Month: February 2023

1. Read pages 64-99 of Paola Ramos’ travelogue “A Journey From the West to the Southwest.”

2. In the comment section down below answer ONE of the following prompts (25o-word minimum).

Deadline: 3/1 before the class

OPTION ONE

What Paola Ramos means when she talks about “the other wall” and how it relates to health issues related to Latinas and LGBTQ+ youth?

OPTION TWO

How does one of the most recent gun violence tragedies in Texas allow Ramos to reflect on the label “foreigner” and the “otherization” imposed on Latines?

OPTION THREE

What are some of the mental health issues Ramos shed a light on in this section? What signs of hope, mobilization, and transformation Ramos identifies in the younger Latinx generation?

United States’ Latinx population is diverse, and complex and has plenty of untold stories to share, proposes Paola Ramos, a correspondent for Vice, Telemundo, and MSNBC and former deputy director of Hispanic media for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She spent 2 years exploring the changing nature of the “Latinx” identity. In this her first book, Finding Latinx: In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity (2020), Paola engages in the genre of the travelogue to thread stories from Latinx community members across the US.

Through a journalistic and activist approach, the first section of the book is dedicated to the West coast and southwest and she investigates the interrelationship between the farming and the drug industries; the prison industrial complex, and its impact on trans and Central American indigenous lives.

Paola Ramos and her understanding of the term/movement Latinx

With Trump’s unforeseen win came a desire for belonging. His victory mobilized millions of people- women, youth, students, black communities, Latinos, immigrants, Dreamers, victims of sexual assault-to take to the streets and fill a void with their voices. People marched with furor, organized their communities, and spoke up in boardrooms and town halls, louder than they had before. Fear induced courage, and the undercurrent of racism that was now fully exposed pushed many of us to embrace inclusion. It was sometime amid this resurged movement that I noticed the word “Latinx” had started to become part of the daily vocabulary of the resistance. (5)

Discussion in Trios

Do you agree that the term “Latinx” signifies the emergence of a “movement” for inclusion and social justice? How do the different administrations in power strengthen or debilitate the “movement” Ramos refers to? What has been achieved and what has been lost since 2016? What is your personal tally?

Presentation(s)

Francais,AnaMaria M

Gonzalez,Mayra

1. Read pages 23-63 of Paola Ramos’ travelogue “A Journey From the West to the Southwest.”

2. In the comment section down below answer ONE of the following prompts (25o-word minimum).

Deadline: 2/22 before the class

OPTION ONE

What Paola Ramos denounces in “The Heartland” regarding the ecological, health, and gender-based violence issues plaguing Latinx agricultural communities in California? Why she then connects the crystal meth epidemic to the previously described issues?

OPTION TWO

Explain the title of the chapter “Shining Light” and its relationship to the rights and resilience of Latinx trans lives.

OPTION THREE

Following the chapter “American,” elaborate on how thinking of Guatemalan and Central American migration from an indigenous point of view requires that we decenter the Spanish language and Hispanic culture as a frame to understand the experiences of Central American migrants and the notion of “America” as a whole.

Achy Obejas is a Cuban-American writer and translator focused on personal and national identity issues, living in California. She frequently writes about her sexuality and nationality and has received numerous awards for her creative work.

“The Sound Catalog” belongs to the story collection The Tower of the Antilles describe like this by the publishing house Akashic Books:

“The Cubans in Achy Obejas’s story collection are haunted by islands: the island they fled, the island they’ve created, the island they were taken to or forced from, the island they long for, the island they return to, and the island that can never be home again.”

How can we apply this description to our story today?

Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society’s majority group or assumes the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially.

How does the story “The Sound Catalog”  by Achy Obejas represent the tensions between the goals of assimilation and Cuban cultural retention in the diaspora?

How does this story use the enhancement and loss of perception to explore topics of dislocation and empowerment?

Class presentation (s)

Escamilla,Roxanna

Villacorta,Melany Raquel

Open Group Discussion

Michael J Bustamante argues that “there are two widely familiar versions of the Cuban story.” In one “the ‘triumph’ of the Cuban Revolution marked the definitive end of one period of the island’s history—nearly six decades of ‘pseudo-republican’ scandal following the island’s ‘mortgaged’ independence in 1902—and the beginning of true liberty under the banner of revolutionary change. “On the other, “the Cuban Revolution represented not a fulfillment of nationalist dreams but an unmitigated tragedy. For many of those who left the island in the 1960s, Cuba’s turn to socialism made the prerevolutionary period look like a paradise lost, transforming their homeland into an island in chains.”

