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Latino studies is an academic discipline which studies the experience of people of Latin American ancestry in the United States. Closely related to other ethnic studies disciplines such as African-American studies, Asian American studies, and Native American studies, Latino studies critically examines the history, culture, politics, issues, sociology, spirituality (Indigenous) and experiences of Latino people. Drawing from numerous disciplines such as sociology, history, literature, political science, religious studies and gender studies, Latino studies scholars consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse analytical tools in their work.
In academia, Latino Studies stemmed from the development of Chicana/o Studies and Puerto Rican Studies programs in response to demands articulated by student movements in the late 1960s in the United States. [1] These movements unfolded amid a nationwide climate of heightened social and political activism, incited by opposition to the Vietnam War, the American Feminist movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. [1]
At some institutions of higher education in the United States, the 1970s and 1980s saw the consolidation of Latino Studies as an autonomous discipline while other institutions chose to maintain Chicano and Puerto Rican Studies programs—reflecting a diversity of institutional responses to the nascent academic discipline.
Debates on the academic and institutional location of Latino Studies continue to present day: while some scholars strive to maintain Chicano and Puerto Rican Studies programs that explore the exceptionality of national experiences, in the context of a globalizing Latino diaspora and diversifying Latino student populations at U.S. universities, many others support the notion of Latino Studies as an "umbrella" field designed to explore pan-Latino experiences and histories that transcend nation-bound analytical frameworks introduced by pioneering Chicano and Puerto Rican studies programs. [2] Yet others advocate for the absorption of Latino Studies into broader comparative disciplines such as ethnic studies, American studies, and Latin American Studies. Accordingly, the status of Latino Studies significantly differs from institution to institution in terms of nomenclature, pedagogical practice, and disciplinary location—with examples ranging from degree-granting autonomous departments to interdisciplinary (and multidisciplinary) programs to university-affiliated research centers. [2]
The first Chicano Studies program was established at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) in Fall 1968 in response to demands articulated by student activism movements. [3] Initially named the Mexican American Studies Program, the program was instituted at CSULA as the Chicano Studies Department in 1971. Similar initiatives developed simultaneously at other California universities. In 1969 at a statewide conference held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Chicano students, activists and scholars drafted the Plan de Santa Bárbara a 155-page manifesto for the implementation of Chicano Studies in institutions of higher education in California. [4] While the Regents of the University of California did not formally adopt the manifesto as an institutional mandate, it served as a blueprint for the establishment of Chicano Studies programs across public universities in the state. However, in calling for the establishment of comprehensive Chicano Studies programs—including departments, research centers, a Chicano studies library—and recommending the adoption of a host of institutional practices, many California universities implemented only certain elements of the plan. [5]
While Chicano studies programs proliferated across campuses in California, Texas-based institutions also played pivotal roles in development of early Chicano Studies programs, including the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 1970 and the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at the University of Texas at Arlington founded in 1993. [6]
In 1969, a parallel wave of student activism took place at City University of New York (CUNY) south campus, spearheaded by the efforts of Puerto Rican and African American Students. [7] These efforts culminated in the spring of 1969 when students staged the Open Admissions Strike. The students' central demand was the adoption of a non-competitive open admissions policy. [8] The expanded admissions policy would, in effect, diversify the student body by guaranteeing placement at CUNY for all New York City high school graduates. In addition to demands for an open-admissions policy, student activists demanded academic programs in Black and Puerto Rican Studies. [9] In response, CUNY created the Department of Urban and Ethnic Studies. With continuing student activism, the Department of Puerto Rican Studies was formed in 1971, followed by the establishment of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies as a university-based research institute in 1973. [7] [10] Student activism related to the demand for Puerto Rican Studies was not limited to CUNY, and effervesced across New York public campuses including Brooklyn, Lehman, Queens and Bronx Community Colleges. [7]
As Chicano and Puerto Rican Studies programs stemmed largely (but not exclusively) from the east and west coasts, institutions in the American Midwest pioneered some of the first academic departments with a multinational or transnational Latino Studies focus. These programs included the Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies at Wayne State University (established in 1972) and the Chicano-Boriqueño Studies Program (now the Latino Studies Program) at Indiana University (established in 1976). [11] [12]
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, dozens of universities across the country followed suit and established academic programs and departments (see list of major departments) in Latino Studies. [2] The 1980s and 1990s also saw the emergence of a number of research initiatives and professional societies dedicated to the advancement of a Latino Studies research agenda. These initiatives including fellowships offered by the Ford, Rockefeller, Compton and Mellon Foundations and the establishment of research institutes including The InterUniversity Project on Latino Research, the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute and the Julian Samora Research Institute. [2]
The location of Latino Studies within institutions of higher education—in terms of disciplinary boundaries, but also with regard to the field's perceived legitimacy as an academic discipline and field of scholarship—is contested. In Decolonizing American Spanish, Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera argues that US higher education "best practices" make the university not "a neutral institution but as one of the main levers of political and social power that supports the misrecognition of Spanish as foreign in the United States." [13] He comments that "The academic foreignization directs literacy itself toward English and away from Spanish in a way that pushes many communities toward political and social obligations that shape not only literacy and graduation rates but also access to public funds, democratic participation, and the nature of belonging and citizenship.” [14] As Spanish and Spanish-language cultures are "externalized as 'foreign,' such cultures and languages are commonly conceptualized as non-generative, ungrammatical, impure, and/ or contaminated—and thus invalid vis-à- vis their equivalents in Spain. While these local cultures have profound histories, traditions, aesthetics, narratives, and myths, the structures of the academy require (if these materials appear in pedagogy, which does not regularly occur) that they be studied, recognized, and institutionalized as minor and unimportant in comparison to Spain.” [15]
While Latino Studies is sometimes encompassed under the umbrella of ethnic studies, it is important to note that the discipline's course of development in different areas of the United States has been shaped by regional demographics, including the demographic composition of a college campus' student body. In the case of Latino Studies, the American northeast and southwest have served as especially salient battlegrounds for these debates to unfold.
