel Through Music.”

Class Session 20: Tuesday, November 8th
Latinx LGBTQ+ Activism

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book chapters: Quesada, U., Gomez, L., & Vidal-Ortiz, S. (Eds.). (2015). Queer brown voices: personal narratives of Latina/o LGBT activism. University of Texas Press. *
   • Finding a Home in Transgender Activism in San Fransisco 
   • We must Preserve Our Latina/o LGBT History

In-Class Text:

1. Poet/Poem of the Day: “Lessons from an Immigrants Rights Organizer: We Are Not Our ‘Productivity’” by Alan Pelaez Lopez
2. Essay/Media: “Eres un pocho” by Mark Oshiro in Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed (read by Avi Roque) – Shared in class

UNIT 5: EDUCATION IN LATINX COMMUNITIES

Class Session 21: Thursday, November 10th
Bilingual Education History

Texts to Engage Before Class:

• Book chapter: “Bilingual Education and Puerto Rican Studies: From Vision to Reality” by Antonio Nadal and Milga Morales Nadal in Pérez y González, & Sánchez Korrol, V. (2021). Puerto Rican Studies in the City University of New York : the first 50 years (Pérez y González & V. Sánchez Korrol, Eds.). Centro Press.

In-Class Texts:

1. Poet/Poem of the Day (poetry reading begins at 21:22)- Janel Pineda “In Another Life” 
2. “English” by Janel Pineda in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4 LatiNext ed. Felicia Rose Chavez, José Olivarez, and Willie Perdomo 
3. Media: Jiménez, Olmos, E. J., & Pantoja, A. (2009). Antonia Pantoja : ¡Presente! Distributed by Women Make Movies.

Class Session 22: Tuesday, November 15th

Reading Response Paper #2 Due

(On Blackboard TurnItIn by 9 am)

ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE MODULE 

(There is no in-person class today)
Translanguaging in Latinx Communities

Translanguaging 

• Article: García, & Leiva, C. (2013). Theorizing and Enacting Translanguaging for Social Justice. In Heteroglossia as Practice and Pedagogy (pp. 199–216). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7856-6_11
• Article: Cati V. de los Ríos, & Kate Seltzer. (2017). Translanguaging, Coloniality, and English Classrooms: An Exploration of Two Bicoastal Urban Classrooms. Research in the Teaching of English, 52(1), 55–76.

In-Class Text:

• Media: CUNY-NYSIEB Translanguaging Pedagogy Teacher Videos
• Poet/Poem of the Day: Denise Frohman. Accents.
• Book Chapter: Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Chapter 5: How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands / La frontera: The New Mestiza (2^nd ed.). Aunt Lute Press, 2012, pp. 75-86. (e-file)

UNIT 6: HEALTH, ECONOMIC, SPIRITUAL AND POLITICAL LIFE OF LATINX COMMUNITIES

Class Session 24: Thursday, November 17th
Health Concerns in Latine Communities

Texts to Engage Before Class:

• Article: Chavez-Dueñas, Adames, H. Y., Perez-Chavez, J. G., & Salas, S. P. (2019). Healing Ethno-Racial Trauma in Latinx Immigrant Communities: Cultivating Hope, Resistance, and Action. The American Psychologist, 74(1), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000289
• Article: Caplan S. Intersection of cultural and religious beliefs about mental health: Latinos in the faith-based setting. Hispanic Health Care International. 2019;17(1):4–10.

In-Class Texts:

1. Poet/Poem of the Day: Ada Limón, “Instructions on Not Giving Up”
2. Website: Latinx Genocide: The Role of Race in U.S. Sterilization Efforts in Latinx Communities

Class Session 25: Tuesday, November 22nd
Economic DisparitiesAnnotated Bibliography Due
(on Blackboard TurnItIn by 9am)

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book Chapter: Alcalá, J.C. (2020). Community engaged scholarship in archival studies: documenting housing displacement and gentrification in a Latino community. In Bastian, & Flinn, A. (Eds.), Community archives, community spaces : heritage, memory and identity (pp. 149-164). Facet Publishing.
2. Book: When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez

In-Class Texts:
Poet/Poem of the Day 1: Raquel I. Penzo. My Brooklyn (In Response to Gentrification).
Poet/Poem of the Day 2: Bonafide Rojas. Remember Their Names. 

Class Session 26: Tuesday, November 29th
Guest Speaker: TBA

Text to Engage Before Class:
Book: When We Make It by Elisabet Velasquez (Provided in class)

Class Session 27: Thursday, December 1st
Mujerista Theology and Spiritual Activism

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book chapter: Isasi-Díaz. (2004). La lucha continues: mujerista theology. Orbis Books.*
2. Article: Tirres. (2018). Spiritual Realities and Spiritual Activism: Assessing Gloria Anzaldúa’s Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro. Diálogo (Chicago, Ill.), 21(2), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.1353/dlg.2018.0027

In-Class Texts:
Poet/ Poem of the Day: Poem “Boca Grande” by Peggy Robles Alvarado, in Manteca: An Anthology of Afro-latin@ Poets

Class Session 28: Tuesday, December 6th
African Diaspora Spirituality in the Latinx community

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book Chapter, “La Encrucijada/ The Crossroads: Where Roots Grow Again” by Marinieves Alba” –  Vega, Alba, M., & Modestin, Y. (2012). Women warriors of the Afro-Latina diaspora. Arte Público Press. *
2. Interview: Meet Organizer and Herbalist Suhaly Bautista Carolina
3. Zine: “Ancestral Resistance: Offerings & Practices” (in English and Spanish) 
4. Media: Center for Puerto Rican Studies – Marta Moreno Vega.

In-Class Texts:
Poets/ Poems of the Day:

• Mayda del Valle, “Grandmother”
• Willie Perdomo. On Sundays.
• Princess Nokia: Brujas

Class Session 29: Thursday, December 8th
Latinx Political Participation

Texts to Engage Before Class:

1. Book chapter (“Latino Political Participation”): Garcia, & Sanchez, G. R. (2022). Latino politics in America : community, culture, and interests (Fourth edition.). Rowman & Littlefield.
2. Media: NPR It’s Been a Minute podcast. “’They’ve Dismissed Us’: How Latino Voter Outreach Still Falls Short”
3. Media: NPR Latino USA podcast. “The Myth of the Latino Vote”
4. Media: MSNBC. Latinos Flex Their Growing Political Power as the United States’ Largest Non-White Voting Bloc.

In-Class Text:
Poet/ Poem of the Day: Natalie Scenters-Zapico, “Pledge Allegiance”

* (Also available on Library Reserve for further reading)