231043 The Chicanx Experience (S) (SoSe 2021)

“Chicanos and other people of color suffer economically for not acculturating. This voluntary (yet forced) alienation makes for psychological conflict, a kind of dual identity – we don’t identify with the Mexican cultural values. We are a synergy of two cultures with degrees of Mexicanness or Angloness. I have so internalized the borderland conflict that sometimes I feel like one cancels out the other and we are zero, nothing, no none. A veces soy nada ni nadie.”1
– Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands: La Frontera. The New Mestiza (1987)

Mexican Americans / Chicanxs* constitute the largest group within the U.S. Latinx population. Historically, they were “crossed by the border” in the mid-nineteenth century as a result of the incorporation of huge Mexican territories subsequently forming today’s U.S. Southwest. In addition, people have always crossed the border between Mexico and the U.S., frequently out of economic necessity or for political reasons. In fact, due to their shared Indigenous roots, the historical trauma of the European conquest, and more recent imperialism, many migrants regard such crossings as their birthright. These transnational migratory flows along with the long-standing presence of Chicanxs have not only impacted demographics in border states such as Texas, Arizona, New Mexico or California but all across the U.S., where people of Mexican / Indigenous Mexican extraction can be found in every major city.
This class will explore the multifaceted and vibrant Chicanx experience – or rather, experiences – as conveyed in fictional and nonfictional texts and films, drawing on a number of key critical terms and ideas from cultural, ethnic, Raza/Chicanx and border studies.

1 Proficiency in Spanish is not required.
2 Chicanx(s): The “x” avoids a limitation to binary concepts of gender. Alternatives include: Chicanos/as, Chican@s.

Bibliography

To be announced.