January 2010

Reading list for Latino/a Literature

1. Introductory article: “Is There Such a Thing as Latino Identity?” by Otto Santa Ana

Questions, before: What are people whose family members originally came from Spain, long ago perhaps, but who have lived in the Americas for generations be called? What is the meaning of Hispanic, Latino, Chicano? How are those words different from each other? Are there any synonyms which are applied to your race or ethnicity or religion or family or self? What do you think of these synonyms? What do they mean?

Questions, after: Do Santa Ana’s definitions match yours? How are they different? Do the new definitions add anything to your understanding? If you found synonyms for yourself, which do you prefer? Why? What meaning is encoded in the word you chose? Is this a general understanding or a precise definition for that synonym?

In the Sandbox on Angel I found quizzes, but not in the other part.

Perhaps I can switch over whatever is in the Sandbox.

So I worked on quizzes there and hope that I can find out how to switch them over.

It was a lot harder to do online preparation than I expected.

And I was having vertigo again, which took me out of commission most of last week. Working.

I am thinking that “special knowledge” includes having read Latino/a literature and having a syllabus. So I am putting together a syllabus. We’ll see how quickly that takes shape. I know more poetry than anything else, but I would like to include poetry, short stories, novels, autobiographies, and biographies. (I know those are a little more questionable, but Beth Jones has a good one entitled “The Professor is a Drop Out” about Dr. Quintanilla of University of Houston.)

Las Culturas has a great list of resources.

These include an interesting collection of Quechua, English, and Spanish versions of poems from the Andes.

Emory has a good introduction to Magical Realism.

A syllabus for a course which “offers an overview of the history of Latino/a literature, introducing the major trends and placing them into an historical framework stretching from the nineteenth century to today. Emphasis will be on similarities and differences in the experiences in the United States among different Latino/a groups.” It’s an interesting grouping.

The modern primary texts are:

Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street. (1984)
Gloria Anzaldúa. Borderlands/La Frontera. (1987)
Cristina Garcia. Dreaming in Cuban (1992)
Ana Menéndez. Loving Che. (2003)
Junot Diaz. Drown. (1996)
Yxta Maya Murray. Locas. (1998)
Tanya Maria Barrientos. Family Resemblance. (2003)
Ernesto Quiñonez. Bodega Dreams. (2000)

Another syllabus gave these works:

Zoot Suit, a play by Luis Valdez (based on a true story)
The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichols (based on a true story)
Caramelo, by Sandra Cisneros
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez
Dirty Girls Social Club, by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
When I was Puerto Rican, by Esmeralda Santiago
When the Spirits Danced the Mambo, by Moreno Vega
Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat
The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea
Tortilla Curtain, by T. Coraghessan Boyle

Still another syllabus offers these texts:

–In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Álvarez.
–Latin Deli by Judith Ortiz Cofer
–…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Tomás Rivera.
–Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García.
–The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

This syllabus has an interesting goal: “Our goal is to use literary and cultural theory to understand the paradox inherent in US Latina/o culture; that is while Latina/o culture is increasingly diverse in terms of its contributors, the culture also reveals similar experiences within itself and in comparison to Anglo-American life.”

I think that would be odd to work within. So, in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents there are sisters, conservative parents, an oldest sister who analyzes everyone… All those things could be true of anyone.

I’m not too thrilled with the language in the syllabus either. Latino and Anglo-American. I would like us all to be equal, so I guess, if we have to use hyphenated words, let’s go with Hispanic-American and Anglo-American.

The works for this course are:

Latino Boom: An Anthology of US Latino Literature. John Christie and Jose Gonzalez, eds.
…y no se lo tragó la tierra by Tomás Rivera (Spanish / English edition)
Drown by Junot Díaz

Despite the fact that the syllabus says they will be working with music and other forms, there are none on the list or the syllabus.

Ah, I found another syllabus with an interesting list.

Gutiérrez, The Columbian History of Latinos in the United States Since 1960 (2004)
Garrod, Kilkenny and Gómez, eds., Mi Voz, Mi Vida: Latino College Students Tell Their Life Stories (2007)
Christie and González, Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature (2005 or latest)

I think I would like Mi Voz, Mi Vida: Latino College Students Tell Their Life Stories. It would fit with the autobiography part I’d like to have.

