Throughout the course of the past semester, our Chicana/Latina Feminist Histories class has worked toward three specific outcomes: gaining the ability to describe the historical experiences of Chicanas and Latinas in the United States, critically evaluating writings on those experiences, and applying theory and other course knowledge in a historiographical essay at the end of the class. To practice these skills, everyone in the class wrote discussion posts after each reading, composed four critical analysis essays, and produced a final historiographical essay on a topic of their choice. In reflection, I believe that, through the challenging reading and coursework, I have attained all three of the desired outcomes.
In the majority of discussion posts responding to the assigned literature, I make an effort to analyze a portion of the work or clearly explain the theory for the purpose of my understanding. I also connect readings to each other, stating how ideas or theories in one reading either reiterate or augment on a past reading. Through the theory learned both in the assigned pieces and also additional ideas introduced in class, I began to analyze the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, and class through the examples seen in the literature. In the second half of the semester, when we began to focus on individual testimonies in the form of prose and poetry, I transitioned from analysis and explanation of the central ideas to a personal account of the process of me reading the works. I found that these discussion posts were actually harder for me because I had become use to the other way of responding to readings. I believe that throughout the semester I had a solid ability of identifying the key ideas and themes of the readings and discussions. In the four critical analysis papers, I focused on central concepts of the related readings, giving further analysis and implications to them. I did have some trouble fully grasping the complex themes in ¡Chicana Power!, which resulted in paper on vendida logic having weaker analysis. However, I tried to work specifically on that while comprising the final essay on This Bridge Called My Back. I believe that the two first essays of the semester: “The Shifting of Women’s Agency in 19th-Century California,” and “The Whiteness of Mexican Americans;” were my strongest in the course. In both I analyzed major ideas, placing them in context with the related history and production. I found the historiography process the most challenging aspect of the semester. My original topic did not completely fit the assignment and I soon shifted my focus from the 1.5 generation of immigrants to United States immigration in general. Concentrating on three separate books, I was able to locate principal theories and themes, explicating on them in the historiographical essay. I compared each of the pieces of literature to the others, examining their role in the study of immigration and how the way scholars have analyzed immigration and its history has changed.
This semester I have sharpened my understanding of race and feminist theory, as well as learned about Chicana and Latina individuals’ experiences in the past two centuries. I generally feel that I positively progressed in my writing assignments through the course. I learned how to perceive and comprehend intricate, difficult theory and, using those theory tools, analyze history and the role of Chicana/Latina women in that history.
Thoughts on Histories 