SPAN 370
Course Description: Examines the cultural, social, economic, and political aspects of the Chicano community in an historical and contemporary context. Incorporates field observation and community studies. Taught in English.
Meets MLO 3
Meets MLO 3
Reflective Narrative
In SPAN 370, I learned what it meant to be Chicano. At the start of this class, I could not find a connection between myself and that label. I used to think that people who call themselves Chicanos are those whose parents were born in Mexico, but they were Americans. Although for some it is correct, recently the term has taken the form of an umbrella that keeps under it a group of people who seek to make a new identity from their life experiences and mixed culture, those who struggle in the “in between” regardless of how they got to that limbo. Throughout the course, I read about the history of the Chicano movement, and I became aware of the inequality and lack of opportunities that immigrant communities, like mine, face to this day. The readings about education impacted me the most because, as a future teacher, I was able to identify the issues immigrant children deal with and how the system fails to address them. This knowledge will be very useful for me in the future to make some changes and ensure that those children have the support they need. One of the books I read for the class was Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Miramontes, a story about families of Mexican-American immigrants who endure the harsh working conditions of the grape fields in California. This book inspired me to conduct research on the current health and safety regulations of the Salinas Valley agricultural industry, where undocumented immigrants work without access to adequate medical care. For our final project, Dr. Carolyn González let us be creative with the format, so I decided to use my artistic abilities to create a digital painting that would describe what happens when we experience the highest temperatures of the year, and production is prioritized over the lives of these people, making them work until their bodies can no longer take it. My artist statement describes what led me to speak about this important, often overlooked issue, and my presentation shows my approach and the process of creating this painting. Overall, this class made me reconsider what it means to be Chicano and the responsibility that comes with that label: helping my community and to stand for la raza.