Religion and Mexican American Literature”

Syllabus 5/2 (2016) Morales, “Religion and Mexican American Literature”

RELIGION AND MEXICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: A POST-9/11 PERSPECTIVE

Joseph Morales, University of California, Irvine

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

The study of religion and Mexican American literature has a strong tradition of theoretical inquiry. In 1982, Davíd Carrasco (312) argued that the novel – in particular, Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima (1972) – could be read as a representation of spiritual creativity, what he termed “the lyrics of Chicano spirituality.” In 1998, Laura E. Pérez (50) observed that Chicana writing and visual art practices – including, among other texts, Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) – could be understood as “spirit glyphs,” a concept that brought contemporary Chicana works into conversation with post-conquest Nahua texts. In Carrasco and Pérez, we can track two significant theoretical moments: the emergence of race-based definitions of religion; and the articulation of spirituality as a form of decolonial thinking. This syllabus is an attempt to introduce a post-9/11 perspective into the study of religion and Mexican American literature. It takes into account an emerging body of work that has focused on studying race relationally (Goldberg 2009, 1277). On these grounds, it considers how Mexican American literary texts represent religion and spirituality, and what those representations say about interracial politics and multiracial alliances. Divided into two periods, the course schedule is both chronological and thematic. The first period spans from 1972 to 1992 and is concerned with the so-called “post-civil rights” era. The second spans from 2007 to 2013 and continues with the former theme but also takes up the socio-political consequences of US neoliberalism and September 11. To take two examples from the first period: in Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, the protagonist’s maturation depends on his ability to negotiate multiple, conflicting religious and spiritual traditions. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera, the narrator’s ability to exist in the “borderlands” is connected to her articulation of a “new mestiza” spirituality (Pérez 1998, 43). Both texts view spiritual hybridity as a central feature of Mexican American religious histories. At the same time, both make a claim to native religious histories. Is this a form of “spiritual creativity” (Carrasco [1982] 2001, 312)? Or is it an occasion to consider “accountability” to the cultures and traditions that are being appropriated (Carrasco and Lint Sagarena 2008, 238)? On the other hand, to take an example from the second period: in Darling (2013), Richard Rodriguez turns to the Abrahamic to critique Islamophobia but also positions Mexican Americans geopolitically as part of Western Christendom. Whereas the texts in the first period may draw largely on race-based nationalisms or hemispheric notions of indigeneity, post-9/11 texts must contend with the conflation of Islamophobia and anti-Mexican racism in immigration and counterterrorism policy. The critical issue here is: how do Arab Americans and Middle Eastern Muslims relate to Mexican Americans?

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In these texts, religion and spirituality can be read as representations of race and even more specifically as representations of cross-racial relations. As the concept of race changes, so too does the representation of religion and spirituality. New concepts of race give rise to new concepts of religion and spirituality. In examining how religion and spirituality are constructed through race, this course treats religion and spirituality in Mexican American literature as representations that speak to post-9/11 domestic and global cross-racial relations.

SYLLABUS: MEXICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY

COURSE DESCRIPTION This course explores different moments in the formation of Mexican American literature, with an emphasis on representations of religion and spirituality. Of primary concern will be race-based definitions of religiosity, religion/spirituality as a form of decolonial thinking, and the question of a religious heritage. We will also consider issues relating to hemispheric networks and divergent histories of Christianity. Texts will include selections from the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, Chicana feminist thought, the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project, the NAFTA era, and the post-9/11 context.

MODE OF DELIVERY Instruction is face to face. The course will meet for two 90-minute sections per week. But it will also make use of various online management systems for assessment, communication, collaboration, and administration.

LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this course, students will: • With weekly reflective writing exercises, be able to describe and explain rhetorical aspects of religion and spirituality. • By writing a midterm essay, be able to classify and analyze race-based concepts of religion and spirituality. • By writing a final exam essay, be able to compare, contrast, and categorize discrete moments in the formation of Mexican American literature.

READINGS, MEDIA, AND OTHER CONTENT

REQUIRED TEXTS: Anaya, Rudolfo. [1972] 1994. Bless Me, Ultima. New York: Warner Books. Anzaldúa, Gloria. [1987] 2012. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 4th ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books. Espinoza, Alex. 2007. Still Water Saints: A Novel. New York: Random House. Rodriguez, Richard. 2013. Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography. New York: Viking.