Staunch critics of ethnic studies programs include Ward Connerly, former University of California Regent, who was involved in the successful effort to ban affirmative action in California places of employment and higher education in 1996 with California Proposition 209. Connerly accused ethnic studies programs of being "divisive" and balkanizing. [16]
More recently, Latino Studies faced legal challenges in Arizona with House Bill 2120 which (echoing the Arizona ban on ethnic studies effectuated in Tucson public schools in 2011) sought to prohibit public universities in the state from activities and classes including those that "promote division, resentment or social justice toward a race, gender, religion, political affiliation, social class or other class of people"; "are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group"; or "advocate solidarity or isolation based on ethnicity, race, religion, gender or social class instead of the treatment of students as individuals." [17] (On January 17, 2017 Arizona House Education Committee Chairman Paul Boyer denied a hearing, effectively killing the bill. [18] )
Among scholars and administrators in support of Latino Studies and other ethnic studies programs, opinions are divided on the positioning, status and definition of Latino Studies within institutions of higher education. [1] These debates arise from theoretical and epistemological inquiry but also from concerns surrounding funding and institutional support for university departments and academic programs. [1]
In the late 1990s, at the height of tensions between nationally-specific programs like Chicano Studies and Puerto Rican Studies and nascent pan-Latino Studies programs, Ignacio Garcia (Professor of Western American Studies at Brigham Young University) advocated for the autonomous departmental status of Chicano Studies—posing the emergence of Latino Studies as a challenge to that ideal. [19] In his 1996 essay "Juncture in the Road: Chicano Studies since 'El Plan de Santa Barbara", Garcia argued:
Many centers find themselves challenged by non- Chicano Latino scholars who want to promote their scholarly interests. They argue that all Latino groups have a common experience with racism and poverty in American society. Also, programs which emphasize the inclusive Hispanic approach are more likely to gain research and support funds more easily. Because immigration has been a major area of study for Chicano Studies and because the immigrant groups are now more diverse among numerous Latino groups, there is an intellectual challenge to Chicano Studies to become inclusive or else to be seen as shallow and exclusionary. [19]
At the turn of the 21st century, scholars including Frances Aparicio (Professor of Spanish and Portuguese and Director of the Latina and Latino Studies Program at Northwestern University), Pedro Cabán (Professor and Chair of the Department of Latin American, Caribbean & U.S. Latino Studies at SUNY Albany), and Juan Flores (former Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and Director of Latino Studies at New York University)—argued in support of an interdisciplinary Latino Studies field of scholarship with a transnational focus.
