Course Description
Covers the story of indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States: Aztlán, the Spanish colonial period, the Mexican period, and the acquisition and settlement by the United States. Seeks the exposition of indigenous and Hispanic historical and cultural foundations of the region and the confluence with other Asian and European influences. Taught in English with Spanish readings for Spanish majors. Also available online.
Course Summary
Aztlan is considered to be the mythical origin of the Aztec people. This concept is both used to identify with the past and with the present. Throughout this course we learned about the history of colonization, the painful birth of the mestizo and the fight for independence. New Spain once having gained its independence and changing its name to Mexico had many power struggles until establishing a constitution in 1821. Further down historical events, we reviewed the wars fought against the Americans while Mexico struggled to protect its territory. After the provocation of the Americans, the Mexican-American war initiated and resulted in Mexico losing almost half of its territory through The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In summary we also went over political developments, liberal reforms and the revolutions that later broke out. Through the use of the class text, we went into very in-depth detail about how life was for people that stayed in the territory of Texas and for those that migrated back to Mexico. The socioeconomic life was poor in Mexico through the early 1900s' during the great depression causing many to immigrate back into the U.S to look for better opportunities. The Second World War also greatly affected many Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans that participated in the war. We were asked to reflect on each of the chapters assigned during the readings and used online forums to read and comment on other students reflections. This helped us see other perspectives and initiate dialogue over the topics that we were reviewing in class. Most importantly, we reviewed topics of the Chicano movement which greatly influenced how Mexican-Americans were treated in the United States. This topic was most significant to me because I was able to identify myself as the fruit of these efforts in demanding better education and workers rights.
MLO's Satisfied
MLO 3
Work Sample
untitled_presentation__2_.pdf | |
File Size: | 519 kb |
File Type: |