History 5351: Literature and Methodology of Borderlands History

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1 Professor E. Chávez Spring 2008 Office: Liberal Arts 314 Phone: Office Hrs: TR 11 a.m.-12 p.m.; R 2-4 p.m. History 5351: Literature and Methodology of Borderlands History This course is designed to give you a base of knowledge in the literature and methodology of the history of the Borderlands. As such this class will require that you read broadly in order to know the key scholarship on the subject, but also so that you can begin to grasp what exactly is entailed in doing Borderlands history. Although an old concept dating to the beginning of the 20 th century, it has recently been reinvigorated to produce fresh understanding(s) of the region and its peoples. Class requirements: In addition to MADATORY class attendance (this is graduate school, you don t miss class) and participation you will have four writing assignments based on the readings three short papers (5-6 pages) and one long essay (15-25 pages)-- throughout the semester. For these papers you can either engage the question I have provided or pick a theme that the readings have in common and write an essay in which you interrogate that idea. You will choose what topics to write on, however these papers are due on Monday of the week we discuss the said readings. For your own peace of mind you might want to stagger the assignments throughout the semester. You must make three copies of your paper, one for me and two for your classmates (or you can them to us if we agree on that). The two class copies will be put in a box in the history department office in order to allow your fellow students to read and comment on them. All students are required to read these papers. Your paper topic selections are due January 29. If I do not receive those choices on that day I will assign you the topics. Grade Distribution: Class participation and attendance: 20%; short papers: 15% each; long paper: 35%. Required Texts: Ned Blackhawk, Violence Over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West. Mario T. García, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, Deena J. González, Refusing the Favor: The Spanish-Mexican Women of Santa Fe, Ramón A. Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico,

2 2 Cheryl Martin, Governance and Society in Colonial Mexico: Chihuahua in the Eighteenth Century. Pablo Mitchell, Coyote Nation: Sexuality, Race, and Conquest in Modernizing New Mexico, Natalia Molina, Fit to be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, Juan Mora-Torres, The Making of the Mexican Border: The State, Capitalism, and Society in Nuevo Léon, Stephen J. Pitti, The Devil in Silicon Valley: Northern California, Race, and Mexican Americans. Andrés Reséndez, Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, Alexandra Minna Stern, Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. Sam Truett and Elliott Young, eds. Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.-Mexico Borderlands History. Articles are available on JSTOR, Project Muse, The History Cooperative, or I will provide copies for further copying. Introduction Schedule January 15 January 22

3 3 Transnational History and the Borderlands Samuel Truett and Elliott Young, eds., Introduction, Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.- Mexico Borderlands History, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Crossroads of Cultures: The Transnational Turn in American Studies Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, November 12, American Quarterly, Volume 57, no. 1. (March 2005): Mae Ngai, Transnationalism and Transformation of the Other : Response to the Presidential Address. American Quarterly, Volume 57, no. 1. (March 2005): Alfred Hornung, Transnational American Studies: Response to the Presidential Address. American Quarterly, Volume 57, no. 1. (March 2005): AHA Conversation: On Transnational History. American Historical Review. Volume 111, no. 5. (December 2006). Question: How can engaging ideas about transnationalism help us understand Borderlands history?

4 4 January 29 Old, New, and, Post Western Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History. Kerwin Lee Klein, Reclaiming the F Word, Or Being and Becoming Postwestern. Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 65, no. 2 (May 1996): Patricia Nelson Limerick, Turnerians All: The Dream of a Helpful History in an Intelligible World. American Historical Review, Vol. 100, no. 3, (June 1995): How does the New Western History inform our view of the Borderlands?

5 5 February 5 Bolton, the Borderlands, and the Mission Herbert Eugene Bolton, The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish-American Colonies. Antonia Castañeda, Sexual Violence in the Politics and Policies of Conquest: Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta California, in Building With Our Hands: New Directions in Chicana Studies. Edited by Adela de la Torre and Beatríz Pesquera. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993). Steven W. Hackel, The Staff of Leadership: Indian Authority in the Missions of Alta California. The William and Mary Quarterly, 3 rd. Series, Vol. 54, no. 2 (April 1997): Albert L. Hurtado, Parkmanizing the Spanish Borderlands: Bolton, Turner and the Historians. The Western Historical Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 2 (summer 1995): Bárbara O. Reyes, Race, Agency, and Memory in a Baja California Mission. Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.-Mexico Borderlands History., How has the approach to studying the mission changed over time? What are the implications of these different approaches?

