Week One

March 26

Topic:

Introduction: Representation and Cultural Production Lecture & Discussion

March 28

Topic:

The Changing Role of Latinos in the Media & the Arts

Read:

1. Hall, Encoding/decoding
2. Bourdieu, Outline of a sociological theory of art perception

Paper
Exchange #1:

What is your first reaction to/understanding of these theories of representation and cultural production? Consider how the theories of Hall and Bourdieu relate to the media and art forms that we are exploring in this course.

Electronic
Journal #1

Why have you chosen to take this course?

Week Two

April 2

Topic:

Art for Everybody: Orozco and Other Dangerous Border Crossers
Guest lecturer: Diane Miliotes

Read:

1. Keppel, "Introduction: A historian reads Toward a people's art"
2. article in Boston newspaper; handout

Paper
Exchange #2:

What are your first impressions of the Orozco murals? Why do you think these images were -- and still are -- controversial? What do the terms "multicultralism" and "political correctness" have to do with the Orozco murals?

April 4

Topic:

History, Public Art and the Orozco Murals

Read:

1. Green, "The texture of memory: Historical process and contemporary art"
2. Stimpson, "Introduction" To Whose Art Is It?
3. Hilliard, Motive, Myth and Media

Electronic
Journal #2:

Comment on the readings (above). What did you find most interesting about these articles? Which ideas did you find provocative? Why?

Week Three

April 9

Topic:

Foundational Images of Latinidad on the Border, Broadway and in Hollywood

Read:

1. Sandoval-Sánchez, "Carmen Miranda and Desi Arnaz: Foundational images of 'Latinidad' on Broadway and in Hollywood"
2. Noriega, "Citizen Chicano: The trials and tribulations of ethnicity in American cinema, 1935 - 1962"

Paper
Exchange #3:

How authentic are cultural, ethnic, and racial representations? Why do artistic performances like music, film and dance embody and activate national identities? Who are these artists representing; for whom are they speaking?

April 11

Topic:

The Evolution of Electronic Media

Read:

1. Walker, "The first broadcasters; Siberia; & CB, the Internet, and beyond"
2. Bolter & Grusin, "Introduction: The double logic of remediation; & Networks of remediation"

Electronic
Journal #3:

Discuss Bolter & Grusin's concept of "remediation." What is a "medium?" What is "the message?"

Week Four

April 16

Topic:

En El Norte: Migrations into the Media and the Arts

Read:

1. Subervi-Vélez, "Hispanic-oriented media"
2. Ríos, "Chicana/o and Latina/o gazing: Audiences of the mass media"

View (for 4/18):

1. Zoot Suit; Dir. Luis Valdez (1981)
2. Zoot Suit; Digitized movie clips in Course Gallery (Go to Clips)

Paper
Exchange #4:

Do you agree with Ríos' and Subervi-Vélez's assessment of Latinos/as access to the media? What do you think are the most effective "interventions" that Chicanas/os and Latinas/os have to improve representations of themselves in the media? In the arts? To what degree do certain media and art forms fulfill or fail to fulfill sociocultural goals for these groups?

April 18

Topic:

Put on Your Zoot Suit
Guest lecturer: Alma Martinez

First MIDTERM EXAM distributed in class (Due 4/25)

Read:

1. hooks, "Introduction: Making movie magic; & Artistic integrity: Race and accountability"
2. Fregoso, "Zoot suit: The 'return to the beginning'"

View (for 4/23):

1. West Side Story; Dir. Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins (1961)
2. West Side Story; Digitized movie clips in Course Gallery (Go to Clips)

Electronic
Journal #4:

What are you planning to do for your Final Project?

Week Five

April 23

FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE TODAY

Topic:

I Like to Be in América

Read:

1. Sandoval-Sánchez, "A Puerto Rican reading of the America of West Side Story"
2. Gómez Peña, "Vladivostok: An untranslatable memory" (133-4)
3. Gómez Peña, "On Fear of the Other" (61)

View (for 4/25):

1. Born in East L.A.; Dir. Cheech Marin (1987)
2. Born in East L.A.; Digitized movie clips in Course Gallery (Go to Clips)

Paper
Exchange #5:

Continue to articulate your ideas about your Final Project. How do you (and your partner[s]) plan on presenting your work? What theories will you use? What media? What forms of artistic expression?