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Ruiz de Burton, María Amparo. [1885] 1997. The Squatter and the Don. 2d ed. Ed. Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. Houston: Arte Público Press.

RESERVED MATERIALS: Anaya, Rudolfo. 2009. A Conversation with Rudolfo Anaya. DVD. Directed by Lawrence Bridges. Washington, DC: Institute of Museum and Library Services. Aridjis, Eva. 2007. La Santa Muerte/Saint Death. DVD. New Hope: BCI Entertainment. Carrasco, Davíd. [1982] 2001. “A Perspective for a Study of Religious Dimensions in Chicano Experience: Bless Me, Ultima as a Religious Text.” In The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlán, 1970-2000, ed. Chon A. Noriega, Eric R. Avila, Karen Mary Davalos, Chela Sandoval, and Rafael Pérez-Torres, 301-26. Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Delgadillo, Theresa. 2013. “Spirituality.” In The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature, ed. Suzanne Bost and Frances R. Aparicio, 240-50. New York: Routledge. Espinosa, Gastón. 2008. “History and Theory in the Study of Mexican American Religions.” In Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism, and Culture, ed. Gastón Espinosa and Mario T. García, 17-56. Durham: Duke University Press. Gonzáles, Rodolfo. [1969] 1995. I Am Joaquín. DVD. Produced by El Teatro Campesino. Hollywood: CFI. Gutiérrez, Ramón and Genaro Padilla. 1993. Introduction to Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, ed. Ramón Gutiérrez and Genaro Padilla, 17-25. Houston: Arte Público Press. Kanellos, Nicolás. 1993. Foreword to Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, ed. Ramón Gutiérrez and Genaro Padilla, 13-15. Houston: Arte Público Press. Morales, Joseph. 2015. “Quinto Sol’s Chicano Archive: Reading Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima through Octavio Romano’s Don Pedrito Jaramillo: The Emergence of a Mexican- American Folk Saint.” Ciberletras 25. http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v34/moralescor.htm. Morales, Sylvia. [1979] 2005. Chicana. DVD. Written by Anna Nieto-Gómez. New York: Women Make Movies. Pérez, Laura E. 2007. Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities. Durham: Duke University Press. Polk, Patrick Arthur and others. 2004. Botánica Los Angeles: Latino Popular Religious Art in the City of Angels. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History. “Quest for a Homeland.” [1996] 2007. Disc 1. Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. DVD. Produced by Galan Productions and the National Latino Communications Center, in association with KCET. Los Angeles: National Latino Communications Center.

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Rivera, Christopher. 2014. “The Brown Threat: Post-9/11 Conflations of Latina/os and Middle Eastern Muslims in the US American Imagination.” Latino Studies 12, no. 1: 44-64. Ruiz de Burton, María Amparo. [1872] 1995. Who Would Have Thought It? Ed. Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. Houston: Arte Público Press. Saldaña-Portillo, Josefina. 2001. “Who’s the Indian in Aztlán? Re-Writing Mestizaje, Indianism, and Chicanismo from the Lacandón.” In The Latin American Subaltern Studies Reader, ed. Ileana Rodríguez, 402-23. Durham: Duke University Press. Zaccaria, Paola and Daniele Basilio. 2009. Altar: Cruzando Fronteras, Building Bridges. DVD. Regione Puglia: Universitá Degli Studi di Bari.

WEB SITES: Olivas, Daniel. 2007. “Interview with Alex Espinoza.” La Bloga. http://labloga.blogspot.com/2007/05/interview-with-alex-espinoza.html. PBS.org. 2007. “Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason: Richard Rodriguez.” http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/portraits_rodriguez.html. ————. 2013. “Essayist Richard Rodriguez Meditates on Religion and Sexuality in a Post 9/11 World.” http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/essayist-richard-rodriguez- meditates-on-religion-and-sexuality-in-a-post-911-world/.

COURSE SCHEDULE WEEK 1: Introduction – Race, religion, and the formation of Mexican American literature

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Different concepts of “race,” “religion,” and “spirituality” have contributed to the formation of Mexican American literature. What is race? How does race intersect with religion and spirituality? Is religion different from spirituality?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Delgadillo, “Spirituality,” 240-50. • Espinosa, “History and Theory in the Study of Mexican American Religions,” 17- 56.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Attend lectures; contribute to in-class discussions; submit hard-copies of in-class essays. • Post brief response to lecture and readings at designated online discussion forum. WEEK 2: Introduction – Race, religion, and the formation of Mexican American literature (cont.)