6 6 February 12 Colonial New Mexico Ramón A. Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality and Power in New Mexico What are the implications of Gutiérrez s approach for Borderlands history?

7 7 February 19 Colonial Chihuahua Cheryl E. Martin, Governance and Society in Colonial Mexico: Chihuahua in the Eighteenth Century. What is Martin s main concern? Compare and contrast it to Gutierrez s approach; is there a difference between the north and south side of the present-day borderlands in this era? What tradition does she emerge from?

8 8 February 26 Texas and New Mexico in the Pre-U.S.-Mexico War Period Reading: Andrés Reséndez, Changing National Identities at the Frontier: Texas and New Mexico, Question: Discuss Reséndez s methodological approach. What theories/schools of thought have influenced him? How well does he synthesize these approaches? How does his work contribute to Borderlands history?

9 9 March 4 Sexuality, Race, and Conquest in New Mexico Pablo Mitchell, Coyote Nation: Sexuality, Race, and Conquest in Modernizing New Mexico, What role does the body play in the conquest of New Mexico?

10 10 March 11 The Border Juan Mora-Torres, The Making of the Mexican Border: The State, Capitalism, and Society in Nuevo Léon Alexandra Minna Stern, Nationalism on the Line: Masculinity, Race, and the Creation of the U.S. Border Patrol, In Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.-Mexico Borderlands History., What is the role of the state in the construction of the U.S. - Mexico border? Does it function similarly on both sides of the border?

11 11 March 18 Health and Eugenics in the Borderlands Natalia Molina, Fit to be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, Alexandra Minna Stern, Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America. How does peering through the prism of health and science inform our vision of Borderlands history? How useful are these categories in helping us understand Borderlands history?

12 12 April 1 Is Northern California in the Borderlands? David G. Gutiérrez, Significant to Whom?: Mexican Americans and the History of the American West. A New Significance: Re-envisioning the History of the American West. Edited by Clyde A. Milner II. Stephen J. Pitti, The Devil in Silicone Valley: Northern California, Race, and Mexican Americans. Does the case of Northern California uphold or shatter a Boltonian Borderlands tradition? What tradition does Pitti s work emerge from? How congruent is this approach to Borderlands history?

13 13 April 8 Texas Mario T. García, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, Benjamin Johnson, The Plan de San Diego Uprising and the Making of the Modern Texas- Mexican Borderlands. In Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.-Mexico Borderlands History., Raúl Ramos, Finding the Balance: Béxar in Mexican/Indian Relations. In Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.-Mexico Borderlands History, How are García, Johnson, and Ramos s approaches different and similar? What accounts for the similarities and differences? How Boltonian are their approaches?

14 14 April 15 Women Deena J. González, Refusing the Favor: The Spanish Mexican Women of Santa Fe, Vicki Ruiz, Star Struck : Acculturation, Adolescence, and the Mexican American Woman, How does peering through the prism of gender change our view of Borderlands history? Using the readings, construct a framework for Borderlands history that places women at its center.

15 15 April 22 Indians in the Borderlands Ned Blackhawk, Violence Over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West. Brian Delay, The Wider World of the Handsome Man: Southern Plains Indians Invade Mexico, Journal of the Early Republic, 27 (Spring 2007): Question: How does examining Indians experience in the Borderlands impact our view of the region and its history?

16 16 April 29 Transnational Identities Grace Peña Delgado, At Exclusion s Southern Gate: Changing Categories of Race and Class among Chinese Fronterizos, Karl Jacoby, Between North and South: The Alternative Borderlands of William H. Ellis and the African American Colony of Samuel Truett, Transnational Warrior: Emilio Kosterlitzky and the Transformation of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, In Continental Crossroads: Remapping U.S.-Mexico Borderlands History, Question: How do the readings enhance our view of the Borderlands?