In his 1999 essay "New Concepts, New Contexts," Juan Flores—an advocate for the freestanding autonomy of Latino Studies departments—described the potential "dilution" or "distortion" of the field when subsumed into umbrella departments. [20] Flores identified that at a time when many public universities were being consolidated, Latino Studies programs were blossoming at private universities across the country. [20] Nonetheless, recognizing political and pragmatic concerns, Flores recommended that departmental status should be evaluated on a "case-by-case" basis in order to best place the discipline according to the needs and demands of a particular institutional environment. [20]
Pedro Cabán considered the tensions and contradictions between Latino Studies as a discipline borne from student activism and institutional demands placed upon the discipline, writing:
If deployed uncritically, the Latino label can result in sanitizing a history of political activism and critical engagement that is the legacy of the struggles of the 1960s ... if Latino Studies programs are to be successful and relevant to legions of students, they will need to retain the normative values that defined their transformative goals, and obtain the academic authority that traditional disciplines possess (hiring, promotion and tenure, curriculum development, discretion over budgets, etc.) [2]
Reflecting upon Latino Studies programs existent in 1999, Aparicio warned that the ideal of interdisciplinarity is often unfulfilled, arguing that Latino Studies programs are often multidisciplinary aggregates of nationally-bounded scholarship: "Latino studies programs are constituted by a list of courses discrete in their national and disciplinary boundaries that add up to lo latino." [1]
Early Chicano Studies and Puerto Rican Studies programs developed in a parallel fashion: both emerged from activist struggles, developed within nation-bound analytical frameworks and drew influences from economic liberation, antiracism, and critical consciousness theories. [2]
However, Pedro Cabán argues that the two schools of thought differed in one significant way: "Whereas the Chicano historiography and the emerging social science literature primarily explored the Chicano experience in the US, early Puerto Rican Studies was heavily invested in reinterpreting the economic history of Puerto Rico under US colonial domination." [2]
In the 1980s and 1990s, newly formed Latino Studies programs tended to emphasize interdisciplinarity and transnationalism. [2] A number of pre-existing programs were restructured, consolidated or renamed to encompass this broader scope. Scholars in the field have identified the 1990s as a turning point in the discipline's history, as scholarship shifted away from "male-centered nationalistic discourse" and became increasingly influenced by intersectional identity formation theory, including feminist and queer theory. [2]
The following is a working list of programs throughout the United States associated with "Latino Studies" in chronological order of establishment. In cases of name changes, the order reflects the date of establishment of the program's first iteration. Programs with no date of establishment listed on their homepage are located at the end of the list.
Also see: Programs and Departments in Chicana/o Studies
Chicano or Chicana is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. Chicano was originally a classist and racist slur used toward low-income Mexicans that was reclaimed in the 1940s among youth who belonged to the Pachuco and Pachuca subculture.
The masculine term Latino, along with its feminine form Latina, is a noun and adjective, often used in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, that most commonly refers to United States inhabitants who have cultural ties to Latin America.
Lehman College is a public college in New York City. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, it became an independent college in 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehman, a former New York governor, United States senator, and philanthropist. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY) and offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and specializations.
El Plan de Santa Bárbara: A Chicano Plan for Higher Education is a 155-page document, which was written in 1969 by the Chicano Coordinating Council on Higher Education. Drafted at the University of California Santa Barbara, it is a blueprint for the inception of Chicana/o studies programs in colleges and universities throughout the US. The Chicano Coordinating Council expresses political mobilization to be dependent upon political consciousness, thus the institution of education is targeted as the platform to raise political conscious amongst Chicanos and spur higher learning to political action. The Plan proposes a curriculum in Chicano studies, the role of community control in Chicano education and the necessity of Chicano political independence. The document was a framework for educational and curriculum goals for the Chicano movements within the institution of education, while being the foundation for the Chicano student group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA).
Chicano studies, also known as Chicano/a studies, Chican@ studies, or Xicano studies originates from the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, and is the study of the Chicano and Latino experience. Chicano studies draws upon a variety of fields, including history, sociology, the arts, and Chicano literature. The area of studies additionally emphasizes the importance of Chicano educational materials taught by Chicano educators for Chicano students.
The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) was founded in 1969 to foster multidisciplinary research efforts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It is one of four ethnic studies centers established at UCLA that year, all of which were the first in the nation and have advanced our understanding of the essential contributions of people of color to U.S. history, thought, and culture. The centers remain the major organized research units in the University of California system that focus on ethnic and racial communities and contribute to the system's research mission.
Lorna Dee Cervantes is an American poet and activist, who is considered one of the greatest figures in Chicano poetry. She has been described by Alurista as "probably the best Chicana poet active today."
Bilingual Review Press is an American publishing house specialising in the publication of scholarly and literary works by Hispanic and Latino American authors and researchers. It was founded in 1973 as the publisher of The Bilingual Review/La revista bilingüe, a new academic and literary journal with a focus on Spanish-English bilingualism, bilingual studies and Hispanic literature that was first issued in 1974. Under the imprint name Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe the press also publishes and distributes book titles by or about Hispanic and Latin American authors, covering literary fiction, poetry as well as non-fiction titles relating to Chicano and Latin American studies. Bilingual Press publishes from 8 to 10 titles annually, with an accumulated back catalogue of more than 150 titles under the imprint in both English and Spanish as well as some bilingual editions. The publisher is also a distributor of related titles from other presses, as of 2008 numbering over a thousand releases.
Angie Chabram-Dernersesian is a full professor at the University of California, Davis.
