Latino Popular Culture for the Clueless

Latino Popular Culture for the Clueless is a seven-session class about the everyday lives, unique traditions, and media depictions of various Latino ethnic groups residing in the United States. We hope that you sharpen your critical thinking about the challenges and the prospects reflected by Latino popular culture. We believe that the skills this class hones will ultimately help you to become a more accountable actor, rather than merely a spectator, in the hemispheric American condition.
We hope you notice from the title of the course that we have a playful approach to teaching and learning, because we really don't think that you're clueless at all.

We are not just here to examine how Latino groups express their values and hopes, we are also here to learn how YOU express your values and hopes. So get ready to do exercises and assignments that play with your own ideas about your community and your identity.

You will be our most important "textbook" in this class.



All lectures and instructional materials developed for this course by the Ohio State University are licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Episode One : Latinos and the Space Time Continuum

• History, Geography, and Latinos as "Aliens" in popular culture

Episode Two : Zoot Suits & Lowriders

• How style in clothing and cars express a counterculture
  

Episode Three : Fiesta Time

• How music, dance, traditions like Dia de los Muertos express a Latino identity
  

Episode Four : Mucha Lucha

• The history of Latinos in sports such as Wrestling and the NFL
  

Episode Five : So You Want to Be a Latino/a?

• Issues of gender and power within and outside of the Latino community
  

Episode Six : Portrayals and Betrayals

• Latino stereotypes in mainstream media
  

Episode Seven : Locura lo cura

• The importance of medicine and laughter in Latino culture