Proseminar Latino a U.S.A Latino Contributions to U.S Culture

The election of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court (2009) and the Pulitzer Prize for Junot Díaz's novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) turned the spotlight on the U.S.'s ‘largest ethnic minority group'. The powerful presence of Latinos and Latinas and the role they play in shaping U.S. ‘mainstream' culture has long been downplayed, although almost 45 million Hispanics are currently living in the United States and will presumably constitute the majority of the total population in 2050 (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Some 140 TV stations, 600 radio stations and 550 magazines, newspapers and websites cater exclusively to U.S. Latinos, predominantly in their native language Spanish (Source: Latina magazine). The list of public figures of Latin American descent is long, including political and social activists, writers, scholars, entrepreneurs and athletes. Nevertheless the impact of ‘Latino culture' seems to have become most noticeable with Latino/a actors and actresses taking Hollywood by storm, and musicians like J Lo, Shakira and Ricky Martin taking the stages, initiating what has been called a new -Latin boom-. We will examine diverse aspects of U.S. Latina/o Culture, be it politics, economics, urban culture, social & community matters, academia, everyday life, sports, religion, popular culture, media, and the arts. Historical documents and academic writing will additionally help us to understand the history of Latinas/os in U.S. American culture. We will see that delicious food has not been the only noteworthy Latino contribution but that the multiple dimensions of a complex, pan-ethnic Latino identity affect the country on every level, shaping what Geoffrey Fox has called a -Hispanic nation-. Course Readings All students are asked to get a copy of the following book: Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Faber and Faber Limited, 2008. A reader with all additional readings is available from the copy shop at Reckhammerweg 4 after the first class meeting. Anglistik Universität Duisburg-Essen SS 2010 Bachelor, Bachelor Mansfeld Rebecca