I am the son of Mexican migrant workers from the Texas/Mexican border. I grew up in an urban, multiracial California city. I have been a bilingual teacher and principal in Latinx working class communities. These experiences have shaped my lens to interrogate dominant structures, narratives and practices around culture, race, and language that serve to keep people from realizing their full humanity. I center my research projects in Latinx communities heavily impacted by global migration in California, El Salvador, and Spain. My research examines how Latinx youth and families negotiate from the bottom up global transnational migration, citizenship, belonging, race and complex identity formation processes in the context of severe inequality and structural constraints within sending and receiving contexts of the migration circuit. My work seeks to develop methodologies/pedagogies that facilitate understanding of the complex, liminal lives of migrant subjects and their acts resistance.
keywords
Migration and border studies in global Latino/a communities, Citizenship/Identity and belonging in Latino/a migrant communities, Social theory, critical ethnography, participatory action research, Education, race and social change, equity and school reform
ETHN 2001 - Foundations of Comparative Ethnic Studies: Race, Gender and Culture(s)
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2023
Introduction to the study of race, ethnicity and gender in the United States. Overview of concepts, theories and analytic frames that shape the interdisciplinary field of Ethnic Studies. Focuses on historic, institutional, legal and cultural issues that impact African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Chicanas and Chicanos, European Americans, Native Americans and Indigenous peoples in the U.S.
ETHN 2014 - Themes in American Culture 2
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018
Enables students to explore various themes in post-1865 American culture. Examines these themes, which vary each year, in their social context.
ETHN 2536 - Survey of Chicana/o History and Culture
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2021
Through historical and social scientific studies, novels, autobiographies, testimonies, films, music, and art, this course will provide students a survey of Chicana/o history and culture. Historical overviews of Chicana/o peoples from Mesoamerica; the Spanish Conquest; the historical presence of Chicana/o peoples in the Southwest; the rise of the Chicana/o student and community movements; immigration issues; and the gender, sexuality, and criminalization issues.
ETHN 4009 - Chicana/os and Education
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2022 / Spring 2024
Chicana/o and Mexican-origin communities make up the largest and oldest of U.S. Latinx peoples. In many urban school districts across the country they make up the majority of the school enrollment; yet they are grossly underrepresented in higher education. This course will examine the socio-historical, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped the educational experiences of Chicana/os in the U.S. including issues of race, language learning and identity formation as they intersect with nation building. Previously offered as a special topics course. Recommended restriction: this course is primarily designed for upper level (juniors and seniors) students but open to sophomores. Same as ETHN 5009.
ETHN 4106 - Special Topics in Chicana and Chicano Studies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020
Examines a particular topic, theme, issue or problem concerning Chicana and Chicano studies. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours on different topics. Same as ETHN 4106.
ETHN 4306 - The Chicana and Chicano and U.S. Social Systems
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2023
Gives special attention to ways U.S. institutions (i.e., legal, economic, educational, governmental and social agencies) affect Chicanas and Chicanos. Discusses internal colonialism, institutional racism, assimilation and acculturation, and identity. Same as ETHN 5306.
ETHN 5009 - Chicana/os and Education
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2022 / Spring 2024
Chicana/o and Mexican-origin communities make up the largest and oldest of U.S. Latinx peoples. In many urban school districts across the country they make up the majority of the school enrollment; yet they are grossly underrepresented in higher education. This course will examine the socio-historical, cultural, and political contexts that have shaped the educational experiences of Chicana/os in the U.S. including issues of race, language learning and identity formation as they intersect with nation building. Previously offered as a special topics course. Same as ETHN 4009.
ETHN 5106 - Special Topics in Chicana and Chicano Studies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020
Examines a particular topic, theme, issue or problem concerning Chicana and Chicano studies. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours on different topics. Same as ETHN 4106.
ETHN 5306 - The Chicana and Chicano and U.S. Social Systems
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2023
Gives special attention to ways U.S. institutions (i.e., legal, economic, educational, governmental and social agencies) affect Chicanas and Chicanos. Discusses internal colonialism, institutional racism, assimilation and acculturation, and identity. Same as ETHN 4306.
ETHN 6841 - Advanced Directed Readings in Ethnic Studies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2022
This is a graduate level directed readings course designed to expand student knowledge in a particular area of concentration with a broad interdisciplinary and comparative framework. These areas of concentration include work in Africana, American Indian, Asian American, Chicana and Chicano and Transnational/Hemispheric ethnic studies. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours.
