THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN DEPARTMENT OF MEXICAN AMERICAN AND LATINA/O STUDIES SPRING 2021 MAS 315 (40640) AND WGS 301 (46000) LATINAS IN POPULAR PERFORMANCE: FROM CELIA TO SELENA MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS FROM 10:00 TO 11:30 AM. (SYNCHRONOUS) INTERNET (CANVAS / ZOOM) PROFESSOR: LAURA G. GUTIÉRREZ EMAIL:
[email protected] OFFICE PHONE: 471-3543 OFFICE HOURS: ON ZOOM OFFICE HOURS: MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS FROM 3:30-4:30 PM & BY APPOINTMENT Land Acknowledgment (I) We would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on Indigenous land. Moreover, (I) We would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Carrizo & Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Caddo, Tonkawa, Comanche, Lipan Apache, Alabama-Coushatta, Kickapoo, Tigua Pueblo, and all the American Indian and Indigenous Peoples and communities who have been or have become a part of these lands and territories in Texas, here on Turtle Island. Course Description: While this course’s title suggest that the span of the class material covered will begin with a visual cultural analysis of Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, and will end with Selena, the Queen of Tejano, these two figures only conceptually bookend the ideas that will be explored during the semester. This class will begin by sampling a number of performances of Latinas in popular cultural texts to get lay the ground for the analytical and conceptual frameworks that we will be exploring during the semester. First of all, in a workshop format, we will learn to analyze cultural texts that are visual and movement-based. We will, for example, learn to write performance and visual analysis by collectively learning and putting into practice vocabulary connected to the body in movement, space(s), and visual references (from color to specific ethnic tropes).