Tales from the Chihuahuan Desert: A Summer Institute
Primary Texts
Secondary Texts
WEEK ONE: July 18th – July 24th, 2021
Setting the Stage: Historiography in the Chihuahuan Desert and Inquiry-Based Learning
The Origins of History and Narratives at the Border
Monday, July 19th: Setting the Stage--Approaches to History and Narratives
Alvarez, C. J. Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the US–Mexico Divide. University of Texas Press, 2019. [Book is provided in print format.]
Collins, Billy. “The History Teacher” [poem]. Questions about Angels: Poems. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991. 77-78. Video by students from Albermarle High School.
Tuesday, July 20th: What is History, and Whose Shall We Teach?
Hernández, Kelly Lytle. “Part One: Formation.” In Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol. University of California Press, 2010, pp. 1-83. (e-file)
Alvarez, C. J. Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the US–Mexico Divide. University of Texas Press, 2019. [Book is provided in print format.]
Wednesday, July 21st: Perspectives From Border Enforcement
Alvarez, C. J. Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the US–Mexico Divide. University of Texas Press, 2019. [Book is provided in print format.]
Thursday, July 22nd: Textbooks and Methods about History
Luiselli, Valeria. Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions. Trans. Lizzie Davis. Coffee House Press, 2017. [Book is provided in print format.]
Bowles, David. They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems. Cinco Puntos Press, 2018. [Book is provided in print format.]
Bowles, David, and Meza, Erika. My Two Border Towns. Kokila, Penguin Random House, 2021. (e-file)
Bowles, David. “The Body by the Canal.” Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America, Margarita Longoria, editor. Penguin, 2021. (e-file)
Friday, July 23rd: Teaching Narratives through History and Literature
Luiselli, Valeria. Lost Children Archive: A Novel. Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. [Book is provided in print format.] Reader’s Guide
Bowles, David. “The Body by the Canal.” Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America, Margarita Longoria, editor. Penguin, 2021. (e-file)
Bowles, David. “Someone to Believe in Me” [pdf]. English Journal, Volume 109, Number 5, 2020, pp. 116-118.
Secondary Texts: Recommended Readings
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Chapter 5: How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands / La frontera: The New Mestiza (2nd ed.). Aunt Lute Press, 2012, pp. 75-86. (e-file)
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “To Live in the Borderlands Means You.” Borderlands / La frontera: The New Mestiza (2nd ed.). Aunt Lute Press, 2012, pp. 216-217. (e-file)
Mora, Pat. “Desert Women.” Nepantla: Essay from the Land in the Middle. University of New Mexico Press, 1994, 2009, pp. 53-72.
Mora, Pat. “Coatlicue’s Rules: Advice from an Aztec Goddess.” Prairie Schooner 68, no. 4, 1994, pp. 76-78. Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. [e-file]
Saturday, July 24th: Independent Study
Virtual Tour of EP Missions and Indian Cultural Center: View video at your leisure:
- El Paso Mission Trail
- Ysleta Mission
- Socorro Mission
- San Elizario Presidio Chapel
- The Tigua Indian Cultural Center
Second Text: Recommended Viewing
WEEK TWO: July 26th – July 31st, 2021
Narratology and the Construction of Identity and Binationalism: Telling the Stories of the Chihuahuan Desert Borderlands
Monday, July 26th: Borderlands Families: The Women, Men, and Children on the Border
Luiselli, Valeria. Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions. Trans. Lizzie Davis. Coffee House Press, 2017. [Book is provided in print format.] Reader’s Guide
Bowles, David. They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems. Cinco Puntos Press, 2018. [Book is provided in print format.]
Bowles, David. “Oscar and the Giant.” Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America, Margarita Longoria, editor. Penguin, 2021. (e-file)
Bejarano, Cynthia, and Ma. Eugenia Hernández Sánchez, The Mantling and Dismantling of a Tent City at the U.S.-Mexico Border, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021. (e-file)
Tuesday, July 27th: Borders, Performances, and Politics in Action
Huerta, Jorge. “The Legacy of Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino: The First Fifty Years” [speech]. HowlRound, 2015. (e-file)
View: This Is Us! (2009) by Luis Valdez
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. At-Risk Summer [trailer], 2015.
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. At-Risk Summer [documentary], 2015.
Secondary Texts: Supplementary Viewing
Chicano! PBS Documentary (2014)
Secondary Texts: Recommended Reading
The GroundTruth Project. GroundTruth: A Field Guide for Correspondents (2017).
Wednesday, July 28th: Documented Borders via Narratology
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. Meet the Author and Filmmaker.
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. Selection Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America, Margarita Longoria, editor. Penguin, 2021. (e-file)
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. Fat Angie [book trailer]. Candlewick Press, 2013, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Higs0D3H3Ks
Luiselli, Valeria. Lost Children Archive: A Novel. Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. [Book is provided in print format.] Reader’s Guide
Secondary Texts: Recommended Reading
Mora, Pat. “La Migra.” In Ms. Magazine. Jan. 1993. (e-file)
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. Prizefighter en Mi Casa [excerpt]. Delcorte Press, 2006. (e-file)
Secondary Texts: Required Viewing
National Park Service, Chamizal National Memorial, Pre-Show Introduction
Secondary Texts: Supplementary Viewing
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. Cielito lindo. 2003.
Charlton-Trujillo, e. E. At Risk Summer. 2015. IMBD
Thursday, July 29th: Narratives and Influences on the Stage
Heller, Meredith. “Gender-Bending in El Teatro Campesino (1968-1980): A Mestiza Epistemology of Performance.”Mestiza Epistemology of Performance.” Gender & History, Volume 24, Number 3, November 2012, pp. 766-781. (e-file)
Moraga, Cherríe. “La Güera.” Race, Class, & Gender: An Anthology, edited by Margaret L. Anderson and Patricia Hill Collins. Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, pp. 393-397. (e-file)
Rodríguez, R. Joseph. “In the Antropoetas and Muses We Trust: Reading and Teaching the Poetics about the Borderlands and Chihuahuan Desert.” Pennsylvania Literary Review, Volume 10, Number 2, Summer 2018, pp. 57-85. (e-file)
Rodríguez, R. Joseph. “The Spanish Teacher.” Unpublished poem, 2019. (e-file)
View: Your Story Matters (2014) by Josefina López
Friday, July 30th: Reflections and Journeys in the Humanities
Rodriguez, José Antonio. “La Migra.” In The New Yorker. June 19, 2017. (e-file)
National Humanities Alliance: Help Raise the Visibility of NEH Programs (informational flyer)
We'd like to extend our appreciation to the El Paso Historical Commission for images used on this website.
“Unrefined” appears in My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults, 1984–1999 by Pat Mora, ©2000 by Piñata Books, Arte Público Press, University of Houston.