Luz María "Luzma" Umpierre-Herrera is a Puerto Rican advocate for human rights, a New-Humanist educator, poet, and scholar. Her work addresses a range of critical social issues including activism and social equality, the immigrant experience, bilingualism in the United States, and LGBT matters. Luzma authored six poetry collections and two books on literary criticism, in addition to having essays featured in academic journals.
William Anthony Nericcio, aka Memo, is a Chicano literary theorist, cultural critic, American Literature scholar, and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University. Currently Director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences program, he is the author of the award-winning Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America,The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works Plus, and Homer From Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for the Californias. Nericcio is also a graphic designer, creating book covers, film posters, and websites, most notably for SDSU Press and Hyperbole Books, where he oversees the production of cultural studies tomes. His Text-Mex Gallery blog investigates the pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, "Hispanic," Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes, political, and cultural issues. He is also the curator of the text-image exhibition entitled “MEXtasy,” which has been displayed at numerous institutions, including University of Michigan and South Texas College. Currently working on his follow-up book to Tex[t]-Mex, Eyegiene: Permutations of Subjectivity in the Televisual Age of Sex and Race, his most recent publication is Talking #browntv: Latinas and Latinos on the Screen, co-authored with Frederick Luis Aldama, for the Ohio State University Press.
There is a very large Mexican American community in the Chicago metropolitan area. Illinois, and Chicago's Mexican American community is the largest outside of the Western United States.
Hijas de Cuauhtémoc was a student Chicana feminist newspaper founded in 1971 by Anna Nieto-Gómez and Adelaida Castillo while both were students at California State University, Long Beach.
Patricia Zavella is an anthropologist and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Latin American and Latino Studies department. She has spent a career advancing Latina and Chicana feminism through her scholarship, teaching, and activism. She was president of the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists and has served on the executive board of the American Anthropological Association. In 2016, Zavella received the American Anthropological Association's award from the Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology to recognize her career studying gender discrimination. The awards committee said Zavella's career accomplishments advancing the status of women, and especially Latina and Chicana women have been exceptional. She has made critical contributions to understanding how gender, race, nation, and class intersect in specific contexts through her scholarship, teaching, advocacy, and mentorship. Zavella's research focuses on migration, gender and health in Latina/o communities, Latino families in transition, feminist studies, and ethnographic research methods. She has worked on many collaborative projects, including an ongoing partnership with Xóchitl Castañeda where she wrote four articles some were in English and others in Spanish. The Society for the Anthropology of North America awarded Zavella the Distinguished Career Achievement in the Critical Study of North America Award in the year 2010. She has published many books including, most recently, I'm Neither Here Nor There, Mexicans' Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty, which focuses on working class Mexican Americans struggle for agency and identity in Santa Cruz County.
Iris López is a contemporary professor, anthropologist, sociologist, and author, whose work focuses on feminist, Latino, and Latin American studies. She has one full-length book published, an ethnography about sterilization within female Puerto Rican populations, titled Matters of Choice. She received both her Masters and Doctoral degrees in Anthropology from Columbia University. Currently, López teaches sociology at the City College of New York, part of the City University of New York (CUNY), where she has been the Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program since 2016.
Sterilization of Latinas has been practiced in the United States on women of different Latin American identities, including those from Puerto Rico and Mexico. There is a significant history of such sterilization practices being conducted involuntarily, in a coerced or forced manner, as well as in more subtle forms such as that of constrained choice. Forced sterilization was permissible by multiple states throughout various periods in the 20th century. Issues of state sterilization have persisted as recently as September 2020. Some sources credit the practice to theories of racial eugenics.
Jorge Alfonso Huerta is a Chicano scholar, author, and theater director. He specializes in Chicano and United States Latinx Theatre. He has written and edited several books specializing in Chicano theatre and is considered to be an authoritative expert in his field.
Refugio I. Rochin is an American professor emeritus in agricultural and resource economics and Chicana/o studies at the University of California, Davis, director emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and instructor at Pennsylvania State University World Campus. He is an expert on rural Latinas/os and Latina/o Studies.
Mary Romero is an American sociologist. She is Professor of Justice Studies and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University, with affiliations in African and African American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and Asian Pacific American Studies. Before her arrival at ASU in 1995, she taught at University of Oregon, San Francisco State University, and University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Professor Romero holds a bachelor's degree in sociology with a minor in Spanish from Regis College in Denver, Colorado. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Colorado. In 2019, she served as the 110th President of the American Sociological Association.
Ana Celia Zentella is an American linguist known for her "anthro-political" approach to linguistic research and expertise on multilingualism, linguistic diversity, and language intolerance, especially in relation to U.S. Latino languages and communities. She is Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego.