I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Many Faces of Mexico

2. Course Prefix & Number:
SPAN 2420

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

Lab Hours: 0

4. Course Description:

This course explores the cultural, historical and social realities that together form contemporary Mexico. Topics covered will include Mexico's indigenous roots through Spanish colonization, the first century of Mexico as a nation, and current U.S./Mexico relations. Students will learn to better understand the complexity of current U.S./Mexico relations. MnTC Goals 5 and 7

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

Reading College Level CLC or Reading College Level

Score:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

St. Cloud State University, HIST 254 Mexican Americans, 3 credits
Bemidji State University, SPAN 4425 Latin Am Culture and Civilization, 3 credits

III. Course Purpose

1. Program-Applicable Courses – This course fulfills a requirement for the following program(s):

Latin American Studies Certificate
Spanish Transfer Pathway AA
Global Studies Certificate

2. MN Transfer Curriculum (General Education) Courses - This course fulfills the following goal area(s) of the MN Transfer Curriculum:

• Goal 5 – History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Goal 7 – Human Diversity

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Demonstrate written communication skills	Express their ideas, processing the class and researched information in journal style, with opposing viewpoints presented with sources.
Apply ethical principles in decision-making	Discuss personal situations resulting from governmental and political edicts resulting in choices of personal actions.
Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and environments	Identify and compare cultural myths, rituals, historical data and foreign relations and the resulting communication, or lack thereof, between Mexico and the U.S.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Employ the methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition (MnTC Goal 5);
• Identify four major historical figures in Mexico and their effect on present day political and social events (MnTC Goal 5);
• Identify current events, cause/effect; historical roots (MnTC Goal 5)
• Relate main facts of Mexican myth/belief systems and from important cultural figures (MnTC Goal 7);
• Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions ;
• Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States' history and culture (MnTC Goal 7);
• Demonstrate an awareness of the individual and institutional dynamics of unequal power relations between groups in contemporary society (MnTC Goal 7);
• Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry (MnTC Goal 7); and
• Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc.) of the many groups that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and exclusion (MnTC Goal 7).

 

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Pre-Cortés Time
• Toltec, Olmec, Tarahuamara, Otomi, Zapotec, Maya (small groups)
• Aztec Empire:  Nomads to Empire
2. Cortés: The Arrival of the Spaniards
• Beliefs in Quetzalcoatl / Moctezuma
• La Malinche – La Marina (symbolic ‘mother of the Mestizo’)
3. Racial divisions in ‘Nuevo España’
• Penisulares, Criollos, Mestizos, Mulatos, Zambos
• Race and Social class
• Compare with the 13 colonies for similarities and differences
4. Revolution
• Hidalgo and Morelos
• Iturbide and Santa Ana
• The Alamo/Texas Annexation/Manifest Destiny
• Political cartoons as propaganda
• Songs and poems as ‘seeds of prejudice’
• Research for current evidence of ‘planting divisions’
5. Constitution of 1917
• Compare to U.S.
• Take 10 articles and discern why important in light of history
6.  U.S./Mexico in the early 1900’s
• The Braceros
• Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers
• Dolores Huerta
• Chicano Culture
• Use of Art and Murals
• Diego Rivera, Orozco, Siquieros
• Frida Kahlo
• Juan Acosta
7. Living Wage
• NAFTA and combined economies
• Living Wage compared (workers rights)
• Maquilas and the border
8. Mexican family customs
• Stages of life (naming, baptisms, graduations, marriage, death)
• Holidays
• Dia de los Muertos
• Easter
• Christmas
9. Current events/issues
• Immigration rights
• Bilingual education/immersion
• The Wall; State and Federal laws
• Militarization of the border
10. The present and the future