Ethnic Studies 120

The Chicano Chicana Chicanx Experience

Reclaiming Aztlan

8 Week Fully Online Class With Profesora Fabiola Torres

(No Zoom Sessions)

Dear student,

The purpose and importance of your syllabus is to establish a first impression of the course, the plan of action, any expectations, and me, your humble professor, Fabiola Torres. Deeper information on the course will be available in our Canvas Course. Orale... Let's do this.

About The Course

Catalog Statement: Ethnic Studies 120 provides the student with an understanding and appreciation of the social, political, economic and cultural experiences of the Mexican people in the United States. The course will focus on the Chicano experience after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The course will continue to explore and analyze the contemporary problems of the Chicano people throughout the nation. Special attention will be given to such topics as, immigration, political and labor participation, education, the family and cultural expression.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self- determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism.
Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in Chicana/o/x communities to build a just and equitable society.
Explain and assess how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced, enacted, and studied by Chicana/o/x are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics.

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Teaching Philosophy

I believe our brain must perceive our improvement, our increased ability to do something better, before it begins to feel confident. My role is to help all my students improve their learning and increase their cognitive stamina. My online & face-to-face courses are designed to strengthen learning muscles so they can process content and produce data-driven conclusions. Through personal feedback, I reframe mistakes as a source of information about what needs adjusting in order to hit the target. I believe the educational system has conditioned students to be scared of mistakes because they think it says something about their intelligence. As a result, students may not push for the next level of mastery. Therefore my presence, feedback and communication has to focus on what strategies students can level up mastery.

-C/S (Con Safos)

8 Week Online format

An 8 week online course takes a traditional 16 week course and compresses it into 8 weeks. Therefore, 6-8 hours per week shall be carved out from your weekly routine in the middle of a global pandemic. Online classwork includes weekly video messages, online lectures, discussions, unit activities and preparing for assessments via Canvas. However accessible (no cost) reading material, preparing for assignments and constructing unit assessments should be factored into your schedule. Yet using technology can enable us to stay focussed on work, family and school. My goal is to eliminate failure in my courses. Therefore I dedicate most of my time nudging students via Canvas to stay on task.

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Interactive PDF via Google

I am an ungrader

Ethnic Studies advocates for social justice. In the process, empathy in embedded within my practice. I believe grades are a form of systemic oppression that have nothing to do with learning yet everything to do with domination and power. Therefore, our learning environment will not be policed or restricted. A final "grade" will still be earned, yet it will be based on a student self evaluation based on evidence of competency, excellence, growth and risk-taking. Further information is available in UnGrading In Ethnic Studies 120

There is no voice-over in the video. Visual descriptors are available in the video description via YouTube.

CONTACT INFORMATION for Fabiola Torres

Email Address: ftorres@glendale.edu (I will respond within 24 hours.)
Pandemic Communication Plan
Twitter: @iLearnNow
Instagram: @rebelalliancepack
Visit my video to hear Why I teach Chicanx Studies

I am usually pretty speedy with my replies, but please allow me 12 hours or less before following up with me again. My best time to quickly respond to students is between 9am-5pm M-F. Also, if you reach out on a Sunday, please don't be surprised if I am a little slower to respond. I'm usually resting my arm, neck, back and eyes. I need to rest too.

My parents and I have been voting together since 1993 when they became US Citizens.

About Fabiola Torres

Two Mexican Immigrants gave birth to me, Fabiola Torres, in the French Hospital at Chinatown in Los Angeles, California, USA. Since 1998, I have been teaching Ethnic Studies at Glendale Community College (GCC). My teaching principles are inspired by my M.A. from Chicana/o Studies (CSUN) and my M.A. in Learning Technology (Pepperdine’s School of Education and Psychology). I am a fur-mommy of 3 precious doggies - Wookie, Luke & Leia. My simple in place goal is to stay healthy and find joy. (& to watch as many Dodger games as possible)

“Being Mexican American is tough. We’ve gotta be twice as perfect as anybody else. I mean, we gotta know about John Wayne and Pedro Infante. We gotta know about Frank Sinatra and Agustín Lara. We gotta know about Oprah and Cristina. Japanese Americans, Italian Americans, German Americans. Their homeland is on the other side of the ocean. Ours is right here. We gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time. It’s exhausting!”

-Abraham Quintanilla Jr. (Edward James Olmos) grumbles to his daughter Selena (Jennifer Lopez) in the movie Selena (1997).

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