Christina Isabelli, PhD

Illinois Wesleyan University

Spanish-Speaking Texas - Spanish 305 May Term 2001

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ITINERARY
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Required Texts

Carmen Lomas Garza (1994).  A Piece of My Heart\Pedacito de Mi Corazon: The Art of Carmen Lomas Garza
Richardson, C. (1999). Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados: Class and Culture on the South Texas Border. 

Maril, R. L (1992). Living on the Edge of America - At Home on the Texas-Mexico Border
Chahin, Jaime (2000). Reflections on the Migrant Farmworker in the 60s. Lation Studies Journal, V11 n.2, Spring
DiCervo, Patricia Ann.  Issue and Brief

Cantú, Norma. (1991). Costumes as Cultural Resistance and Affirmation: The Case of a South Texas Community. In F. E. Abernethy (Ed.). Hecho en Tejas: Texas-Mexican Folk Arts and Crafts. p. 117-130.
Fineman, H. (1996). Extreme Measures. Newsweek. March 4. p. 20-30
Goldman, S. M. & T. Ybarra-Frausto. (1990). The Political and Social Contexts of Chicano Art. In R.G. del Castillo, T. McKenna, & Y. Yarbro-Bejarano (Eds.). Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. p. 83-95.
Maciel, D. R. (1990). Mexico in Aztlán and Aztlán in Mexico: The Dialectics of Chicano-Mexicano Art. In R.G. del Castillo, T. McKenna, & Y. Yarbro-Bejarano (Eds.). Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. p. 109-119.
Barnet-Sanchez, H. & D. Leibsohn. (1990). The Contexts of Chicano Arts and Culture: A Selected Chronology. In R.G. del Castillo, T. McKenna, & Y. Yarbro-Bejarano (Eds.). Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. p. 203-221.

Cárdenas, D. N. (1975). Mexican Spanish. In E. Hernandez-Chavez et al (Eds.). El Lenguage de los Chicanos: Regional and Social Characteristics of Language Used by Mexican Americans. pp. 1-5.
Lance, D. M. (1975). Dialectal and Nonstandard Forms in Texas Spanish. In E. Hernandez-Chavez et al (Eds.). El Lenguage de los Chicanos: Regional and Social Characteristics of Language Used by Mexican Americans. pp. 37-51.
Sawyer, J. B. (1975).  Spanish-English Bilingualism in San Antonio, Texas. In E. Hernandez-Chavez et al (Eds.). El Lenguage de los Chicanos: Regional and Social Characteristics of Language Used by Mexican Americans. pp. 77-98.

U.S. Department of Commerce (March 2001), Ecomonics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic Population in the United States:  Population Characteristics. P20-535.
Rubin, Joan. (1985)  Spanish Language Planning in the United States.  In Lucia Elias-Olivares, Elizabeth A Leone, Rene Cisneros, and John R. Gutierrez, eds., Spanish language use and public life in the United States, Berlin:  Mouton Publishers.
Williams, Mark V., et al. (1995).  Inadequate functional health literacy among patients at two public hospitals.  JAMA, 274, 21:1677-82.

English Only in America?
Bilingualism: A True Advantage
Forgotten Americans: Las Colonias
Hispanics in America
Biculturalism
A World of Ideas - Victim of Two Cultures
Ties That Bind - Immigration Stories

This course will develop the students' ability to analyze and understand the diversity that exists in one of the states in the US, Texas. This will be accomplished by visiting Texas and seeing first-hand the diversity that exists in southern Texas as far as art, music, history, and language. This will include travel to: Austin to visit art galleries such as Mexic-Arte Museum and experience latino live music and dance; Mission area (San Antonio and surrounding cities) to experience Spanish and Mexican history in Texas; and, border cities (Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville, and Matamoros, Mexico) to experience linguistic diversity of both English and Spanish. 

This course considers the way in which ethnic and class diversity has shaped and continues to shape the Mexican American (Chicano) and Latino identity and experience in Texas, a change from the current description of the course. The official figures of the 1993 Current Population Survey report 22.8 million residents of Spanish-speaking origin in the US. Much of this population is intensely concentrated in relatively few regions in which the maintenance of Spanish use is greater in areas where these speakers are highly concentrated, particularly in Texas, where new immigration reinforces its use. 

Unlike many immigrant groups to settle in the US over the centuries, the Spanish-speaking community has kept its language alive. The reasons for this probably lie with the fact that their countries of origin are closer than those of other immigrant groups. Historical and cultural links, if not always linguistic ones, also help to retain a sense of Hispanic culture, with the celebration of religious and folk fiestas, family reunions and certain eating and drinking norms. They bring with them to the US diverse cultural, social and political backgrounds. 

A predictable and noteworthy phenomena can be seen to be emerging in the US Spanish-speaking community: code switching, including the anglicizing of Spanish words and syntax, for example, translating phrasal verbs or using an English word with a Spanish shape. This code switching is so complex that it follows its own internal rules, which are shared and understood by its users, creating a separate linguistic variety. 

The course will enable the students to understand the ways in which issues of difference of Latinos in Spanish-speaking Texas from non-Spanish speaking Texans are tied to their specific history in the once Mexican state. Despite its hostile atmosphere for language other than English, the US continues to be a multilingual country. Given this context, it would seem that bilingual education would be recognized as a logical tool to deal with this obviously multilingual problem which, however, continues to be a controversial issue. As an expression of their opposition to the use of Spanish in the US, policymakers continue to be successful in designating English as the only legitimate language of the country. Giles et al (1977) propose a context of the theory of language, ethnic identity, and intergroup relations in which dominant and subordinate group strategies are used to maintain or change the
social structure as it relates to language and ethnic group issues. 

