Spring 2022 – City College is back on campus- mostly!

On February 24th, we welcomed Professor Víctor Corona, from Université Paris, 8 in one of our courses for a fascinating talk based on his research on music and culture in Latinx communities in Barcelona. Prof. Corona visited LALS 12600, Hispanics in the U.S., taught this semester by Prof. Rocío Carranza Brito.

“Bad Bunny or The Prestige of Stigma”

Reggaeton and Latino trap are genres that enjoy great popularity in Spain but, at the same time, are considered superficial musical expressions. Reggaeton music stormed with force in all social spheres 15 years ago. Recently, the Latin trap is one of the genres most listened to by young people around the world, especially in Spanish-speaking countries. Despite the success in the market, both genres have always been burdened with the stigma of being violent and sexist music. However, within these musical genres, there has always been a response of resistance to colonial discourses These musical genres are a manifestation of the anti-colonial reaction. An example of this is the latest album of the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny, who recently has achieved global success. 

In this presentation, using a corpus of several reggaeton and trap songs from the last 15 years,  Prof. Corona shows how this genre poses a response to the silencing of Afro-Caribbean identity in Latin America, the United States, and Europe. 

 

Welcome to the Spring Semester 2021 – still online!

This past week, Prof. Iris López, Director of the LALS Program, was interviewed on NBC discussing issues of masculinities in connection with Latinx communities. Although the NBC segment titled their report “Why the Macho Man Must go” as part of their Radar 21 programming, the discussion is a lot more complex, which is what Prof. López addresses in her talk. Here is the link to the presentation on You Tube, at minute 6:04.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=HHy-223qOcY

#IrisLopez

This is from Radar2021:

One year since the start of the global pandemic, we are finally beginning to see an end in sight. And while Black and Latinx communities were disproportionately affected and vast disparities within our social safety nets revealed, over the course of the past year, we witnessed these same communities come together to support each other—using the pandemic as an opportunity to reinvent themselves (ourselves) as they (we?) braced for impact. #Radar2021​ is a weekly news show that dives into current issues and breaks them down through various perspectives across the Latinx community. Subscribe to the Radar 2021 channel now to stay up to date with episode clips featuring our bi-cultural host Gabriela Fresquez. New episodes every Thursday.

Spring and Fall Semesters, 2020

Two speakers joined us for classes in October, 2020. Visual artist and well-known illustrator, Rachel Levit Ruiz, joined us from Mexico City via Zoom. Students and faculty can view the recording of the class. Please remember that this recording is for educational purposes only.

Professor Moisés Park, from Baylor University, joined us in a lively discussion to talk about a number of issues dealing with identity, including masculinities, sexism, racism, Latinx identity, prejudices against Asian communities in the U.S. and in Latin America, and the inherited, “2nd hand orientalism” expressed in Latinx and Latin American society.

 

Latin American and Caribbean Civilization – LALS 10200

This course was offered in the Fall of 2020. Course Description: “A survey of Latin America’s economic, social, political, and cultural development from the Pre-Columbian era to the present. The course will focus on selected topics and themes including: colonization and resistance to colonization; the formation of social structures and labor systems; patterns of dependent development; reform, revolution, and counter-revolution.”

As part of the study of Latin America and the Caribbean and contemporary society, We invited Professor Nancy J. Ortega to join our class  on Zoom. This recording is available to faculty and students for educational purposes only.

 

Gender, Race, & Latinidad – LALS 31210

This course was offered in the Fall of 2020. Course Description: “This course will study the concepts of identity and subjectivity as Latinidad; how we have come to define Latinidad and what are its implications. Drawing on a variety of interdisciplinary sources we examine how racial definitions, gender, and connections to a national identity have historically and in recent times, through critical world events, intersected in the production and representation of Latinidad. Historically, we will examine how people connect with the concept of Latinidad in order to form a unifying collective identity as a political strategy, but also how such projects have the potential to erase other forms of identification or kinds of experiences. Through a close reading of scholarly and popular texts we will engage with themes including transnationalism and migration, social inequality and practices of resistance, gender and sexuality, language, sense of community, and media representation. We will incorporate interviews with scholars who are working with activist communities, community organizers of mass mobilizations, and artists who change the faces and the names of art production.”

As part of the course study, we presented a talk with author, art Director, and Distinguished lecturer at Hostos, CUNY, Charles Rice Gonzalez. Here are some of the slides from his talk and PP presentation on Zoom to our class, on September 24, 2020. To listen to a recording of the class, click here. This content is for educational purposes only. Please do not share on social media.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latinas in Transition and Translation: The Latina in Latinx Studies – LALS 31998

This course was offered in the Spring of 2020. Course Description: “This course will study the contributions to the field of Latinx Studies by Latina writers (women of Latin American and Spanish-speaking Caribbean ancestry) in the United States. Through reading their literary and scholarly work, we will explore the social and historical roots of Latinx culture in this country (the colonial experience, annexation, migration and the development of Latino communities within U.S. borders). For women who have become a growing force in U.S. society, becoming leaders in labor, education, politics, and industry, growing up Latina meant having to overcome constant challenges, confronting prejudice and various types of discrimination within their own Latino communities and the mainstream. The emergence of Latina and feminist identities, including in terms of age, race, class, culture, sexual orientation, language use, migration, and legal status that began several decades ago produced activists, writers, and educators at all levels of academia. The ground-breaking texts we study today began with activists in the street fighting for civil rights and to put an end to misogyny and homophobia, with Latinas who shouted “P’afuera y p’alante, Compañeras!” and those who wrote their lives into history. These texts will be interwoven throughout the course readings and discussion. ”

ANEL FLORES: As part of the course study, we presented a talk with Chicana artist and educator, Anel Flores. Here are some of the screenshots from the class held on Zoom, and the recording of the class (for educational purposes only- please do not share on social media) on April 13, 2020.

Hispanics in the United States: Migration and Adjustment – LALS 12600

This course was offered in the Spring of 2019. Course description: “This course will discuss the challenge that the multifaceted Latino/a-Hispanic reality poses to the anglo-european and monocultural conception of the United States. For the most part, mainstream approaches to the study of Latino and Latina populations in the United States tend to focus on Latinos/as as a problem group, somehow outside and distinct from society. In our approach, we will shift perspectives to the myriad identities that in fact constitute the U.S. We will read and discuss texts on the socio-economic and political origins of migration from Latin America and the Spanish speaking Caribbean to the United States, as well as the historic Latino/a-Hispanic presence pre-dating the expansion of U.S. territories. The course will discuss key concepts such as a multi-racial latinidad, first and 2^nd-3^rd generation Latinos/as, the politics of gender, homophobia, imperialism, neoliberalism, militarization, circular migration, illegality, borderlands, ethnic enclaves, and the immigrant consciousness. In our study, we will incorporate the term Latinx as a signifier of people, heritage, and culture.”

As part of the course study, we presented a series of conversations with Latinx scholars on the subject of Latinidad.