Latina/o Studies Courses

Note: Not all courses listed are offered every semester Students should check the current class schedule for current offerings

LLS 200 Black Roots in Spanish American Literature (3)

A study of literature of the Spanish American black experience by writers of African and European ancestry. LEC

LLS 204 Introduction to Puerto Rican Culture (3)

Introduction to Puerto Rican and Latino Culture is a multi-disciplinary course which begins by examining the field of Latino Studies/Ethnic Studies and its relationship to the social sciences. This section lays the theoretical groundwork for the future in this course and in discussions and debates in the field.

Pre-Colombian Tiano and Caribe cultures are examined as well as the great cultures of the Aztecs and the Incas and their relationship to present day Latino culture. The second part of the course explores the Puerto Rican and Latin American colonial, post colonial and neo-colonial experience. The third and final section of this course explores current issues in Pureto Rico and Latin America such as identity formation and immigration and the impact of these social phenomenon on North America and Latin America in terms of culture and socio-economics.

Course requirements include class participation, at least one class presentation and theoretical analysis, two take home essay exams and one short research paper. LEC

LLS 208 Twentieth-Century Puerto Rican Literature (3)

Major Puerto Rican authors of the twentieth century studied within the framework of historical colonial Puerto Rican reality. LEC/SEM

LLS 301 Ethnicity and the Puerto Rican Experience (3)

Class and race as coordinates of the Puerto Rican experience in the world; ethnicity as it relates to the discovery and perception of reality. SEM

LLS 303 Mainland Puerto Rican Experiences (3)

The purpose of this course is to examine the shifting identities of mainland Puerto Ricans. The course will begin by exploring Puerto Rican immigration to the United States since the 1890's, and the Puerto Rican struggle for survival in urban America. We will explore the "voices" Puerto Rican communities, particularly Spanish Harlem in New York City, and the rise of the Nuyorrican identity. In addition, this course will explore the experiences of Puerto Rican women and families as well as struggles with spirituality including Catholicism and American Protestant fundamentalism. SEM

LLS 305 Contemporary Afro-Caribbean Religions (3)

The purpose of this course is to explore the rich cultural syncretisms of Afro-Caribbean religious experience and to challenge the Judeo/Christian hegemonic notions of spirituality within a Caribbean context. This course will primarily focus on an in-depth understanding of Vaudou in Haiti and Santeria in Cuba. Other religious experiences such as Rastafarian culture in Jamaica and Condomble will be explored as well. The Afro-Caribbean religious experience will provide the basis for analyzing current academic notions of the collective community, indicidualized and competitive societies as well as (de) constructing modernization and traditional societies. This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach including anthropology, sociology, history, and economics. Students will be provided with a unique opportunity to learn and conduct qualitative research and field work while focusing on Latin/Caribbean studies.

LLS 307 History of Ideas in Puerto Rico (3)

Sociopolitical ideas that have exerted a decisive influence in the formation of a Puerto Rican culture and conscience from the second half of the nineteenth century to present times. SEM

LLS 308 Black Presence in Latin America (3)

Black Presence is a multi-disciplinary course which explores the social, political, cultural, and economic experiences of Afro-Latinos in Latin America. The course begins with a brief history of Afro Latino colonial experiences and an examination of a Latin American formation of race. The race constructions of both Latin America and Anglo America are explored for similarities and differences.

Colonial Theory serves as a framework to explore the total experiences of Afro-Latinos both in the Caribbean and in South America. Further, this course examines country by country, the experiences of Africans in the West, and in what ways their experiences share commonalities, creating a Pan Atlantic African experience and identity.

