Additional Information

Instruction Mode: Hybrid - Online & In Person
This course explores the varied experiences of ethnic Mexican workers in the United States from the early Industrial Period to contemporary debates concerning the transnational effects of migrant labor. We will examine both the formal and informal ways ethnic Mexican men and women have organized at a regional, national, and international level, and in both rural and urban settings, for fair employment and civil rights. Close attention will be given to several historical factors that have helped shape Mexican American working-class identity, including the role of: community-based unionism; intra-ethnic tensions related to generational differences and citizenship status; U.S. and Mexican state intervention in repressing and/or aiding workers’ movements; and cross-border organizing, beginning with its early radical traditions. Ultimately, the course will determine how ethnic Mexican workers have contested their purported role as “cheap” and “tractable” labor to demand better wages, working conditions, and an end to the socioeconomic discrimination they encountered. As this course is a writing seminar, we will spend a lot of in-class time discussing the material we read from both an analytical and writing-structure standpoint—i.e., interrogating the organization and clarity of the author’s argument(s) and evidence in addition to the subject matter. Students will also be required to critique and revise their own writing.