The “US-Mexico Border” offers a potent symbol of current political debates over immigration in the United States. Yet the meaning of the border for Mexican-, Anglo-, and Native-Americans has undergone significant transformations in the years between 1848 and the present. Through the use of film, literature, poetry, and historical and autobiographical narratives, we will explore the ways people in the US-Mexico Borderlands developed unique cultural, religious, and political identities that transcend national boundaries. Their experiences offer important insight on the modern struggle to define the so-called “insiders” and “outsiders” in American society.
Course Outline (still under construction - check back for specific writing and reading assignments)
Week 1 – Modern Images of the U.S.-Mexico Divide
1.1 – Begin Film: Mojados
1.2 – Finish Mojados
Week 2 – Origin Myths and Colonial Outposts
2.1: Martinez
2.2: Truett, chapter
2.3:
Week 3 – Manifest Destinies
3.1
3.2
3.3
Week 4 – Making the Mexican “Other”
4.1
4.2
4.3
Week 5 – Bandits and Ballads
5.1
5.2 – Exam I (10 pts)
5.3
Week 6 – The Battleground of the Revolution
6.1 – Essay 1 Due
6.2
6.3
Week 7 – The Great Migration and the Remaking of the Border
7.1
7.2
7.3 – Bibliography Due
Week 8 – Decades of Betrayal
8.1
8.2
8.3
Week 9 – Labor, Gender, and Transnational Consciousness
9.1
9.2
9.3
Week 10 – Braceros and Civil Rights
10.1 – Exam II (10 pts)
10.2
10.3
Week 11 – Searching for Aztlán: Myth and Memory in the Borderlands
11.1 – Essay 2 Due
11.2
11.3 – Santos
Week 12 – Looking South: Chicano Nationalism, Civil Rights, and the Problem of Mexico Viejo
12.1
12.2
12.3
Week 13 – Looking to “El Norte”: Immigration and Economic Change in the Mexican North
13.1
13.2
13.3
Week 14 – Drug Wars and Modern Controversies
14.1
14.2
14.3 – Drug Wars
Week 15 – Conclusion
Exam III (15 pts)
Finals week – Portfolio Due (2 rewrites and Final Project)