Her list of readings (one of these) is:

Junot Díaz, The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao / La breve y maravillosa vida de Óscar Wao (Vintage)
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street / La casa en Mango Street (Vintage)
Cristina García, Dreaming in Cuban / Soñar en cubano (Ballantine)
Julia Alvarez, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents / De cómo las muchachas García perdieron el acento (Vintage)
Sandra Benítez, A Place Where the Sea Remembers / Allí donde el mar recuerda
Francisco Goldman, The Long Night of White Chickens / La larga noche de los pollos blancos

I found a different syllabus with an interesting set of secondary texts, for interest.

Acuña, Rudolfo: Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
Aranda Jr., Jose: When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America Extinct Lands,
Brady, Mary Pat: Temporal Geographies: Chicana Literature and the Urgency of Space
Paredes, Américo: Folklore and Culture on the Texas Mexican Border (This sounds interesting to me, but is not available new. If I end up teaching the course, I will definitely purchase it.)
Paz, Octavio: The Labyrinth of Solitude
Saldívar, Ramón: Chicano Narrative: The Dialectics of Difference
Torres, Eden: Chicana Without Apology

It’s obviously an upper division course, but I like a lot about the syllabus. I might be able to adopt the approach, though I would amend it slightly.

Latinoteca has a well developed list of suggested readings for a survey course.

In the section on Latina literature I found this list:

La hija la de la fortuna Isabel Allende
Borderlands / La Frontera Gloria Anzaldúa
La Migra me hizo los mandados Alicia Alarcón
Fronterizas Roberta Fernández
Dreaming in Cuban Cristina García
Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders Alicia Gaspar de Alba
The Day of the Moon Graciela Limón
Real Women Have Curves Josefina López
Silent Dancing Judith Ortiz Cofer
Methodology of the Oppressed Chela Sandoval

Also in that section are articles that look interesting. A few are:

Beverly, John. “The Margin at the Center on Testimonio (Testimonial Narrative).” Smith and Watson 91-114.
Benamou, Catherine. “Those Earrings, That Accent, That Hair: A Dialogue with Maria Hinojosa on Latinos/as and the Media.” Ella Shohat, ed. Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age. New York: MIT Press, 1998. 325-356.
Braendlin, Bonnie Hoover. “Bildung in Ethnic Women Writers.” Denver Quarterly 17.4 (Winter 1983): 75-87.
Bruce-Novoa, Juan. Retrospace. Houston: Arte Público Press.
Candelaria, Cordelia. “Code-Switching as Metaphor in Chicano Poetry.” European Perspectives on Hispanic Literature of the United States. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1988. 91-97.
—. “The ‘Wild Zone’ Thesis as Gloss in Chicana Literary Study.” Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism 248-256.

I am particularly interested in the Johnson article, but there is no listing of Smith and Johnson.

You insult me
When you say I’m
Schizophrenic.
My divisions are
Infinite.
Bernice Zamora, “So Not To Be Mottled”

After having found the right place (Angel) and the right course (2W), I tried to find where quizzes are created. Even though not all the course was ready, I thought that would be a good place to work.

It seemed like the best place to look would be Manage. But clicking through there did not find anything that looked like what I remembered.

I wanted something easy and quick. “Create quizzes.” I was fairly sure I had seen that somewhere. Now how could I find it?

I couldn’t.

So I googled “create quizzes Angel” and found Lessons Tab: Create a Quiz.

Saved by the internet. It’s under Lessons.

So I went to Lessons. But there was no “create quizzes.” There was, however, a section called “create assessments.” Surely it wouldn’t be too hard from there.

Maybe. But it was.

Maybe I should have done that tutorial that I found at Training Angel.

So I returned there.

The tutorial says to go to Lessons. Then Add Content. Then Quiz. Unfortunately, I did that. Nothing about a quiz. And Assessments didn’t have quizzes. So I was still lost.

Stay tuned: What will I do now? At this point I don’t know and I feel like a total idiot. I have some options. I can wait until the staff are back on campus and go crying to them. (I might do that.) Or I can go retake my school’s tutorial. (I might do that.) Or I can decide I’m going to wing it. (No way am I doing that.)

