Critical Thinking: What an Ethnic Studies Class Looks Like

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Amelia M.L. Montes (ameliamontes.com)
Colonialism is not satisfied merely with holding a peoplein its grip and emptying the native’s brain of all form and content.  By a kind of perverted logic, it turnsto the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures, and destroys it. . . .  --Frantz Fanon
In this world it’s possible to achieve greatmaterial wealth, to live an opulent life. But a life built upon those things alone leaves a shallow legacy.  --Cesar Chavez
Astrong argument can be made that Chicanos have a long-standing connection tothe American Midwest.  --Sandra M. Gonzales
Instead ofposting a blog about those who have dismantled (or are presently trying toeliminate) Ethnic Studies, I wish to illustrate the excitement and joy I’mhaving right now in teaching an Ethnic Studies course and why courses such asthis one are vital to all individuals residing in the United States (not just acertain group).  I invite you toread about what happens in my classroom, how we learn, and how “what” we learnbecomes crucial for students to develop critical thinking skills, to acquire acomplex and rich understanding of the world in which they are preparing toparticipate. 
I am presentlyteaching the following Ethnic Studies course at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln:  “Introduction toLatina and Latino Studies.”  Mycolleague, Dr. Joy Castro, designed the course a few years ago for our majors and minorsin Ethnic Studies.  In this class,I have students from a variety of backgrounds.  Some are white and have grown up in small towns in Nebraska.Others grew up in Lincoln. A few are Chicana/Chicano, Latina/Latino, andAfrican American.  One student identifiesas Pacific Islander.  Another hasspent time in Mexico and the U.S. and therefore claims a Mexican and a NorthAmerican identity.  Some of thewhite students have already traveled or are hoping to travel to various LatinAmerican countries in the near future. They are an eager and interested group who have told me they are takingthis class because they are working with or hope to enter a diverse workforce and they want to be better equipped to understand people from variousethnicities and sections of the U.S. They also want to understand themselves and their own ethnic backgrounds.  One student is most interested indrawing connections among her Swedish and German immigrant heritage (by interviewing her family and reading about these immigrants) and theLatina/Latino immigrant experience in our readings. 
Along withaward-winning history texts such as Juan Gonzalez’s Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in Americaand Rodolfo F. Acuña’s Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, we are also reading a social science textpublished in 2011, edited by Rubén O. Martinez, entitled  Latinos in the Midwest. These three texts give us a well-rounded background. 
I also include Latino Boom:  An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature (edited byJohn S. Christie and José B. Gonzalez). The students have commented that they enjoy reading the poetry, shortstories, and essays in this anthology along with reading the history and socialscience writings.  The history/social science texts and this literary anthology gives thema solid context of various eras, a grounding of historical backgrounds which then makethe creative writings much more relevant. 
For example,after reading sections from the Gonzalez and Martinez books on immigration,farmworker organizing, ICE raids in the midwest, the students read Norma Cantú’s short fiction piece, “Se me echina el cuerpo al oír tu cuento . . . “(“I cringe and get goose bumps when I hear your story”) in Latino Boom.  The students’ lively discussion jumpedfrom the fictional piece to the texts which allowed them to use the research,census reports, and various statistics to support their perspectives.  At the beginning of the semester, Ialso included a unit on logical fallacies.  After learning the various logical fallacies, theirdiscussions steer away from generalizations, assumptions, false analogies andthey develop a more sophisticated and logical framework for discussing complextopics.


Theliterary anthology, Latino Boom, provides students with Cuban-American, Puerto Rican, Nuyorican,Caribbean immigrant, Mexican American, Chicana/Chicano writings.  They learn authors’ names and theirethnic heritage.  In this way,their idea of “latinidad” becomes much more complex.  I often make connections to other, more well-known Americanauthors, pointing out how Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick, draws from his Boston/New Yorkbackground and his work as a surveyor on the Erie Canal.  His “American” sensibilities are vastlydifferent from someone like the California writer, John Steinbeck, whoseexperiences working alongside migrant workers in Salinas inspired his novel, Of Mice and Men.  Students realize (on a more intricatelevel) the vastly different communities and ethnic groups we have in thiscountry.  As one student told methis past week, “we don’t live in a ‘melting pot’—we are a mosaic ofpeoples.”  Indeed.  The “melting pot” metaphor does not atall describe the vibrancy of difference in this country, and instead the ideaof a “melting pot” only generalizes and erases difference. Melville andSteinbeck produced literary texts illustrating very different ethnic,geographic, cultural, communal, and personal backgrounds set in two distinctareas of the United States. The contemporary Dominican-American writer, Junot Diaz, says he chooses to set most of his writings in New Jersey. New Jersey isthe geographic landscape of his childhood, an area of the United States that continues to inspire him.  This is what makes our country so rich. 
 Students need tosee themselves in what they read, in who they meet in their classrooms, whoteaches them so they can be inspired, so they can make their ownconnections.  And a class like thisgives them that opportunity at the same time that they are also honing theircritical thinking and writing skills. 
I also include amini-unit on Diabetes because of the high incidence of the disease in U.S.Latina/Latino communities (and how it is now at epidemic levels throughout the U.S.).  When I teach this mini-unit, I’m often having to assist students in workingthrough the vast amount of misinformation surrounding this disease.  One of them is the idea that Diabetesis reversible.  One can certainlycontrol the disease and maintain low glucose numbers.  However, if that individual were to have major stress in heror his life, a drastic change in lifestyle or diet, a sudden lack of exercise, glucose numbers easilyincrease.  As well, students oftenask about the “best” diet for Diabetes. There is no “best” diet that fits every person who has Diabetes.  And this is what makes the disease sodifficult because, since it is a metabolic condition, each individual’sreaction to a food will be different. The only way one can find out what foods to eat or not, is to learn totest your blood 75 minutes after the first bite.  Then the individual will know if thatfood is causing (or not causing) a spike in glucose levels.  Of course there are some foods allindividuals with diabetes must be cautious about:  starchy foods like rice, potatoes, corn, as well as more known dessert foods like ice cream anddonuts.  Each time I haveincluded a unit on diabetes, I learn so much from the students because almostevery student will know someone (friend, family member) with the disease andhave much to say about their experiences. 
We have manyenjoyable moments in the class discussing the various Latina/Latino American identitiesin the United States.  I feel solucky to teach a class like this and the students often tell me how much theylearn.  These students will bebetter prepared to navigate the next journeys in their lives within this vastNorth American country.  Let’s hopethat courses like this will return to the Arizona schools and will also beintroduced in other schools across the country which yet do not have such important courses. Sending you all,dear La Bloga readers, buenas energias for a superb week!  

p.s. Check your film theater listings--This Friday (February 22nd), the film version of Rudolfo Anaya's novel, Bless Me, Ultima will be, hopefully, at a theater near you!  Check out the official trailer: (click here).