Course Outline for Ethnic Studies 52
United States History from a Chicano Perspective I

Effective: Fall 2022
SLO Rev: 09/17/2021
Catalog Description:
(See also HIS 52 )
A survey of the social, political, economic, and cultural history of the Chicana/o experience within the context of U.S. history from Mesoamerican origins to the Reconstruction era. Students will critically analyze the struggles of Chicanas/os in the historical development of the United States with comparisons to other groups. Students will also analyze and critique race and racism, colonialism and white supremacy, while also centering movements for sovereignty, self-determination and anti-racism. Major topics include European colonization, Indigenous cultures and slavery, the formation of the American political system, structural racism and segregation, the U.S. War with Mexico, and the American Civil War. This course includes analysis of the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court Rulings, and California State and local government issues related to the rights of Mexican and Mexican Americans. May not receive credit if HIS 52 has been completed successfully.
2203.00 - Ethnic Studies
Letter Grade Only
Measurable Objectives:
Course Content:
  1. Introduction to Chicano Studies Perspective of U.S. History
    1. Theories: racialization/racial formation, colorism, whiteness, whitesupremacy, imperialism, settler colonialism, and Ethnic Studies
  2. Early Mesoamerican Cultures: 
    1. Cradles of World Civilization
  3. From the Olmecs to the Mayans
  4. Evolving Mesoamerican Civilizations:
    1. Teotihuacan and Commerce
    2. The Toltecs and Territorial Expansion
  5. The Arrival and Settlement of the Aztecs in the Valley of Anahuac
    1. The Rise of the Aztec/Mexica Empire
  6.  The Spanish Conquest of the Mexica: Racial hierarchy & Patriarchy
    1.  White supremacy built into the casta system
    2. Miscegenation in Colonial Mexico
  7. European Explorations into North America: Settler Colonialism
    1. The Founding of the English Colonies in North America
    2. Middle Ground
      1. French encounters with Native Americans
    3. The Spanish Expeditions
  8. Roots of American Democracy
    1. The Subjugation of Native People and the enslavement of Africans
  9. Thomas Jefferson on Race
    1. Racial othering of Black and Indigenous people and institutional racism
  10. The America Revolution and the Forging of the United States
    1. Independence or Revolution?
  11. Roots of the American Political System
    1. From the Articles of Confederation to the US Constitution
  12. Formation of the U.S. Constitution
    1. Political philosophies of framers
    2. Rights and obligations of citizens
    3. Majority versus minority rights
    4. Separation of powers (Executive, Legislative, Judicial)
    5. Three-Fifths clause and Structural Racism
    6. legal doctrines and political philosophies in relation to race, class, gender, and sexuality
  13. Market Revolution
    1. The Rise of American Democracy
      1. Particpants & Partcipation   
    2. American Progress
    3. The Second Great Awakening
  14. Age of Jackson: Racialized violence against the southeastern tribes
    1. Indian Removal
    2. The Supreme Court and Native Americans
  15. The Movement North: The Spanish Explorations of the Northern Territories
  16.  The California Mission System: Land disposition, labor exploitation and sexual violence
    1. Junipero Serra
    2. Franciscan Missions as an early carceral state
  17. Diverging American Economic Growth
    1. The Industrializing North versus The Southern Plantation Economy
      1. Protectionists versus Free Markets
  18. Slavery in the South
    1. An American Institution
    2. Abolition and the movement for self-determination
  19. The Spirit of Continentalism: Anglo-American Westward Expansion
    1. Manifest Destiny White encroachment into indigenous and Mexican Territories
  20. The Spanish/Mexican Settlement of the Southwest
  21. The Splintering of the Emerging Mexican Nation:Intersection of race, class and gender as factors of Citizenship status
    1. The 1836 Anglo Rebellion in Tejas
    2. The US/Mexico War of 1846
    3. Conquered People: The Mexicans of the Southwest
    4. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
  22.  Incorporation of California: Legal, political, and social disenfranchisement as related to racism and white supremacy
    1. Gold Rush and Foreign Miners Tax
      1. Racialized violence against Chinese, Mexican and Chilean Miners
    2. Political and Social foundations
  23. The Impending Crisis: The Failure of Political Compromises over Slavery
    1. The Shrinking South
  24. The American Civil War
    1. Historical Interpretations of the Civil War
    2. The General Strike: Enslaved peoples lead the struggle for self-determination
  25. Radical Reconstruction as a model for Twentieth Century Anti-Racists Struggles
  26. California State Constitution
    1. Political Discontent
    2. Second Constitutional Convention, 1878
  27.  Immigration and labor movements in the second half of the 19th Century
    1. Transnational currents
    2. Racialization of the “New” Immigrant and Nativism

 

 

Methods of Instruction:
  1. Films with discussion
  2. Lecture/Discussion
  3. Presentation
  4. Field Trips
  5. Distance Education
  6. Study Questions
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
  1. Write a five-page paper on a topic such as Westward Expansion and its social, political, and economic impact on Native Americans and Mexicans in the 1800s.
  2. Take a field trip to a Spanish Mission and prepare to discuss issues of Spanish and Indian colonial relations.
  3. Write a five-page research paper using Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano studies, on any topic related to Chicano/U.S. History - the topic must be within the time frame we cover in class, beginning approximately with Indigenous Mesoamerican cultures up to the end of the American Civil War.
  4. Trace the territorial expansion of the U. S. on a map.
  1. Exams/Tests
  2. Quizzes
  3. Research Projects
  4. Papers
  5. Projects
  6. Final Examination
  7. ATI exams
Upon the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. Analyze the causes and consequences of political, economic, and social change.
  2. Demonstrate a body of knowledge about and critical understanding of eras, their key events and ideas, and the process of change over time.
  3. Analyze the causes and consequences of political, economic, and social change.
  4. Critically analyze the struggles and contributions of Mexican Americans in the development of California and the United States with comparisons to other major groups like European Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.
Textbooks (Typical):
  1. Foner, Eric (2019). Give Me Liberty, Volume 1 (6). W.W. Norton.
  2. Foner, Eric (2019). Voices of Freedom: A Documentary History Volume 1 (6). W.W. Norton.
  3. Vargas, Zaragosa (2017). Crucible of Struggle: A History of Mexican Americans from Colonial Times to the Present Era (2nd). Oxford University Press.
  4. Gómez, Laura E. (2019). Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race (2). New York University Press.
  5. Mintz, Steven (2009). Mexican American Voices: A Documentary Reader (2). Wiley-Blackwell.
Abbreviated Class Schedule Description:
A survey of the social, political, economic, and cultural history of the Chicana/o experience within the context of U.S. history from Mesoamerican origins to the Reconstruction era. May not receive credit if HIS 52 has been completed successfully.
Discipline:
Chicano Studies*