Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for CHLA 201 archive revision 202304

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Effective Term:
Fall 2023 through Fall 2024

Course Number:
CHLA 201
Course Title:
Intro to Chicanx/Latinx Studies: Historical Perspectives
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Introduces Chicanx/Latinx history in the United States beginning with Spanish colonization and continuing with the Mexican-American War and the migration of Chicanx/Latinx peoples. Covers the events that shaped the Chicanx/Latinx experience, such as the Bracero Program, the Chicano Movement, and U.S. foreign policy in Latin America. CHLA courses are non-sequential and may be taken in any term and in any order. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of this course the student should be able to:

  1. Articulate specific knowledge of the historical experiences of Chicanx/Latinx people within the legal, political, cultural, and social structures in the U.S. and Latin America.

  2. Describe the history of Chicanx/Latinx people in relation to the development of the United States as a nation and the role this plays on the continuing racialization of this population.

  3. Describe historical global dynamics as they relate to Latin American social and economic development and immigration, particularly along the U.S. Mexican border.

  4. Analyze using an intersectional lens the historical experiences of Chicanas and Latinas by exploring the relationship between political power and gender oppression.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

CHLA courses, or Chicanx/Latinx Studies, promote the philosophy of General Education at PCC with intention and responsibility. For all PCC students, both those who identify as Chicanx/Latinx and those who do not, PCC’s CHLA courses provide foundational yet systemically underrepresented perspectives on the diverse, vibrant, and vitally important Chicanx/Latinx cultures of the western hemisphere. Students in CHLA courses will engage critical inquiry and self‐reflection, cultivate a more complex understanding of their own culture(s) in relation to others, and expand their understanding of ethical and responsible participation in complex and diverse societies.

As a sequence of introductory courses in an interdisciplinary field, CHLA courses provide students opportunities to conceptually organize experiences in relation to each other and in relation to the diversity of Indigenous and settler‐colonial experiences. This enables students to complexify their understandings of themselves in relation to their local and global environments. CHLA courses involve both qualitative and quantitative reasoning, as well as Chicanx/Latinx folk arts, fine arts, and questions of aesthetic and artistic invention. The comparative approach taken in CHLA courses can enable and empower students to discern meaning from their experiences in relation to others. PCC’s CHLA courses provide unique and essential learning opportunities for PCC students, and they represent both the spirit and the practice of a strong General Education program.

Course Activities and Design

This course will be presented by means of lecture, discussion, and demonstrations. Students’ grades will be determined from a combination of attendance and participation, examinations and quizzes, and projects and service learning.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Evaluation of students’ performance will include a combination of assessments such as:

  • Class discussion and participation;
  • Written assignments;
  • Quizzes;
  • Examinations;
  • Individual and/or group projects;
  • Service learning;
  • Reading journal;
  • Attendance at assigned films, plays, and/or presentations by speakers.

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

  • Spanish Colonization
  • Texas
  • New Mexico
  • Arizona
  • California found and lost
  • Mexican-American War
  • Repatriation
  • Bracero Program
  • War on Poverty
  • The Chicano Movement
  • U.S. Foreign Policy in Latin America
  • Recent in-migration of Central and South Americans
  • The New Hispanics


Competencies and Skills
Students will demonstrate the ability to:

  • Identify and describe major events that shaped the history of Chicanx/Latinx peoples in the United States;
  • Assess the impact of events on the history of Chicanx/Latinx peoples as residents and citizens in the United States;
  • Identify and describe the major components that distinguished key events in Chicanx/Latinx history in the United States;
  • Identify the themes, issues, and contexts that crosscut key events in Chicanx/Latinx history and assess their relative importance in shaping the Chicanx/Latinx experience in the United States;
  • Write and present a short research paper on an issue within the history of Chicanx/Latinx peoples in the United States;
  • Use appropriate terminology to accurately describe the development of the Chicanx/Latinx experience in the United States;
  • Identify key historical issues that apply today and assess their impact.