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • I Am Joaquin (1969) and Chicana (1979) introduce two distinct views on Mexican American religious history; the former a male nationalist view, the

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latter a female-centered post-nationalist view. How do different socio-political concerns shape the meaning and use of religion?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Gonzáles, I Am Joaquín, DVD. • Morales, Chicana, DVD. ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Attend lectures; contribute to in-class discussions; submit hard-copies of in-class essays. • Post brief response to lecture and readings at designated online discussion forum. WEEK 3: Anaya and the Chicano movement

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Bless Me, Ultima (1972) is a bildungsroman. It tells the story of Antonio Márez, who comes of age with the guidance of a curandera, Ultima. Anaya seems to make a claim to indigenous religious history. How and why does he do this?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, 1-121 • Anaya, A Conversation with Rudolfo Anaya, DVD.

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Antonio’s maturation pivots on his ability to negotiate multiple, conflicting religious and spiritual traditions. Foci include: La Virgen de Guadalupe; the Golden Carp; the curanderismo of Ultima; and his own existential ruminations. In Bless Me, Ultima, who is a native and who a settler? And why is this question significant in the context of the Chicano movement?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, 122-262. • Carrasco, “A Perspective for a Study of Religious Dimensions in Chicano Experience: Bless Me, Ultima as a Religious Text,” 301-26.

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WEEK 5: Anzaldúa and Chicana feminist thought

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) is an “autohistoriateoría” (roughly, self-history- theory). It goes beyond traditional autobiographical forms, in that it is a self- portrait that also includes the writer/artist’s cultural history (Anzaldúa 2009, 183). Anzaldúa seems to make a claim to indigenous religious history. How and why does she do this?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, 17-120. • Zaccaria and Basilio, Altar: Cruzando Fronteras, Building Bridges, DVD. ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Attend lectures; contribute to in-class discussions; submit hard-copies of in-class essays. • Post brief response to lecture and readings at designated online discussion forum. WEEK 6: Anzaldúa and Chicana feminist thought (cont.)

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Similar to the narrative arc of Anaya’s novel, Anzaldúa’s life narrative pivots on the narrator’s ability to negotiate the “borderlands,” a concept that denotes a kind of in-between state. Of special interest is the notion of “new mestiza” spirituality (Pérez 2007, 24). In Borderlands/La Frontera, who is a native and who a settler? And why is this question significant in the context of Chicana feminist thought?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, 121-225. • Pérez, Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities, 17-49. • Saldaña-Portillo, “Who’s the Indian in Aztlán? Re-Writing Mestizaje, Indianism, and Chicanismo from the Lacandón,” 402-23.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Attend lectures; contribute to in-class discussions; submit hard-copies of in-class essays. • Post brief response to lecture and readings at designated online discussion forum. • Submit midterm essay exploratory writing draft. WEEK 7: Midterm essay review

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Juxtapose concepts of religion and/or spirituality in Anaya and Anzaldúa. • Complete in-class and out-of-class peer review exercises for midterm essay. • Submit midterm essay rough draft.

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WEEK 8: Midterm due

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Submit midterm essay via online management system prior to established deadline. WEEK 9: Ruiz de Burton and the Recovery Project

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • The Squatter and the Don evokes two hermeneutical contexts: 1885, the year of its publication; and 1992, the year of its reissue by the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. As a nineteenth century novel, The Squatter and the Don is a narrative about race, land, and religion. Like her first work, Who Would Have Thought It? (1872), its storyline relies on a triangulation of Anglo Protestants, Californio Catholics, and Indian “savages.” How and why does she do this?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Ruiz de Burton, The Squatter and the Don, 51-165. • Ruiz de Burton, Who Would Have Thought It?, selections.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Attend lectures; contribute to in-class discussions; submit hard-copies of in-class essays. • Post brief response to lecture and readings at designated online discussion forum. WEEK 10: Ruiz de Burton and the Recovery Project (cont.)

