This book uses a micro-narrative structure to explore the assault on the collective memory of Mexican Americans in the Southwest United States from 2010-2016. These communities' survival depends on their histories and identities, which are being quickly erased by gentrification and dispersal, neoliberalism and privatization. This issue is most apparent in the education system, where Mexican American students receive inferior educations and lack access to higher education. Avoiding the overly-theoretical macro-narrative, this book uses case studies and micro-narratives to suggest possible changes and actions to address this issue. It also explores how the erasure of Mexican Americans' history and identity mirrors society as a whole.

Does the term "Latino"--a construct of the U.S. government--successfully encompass the wide variety of Spanish-speaking people in this country? This introductory topic begins an overview of 10 major controversies that have embroiled U.S. Latinos, including Puerto Ricans, in recent years. Latinos have one of the fastest-growing populations in the United States today, making these issues front-page news across the country.

Issues include:

Race Classification

Assimilation

Bilingual Education

Open Borders

Affirmative Action

Interracial Dating and Marriage

Funding Education and Health Care for Undocumented Immigrant

Amnesty Program

U.S. Military and Political Presence in Cuba

U.S. Military Bases in Puerto Rico

Each topic is presented with a background, pro and con positions, and questions for the purpose of student debate and papers."

This book uses a micro-narrative structure to explore the assault on the collective memory of Mexican Americans in the Southwest United States from 2010-2016. These communities' survival depends on their histories and identities, which are being quickly erased by gentrification and dispersal, neoliberalism and privatization. This issue is most apparent in the education system, where Mexican American students receive inferior educations and lack access to higher education. Avoiding the overly-theoretical macro-narrative, this book uses case studies and micro-narratives to suggest possible changes and actions to address this issue. It also explores how the erasure of Mexican Americans' history and identity mirrors society as a whole.

The "Making of Chicana/o Studies" traces the philosophy and historical development of the field of Chicana/o studies from precursor movements to the Civil Rights era to today, focusing its lens on the political machinations in higher education that sought to destroy the discipline. As a renowned leader, activist, scholar, and founding member of the movement to establish this curriculum in the California State University system, which serves as a model for the rest of the country, Rodolfo F. Acuna has, for more than forty years, battled the trend in academia to deprive this group of its academic presence.

The book assesses the development of Chicana/o studies (an area of studies that has even more value today than at its inception)--myths about its epistemological foundations have remained uncontested. Acuna sets the record straight, challenging those in the academy who would fold the discipline into Latino studies, shadow it under the dubious umbrella of ethnic studies, or eliminate it altogether.

Building the largest Chicana/o studies program in the nation was no easy feat, especially in an atmosphere of academic contention. In this remarkable account, Acuna reveals how California State University, Northridge, was instrumental in developing an area of study that offers more than 166 sections per semester, taught by 26 tenured and 45 part-time instructors. He provides vignettes of successful programs across the country and offers contemporary educators and students a game plan--the mechanics for creating a successful Chicana/o studies discipline--and a comprehensive index of current Chicana/o studies programs nationwide.

Latinas/os, of which Mexican Americans are nearly seventy percent, comprise a complex sector of society projected to be just shy of thirty percent of the nation's population by 2050. "The Making of Chicana/o Studies" identifies what went wrong in the history of Chicana/o studies and offers tangible solutions for the future.

Does the term "Latino"--a construct of the U.S. government--successfully encompass the wide variety of Spanish-speaking people in this country? This introductory topic begins an overview of 10 major controversies that have embroiled U.S. Latinos, including Puerto Ricans, in recent years. Latinos have one of the fastest-growing populations in the United States today, making these issues front-page news across the country.

Issues include:

Race Classification

Assimilation

Bilingual Education

Open Borders

Affirmative Action

Interracial Dating and Marriage

Funding Education and Health Care for Undocumented Immigrant

Amnesty Program

U.S. Military and Political Presence in Cuba

U.S. Military Bases in Puerto Rico

Each topic is presented with a background, pro and con positions, and questions for the purpose of student debate and papers."

By the year 2000, Mexicans and other Latinos will comprise fifty percent of the population of Los Angeles. In this new book, the author of the widely praised Occupied America describes the harsh realities facing Chicanos in LA today.