How do these two competing narratives clash in Achy Obejas’ story? How Cuba is remembered by the different characters?

.After reading pages 59-60 from “The Sound Catalog” by Achy Obejas compare the characters’ contrasting understanding of and desires for their respective home countries.

Instructions:

1. Read the short story “The Sound Catalog” by Achy Obejas.

2. In the comment section down below answer ONE of the following prompts (25o-word minimum).

Deadline: 2/15 before the class

OPTION ONE

By bringing concrete examples from the stories, compare how Achy Obejas centralize hearing to tell her story. In what ways has your perspective on the characters’ bodies and interior world expanded thanks to this narrative approach?

OPTION TWO

In Remembering and Forgetting the Cuban Revolution Michael J. Bustamante argues that “popular visions of the Cuban Revolution’s legacies today are in many ways polarized” but “polarization conceals more nuanced, evolving viewpoints, and it is the result of political processes that were and continue to be anything but neat.”

How does Achy Obejas elaborate on the contested narratives about Cuba in Chicago’s diasporic communities? How do Obejas’ characters have different responses to those perspectives?

OPTION THREE

Pick one of the sounds from “The Sound Catalog” by Achy Obejas and through that section, examine the complex gains and losses of the main two characters while in the diaspora.

Entry Question

How would you describe the Cuba-US relationships through time?

US Cuba-US Relationship: Historical Context

.Pro-US corporation governments and dictatorship during the early XX century

.Cuban revolution (socialist/communist government)

.Pro-capitalism upper and middle classes fled. They receive refugee status in the U.S.

.The US imposed a blockade

.Mariel Boatlift 1980 (black and poor Cubans discontented with the revolution arrive in Miami)

.Cubans rebuild Miami as a thriving Spanish-speaking city and diasporic center.

. After a number of years of negotiation in 2016 (under the Obama administration) Cuba and the US re-start a more direct political relationship and some sanctions are eliminated in favor of increasing negotiations and access. These fell through during the Trump administration.

Chico and Rita and the pre-Cold War, pre-Revolution Cuban migration

As the film, Chico and Rita demonstrates before the Cold War Cuban migration to the US was very connected with the manufacturing industries and the Afro-diasporic cultural explosion in NYC. Many Cubans musicians like Mario Bauzá or Chano Pozo migrated to NY to engage with the thriving Afro-musical world of the times.  These pioneer musicians transformed jazz and created an inter and transcultural musical path that continues to this day  (mambo; bugalú; salsa; Latin jazz; merengue; hip hop; bachata; reggaetón).

The animated film (see Chano Pozo’s description of NY and the US and Rita’s speech at Las Vegas) and Jairo Moreno’s essay depict how for Afro-Cubans the US represented a space of musical evolution but also of deep racial oppression, segregation, and coloniality (the legacy of everyday colonial practices and mentalities even when the official colonial relationship is over).

See pages: 179-180

Class Presentation

Boodram,Kiarra Mya

Carroll,Sean Patrick

Zenteno,Francisco

Recovering Africanness

Bauzá-Guillespie-Latin Jazz- J Moreno

Moreno quotes Gillespie’s reflection on the loss of African musical traditions, polyrhythms, in favor of European metrics, and monorhythm. His encounter and collaboration with Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo allowed him to reclaim Africanness in his music via the influences of Caribbean rhythmic organization, arrangements, and Pozo’s (Afro-spiritual) musicianship.

See pages: 183-185

Interestingly, his relationship with Pozo showcases- just like Bauzá experienced or the characters in Chico and Rita- elements of US exceptionalism, colonialism, exoticism, and imposed subordination.

Film Aesthetics

The curvaceous and floating animation style in Chico and Rita could be interpreted as a “translation” of the fluidity, and transnational reach of Afro-Cuban music in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the US.

In his essay, Moreno precisely highlights Mario Bauzá’s transcultural approach to music. He features the dominant musical culture (orchestra and harmony) alongside the rhythms of his native (subaltern) Cuba.

Following the tradition of the Afro-Caribbean ballad, the bolero, Chico and Rita is the story of the romantic and musical encounters and misencounters between a young piano player with big dreams and Rita, a singer with an extraordinary voice.  Their journey as lovers and at times musical collaborators brings heartache and torment as they deal with life in pre-revolutionary, US-(economically) controlled Cuba, and later in the diaspora.

ASYNCHRONOUS ASSIGNMENT (Deadline 2/8 before the class)

Instructions:

1. Rent and Watch the film Chico and Rita here or via other screening platforms.

2. In the comment section down below answer ONE of the following prompts (2oo-words minimum) that integrate the reading by Jairo Moreno “Bauza-Gillespie-Latin Jazz: Difference, Modernity, and the Black Caribbean.”

OPTION ONE

Jairo Moreno describes Latin jazz origins as a “musicoaesthetic experimentation by Black Cubans and Black North Americans” (178). How Chico and Rita presents these collaborations? Refer to specific examples from the film.

OPTION TWO

Moreno proposes the notion of the “Black Caribbean” as a phenomenon inscribed “in the particular temporal [time] and spatial [space] dislocations of a North American modernity… a tense and dynamic syncopation [overlapping] of sonic and cultural histories and temporalities” (178). What examples from the film can you bring to illustrate the multiple spaces and dislocations of the Black Caribbean?

OPTION THREE

Describe the ways Chico and Rita showcases New York as an “obligatory destination of sorts for musical pilgrims and also for those interested in incorporating themselves into a rapidly emerging international market centered in and around United States mass culture” (Moreno 179)?

Entry Questions

The rapid growth of the nation’s Latino community has sparked a long and ongoing national debate over immigration, yet the reality is that many of us know little about the true roots of migration or the powerful forces that brought so many immigrants from Latin America to the United States.

Have you been taught about the US as an empire before?

Were you aware of the history of US intervention in Latin America before watching the documentary?

Three Key Concepts

.Imperialism is a policy or ideology of extending a country’s rule over foreign nations, often by military force or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.

.Colonialism is the policy of a country seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories, generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process, colonizers may impose their religion, economics, and other cultural practices on the Indigenous people.

.Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural imperialism to influence a developing country instead of the previous colonial methods of direct military control or indirect political control.

The Documentary

Based on the landmark book (now in its third updated edition) by journalist Juan González, the award-winning documentary Harvest of Empire explores the hidden history of US Latine/x communities and takes an unflinching look at the role that US military actions and economic interests played in triggering unprecedented waves of migration from the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico.

Common Threads

.The wars for territorial expansion gave the U.S. control of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and half of México.

.Neo-colonialism: U.S. corporate and trade hegemony (Sugar Companies; United Fruit Company; NAFTA)

.The hidden CIA led operations that imposed and back-up oppressive military regimes in the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.

Group Discussion

A pull factor is something that pulls a person to immigrate to another country. Examples of pull factors are job or education opportunities, religious freedom, and a cheaper living situation.

A push factor is a reason why people have to leave their home countries, such as war, famine, persecution, or violence.

What pull and push factors did you identify in the documentary? What is the difference between a refugee and an immigrant? What commonalities can we find between the different Latinx migrant groups? What issues do they face upon arrival/ what contributions do they add to the United States?

Bring concrete examples from the documentary.

Expand on one of the following quotes

How do these three quotes from the documentary intersect? How would you summarize their messages?

.“If what exists in Guatemala [Latin America] is persecution, murder, killing, if what you have is insecurity, then I prefer to cross the border and go to a place where I feel safer.” -Rigoberta Menchú, human rights activist, Nobel Prize winner

.“The instability that we [the United States] have contributed to creates the kind of chaos and disarray that leads to more immigration. Because you can argue that if we move into these societies, and contribute to this dysfunction, we have a moral obligation to help the people who feel unsafe in the situations that we, in part, have created.” -Melvin Goodman, former CIA Division Chief

.“There is no such thing as an illegal human being, as an illegal immigrant, as an illegal alien; to call people illegal is the beginning of dehumanizing.” -María Hinojosa, Mexican-American journalist