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CSUB class to reflect Chicana experience

For many young people, going to college is a way to learn about the world and themselves.

And what better way to accomplish this than by taking classes that reflect your culture?

Cal State Bakersfield is apparently getting this message, and for the first time, will offer a course that caters to the increasing Chicana students on campus.
Sociology 477, Chicana Experiences, will be taught this spring quarter by sociology professor Edna Molina.

Hopefully, the class is the first in a wave of ethnic study courses addressing Chicanos and other ethnicities, Molina said.

According to Thomas Martinez, chair of the Public Policy & Administration Department at CSUB, Latinos currently make up 40 percent of the undergrads.

“In the fall of 2006, Latinos will, for the first time, be the plurality on campus,” Martinez said. “Maybe the more interesting is that Latinas are likely the single largest group on campus right now.”

Chicana Experiences would be an adequate way of reaching out to Chicana students on campus, Molina said.

CSUB President Horace Mitchell agreed that ethnic studies courses help lead students on the path to excellence.

“When I started as president, part of my vision statement was that our vision would be about both excellence and diversity. You can’t have excellence without diversity,” Mitchell said. “I think this course is important because it is part of our educational goal to expose our students to the experiences of all the communities that make up American society. The course also addresses a population that is not only significant in the nation, but here in Kern County.”

Mitchell said that as the university continues to grow he hopes more ethnic studies courses that address Chicano, African-American, Asian-American and Native American Indians, among others, are added.

MÁS spoke to Molina specifically about the Chicana Experiences course. Here is what she had to say:


Q: What will you be focusing on in the course?
A: “We are going to talk about the struggles of Chicanos as a population here on the U.S. I will be giving a little bit of history, and then quickly moving in to the more contemporary issues that specifically Chicanas face. Among these issues are them lacking representation in politics and in economic structures and their over-representation in lower-income jobs.”


Q: Why make this topic the focus of a class?
A: “Because the students need to understand that there are these systems of oppression that limit their opportunities. They grow up learning that people occupy the high positions in society because they work hard, but that is not the case for minority groups in general. What is occurring is a real limit to having greater social-economic mobility. This all happens because there are policies and practices used historically to limit Latinos. They are not progressing at the rate they should be, especially given that they are the indigenous people of this area. This territory of North America has historical roots that predate European settlement in the region. I want students to understand that there are these oppressive forces limiting their ability to compete. I don’t want them to get the message that no matter how much they try, this will always be the case. The message is about the power of Chicanas to rise above these obstacles.”


Q: How did talk about a course like this come up?
A: “ I thought about this class since I was in graduate school. When I attended, there was no course like this and I was one of the two Chicanas in my graduate program. There were no role models and it was a tough place. One of the first things I heard in a graduate course, which was on research methods, was that an example of a culture of poverty was that of Mexican-Americans. The professor was basically saying that Mexican-Americans suffered from a culture of poverty because the culture itself has problems that generate a great deprivation. Those kinds of messages do a psychological number on people and warp the perspective of our culture in the minds of both Latinos and non-Latinos. I thought a Chicana Experiences course would be a way to stop the perpetuation of inaccurate information. I want the students to get accurate information about themselves. These inaccuracies happen less in universities that have ethnic studies departments. Here at CSUB, I want to fortify Chicano Studies as well as other ethnic studies programs, with the eventual goal of having at the very least an Ethnic Racial Studies Department.”


Q: How important is this course?
A: “This course is absolutely important. This is a course to empower Latinos and to reverse the trend of alienation among Latinos in higher education. Blame for lack of achievement has been put on the culture saying they don’t have high aspiration or that the families don’t care. The youth are receiving negative messages about their culture — that they are not good enough. We see that the students start off strong, but once they enter high school, they are being told that they are not measuring up and begin to feel that education is not for them. Curriculum being taught to these students should be made meaningful to them. They should be made aware of the power of their presence to change society.”


Q: Are the addition of ethnic studies courses a trend?
A: “Certainly not a trend here. Part of the excitement of this course is that it should have been offered a long time ago. I think of this area as the cradle of the Chicano Civilization Movement. The people here should own that title. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta made it happen and got students to fight for a greater sense of being Chicano and liberation. Through courses like this one, students can learn about this part of history.”


Q: How have students been receiving the class?
A: “They are very excited. The MEChA students even created posters to put around campus announcing the class.”



Q: What other topics will be offered in the future?
A: “I think there should be a class called El Movimiento, on the Chicano movement. I would also like to see a course on Chicano/Chicana Psychology and a course on Chicano/Chicana Studies.” 


Q: Have you gotten support from the faculty?
A: “There has been support, especially from the Latino and African-American faculty. They are very happy this course is being taught.”


Q: Have you noticed any opposition?
A: “There is just a general opposition on our campus to ethnic studies courses. There has been a lot of resistance to Dr. Mitchell’s message that there cannot be excellence without diversity. Some faculty have gotten vocal and expressed that courses like Chicana Experiences are making it all about race. These courses are also seen as threats to the status quo that exists.
If groups are oppressed, someone benefits from that oppression. The white privileged benefit from the exploitation of minorities in this nation. These minorities serve as a cheap source of labor. When you empower these people by humanizing them, educating them and giving them greater access to job training, they eventually no longer serve as cheap labor. As this population increases, it becomes a threat to the status quo.
There is a sense that having these ethnic studies courses will be privileging one group over another and that teaching these courses will take away form the privilege that the white mainstream currently enjoys. This is a challenge of the Anglo version of American society. Minority groups are challenging that and saying, ‘I am an American, too.’ Experiences of oppression should be recognized as being part of the American experience.”

Contact Gabriel Ramirez at:
gramirez@masbakersfield.com

— The Chicana Experiences course will be offered from 3:30 to 5:35, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at CSUB. Details, e-mail Molina at: emolina3@csub.edu. Or, visit her Web site: www.csub.edu/~emolina3.