According to Torres (1990: 146), when the subordinate group perceives that there are alternatives to the unequal relations between groups, and when they believe that the system is unstable and illegitimate, they will undertake different strategies. For example, they may seek to gain some control over the political, economic, cultural, and linguistic affairs of the society in an attempt to modify the unequal distribution of resources. Another strategy involves the reinterpretation of characteristics that have been negatively defined by the dominant group. As stated by Torres and Morales (1984: 126) "Chicanos are in the process of legitimizing their cultural experience within the context of a society which has previously denied the importance of their specific identity." This justifies the main areas that this course will observe in Southern Texas, Chicano art, music, and maintenance of language and historical Mexican awareness in Texas. 

Assessment

This course will have several written assignments and a final project (which will be written in Spanish). The assignments will deal with the issues raised by the goals and criteria addressed above, specifically about maintenance of Chicano culture through art, music, and maintenance of language and historical awareness in Spanish-speaking Texas. The final paper will be an in-depth analysis of one of the shorter written assignments. The students will keep a daily journal as a means to remember any relevant information during the course that applies to their final project. 

Torres, G. and J. Morales. (1984). Todo se paga. Review of: A hunger memory. Chicano Law Review, 7, 125-130. 

Torres, L. (1990). Spanish in the United States: The struggle for legitimacy. In J. J. Bergen (Ed.), Spanish in the United States: Sociolinguistic Issues. (pp. 142-151). Washington D.C: Georgetown University Press. 
 

Tentative Itinerary- Subject to change

• May 4th 

• 10:00am meet at IWU outside Memorial Center for drive to St. Louis
• 3:37pm TW 675 St. Louis - San Antonio
• 5:52 pm arrive to San Antonio and pick up rental van
• Holiday Inn Express South

606 Division Avenue
San Antonio, TX 78214
Tel: 210-927-4800
Fax: 210-927-5060
• hang out in San Antonio
• May 5th - 5 de mayo festival 

• May 6th 
• 1:30pm Visit Spanish Missions for historical aspect of Texas-Mexico relations
• Institute of Texas Cultures/  Museums 

• May 7th 
• 7am early breakfast
• 8am leave for San Marcos (1/2 hour)
• 9:30am Lecture by Professor Jaime Chahin - Dean of Liberal Arts Southwest Texas University - Las colonias  pictures and migrant workers
• brunch with Professor Chahin
• 1pm drive back to San Antonio
• 3:30pm Lecture by Professor MaryEllen García -  University of Texas -San Antonio "The Spanish of the Border" (Tex-Mex and Caló)
• 5pm dinner with MaryEllen García 
• evening free

• May 8th 
• 7am early breakfast
• 7:30am drive to Austin for the day (1 hour)
• 9:30am Visit Andrew's Elementary Bilingual school (Austin) classroom of Janet Ruth Mangum. View first-hand what the bilingual classroom is like 
• 11-11:30 lunch with Janet Ruth and kids at school
• 12:20-1:05 lecture by Janet Ruth "Social Aspects of Bilingual Education in the Elementary School Setting"
• afternoon free
• 4pm Lecture: Professor Carolyn Dunlap - University of Texas at Austin - "The Latino Immigrant Population in US Society:  Issues in the Comprehension of Documents Written in Spanish.
• 6pm drive back to San Antonio
• evening free
• May 9
• 9am drive to Laredo (5 hours)
• Holiday Inn - Civic Center

800 Garden Street
Laredo, TX 78040
Tel: 956-727-5800
Fax: 956-727-0278
 
• 4 pm cross border to Nuevo Laredo
• evening free
• May 10th
• 9am-Lecture: US Border Patrol and Immigration Issues 
• May 11th
• start drive to Brownsville
•  visit Los Caminos del Río - cities between Laredo and McAllen 
• Stop in McAllen for lecture by Chicana writer and poet Noemí Martinez
• arrive to Brownsville cross to Matamoros, Mexico
• Gran Hotel Residencial

Avenue Alvaro Obregon No 249
Matamoros, TAM, MX 87330
Tel: 011-52-88-1399543
Fax: 01-52-88-132777
• May 12-13
• Time in Matamoros, Mexico 
• Activities noting language and cultural differences 
• Watch local movie at theater 
• Learn and visit Las Maquiladoras
• May 14-15
• Drive to South Padre Island (1.5hours)
• Ramada, Ltd.

4109 Padre Blvd.
South Padre Island, TX 78597
Tel: 956-761-4097
Fax: same as telephone
• Break from academic schedule 
• Choose/discuss paper topic 
• May 16th
• drive to Austin (5 hours)
• Best Western Atrium North

7928 Gessner Drive
Austin, TX 78753-6500
Tel: 512-339-7311
Fax: 512-339-3687
• evening free
• Austin May 17
• University of Texas -Austin, Harry Ransom Center - Latin American Art Collection
• Texas Memorial Museum
• Mexic-Arte Museum 
• May 18th
• Visit Perry Castañeda and Latin American Studies Libraries for final paper 
• Music environment of Austin's Spanish speakers 
• May 19th
• visit Flea market
• Visit Perry Castañeda and Latin American Studies Libraries for final paper 
• May 20
• turn in final paper
• 10:00 am TW 80  Austin to St. Louis
• 12:02 pm arrive St. Louis and driven back to IWU
• 3:30 pm arrive IWU