Below is a list of questions and concepts to guide your studying and participation this semester.  The questions come from the assigned reading from the reader, class discussions, and from the textbooks. 

 Who are we?  What’s a panethnic term?  Who falls under the panethnic term “latino” (good idea to know some percentages)?  Info from articles and US Census Bureau “Hispanic” data.

 In what five states are Mexican-Americans concentrated?  In which state is the Puerto Rican population heavily concentrated?  In which state is the Cuban population heavily concentrated?

 In terms of economic ranking, which Latino group is at the top?  In the middle?  At the bottom?

 What is naming?  What does it do?

 How do the various terms (Latino, Hispanic, etc) group us/separate us?

 How does the Mexican experience differ from the Puerto Rican, the Cuban experience, other Latinos?

 What are Latinos? A race?  An ethnic group? Or?  What is the difference between the terms race and ethnicity?  Can Latinos be both “black” and “white”?  Explain.

 What roles does the US bear in terms immigration, legal and illegal?

How does the issue of immigration affect Latinos (both homegrown and imported)?

 What are push/pull factors as related to immigration?

 What is Irene Blea’s definition of a chicana/o given in class by Prófe. Preciado?

What is power?

 What is a minority group?  What is a majority group?

 What are the three processes that may create subordinate groups?  (How do people become part of a minority group?)

 Can you list the 5 characteristics of a minority group?

 What’s the difference between sex and gender?

 What is racism?

 What is racial formation as defined by Omi and Winant?  What are the implications?

 What role does the government play in aggregating and disaggregating people?

 What is stratification?  What is the most common form of stratification in the U.S.?

 What are the five functions that racial beliefs have for the dominant group?

 What are the 6 ways in which racism is dysfunctional to a society, including its dominant group?

 What is a stereotype?  What are some of the stereotypes Latinos are subjected to?  What do stereotypes do?

 What are the 5 common stereotypes about people who have stigmatized master statuses? 

 What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?

 What is internal colonialism?

 What are the 6 consequences of subordinate group status?

 Under which 5 conditions does assimilation take longer?

 What was the name of the treaty that annexed a large portion of Mexico to the U.S.?  When was this treaty signed?

 What does Montoya mean by the use of greñas, mascaras, and trenzas?

 The article by Marilyn Frye, Oppression, that was read and discussed in class created a dialogue that is a good example of how people react to categories of power.  Reread the article and then compare women as a minority group to latino/as as a minority group. 

Partial Vocabulary/Concept List: