This intimate class will function as an independent study. In direct response to our volatile world and as a form of intellectual healing, we will slow down and go in-depth into the sources. We will emphasize quality discussions and close reading analysis over quantity and quick consumption. We will spend more time than what is standard with each source. Additionally, we will engage in horizontal democracy, selecting the topics we will explore together. Everybody will have a voice and a vote on the course materials. For this reason, I only selected some initial sources that will help us contextualize Puerto Rican Studies as a scholarly discipline and diasporic practice.
Week 1 Introduction + Critical Pedagogy
8/28
Mohabir, Rajiv. “Mister Javier’s Lesson Plan.” In Antiman. Restless Books, 2021.
+
Yolen, Jane. Encounter. YouTube. https://youtu.be/lxnDJybshOc?si=4fTytCVpDdw9DgAA
Keywords: Critical pedagogy; Puerto Ricans in New York; Native cultures and knowledge.
Week 2 The Emergence of Puerto Rican Studies
9/4
In-class screening and discussion:
The Five Demands (Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss, 2023)
Keywords: Critical pedagogy; Puerto Ricans in New York; Black-Puerto Rican Activism at CUNY.
Week 3 NYC Takeovers
9/11
+
In-class screening and discussion:
Takeover (Emma Francis-Snyder, 2022)
Keywords: Critical pedagogy; Health justice; Puerto Ricans in New York; Black-Puerto Rican Activism.
Week 4 Nuyoricans+ CUNY 1969 + Blackout Poetry Workshop
9/18
Rodríguez, Clara. “Puerto Ricans: Building the Institutions for the Next Generations of Latinos.” In Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition. University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. Pages 57-63
Pietri, Pedro. “Puerto Rican Obituary”
+
Keywords: Poetry Workshop; Nuyorican Poetry and Institutions; Puerto Ricans in New York; Systemic discrimination in the workforce; Black-Puerto Rican Activism.
Week 5 Native Cultures
9/25
Meléndez-Badillo, Jorell. “Borikén’s First Peoples: From Migration to Insurrection.” In Puerto Rico: A National History. Princeton University Press, 2024.
+
Jaffe, Nina. The Golden Flower: A Taino Myth From Puerto Rico. Illustrated by Enrique Sanchez.
Presentation(s):
Keywords: Caribbean History; Imperialism; Puerto Rican archipelagic geography; Indigenous storytelling.
*Submit the “Blackout poetry assignment.”
10/1 Extra Credit Event
A Conversation with Dr. Yomaira Figueroa- Vásquez
Room: VC 14-266
Time: 5:00 pm
RSVP here
10/2- No Classes Scheduled
Week 6 Slavery in Puerto Rico (and the Caribbean)
10/9
Arroyo Pizarro, Yolanda. “Arrowhead.” In Negras, Stories of Puerto Rican Slave Women. Boreales, 2012.
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Dadzie, Stella. “Enslaved Women and Subversion.” In A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance. Verso, 2020.
Keywords: Afro-Puerto Rican History; Slavery and Resistance; Puerto Rican colonial past; Black storytelling.
Week 7 Puerto Rican Musical Circuits
10/16
Gautier, Amina. “Aguanile.” Now We Will Be Happy. University of Nebraska Press, 2014.
Presentation(s):
+
In-class screening and discussion:
“Tito Matos ¡Ahora Sí!” In Puerto Rican Voices https://youtu.be/2mf8C6f9GSY?si=J6tPQ5eBLD3meAF5
Keywords: Afro-Puerto Rican Music; Diaspora-Island relationships; Artivism; Black storytelling.
Week 8 Black Diasporican Arts
10/23
Figueroa-Vásquez, Yomaira. “Afro-Boricua Archives.” Post45. https://post45.org/2020/01/afro-boricua-archives-paperless-people-and-photo-poetics-as-resistance/
+
Girmay, Aracelis.”You are who I love.” https://poets.org/poem/you-are-who-i-love
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Works by Frank Espada and Daniel Lind-Ramos
Presentation(s):
Keywords: Afro-Puerto Rican arts and poetics; Photography and Diaspora; Installation artists
Week 9 Studio Visit
10/30 6:30-8:00 pm
Miguel Trelles Studio Visit.
Trelles Studio # 303
The Clemente
107 Suffolk Street, NYC
J/M/Z and F trains to Essex/Delancey
Miguel Trelles | TUSSLE Interview
*Submit the final project proposal as a document via email.*
Week 10 The Political Status Question
11/6
Rodriguez, Abraham. “The Boy Without a Flag.” Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings- An Anthology. One World Book, 1995.
Asynchronous Screening
Why isn’t Puerto Rico a state? (Bianca Graulau, 2022)
+
In-class Screening and discussion:
How the U.S. Silenced Calls for Puerto Rico’s Independence (Bianca Graulau, 2021)
Presentation:
Keywords: Puerto Rican Politics; State-sanctioned censorship; Political Repression; Colonialism; PR-US relationships
Week 11 Future-Oriented Politics from Below
11/13
Llenín Figueroa, Beatriz. “The Maroons are Deathless, We are Deathless.” Abusable Past. https://abusablepast.org/from-puerto-rico-the-maroons-are-deathless-we-are-deathless/
+
Meléndez-Badillo, Jorell. “Broken Memories and Future-Oriented Histories.” In Puerto Rico: A National History. Princeton University Press, 2024.
+
In-class Screening and discussion:
“El apagón” (Bad Bunny and Bianca Graulau, 2022) https://youtu.be/1TCX_Aqzoo4?si=x9-mELx4WxZBI_CK
Presentation:
Keywords: Grassroots organizing; #RickyRenuncia protests; Post-María communal politics; #FueraLUMA
Week 12 Puerto Rico in a Caribbean Context
11/20
Del Valle Schorske, Carina. “An Arsenal of Mysteries: The Terrifying Allure of a Remote Caribbean Island.” New York Times. March 20, 2024.
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Ceballos, Helen. “Cerezas por papeles” In “Pensamientos” Afro-Latin@ Forum. https://www.afrolatinoforum.org/pensamientos-blog/cerezas-por-papeles-cherries-for-documents
Presentation(s):
Keywords: Caribbean History; Imperialism; Puerto Rican archipelagic geography; Dominican migration; Dominican arts in Puerto Rico.
11/27 Classes follow the Friday schedule
11/28-12/1 College Closed
Week 13 Exam
12/4
Week 14 Final Project Preview Presentations
12/11
Final submission deadline
By 11:59 pm on 12/18.
Send your work via email: rojo.roblesmejias@baruch.cuny.edu