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • As a twentieth century text, The Squatter and the Don contributes to the project to recover a sense of Hispanic literary and religious heritage. Like Anaya and Anzaldúa, Ruiz de Burton seems to represent the US Southwest as a “lost homeland.” How do the novel’s nineteenth century representations of settler culture and its reiteration of anti-black racism pertain to late twentieth century pan-Hispanic heritage projects?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Ruiz de Burton, The Squatter and the Don, 166-344. • Gutiérrez and Padilla, “Introduction,” 17-25. • Kanellos, “Foreword,” 13-15. • “Quest for a Homeland,” DVD. ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Attend lectures; contribute to in-class discussions; submit hard-copies of in-class essays. • Post brief response to lecture and readings at designated online discussion forum.

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WEEK 11: Espinoza, migration, and Latinidad

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Still Water Saints (2007) relates a year in the life of Perla Portillo, owner of the Botánica Oshún. Espinoza seems to represent Perla’s botánica as a site where religiosity intersects with global economic and political forces. How and why does he do this?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Espinoza, Still Water Saints, 1-113. • Polk and others, Botánica Los Angeles: Latino Popular Religious Art in the City of Angels, selections.

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • A comparative analysis of central characters in Bless Me, Ultima and Still Water Saints is instructive: like Ultima, Perla is a healer; yet, like Antonio, Perla is also fraught with spiritual doubt. Espinoza focuses attention on faith. How does the project to understand “what it means to believe” relate to twenty first century attempts to forge cross-racial antiracist alliances?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Espinoza, Still Water Saints, 114-240. • Aridjis, La Santa Muerte/Saint Death, DVD. • Olivas, “Interview with Alex Espinoza,” http://labloga.blogspot.com/2007/05/interview-with-alex-espinoza.html.

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Darling (2013) is a collection of personal essays written in the wake of 9/11. Rodriguez connects his Roman Catholic faith to Judaism and Islam through the figure of Abraham. He describes himself as “Judeo-Christian-Muslim.” In Darling, how do Arab Americans and Middle Eastern Muslims relate to Mexican Americans? Syllabus 5/2 (2016) Morales, “Religion and Mexican American Literature”

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Rodriguez, Darling, 1-93. • Rivera, “The Brown Threat: Post-9/11 Conflations of Latina/os and Middle Eastern Muslims in the US American Imagination,” 44-64.

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • Rodriguez’ memoir raises questions about the geopolitics of Mexican American religions after 9/11. In Darling, Rodriguez calls for an ecumenical resolution to post-9/11 strife. Could there be another strategy for resisting post-9/11 conflations of race and religion?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Rodriguez, Darling, 94-235. • PBS.org, “Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason: Richard Rodriguez,” http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/portraits_rodriguez.html. • PBS.org, “Essayist Richard Rodriguez Meditates on Religion and Sexuality in a Post 9/11 World,” http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/essayist-richard- rodriguez-meditates-on-religion-and-sexuality-in-a-post-911-world/.

CONTEXT AND KEY QUESTIONS: • One approach to studying religion in Mexican American literature is to ask how Mexican American texts represent religion. A second approach asks how religion has contributed to the formation of Mexican American literature. What are some of the most salient pros and cons of each method?

TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS: • Morales, “Quinto Sol’s Chicano Archive: Reading Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima through Octavio Romano’s Don Pedrito Jaramillo: The Emergence of a Mexican- American Folk Saint,” http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v34/moralescor.htm.

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ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Attend lectures; contribute to in-class discussions; submit hard-copies of in-class essays. • Post brief response to lecture and readings at designated online discussion forum. • Submit final essay exploratory writing draft. WEEK 16: Final essay review

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Give examples of different concepts of religion and/or spirituality in Anaya, Anzaldúa, Ruiz de Burton, Espinoza, and Rodriguez; and use these concepts to identify different moments in the formation of Mexican American literature. • Complete in-class and out-of-class peer review exercises for final essay. • Submit final essay rough draft. WEEK 17: Final essay due

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES: • Submit final essay via online management system prior to established deadline.

ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION (15%) • Attendance is mandatory. To receive credit for attendance, students will participate in class discussions, complete in-class essays, and participate in online discussion forums. More than two absences and/or failure to contribute weekly postings will affect a final grade.

MIDTERM ESSAY (35%) • Students will write an analytical paper of 4-6 pages focusing on religion in one of the following: Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima OR Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera. Prompts and suggestions for formatting and citation will be provided. o Exploratory writing draft due: Week 6. o Rough draft, including in-class and out-of-class peer review exercises due: Week 7. o Final draft due: Week 8.

