CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF THE CHICANA

About Us

Welcome to California State University, Northridge's Chicana/o Studies "Contemporary Issues of the Chicana" Spring 2020 class. Profesora Marta Lopez-Garza and her students took on a unique project during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their work included various topics brought to light during such difficult times. 

In Contemporary Issues of the Chicana we apply a social science, feminist, critical race framework for understanding the contemporary experiences of Chicana/x. 

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MESSAGE FROM LA PROFESORA:

When I walked into the classroom on the first day, January 21, 2020, I looked at the faces of 20 students and heard their introductions and expectations for what they would learn in this course. I knew this would be an exhilarating semester. Little did we know that our world would explode, beginning with the deadly COVID 19, then a series of police killings of Black people that led to weeks of protests in the face of the virus.

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The semester began with great promise. The course topics for the first two thirds of the semester included Chicana/x Activists; Chicana/x Indigeneity in the Arts; Queer Chicana/x Politics, Arts, and Literature; Chicana/x Feminism, Decolonial Theories; Gloria Anzaldúa and her work on Chicanas as Bordercrossers and in the state of Nepantla; Decolonizing our Diets; Issues that Matter most to Chicanas/x and Latinas/x in this Election Year; Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices; and Carceral and Post-Carceral Experiences among Women (the course reading list is included in this blog).

I was impressed with the level of student engagement with the weekly readings and assignments. We had insightful and revealing class sessions, such as the two weeks we discussed the issues that mattered most to the students in this election year. For example, I was impressed by their willingness to open up and discuss what they and their families (a number of whom are undocumented) experienced emotionally and financially, as well as their astute analysis of the national political scene.

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So this was an awesome class anyway, but then COVID 19 hit and everything closed down, including our campus. We therefore had to figure out how to best move forward.

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At our first zoom class, the week after Spring Break, the students and I reflected on the campus closure, on the pandemic, the consequences for our families, our neighbors, our CSUN friends. That first class session online we collectively decided to recalibrate our course, on contemporary issues of the Chicana, to address what was currently taking place, while maintaining the course themes, the course integrity.

In our discussion, we together decided to replace the two remaining exams with other assignments. One was a written essay on each student’s three top favorite course topics (mentioned above) we had read about and discussed, why they chose these three and what they learned from the material for those weeks.

The other replacement assignment entailed weekly postings on Canvas’ Discussion Board, on which the students selected the topics. The first week’s discussion board topic was a Resource list, in which the students collected important resource information for themselves and all other students and their families, such as educational information about scholarships and grants; CSUN services such as counseling; employment information; food distribution centers; health and immigration services.

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Other discussion post themes included Government Policies (implemented in response to the COVID 19 at the federal, state or local levels, as well as government policies in other countries), Inspiring Stories, Progressive actions taking place in communities, progressive organizations’ agendas in the face of COVID 19. We also watched Democracy Now episode on ‘Naomi Klein’s Case for Transformative Change Amid Coronavirus Pandemic.’ In addition, we shared poetry during one zoom class session, since we were in poetry month, April, and the performance final for the class included additional poems by the students, along with their paintings, drawings, collages, some of which we have included under Creative Student Poems & Essays.

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I do not know if it is because of the trauma from the COVID 19 that I appreciate what we accomplished in this class or that this is just an amazing set of students. The way we together recalibrated our class to ease into online interaction and continued our learning while not compromising the integrity and caliber of the class was rewarding. What came out of it -- the poetry, the discussion board, the final performances, and the essays in lieu of exams -- speaks to how the students in this class stepped up, in the midst of the uncertainty of what we were experiencing, of their futures…. For many of us, it was, and remains, a difficult time, losing employment, moving back to a full house, sharing computers with siblings on, at times, unreliable wifi systems. I am humbled by my interaction with each student in this class, and honored to have spent this explosive, dystopic semester with them. They give me hope.

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Now months later, in response to continuous violence by police against the black community, the world is moving quickly. I admire the thousands upon thousands throughout this city of the Angels, across the country and around the globe, all of them risking their lives in support of real structural change to policing, and ultimately, governing. People in different countries are moved to action as well because they recognize the abusive, repressive and deadly state violence experienced in the United States by Black people, poor people, those without power. They have cultural, historical knowledge of government repression. They identify with and or support BLM.

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Three of the students in our course who volunteered to work on this blog over the summer - Michelle Carballo, Karen Chavez Sencion, and Andrea Zamora - put together this blog to share with our families (with whom we are now in shelter) and friends and you all who are reading this now. We created this blog because we believe at this historic, challenging, uncertain, and even frightening time that it remains imperative that we all document how we coped, what we felt, how we came together to find not just comfort, but continuity, and camaraderie and, most important, to help create social change for the betterment of humanity and our mother earth, Madre Tierra.

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Thank you, ChS 246 Contemporary Issues of the Chicana students, from Spring 2020.

Nataly Barragan

Jason Bautista

Michelle Carballo

Karen Chavez Sencion

Gerardo Chavez

Francisco Duran

Henry Flores

Theresa Hadden

Fatima Ledezma

Diana Mondrazon Reyes

Alondra Ochoa

Joanna Olivera

Monica Padilla Vega

Ancelma Pastor

Briana Villa

Galilea Villalba

Andrea Zamora

Anthony Zamora

* Thank you Michelle, Karen and Andrea for working with me this summer and trying to teach me how to blog 😊.  Abrazo fuerte.

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