Re: Chicano Movement For Beginners 11
Ingelore Clason
The Chicano Movement. The very mention of those words stirs up conflicting memories of struggle, success and survival for those who lived and participated in the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s and 70s. For the foot soldiers in that counter-culture movement, it was an era of pride, awakening and hope.
But, for others, it meant separating yourself from mainstream America and marginalizing your potential by identifying more with your heritage and a sense of ethnic nationalism. Even learning to speak Spanish was taboo for some Mexican Americans.
The term Chicano has moved on. Indeed, the era seems like the glory days of yesteryear for those who participated in the movement. It was a time when pragmatic youth and enthusiastic organizers strived to ensure that Mexican Americans could become part of the United States without forfeiting their ancestral pride. In South Texas, it was at Texas A&I University in Kingsville, where The Movement was the strongest. But, where is it now?
The efforts of Reies Lopez Tijerina and his Alizana land grant issue in New Mexico is over. The work of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, still alive, has evolved. Corky Gonzalez's "Crusade for Justice" in Colorado is a distant memory. And, in South Texas, Jose Angel Gutierrez's Raza Unida Party lost momentum decades ago.
Perhaps now more than ever, a book for beginners is what is needed. Montoya notes that the heroes and participants in the Movimiento are slowly fading into obscurity, and when they go, so do their memories and deeds. When it comes to telling the story of the Civil Rights Era, the Chicano Movement seems destined for historical obscurity. If Mexican Americanos don't tell the story, who will?
"It pains me deeply that the Civil Rights Era continues to be seen . . .in black and white and not in full color," Montoya writes, stating that it's time to look at the Movimiento with new eyes and leave a legacy for a new generation to continue the struggle for civil rights.
Montoya's book is a start. It's no "Occupied America" by Rodolfo Acua. Neither is it Gloria Anzaldua's classic "Borderlands/La Frontera." But, it functions well as an overview of the struggle and relates with some authority why the Chicano Movement was important to the nation.
Except for a definite California bias in detailing the Chicano Era, the book is solid. From a local standpoint, it left out many of our student leaders and artists. Missing from the book are figures such as Mexican American Youth Organization South Texas coordinator Carlos Guerra from Robstown and internationally renowned Chicana artists Santa Barraza and Carmen Lomas Garza from Kingsville.
Ilan Stavans, in a forward to the book, reflects on Montoya's thoughts. "The Chicano Movement might look dead . . . but its spins continue to define us, whether we acknowledge it or not. It is time to fashion its ideals back to the present."
This weekly column focuses on new and old books about Texas or related to Texas. It includes fiction and nonfiction books, reports on political and sports books as well as cultural or historical works. The common thread among these books is their relationship to Texas, specifically South Texas.
Spanish is the most widely-spoken language of the Americas, with 130 million speakers in North America alone and more than 400 million worldwide, with growing numbers in Canada. It is the fourth most widely-spoken language in the world, and it is the official language in 21 countries on three continents: Europe, Africa, and Latin America.
Spanish opens the door to a rich range of cultural expression in literature, film, art, and architecture, from the world-changing contribution of Renaissance Spain, Cervantes, and the transatlantic diaspora, and the various film-makers, artists, and architects that continue to shape and change contemporary culture.
The progression of courses in the language sequence is designed to accommodate a wide range of previous preparation in the spoken and written language. In their first year, beginners receive an intensive course, SPA 100Y1; those with OAC/Grade 12 standing begin their University studies in SPA 220Y1; students who on entry are already well qualified in Spanish and demonstrate both oral and written fluency are expected to proceed directly to more advanced levels of study. Throughout the language sequence, stress is laid both on the cultural component of language acquisition and on the range of practical applications to which both the spoken and the written language may be put. Courses in phonetics, in business Spanish, and in the history and structure of the Spanish language provide an array of possible options for students in the upper years.