FINAL ESSAY (50%) • Students will write an analytical paper of 8-10 pages focusing on religion in Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima or Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera AND one of the following: Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don, Espinoza’s Still Water Saints, or Rodriguez’ Darling. Prompts and suggestions for formatting and citation will be provided. o Exploratory writing draft due: Week 15. o Rough draft, including in-class and out-of-class peer review exercises due: Week 16. o Final draft due: Week 17.

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EXTRA CREDIT • Students will have the opportunity to give an individual or group presentation of 5-10 minutes focusing on religion and/or spirituality in one or more of the required texts. A successful presentation is evaluative and encourages debate and discussion. The extra credit assignment will be completed by Week 15 and may improve a final grade by up to 2%.

A NOTE ON PEDAGOGY • The course is cumulative. Lecture, in-class activities, and online discussion forums are designed to prepare students for the midterm and final essays. To succeed in the course, students are advised to attend office hours regularly to discuss course-related matters.

COURSE POLICIES Grading rubric for in-class essays and online discussion forums: Weekly reflective writing assignments are “low stakes” exercises that contribute to the class community. The assignments will be assessed on detail, depth of explanation, and demonstrated ability of the student to further class discussion. Grading rubric for midterm and final essays: “A” range essays demonstrate an excellent level of judgment and understanding through conceptual analysis, rhetorical knowledge, and skill at argumentation. “A” range essays show mastery of the assignment; exhibit a high level of engagement with academic writing conventions; and present a well-crafted argument including the following elements: a clear and precise analytical thesis, effective use of sources and analysis, a high level of paragraph structuring and organization, and skillful use of language appropriate for an academic audience. “B” range essays demonstrate an above average level of judgment and understanding through conceptual analysis, rhetorical knowledge, and skill at argumentation. “B” range essays show a good understanding of the assignment; exhibit a strong engagement with academic writing conventions; and present a solid argument including the following elements: a clear, analytical thesis, appropriate use of sources and analysis, strong paragraph structuring and organization, and consistent use of language appropriate for an academic audience. “C” range essays demonstrate an average level of judgment and understanding through conceptual analysis, rhetorical knowledge, and skill at argumentation. “C” range essays show a competent understanding of the assignment; exhibit an adequate level of engagement with academic writing conventions; and present an argument including the following elements: an analytical thesis, partial use of sources and analysis, an acceptable level of paragraph structuring and organization, and adequate use of language appropriate for an academic audience. “D” range essays demonstrate a below average level of judgment and understanding through conceptual analysis, rhetorical knowledge, and skill at argumentation. “D” range essays show a poor understanding of the assignment; exhibit a weak engagement with academic writing conventions; and present an argument including some of the following elements: a thesis, insufficient use of sources and analysis, weak paragraph structuring and organization, and inconsistent use of language appropriate for an academic audience. “F” range essays are non-passing and fail to demonstrate judgment and understanding through conceptual analysis, rhetorical knowledge, and skill at argumentation. “F” range essays lack an understanding of the assignment; lack an engagement with academic writing conventions; and lack an argument including the following elements: a

Syllabus 5/2 (2016) Morales, “Religion and Mexican American Literature” thesis, use of sources and analysis, paragraph structuring and organization, and use of language appropriate for an academic audience.

LATE WORK • Late papers will be accepted in consultation with the instructor and will incur a penalty of 10% per 24-hour period.

PLAGIARISM • Plagiarism can be grounds for failure in the course and expulsion from the University.

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT • Students are expected to adhere to the University Code of Student Conduct.

ACCOMMODATIONS • Students who need accommodations are encouraged to notify the instructor and to make arrangements with support services as soon as possible to ensure such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

OF SPECIAL NOTE • The instructor reserves the right to modify this syllabus as needed.

