Narratives of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

Charles Tatum
Fall 2019
Thursdays |  
1 PM - 3 PM
October 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31, 2019
Course Format: Hybrid
Location: Main Campus
Tuition: $130

Please Note: This course is located in the Dorothy Rubel Room on the Main UA Campus NOT in Oro Valley as was originally advertised.

The U.S.-Mexico borderlands have for over 400 years been the subject of numerous Spanish, Mexican, Mexican-American, Native-American, and Anglo-American writers and artists. From early accounts of exploration to more recent narratives, this course looks at this region’s diverse dimensions—culture, society, language, demography, and geopolitics. It mainly focuses on Mexican and Mexican-American narrative fiction and nonfiction, poetry, film, and music over the past two decades. Among their creators are Sandra Cisneros, Carlos Fuentes, Leslie Marmon Silko, Luis Alberto Urrea, Alvaro “Tito” Ríos (Arizona’s first poet laureate), and Norma Cantú. All selections will be in the original English or in translation.

Registration Opens Online: Monday, August 12, 2019 at 8AM (AZ Time)

Required Reading

Tom Miller. Writing on the Edge. A Borderlands Reader (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2003, or any later edition)

Luis Alberto Urrea. The Devil’s Highway. A True Story. (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005, or any later edition)

  • Selections from the following PDFs will be distributed electronically to all enrolled students: Herencia PDF, Canícula PDF, Border Readings PDF, Almanac of the Dead PDF

Meet Your Instructor

Professor Emeritus

CHARLES TATUM is Emeritus Professor of Spanish at the University of Arizona. He served as dean of the College of Humanities from 1993 to 2008. He is the author of a monographic study Chicano Literature (1982), published in translation in Mexico in 1986. Among his other book-length publications are: Chicano Popular Culture, 2001, (2nd edition, 2017); Chicano and Chicana Literature: Otra voz del pueblo (2006); and Lowriders in Chicano Culture. He has edited or co-edited several anthologies of Mexican American literature. Tatum served as editor for a 3-volume Encyclopedia of Latino Culture (2013).

Location

POETRY CENTER
Dorothy Rubel Room
1508 E Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States

Located on the SE corner of Helen Street and Vine Avenue, one block north of Speedway and three blocks west of Campbell Ave.

Street map image of Poetry Center

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