Latin America

"Mexican food" is a contested, global category cross-cut with Indigenous, Spanish, African, Middle Eastern, French, German, Filipino, and other influences. It is deeply intertwined with histories of nationalism, transnationalism, revolution, Indigeneity, environmental transformation, internal and external migrations, rural-urban transitions, international politics, identity, culture, and industrialization. In this class, students will explore Mexican food as an entry point to engage with these and other historical and political questions, always in relation to food's central role in constructing and reinforcing categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality. We will examine Mexican food at the level of consumption, production, ecology, and representation in Mexico and beyond. This class combines rigorous analysis of academic texts along with community-based learning. In the community-learning portion of the class, cooking, eating, and discussing Mexican food will deepen and expand students' understanding of the history, politics, and significance of Mexican food, while nurturing relationships between Whitman and Mexican-American communities in Walla Walla. May be elected as Politics 120.

Prof.s Lund-Montaño and Bobrow-Strain, 4 credits, MW 1-2:20 p.m.

-Fulfills Cultural Pluralism and/or Social Sciences distribution, as well as IRES and Global Studies requirements.

-History major: modern history; Cultures & Ideas; Social Justice

Spanish Americans? Hispanics? Latina/os? Latinx? For over two hundred years, the "Latino" identity in the United States has been forged, imposed, fragmented, and reclaimed. This course examines the social, cultural, and political trajectories of Latin American communities from the US-Mexico War of 1847 to the presidential election of 2020. With a combination of primary and secondary sources, we will approach different communities and their relationship to the land, the history, and the politics of the United States. For instance, how did legal policies encourage practices of exclusion or assimilation? What impact did specific waves of immigrants and exiles have at the local and national levels? How did different communities coalesce or build their own civil rights movements? What are the contrasts between Chicano nationalism and Puerto Rican nationalism? And in what ways did cultural and artistic representations shape their social and political identities? Furthermore, the course will explore the nuanced positions of the Latinx communities towards US foreign policy as well as the different modes of marginalization of indigenous and folks of African descent within the "Latino" identity frameworks. May be taken for credit toward the Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies major or minor.

Prof. Lund-Montaño, 4 credits, TTh 1-2:20 p.m.

-Fulfills Cultural Pluralism and/or Social Sciences distribution, as well as IRES requirements.

-History major: modern history; Cultures & Ideas; Empires & Colonialism