SUGGESTED FURTHER READINGS, MEDIA, AND OTHER CONTENT Anaya, Rudolfo. 2013. Bless Me, Ultima. DVD. Directed by Carl Franklin. N.p.: Tenaja Productions. Anidjar, Gil. 2008. Semites: Race, Religion, Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press. See esp. “The Semitic Hypothesis (Religion’s Last Word)” and “Secularism.” Anzaldúa, Gloria E. 2000. Interviews/Entrevistas. Ed. AnaLouise Keating. New York: Routledge. ————. 2009. The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader. Ed. AnaLouise Keating. Durham: Duke University Press. Aranda, José F., Jr. 2013. “Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage.” In The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature, ed. Suzanne Bost and Frances R. Aparicio, 476-84. New York: Routledge. Bakhos, Carol. 2014. The Family of Abraham: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Interpretations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Bost, Suzanne and Frances R. Aparicio, eds. 2013. The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature. New York: Routledge. Carrasco, Davíd. 2004a. “Dark Walking, Making Food, and Giving Birth to Alambristas: Religious Dimensions in the Film.” In Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants, ed. Nicholas J. Cull and Davíd Carrasco, 203-22. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

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————. 2004b. “Jaguar Christians in the Contact Zone: Concealed Narratives in the Histories of Religions in the Americas.” In Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity, ed. Jacob K. Olupona, 128-38. New York: Routledge. Carrasco, Davíd and Roberto Lint Sagarena. 2008. “The Religious Vision of Gloria Anzaldúa: Borderlands/La Frontera as a Shamanic Space.” In Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism, and Culture, ed. Gastón Espinosa and Mario T. García, 223-41. Durham: Duke University Press. Cotera, María Eugenia and María Josefina Saldaña-Portillo. 2015. “Indigenous but not Indian? Chicana/os and the Politics of Indigeneity.” In The World of Indigenous North America, ed. Robert Warrior, 549-68. New York: Routledge. Cutler, John Alba. 2015. Ends of Assimilation: The Formation of Chicano Literature. New York: Oxford University Press. Delgadillo, Theresa. 2011. Spiritual Mestizaje: Religion, Gender, Race, and Nation in Contemporary Chicana Narrative. Durham: Duke University Press. See esp. “A Theory of Spiritual Mestizaje.” Eliot, T. S. 1999. Selected Essays. London: Faber and Faber. See esp. “Religion and Literature.” Espinosa, Gastón and Mario T. García, eds. 2008. Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism, and Culture. Durham: Duke University Press. Feldman, Keith P. 2015. A Shadow over Palestine: The Imperial Life of Race in America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. García, Alma M., ed. 1997. Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. New York: Routledge. Goldberg, David Theo. 2009. “Racial Comparisons, Relational Racisms: Some Thoughts on Method.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32, no. 7: 1271-82. González, Marcial. 2009. Chicano Novels and the Politics of Form: Race, Class, and Reification. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. See esp. “An Aesthetic Solution to Objective Problems: Liberalism in Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don.” Gruesz, Kirsten Silva. 2013. “Authors, Readers, and the Mediations of Print Culture.” In The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature, ed. Suzanne Bost and Frances R. Aparicio, 485-94. New York: Routledge. Gunn, Giles. 1979. The Interpretation of Otherness: Literature, Religion, and the American Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press. See esp. “The Religious Use and Abuse of Literature: Notes Toward a Short History.” Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity. New York: Simon and Schuster. Kanellos, Nicolás, ed. 2007. Recovering Hispanic Religious Thought and Practice of the United States. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Klaus, Carl H. 2010. The Made-Up Self: Impersonation in the Personal Essay. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. Krupnick, Mark. 1994. “Religion and Literature: Some New Directions.” The Journal of Religion 74, no. 3: 297-301.