Tomorrow will bring you SOT: 4.

I know you are on pins and needles for this. And, yes, I know how it ends. I didn’t put this up till I did.

What does that mean?

In religious history, it means that you have revealed knowledge which no one else is privy to. I am sure that is not what is meant.

Is Mexican-American literature ONLY Mexican-American, or is it a mistake for Latino or Chicano? Cuban wouldn’t be in Mexican-American but it would be in the others.

I have taught Latino literature in my classes and used Latina (Mexican-American) authors in my health sciences class.

I am sure that is insufficient for special knowledge though.

So I am on a quest for Special Knowledge of Latino/Chicano Literature.

yllabus of Suggested Readings for a Survey Course on Mexican-American Literature

The course is designed to follow the historical development of Hispanic literature in the Southwest using complete works currently available for college and university classrooms. The periodization is based on Luis Leal’s oft-cited “Mexican American Literature: A Historical Perspective” (in Sommers and Ybarra-Frausto, Modern Chicano Writers).

I. The Hispanic Period (to 1821)
Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, The Account. Eds. And trans. By José Fernández and Martin Favata. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993.
One of the earliest chronicles, ethnographies and memoirs written in a European language of what was to become the U.S. Southwest. Originally published in 1542, this is one of the starting points of “American literature” in a European language.

Excerpts from Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, Historia de la Nueva México, 1610. Eds. And trans. By Miguel Encinias et al. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
One of the first epic poems of the Américas, written during Juan de Oñate’s 1598 colonizing mission into New Mexico. From this time on there is an unbroken Spanish-language written and oral tradition in what became the U.S. Southwest.

II. The Mexican Period (1821-1848)
Memoirs, diaries and testimonies that were transcribed later in the century relate to this brief period when the territory from Texas to California belonged to the nascent Mexican Republic. Excerpts of these may be obtained from anthologies and OCLC searches for such authors as: José Arnaz, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Juan Bandini, Mariano Vallejo and Antonio Coronel. An especially interesting corpus of testimonies collected and transcribed by interviewers for Hubert H. Bancroft is that composed of narrations by women: Angustias Guerra de Ord, Apolinaria Lorenzana, Eulalia Pérez, Teresa Guerra de Hartnell, Juan Machado de Ridington and others. (See Rosaura Sánchez, “Nineteenth-Century Californio Narratives” (In Gutiérrez and Padilla, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993.)

III. The Transition Period (1848-1910)
María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Who Would Have Thought It? Eds. Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1995.
Originally published in 1872, it is the first Mexican-American novel written in the English language. Who Would Have Thought It? is an historical romance that explores the dominant myths about race, nationality and gender prevalent in the United States prior to the Civil War.

OR
María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, The Squatter and the Don. Eds. Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997 (Second Edition).
Originally published in 1885, the novel is narrated from the perspective of the conquered population of the Southwest, and chronicles the subordination and marginalization of that native population.

Excerpts from Adina de Zavala, History and Legends of the Alamo and Other Missions in and around San Antonio. Ed. Richard Flores. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1996.
Zavala, granddaughter of the first vice president of the Texas Republic, Lorenzo de Zavala, self-published this volume in 1917 to reconstruct Texas history from a Mexican American’s and a woman’s perspective.

A selection of border ballads in translation may be obtained from numerous sources, including Américo Paredes, A Texas-Mexican Cancionero. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976.

IV. The Interaction Period (1910-1942)
A selection of ballads of immigration may be obtained from the pamphlet accompanying the CD and LP record collection of Texas-Mexican Border Music. The Chicano Experience. Vol. 14 (Berkeley: Arhoolie Records).

The Collected Stories of María Cristina Mena. Ed. Amy Doherty. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997.
Fiction crafted for and in part resisting conventions of the U.S. mainstream magazines, such as Century, Cosmopolitan and T.S. Eliot’s Criterion, between 1912 and 1931.

Jovita González, Dew on the Thorn. Ed. José Limón. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997.
González’s previously unpublished novel manuscript, dating from the 1930s, recreates the life of Texas Mexicans as Anglo culture was gradually encroaching upon them in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dew on the Thorn focuses on the cultural traditions of Texas Mexicans when the divisions of class and race were pressing on the established way of life.