Following an introduction to the methodologies of critical analysis as applied to Hispanic texts, students have a wide selection of courses on the literatures of Spain and Spanish America: medieval Spanish literature; early modern prose, verse and drama; the modern novel, short story, poetry, drama and film. In all years, the works are read and discussed not only in terms of their individual artistic value but also as illustrations of the outlook and the intellectual climate of their age.
In conjunction with Woodsworth College, the department makes SPA courses available during the summer at the University of Guadalajara. Interested students should contact the Professional and International Programs, Woodsworth College (summer...@utoronto.ca)
For the Portuguese component, see under Portuguese Program in this Calendar.
Undergraduate Coordinator: Professor Manuel Ramirez (416-813-4082). E-mail: spanport.un...@utoronto.ca
Enquiries: Victoria College, Room 208 (416-813-4080). Email: span...@chass.utoronto.ca
Web site: www.spanport.utoronto.ca
Students should note that, as explained on the page 20 of this Calendar, the Language Citation is not equivalent to an academic program and that enrolment in a program is not necessary in order to earn the recognition bestowed by the Citation.
Survey of the mechanics of writing and basic grammar for fluent speakers of Spanish with limited or no exposure to written Spanish; English/Spanish spelling differences, written and spoken registers of Spanish, basic aspects of the grammatical system.
Intermediate Spanish for non-natives. Intensive grammar review of the structures of Spanish integrated with an introduction to reading authentic Spanish material, with practice designed to build vocabulary and to improve oral and written expression.
Introduction to university literary studies in Spanish. Critical terminology and methods. Representative selections of modern Spanish and Spanish American prose, poetry, and drama. (Offered in alternate years)
Forms of cultural expression in Spain, Latin America and Spanish-speaking North America, with study of representative media, including literature, journalism, film, visual art, and the urban environment. Introduction to methods of cultural analysis. (Offered in alternate years).
An introduction to articulatory phonetics, Spanish sound patterns, phonetics, phonology; the basic concepts of phonetic description and transcription; the study of Spanish vowel and consonant systems, stress and intonation.
The basic concepts and analytic tools of linguistics applied to the study of Spanish, with a focus on the Spanish phonological, morphological, and syntactic systems. Theoretical discussion and practical exercises in analytic techniques. (Offered in alternate years)
Practical uses of spoken and written Spanish for business contexts. This course builds on grammar and vocabulary knowledge already acquired at the intermediate level, and is directed primarily at students pursuing a second major in Latin American Studies or European Studies. (Offered in alternate years)
Spanish bilingualism from three different perspectives: linguistic, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic. Analysis of typical language contact phenomena with materials from Spanish. Case studies of Spanish in contact and discussion of the psychological consequences of bilingual childhood. Introduction to survey methods in sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, and basic techniques for conducting language interviews.
This course aims at exposing students to different varieties of Latin American Spanish. Lexical, morpho-syntactic and phonological variation will be discussed and theoretical descriptions will be illustrated by using samples from contemporary cinema and television.
Study of Catalan language through an overview of grammatical structures and exercises in proficiency skills, complemented by readings in Catalan history and society to attain interdisciplinary cultural literacy.
Literary and artistic movements in Spain from 1890 to 1940, with special attention to the convergence and mutual mediation of politics and art. Materials to be studied include novels, poetry, the urban environment, graphic art, literary journals and manifestos, and some early Hispanic film. (Offered in alternate years)
Representative literary and cultural texts from the early modern period, studied in relation to the history and society of imperial Spain. Discussion will centre on such issues as the formation of the state, urbanization, court culture, social order and disorder, and cultural discourses of identity and difference. (Offered in alternate years)
This interdisciplinary approach considers broad cultural consequences resulting from the contact of Spanish with the American indigenous languages. Current cultural and linguistic theories on language contact are used to analyze sixteenth to eighteenth-century Spanish texts, and invite reflection on language, power, and the emergence of new cultural expressions.
Analysis of poetry, short stories, essays, and graphic art in the context of nation-building and the question of identity during the nineteenth century. Modernismo studied as the first literary movement of Spanish American origin. (Offered in alternate years)
7fc3f7cf58