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Lincoln, Bruce. 1996. “Theses on Method.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 18, no. 3: 225-27. Majid, Anouar. 2009. We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades against Muslims and Other Minorities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Maldonado-Torres, Nelson. 2005. “Decolonization and the New Identitarian Logics After September 11: Eurocentrism and Americanism Against the New Barbarian Threats.” Radical Philosophy Review 8, no. 1: 35-67. Martín, Desirée A. 2014. Borderlands Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2005. The Invention of World Religions: Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McCracken, Ellen. 2008. “Voice and Vision in Chicana Religious Practice: The Literary Re- elaborations of Mary Helen Ponce, Denise Chávez, and Sandra Cisneros.” In Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism, and Culture, ed. Gastón Espinosa and Mario T. García, 242-60. Durham: Duke University Press. Mignolo, Walter D. 2003. The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization. 2d ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. See esp. “On Describing Ourselves Describing Ourselves: Comparatism, Differences, and Pluritopic Hermeneutics.” Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. 2015. Racial Formation in the United States. 3d ed. New York: Routledge. Pals, Daniel L. 2015. Nine Theories of Religion. 3d ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Pérez, Laura E. 1998. “Spirit Glyphs: Reimagining Art and Artist in the Work of Chicana Tlamatinime.” Modern Fiction Studies 44, no. 1: 36-76. Rabasa, José. 2011. Tell Me the Story of How I Conquered You: Elsewheres and Ethnosuicide in the Colonial Mesoamerican World. Austin: University of Texas Press. See esp. “(In)Comparable Worlds.” Ruiz de Burton, María Amparo. 2001. Conflicts of Interest: The Letters of María Amparo Ruiz de Burton. Ed. Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. Houston: Arte Público Press. Said, Edward W. 1994. Orientalism. 25th anniversary ed. New York: Vintage Books. Saldaña-Portillo, Josefina. 2011. “‘No Country for Old Mexicans’: The Collision of Empires on the Texas Frontier.” Interventions 13, no. 1: 67-84. Saldívar, José David. 1997. Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press. See esp. “Remapping American Cultural Studies.” ————. 2012. Trans-Americanity: Subaltern Modernities, Global Coloniality, and the Cultures of Greater Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press. See esp. “Unsettling Race, Coloniality, and Caste in Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera, Martínez’s Parrot in the Oven, and Roy’s The God of Small Things.” Schmidt Camacho, Alicia. 2008. Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. New York: New York University Press.

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Smith, Sidonie and Julia Watson. 2010. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. 2d ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Sorisio, Carolyn. 2013. “Introduction: Cross-Racial and Cross-Ethnic Collaboration and Scholarship: Contexts, Criticism, Challenges.” MELUS 38, no. 1: 1-8. Taylor, Diana. 2003. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham: Duke University Press. Vásquez, Manuel A. 2005. “Historicizing and Materializing the Study of Religion: The Contribution of Migration Studies.” In Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America, ed. Karen I. Leonard, Alex Stepick, Manuel A. Vásquez, and Jennifer Holdaway, 219-42. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. ————. 2011. More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion. New York: Oxford University Press. Vásquez, Manuel A. and Marie F. Marquardt. 2003. Globalizing the Sacred: Religion across the Americas. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Wedemeyer, Christian K. and Wendy Doniger, eds. 2010. Hermeneutics, Politics, and the History of Religions: The Contested Legacies of Joachim Wach and Mircea Eliade. New York: Oxford University Press.

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APPENDIX A: MIDTERM ESSAY PROMPTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FORMATTING AND CITATION

ASSIGNMENT: MIDTERM ESSAY (35%) Write an analytical paper of 4-6 pages, focusing on religion and/or spirituality in one of the following texts: Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima OR Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera. Exploratory writing draft due: Week 6. Rough draft, including in-class and out-of-class peer review exercises due: Week 7. Final draft due: Week 8. Submit final draft via designated online management system. Select one of the following prompts:

1. Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima is a bildungsroman. It tells the story of Antonio’s coming-of- age with the guidance of a mentor, Ultima. What role does religion/spirituality play in Antonio’s coming-of-age?

2. In Bless Me, Ultima, hybridity is a central concept. It seems to denote a kind of mixture. Discuss Anaya’s concept of religious/spiritual hybridity in Bless Me, Ultima.

3. Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera is an “autohistoriateoría” (i.e., self-history-theory). It is a self-portrait that also treats her cultural history. What role does religion/spirituality play in Anzaldúa’s self-history-theory?

4. In Borderlands/La Frontera, the “borderlands” is a central concept. It seems to denote a kind of in-betweenness. Discuss Anzaldúa’s concept of religious/spiritual in- betweenness in Borderlands/La Frontera.

Use MLA Style or Chicago Manual of Style for formatting and citation. Note: in your response, be sure to present a working definition of religion and/or spirituality. Also, be sure to present more than a summary or descriptive response (e.g., a list of examples). This essay should develop an argumentative thesis; which is to say, it should discuss and analyze the significance of your summary, descriptive response, and so forth. Syllabus 5/2 (2016) Morales, “Religion and Mexican American Literature”

APPENDIX B: FINAL ESSAY PROMPTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FORMATTING AND CITATION

ASSIGNMENT: FINAL ESSAY (50%) Write an analytical paper of 8-10 pages focusing on religion and/or spirituality in Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima or Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera AND one of the following texts: Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don, Espinoza’s Still Water Saints, or Rodriguez’ Darling. Exploratory writing draft due: Week 15. Rough draft, including in-class and out-of-class peer review exercises due: Week 16. Final draft due: Week 17. Submit final draft via designated online management system. Select one of the following prompts:

1. In the texts we’ve studied, the authors offer differing accounts of the meaning or function of “religion” and “spirituality.” Select two texts. What commonalities are there in these texts’ accounts? What factors do you think are responsible for differences?