Américo Paredes, George Washington Gómez. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1990.
This previously unpublished novel written in 1936 charts the coming of age of a young Mexican American on the Texas-Mexican border, set against the background of guerrilla warfare, banditry, land grabs, abuses by the Texas Rangers and the over-powering pressures to disappear into the American melting pot.
[Also available from Arte Público Press, two collections of early works by Américo Paredes: The Hammon and the Beans and Other Stories and Between Two Worlds (Poetry)]

Daniel Venegas, The Adventures of Don Chipote: When Parrots Breast Feed. Ed. Nicolás Kanellos. Trans. Ethriam Cash Brammer. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2000.
Originally published in Spanish in 1928 in Los Angeles, The Adventures of Don Chipote is one of the earliest novels of Mexican immigration. It is a humorous, picaresque tale narrated by a “Chicano” for Chicano workers, recounting the trials, tribulations and comic episodes of immigrating, working on the railroad, in construction, in dish washing, etc., from Texas to California.

V. Chicano Period (1943-Present)
Luis Pérez , El Coyote, the Rebel: A Nonfiction Novel. Ed. Lauro Flores. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2000.
Luis Pérez’s novel is the first published in the English language by a Mexican American chronicling immigration to the Southwest and Mexican American service in World War II. It is also one of the very few, early examples of a Mexican American work being published by a mainstream press: Henry Holt, 1947.

Tomás Rivera, …y no se lo tragó la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him. Trans. Evangelina Vigil-Piñón. Third Edition. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1995.
Rivera’s novel of the life of migrant farm workers, as seen throught the eyes of a young boy searching for his identity, is foundational for modern Chicano literature. [Other Rivera works available from Arte Público Press are Tomás Rivera: The Complete Works, The Harvest/La Cosecha (Stories) and The Searchers: Collected Poetry.]

Luis Valdez-Early Works: Actos, Bernabé and Pensamiento Serpentino. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1990.
The foundational actos of Chicano theatre, dating from 1965 are included in the collection as well as Valdez’s essays on the role and esthetic of teatro chicano. [Also available: Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit and Other Plays. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1992.]

For the remainder of the course, there are available numerous anthologies of contemporary Chicano literature as well as numerous volumes by individual authors.
Selected Bibliography for Background Study / Research / Reading

Calderón, Héctor, and José David Saldívar, eds. Criticism in the Borderlands: Studies in Chicano Literature, Culture and Ideology. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.

Gonzales-Berry, Erlinda, ed. Pasó Por Aquí: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition, 1542-1988. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989.

Gonzales-Berry, Erlinda, and Chuck Tatum, eds. Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. Vol. II. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1996.

Gutiérrez, Ramón, and Genaro Padilla, eds. Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. Vol. I. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993.

Herrera-Sobek, María, and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, eds. Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. Vol. III. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1999.

Kanellos, Nicolás, and Helvetia Martell. Hispanic Periodicals in the United States, Orgins to 1960: A Brief History and Comprehensive Bibliography. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1999.

Meléndez, Gabriel. So All Is Not Lost: The Poetics of Print in Nuevomexicano Communities, 1834-1958. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.

Meyer, Doris. Speaking for Themselves: Neomexicano Cultural Identity and the Spanish-Language Press, 1880-1920. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.

Olivares, Julián, ed. International Studies in Honor of Tomás Rivera. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1985.

Padilla, Genaro. My History, Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.

Paredes, Américo. A Texas-Mexican Cancionero: Folksongs of the Lower Border. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976.

____________. Folklore and Culture on the Texas-Mexican Border. Ed. Richard Bauman. Austin: Center for Mexican American Studies, 1993.

Saldívar, Romón. Chicano Narrative: The Dialectics of Difference. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.

Sánchez, Rosaura. Telling Identities: The Californio Testimonials. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.

Sánchez, Rosaura, and Barbara Reyes, eds. Nineteenth-Century California Testimonials. San Diego: University of California, CRITICA Monograph Series, 1994.

