Week 5 Discussion
Instruction: Answer all of the following questions in three pages maximum. You must use provided citations for your responses and arguments. You are only allowed to use academic sources for
citations. This means none of the following: news, government org. blogs, Wikipedia, or similar materials. If you have questions about a source, ask me before you use it otherwise you will lose significant points. Use JSTOR to find appropriate sources or other resources for our library. I do not
expect you to find outside sources, nor do you need to do this, you may use the course materials
only to answer these questions. I strongly recommend you carefully respond to these questions
because they are much more complicated Than they seem YOU MUST USE IDEAS, CONCEPTS, and ARGUMENTS FROM OUR CLASS READINGS AND YOU MUST PROVIDE A CITATION FOR THEM to receive
credit.
3 sources are attached The Afro Latina Reader is for :
The Earliest Africans in North America – Peter H. Wood (ALR)
Black Pioneers: The Spanish Speaking Afro-Americans of the Southwest – Jack D. Forbes (ALR)
Questions:
The author’s Woods and Forbes discuss the presence of African people in the South and Southwest early in it’s settlement by Europeans, why might this be important for our thinking about the racial identities of Mexican ancestry people living in South Texas? How might these racial histories help us understand the histories of both racial tension and coalition between Black and Latinx
communities in the US/Mexico borderlands? How might Bonilla- Silva’s “honorary white” category on the racial hierarchy help us understand this relationship?
Based on McFarland’s article, explain how Chicanx rap comes into existence. How is it influenced
by Black culture? What does McFarland mean when he uses the terms: mestizaje/ mulateje”?
Explain how therse terms help us understand Chicanx rap. Where does the line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange exist for McFarland? Does it exist? Explain how his arguments about the use of the n-word might help us understand the line between appropriation and
exchange.
According to Cervantes article, what does he mean when he uses the term Afromestizaje? Why is
the term important for thinking about the creation of conjunto music? What does Cervantes
argue about the influences Afromestizaje music such as Esteban Jordan’s have Tejano music?
What does this intersection of cultures mean for music in the Southwest and South Texas? Based
on this article can we say that musical genres are racialized? Is Tejano only for Chicanos and / or Mexican American.