April 25

Topic:

Waas Sappening in Latino cinema, with Latino/a images, and in L.A.?

Read:

1. Noriega, "Waas Sappening?: Narrative structure and iconography in Born in East L.A.
2. Gómez Peña, "The two Guadalupes" (235-42)

Visit (for 4/30):

1. Hopkins Center & Guillermo Gómez Peña "Orozco Mexotica" website (Go to Website)

Electronic
Journal #5

What is the narrative structure and "iconography" in your Final Project? What is the message that you want to transmit ("encode") in your performance/ video/ radio program/ photography/ collage/ website/ etc.?

Week Six

April 30

Topic:

Ethno-cyborgs and Cultural Others

Read:

1. Bailey, "Virtual skin: Articulating race in cyberspace"
2. Gómez Peña, "Ethno-cyborgs and genetically engineered Mexicans" (45-57)
3. Gómez Peña, "The virtual barrio @ the other frontier" (247-60)
4. (Or read the on-line version at:) "The virtual barrio @ the other frontier"

Paper
Exchange #6:

Who belongs in the Dartmouth community? Who has access to the virtual community in cyberspace? What are the implications of "cyberspace" for the global community?

May 2

Topic:

Border Brujos and Good Neighbors en la Frontera

Read:

1. Fox, "Mass media, site specificity, and the U.S.-Mexico border: Guillermo Gómez Peña's Border Brujo (1988,1990)"
2. Gómez Peña, "From Montana to Helsinki" (117-32)
3. López, "Are all Latins from Manhattan?"

Electronic
Journal #6:

What border crossings have you experienced in your life? What (if anything) makes you a hybrid person?

Week Seven

May 7

Topic:

¿Por dónde vamos en el MOOndo Latino?

Read:

1. Burk, "The play's the thing: Theatricality and the MOO environment"
2. Laurel, "The nature of the beast"
3. Gómez Peña, "Chihuahuas, rockeros, and zoot suits: Notes on multiculturalism without people of color" (188-219)

MOOndo Latino roleplay, Date & time TBA

Paper
Exchange #7:

Is "cyberspace" liberating or restrictive? How can we use these spaces in new media (as opposed to mass media) for encounter, dialogue and exchange?

May 9

Topic:

From the Margins to the Left of Center

Read:

1. "Ethnic ingenuity and mainstream cinema: Robert Rodríguez's Bedhead (1990) and El Mariachi (1993)"
2. Robert Rodríguez, TBA

Electronic
Journal #7:

How do you expect to become a "cultural anthropologist" in your final project?

Week Eight

May 14

Topic:

Orozco Mexotica
Guest Lecturer: Guillermo Gómez Peña

Read:

1. Gómez Peña, "When our performance personas walk out of the museum" (62-72)
2. Gómez Peña, "The art of camouflage: Performing in extremely unusual contexts" (79-90)
3. Orozco, "Chicano and Latino art and culture institutions in the southwest: The politics of space, race, and money"

May 16

Topic:

Latinos in the New Millenium and in New Media

Read:

1. Gómez Peña, "Away from the surveillance cameras of the art world: Strategies for collaboration and community activism" (167-87)
2. Turkle, "Introduction: Identity in the age of the Internet"; & "Virtuality and its discontents"
3. Santisteban, "A program for change: Latino media in the next millennium"

Week Nine

May 21

Topic:

Read:

1. Vargas, "A historical overview/update on the state of Chicano art"

May 22

X-Hour Meeting at WDCR (Wed. 5/22, 2 - 4 pm)

Topic:

(Re)Presentations, Evolutions, Ethnographies: Primer Paso

Bring:

1. One song to play on the air One idea to share with the audience

Week Ten

MAY 28

FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS. LAST DAY OF CLASSES.

Topic:

(Re)Presentations, Evolutions, Ethnographies: Segundo Paso

Read:

1. TBA