2. Choose two specific ideas or themes (such as religious hybridity, recovering US Hispanic religious heritage, religion/spirituality in the Americas, religion in a post-9/11 world, etc.) and consider how said ideas or themes are treated in two of the texts we’ve studied.

3. Consider how the different authors we’ve studied define and describe genre (e.g., auto-historia- teoría vs. autobiography, etc.). Select two texts and compare their respective accounts of genre. What does each account imply about the role of religion or spirituality in their approach to genre? Which approach do you think is more effective?

4. One approach to studying religion in Mexican American literature is to ask how Mexican American literature represents religion/spirituality. In this first approach, religion/spirituality is often read as an essence (e.g., as “the soul of a people,” as a link to “the desert God,” etc.). A second approach asks how religion/spirituality has contributed to the formation of Mexican American literature. In this scenario, religion/spirituality is read as a signifier for social conflict (i.e., the meaning of religion/spirituality changes in response to different political struggles). Select two texts we’ve read and treat the role of religion/spirituality in the emergence and/or formation of Mexican American literature as a distinct category for literary and cultural inquiry.

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APPENDIX C: MIDTERM AND FINAL ESSAY PEER REVIEW EXERCISE SAMPLE QUESTIONS*

CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS a. Does the paper address one of the essay prompts? Is the paper analytical? Is it original (e.g., does it go beyond ideas presented in lecture)?

RHETORICAL KNOWLEDGE b. Does the paper make use of academic writing conventions? Is it compelling? Is it timely? Is it attentive to its rhetorical situation (e.g. does it provide relevant contextual information)? Is it persuasive?

THESIS c. Does the paper articulate a clear, analytical thesis (e.g., can you paraphrase the paper’s thesis)? Is the thesis insightful?

DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT d. Does the paper make use of sources? Are the sources credible? Are the sources effectively integrated into the paper’s analysis? Are the sources relevant? Are the sources connected back to the paper’s thesis?

STRUCTURING e. Does the paper exhibit coherence (e.g., does it develop a sense of wholeness)? Does the paper have well-constructed paragraphs with claims, evidence, and analysis? Are there transitions between the paragraphs? Are all the paragraphs as a whole well-organized?

LANGUAGE f. Is the paper appropriate for an academic audience? Are the sentences effective? Is word choice effective? Is the paper written in a professional manner? Are there syntactical issues or grammatical errors?

EVALUATION g. What works well in the paper? Specifically, what areas need improvement?

* The following peer review exercise sample questions are derived from a UC Irvine Humanities Core Course grading rubric for writing. See “Humanities Core Course Grading Rubric for Final Essays,” University of California, Irvine, accessed August 3, 2015, http://hcc.humanities.uci.edu/humcore/Student/rubric2013.html.

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Bibliography Anaya, Rudolfo. [1972] 1994. Bless Me, Ultima. New York: Warner Books. Anzaldúa, Gloria. [1987] 2012. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 4th ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books. Carrasco, Davíd. [1982] 2001. “A Perspective for a Study of Religious Dimensions in Chicano Experience: Bless Me, Ultima as a Religious Text.” In The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlán, 1970- 2000, ed. Chon A. Noriega, Eric R. Avila, Karen Mary Davalos, Chela Sandoval, and Rafael Pérez- Torres, 301-26. Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Carrasco, Davíd and Roberto Lint Sagarena. 2008. “The Religious Vision of Gloria Anzaldúa: Borderlands/La Frontera as a Shamanic Space.” In Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism, and Culture, ed. Gastón Espinosa and Mario T. García, 223-41. Durham: Duke University Press. Goldberg, David Theo. 2009. “Racial Comparisons, Relational Racisms: Some Thoughts on Method.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 32, no. 7: 1271-82. Pérez, Laura E. 1998. “Spirit Glyphs: Reimagining Art and Artist in the Work of Chicana Tlamatinime.” Modern Fiction Studies 44, no. 1: 36-76. Rodriguez, Richard. 2013. Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography. New York: Viking.