SPAN 308: Hist/Cultr Aztlan:SW US
Covers the story of indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States: Aztlán, the Spanish colonial period, the Mexican period, and the acquisition and settlement by the United States. Seeks the exposition of indigenous and Hispanic historical and cultural foundations of the region and the confluence with other Asian and European influences. Taught in English with Spanish readings for Spanish majors. Also available online.
Course Narrative
I took Span 308: History and Culture of Aztlán during my first semester, Spring 2017. The course was offered online with Professor Adrian Andrade. I very much enjoyed the class and the textbook that Dr. Andrade used for the class. I felt like the workload was reasonable and the projects and homework was appropriate. The class was taught in English so, although, my Spanish language skills didn't improve my cultural understanding was significantly increased. One of my favorite things about the course was that the textbook tells the history of the area known as Aztlán from a perspective that I haven't heard before. Aztlán refers to the area of the U.S. that used to belong to Mexico (California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, etc.) and this author tells the other side of the story. In other words, it tells Mexico's version of the story. They don't teach kids "the other side of the story" in school, but we absolutely should. I thoroughly appreciated learning the details that they don't tell us growing up in this country. Don't they say the victors write history? It certainly seems so in this case.
stewarth_sem2_mini_research_project.pdf |