Introduction
This class looks at Latinx political engagement and expressions that have emerged out of the of social tensions of the 20th and 21st Centuries. This course investigates key social and artistic movements that have crossed geographical boundaries and have subsequently transformed “the arts” and cultural expression for multiple generations. Examples of transformational social and artistic movements within Latinx communities surveyed in the class are: the Chicano/Chicanx Movement—and the rise of the Chicana Art Movement, the U.S. east coast based Puerto Rican Young Lords—and their impact of music, poetry and cultural production via the establishment of the Nuyorican Café. As well as, within the context of the Caribbean, the Antillano Movement from Cuba— and the members of this artistic movement’s struggles. In addition to these, the class will engage contemporary artistic productions that are connected to Latinx environmental justice and environmental humanities.
The class materials we are engaging cross hemispheric borders– they contend with the histories of communities residing in North America prior to Spanish colonization within the territories that would eventually become incorporated into the U.S. (after 1848). Also, the material we are covering centers the experiences of contemporary Latinx communities forging understandings of identity that both contest and incorporate the impact of colonization, the establishment of the “casta” system in Latin America, the Caribbean and U.S. territories settled by the Spanish. The course addresses the legacies of these in order to better understand the philosophical interventions made by 20th and 21st Century writers, artists, cultural workers and thinkers.
The course will consider such questions as: How does the arts and cultural expression influence ways of thinking and living? How does artistic expression open new possibilities for social identities? What role have Latinx artists played in the development of new ways of engaging socially and politically? How has social, economic and political change affected the importance of intersecting roles Latinx artists? How are the cultural productions by writers, artists and thinkers understood within and outside of their respective cultural context? What are the cultural, social and political misunderstandings/mis-readings that emerge across Latinidades (national, regional, linguistic, religious, historical, generational… just to name a few of the potential mis-readings between and among Latinx populations). And, how are art forms understood in different cultural contexts?
