HISP 206 - Reading and Writing about Hispanic Culture

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 1 unit(s)

 

Topic for 2022/23a and b: Migrant Latin America. Though in recent years, the countries of Latin America have been considered immigrants in places like the United States and certain European countries, in this course, we explore texts, films, and photography that record experiences of events of migration into Latin America. From Spanish and Italian economic migratory waves in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to Argentinian and Chilean radicals looking for refuge from the dictatorships of the 1970s, to the indigenous population of Guatemala escaping into neighboring Mexico to find refuge from the US-backed counter-revolutionary terror in the 1980s, we discover the cultural and political enrichment that these events had in their host countries. Students complete assignments working with diverse audio-visual media and short texts.

 

Topic for 2022/23b: Desbordes: Undoing Patriarchy in Latin America. Contemporary anti-patriarchal, anti-racist, and anti-colonial collectives, authors, and artists are changing the socio-political landscape of Latin America from the ground up. In this course we pay attention to how these activists undo and overflow patriarchal borders to create new territories of dissent and communality. While developing reading, writing, and speaking skills in Spanish, we analyze the works of various collectives, authors, and artists, to map this current affective cartography of Latin America. Materials range from comic strips, performance, short stories, poems, music videos, to essays, manifestos and calls to action. By the end of the course, students are able to engage with Latin American feminist theories, identify major interventions, and write short essays towards undoing patriarchy in Latin America. Montserrat Madariaga-Caro.

 

 

Prerequisite(s): HISP 205  or four years of high school Spanish.

Two 75-minute periods and one hour of conversation.

Course Format: CLS