Sommers, Joseph, and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, eds. Modern Chicano Writers: A Collection of Critical Essays. New York: Prentice Hall, 1979.

Tatum, Charles. Chicano Literature. Boston: Twayne, 1982.

from Latinoteca

I am new to teaching online (as of this semester. After this I will be a pro).

I have been looking for ideas/syllabi/helps, etc.

I found an example of grading criteria for discussions on the Chronicle fora:

GRADING PARTICIPATION/DISCUSSION FORUMS

To earn an “A” for participation you must…
 Create posts that raise original, complex ideas about the text(s) and go beyond more obvious, traditional interpretations
 Create posts that use many short quotes and other appropriate details from the text/video(s) to adeptly illustrate these ideas
 Post to EVERY forum and leave no doubt in my mind that you carefully read EVERY assigned textbook chapter and/or viewed all required material
 Log in multiple times per week to engage in active, meaningful dialogue with other students in the Discussion Forums
 Address multiple discussion questions and write a total of at least 600 words in EACH full class discussion unit and 300 words for each serial episode in your small group
 Create posts that contain virtually no errors in spelling or grammar

To earn a “B” for participation you must…
 Create posts that clearly grasp of traditional interpretations of the texts
 Create posts that use many short quotes and other appropriate details from the text/video(s) to adeptly illustrate these ideas
 Post to EVERY forum and leave no doubt in my mind that you carefully read EVERY assigned textbook chapter and/or literary work
 Log in multiple times per week to engage in active, meaningful dialogue with other students in the Discussion Forums
 Address multiple discussion questions and write a total of at least 600 words in EACH full class discussion unit and 300 words for each serial episode in your small group
 Create posts that contain no more than a few errors in spelling or grammar

To earn a “C” for participation you must…
 Create posts that usually demonstrate a grasp of traditional interpretations of the texts
 Create posts that use some short quotes and other appropriate details from the text/video(s) in an attempt to illustrate these ideas
 Post to EVERY forum
 Log in at least once per week to engage in dialogue with other students in the Discussion Forums
 Address multiple discussion questions and write a total of at least 400 words in EACH full class discussion unit and 200 words for each serial episode in your small group
 Create posts without spelling or grammar issues that interfere with meaning

To earn a “D” for participation you may…
 Create posts that occasionally demonstrate a grasp of traditional interpretations of the texts
 Create posts that only sometimes use short quotes and other details from the text/video(s)
 Not post to EVERY forum
 Rarely engage in discussion with other students in the Discussion Forums; log in only once a week or less
 Write fewer than 400 words in each full class discussion unit or fewer than 200 words per serial episode
 Create posts with spelling or grammar issues that begin to interfere with meaning

To earn an “F” for participation you may…
 Create posts that rarely demonstrate a grasp of traditional interpretations of the texts
 Create posts that rarely or never short quotes and other details from the text/video(s)
 Not post to EVERY forum
 Rarely or never engage in discussion with other students in the Discussion Forums; log in only once a week or less
 Not approach a minimum of 400 words in each full class discussion unit or 200 words per serial episode
 Create posts with spelling or grammar issues that seriously interfere with meaning

I went into the online section of the college and could not find the course I will be teaching in the fall.

Aack!

What do I do?

After some frantic searching, and checking email to make sure I had the course number correct, I finally remembered that my course is in our new online stuff (Angel) and not what the online college directs you to (Blackboard). That was a relief.

I logged into Angel without any trouble and there was my course, right where it should have been.

I felt a little foolish, but until I published it here, no one even knew.

The editors of the MLA “Approaches to Teaching” volume on Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, Carla Mulford and Jeffrey Weinstock, invite proposals for contributions.

All approaches to teaching the text at the graduate, undergraduate, and secondary school levels will be considered.

Inquiries and 250-word proposals should be emailed to both editors by February 15, 2010. Send to Carla Mulford at cjm5 at psu.edu and Jeffrey Weinstock (who will handle most correspondence) at
Jeffrey.Weinstock at cmich.edu .

***
I cannot give you the original URL since it was sent as an email. However, I thought it was worth putting up here. Maybe some of my readers are working on Franklin.

I cannot give you the original source, since it was sent to me in an email. However, I think it is something lots of folks do work on.