Requirements include two take home essay exams and one term paper. Students are encouraged to participate in course debates and discussions, as well as offer personal or family histories to explore Latino identities. Students will be required to make at least one class presentation which includes an analysis of a scholarly article and to theoretically relate this material to the overall content of the course. SEM

LLS 371 Spanish American Literature in Translation (3)

Prerequisite: ENG 201

In this course we will examine the writings of authors from Spanish America. Themes for discussion include: machismo, feminism, sexuality, gender, colonialism, reality/fantasy, absurdism, and magical realism. We will read novels by Adolfo Caminha, Reinaldo Arenas, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Carlos Fuentes, Sylvia Molloy, Virgilio Piñera, Manuel Puig, Edgardo Rodríguez Julií, Juan Rulfo, Luis Rafael Sánchez, Severo Sarduy, and Luis Zapata. LEC The course will be conducted in English.

LLS 401 Seminar in Puerto Rican Studies (3)

Special topics pertaining to Puerto Rican and Latin American experiences. SEM

LLS 402 Puerto Rican Literature (3)

This course examines Puerto Rican literature on the island and on the mainland. We will give special attention to the literature produced in New York and the island literature that narrates migration to the mainland. We will look at issues of migration, assimilation, nationalism, race, and ethnicity. Our primary texts will consist of Roberto Santiago's anthology Boricuas, and literary works such as Esmeralda Santiago's When I was Puerto Rican, Nicholasa Mohr's In Nueva York, Abraham Rodriguez's The Boy Without a Flag, Pedro Juan Soto's Spiks, Manuel Mendez Ballester's The Pond, Rene Marques' The Oxcart, and Ana Lydia Vega's True And False Romances. This course will be conducted in English. SEM

LLS 404 Havana: City and Culture (3)

Interdisciplinary course; examines the urban development of Havana, from the sixteenth century to the present, as a process that has produced not only a city of universal projections but also a complex symbolic universe that speaks of the struggles and aspirations of its citizenry. The seminar looks at Havana as a complex spatial phenomenon and is intended to give students the basic background they need to understand fundamental political problems in the history of Cuba and the intricacies of its socioracial environment. LEC

LLS 440 Caribbean Short Stories (3)

In this course we will examine the short fiction of authors from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Themes for discussion include: machismo, feminism, sexuality, gender, colonialism, reality/fantasy, absurdism, and magic realism. We will read short stories by Reinaldo Arenas, Juan Bosch, Calvert Casey, Rosario Ferré, Magali García Ramis, Asela Gutiérrez Kann, Alfonso Hernández-Catá, Carmen Lugo Filipi, Jacobo Morales, Virgilio Piñera, Lucia Quintero, Mervin Román, Luis Rafael Sánchez, and Ana Lydia Vega.

The course will be conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: junior/senior standing and open only to students who have taken at least two courses at the 300/400 level. SEM

LLS 475 Latino Masculinity (3)

The first half of this course will explore notions of machismo in Latin American culture. We will explore the origins of male behavioral patterns, how they are expressed in society, and the overall repercussions of such patterns in a contemporary setting. Awareness of macho behavior patterns, their psychological implications, and the examination of patriarchal social mores in Latin America will be our lens for examining Latino Culture. In addition, the roles of women will be examined within this hegemonic patriarchal structure. Examples of questions to be explored are: who perpetuates the mytho of machismo, what are the perceived benefits to the individual, and how and in what ways are the notions of machismo able to persist when they essentially undermine themselves?

The second half of this course will further examine concepts of masculinity by focusing on how homosexuality is expressed and interpreted within machismo culture. How does a society balance itself when confronted with notions of hyper-masculinity and repressed homosexuality? how do women function in a society that both cherishes virginity and chastity but encourages young males to be sexually promiscuous? Why is homosexulaity more accepted in one culture, and less in another? What terms and behavior are used to define homosexual behavior in Latino cultures and from where do these presumed classifications come? How does the machismo male differentiate himself from his homosexual counterpart? When the essential characteristics of hyper-masculinity seem to rely upon self-delusion and self-denial, who is really in the closet and who is not?

Masculinity will be discussed as a product of preexisting social conditions, the social development of machismo will be presented as a defining but corruptible social phenomenon, and homosexuality will be studied withing the framework of masculinity and male behavior. All male behavior will be deconstructed and reevaluated within a contemporary model of sexuality and gendering. SEM