TALES FROM THE CHIHUAHUAN DESERT:

NEH Summer Institute

A Summer Institute (Residential) for Secondary School Teachers (Grades 6–12) at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in collaboration with Center for Inter-American and Border Studies (CIBS) and Institute of Oral History (IOH)

July 16th – July 30th, 2023


Applications Closed

2023 Readings

Tales from the Chihuahuan Desert: A Summer Institute

Overview
Syllabus  
E-Portfolio Project
Readings
 

Tales from the Chihuahuan Desert:

Borderlands Narratives about Identity and Binationalism

Summary of 2023 Summer Institute, Academic Schedule

WEEK 1:  July 16th – July 22nd, 2023

Historiography in the Chihuahuan Desert and Inquiry-Based Learning

Major Topics and Activities

Readings (see also Appendix A)

1.     Introduction to the Institute: Setting the Stage and Beginning with the End in Mind

2.     History as the study of the past and present in texts and orality

3.     Role of historians and chroniclers as scribes

4.     Aspects of historiography and oral testimonies

5.     Spain in the Southwest and Indigenous History

6.     Define border and borderlands in the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez metroplex (Paso del Norte Region)

7.     Identities of border people

8.     Construction of two nations in proximity

9.     Points of view in historical and literary texts

10.  Types of historical narratives: textbooks and orality

11.  Inquiry-based activity: Map of the Chihuahuan Desert

12.  Introduction to resources for classroom application and E-Portfolio projects

13.  Field trips: Guided tours of UTEP Special Collections, UTEP Oral History Institute, El Paso, and historical Spanish missions.

14.  Brainstorming on Summer Scholars’ E-Portfolios

Primary Texts (partial listing):

(1) Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions (2017) by Valeria Luiselli

Secondary readings or texts will be announced.

Resources to Review:

(1) The Institute of Oral History

www.utep.edu/liberalarts/oral-history/ 

(2) U.S. Library of Congress, Teaching with Primary Sources Program

www.loc.gov/teachers/tp

Summary of 2023 Summer Institute, Academic Schedule

WEEK 2:  July 23rd – July 30th, 2023

Narratology and the Construction of Identities and Binationalism

Major Topics and Activities

Readings (see also Appendix A)

1.     Defining narratology

2.     Narratology in history and literature

3.     Internal and external conflicts as well as interests

4.     Binationalism and external interests

5.     Border cultures, identities, and poetics

6.     Chihuahuan Borderlands and Desert: Writer’s sense of place

7.     Literary production and analysis

8.     Close reading in practice and in narrative poems

9.     Inquiry-based activity: Identity formation and affirmation

10.  Additional resources for classroom application and individual E-Portfolio projects

11.  Field trips: Guided tours of Chamizal National Memorial, UTEP Center for Inter-American and Border Studies, performing arts performance, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection station.

12.  Presentation of Summer Scholars’ E-Portfolio projects

13.  Final Discussion

14.  Institute Evaluation

Primary (partial listing):

(1) Living Beyond Borders: Stories about Growing Up Mexican in America (2021) edited by Margarita Longoria

(2) They Call Her Fregona: A Border Kid’s Poems (2022) by David Bowles

(3) Magnificent Errors (2022) by Sheryl Luna

Secondary readings or texts will be announced.

Resources to Review:

(1) Borderland: NPR

https://apps.npr.org/borderland/

(2) Documented Border: An Open Access Digital Archive

https://speccolldev.library.arizona.edu/documented-border-open-access-digital-archive

WEEK ONE: July 16th – July 22nd, 2023

 

Setting the Stage: Historiography in the Chihuahuan Desert

and Inquiry-Based Learning

The Origins of History and Narratives at the Border

 

GUIDING QUESTIONS

  1. What is history?
  2. What are the roles of a chronicler of history?
    1. From the border?
    2. From afar?
  3. Why do we tell the story of the border as we do?
  4. What can we learn about literature by examining the points of view?

 

MONDAY, July 17th:  Setting the Stage: Approaches to History and Narratives

Secondary Readings or Texts

Alvarez, C. J. Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the US–Mexico Divide.   University of Texas Press, 2019. (Three chapter excerpts are provided.)

Epilogue

Chapter 1  

Chapter 3

https://borderlandsnarratives.utep.edu/institute-content/readings/Mora P La Migra Poem MS. MAGAZINE 011993.pdf

Collins, Billy. “The History Teacher” [poem]. Questions about Angels: Poems. University of          Pittsburgh Press, 1991. 77-78.

 

TUESDAY, July 18th: What is History and Whose Shall We Teach?

Secondary Readings or Texts

Muñoz Martínez, Monica. The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti Mexican Violence in Texas.

Harvard University Press, 2018, pp. 1-76. (One chapter excerpt is provided.)

Excerpt

Hernández, Kelly Lytle. Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol. University of California Press,            2010, pp. 1-83. (Four chapter excerpts are provided.)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

 

WEDNESDAY, July 19th:  Remembering and Forgetting: Border Security and Teaching Indigenous History

Secondary Readings or Texts

McCaughan, Edward J. Art and Social Movements: Cultural Politics in Mexico and Aztlán. Duke             University Press, 2012, pp 1-100. (One chapter excerpt is provided.)

Excerpt

Campbell, Howard. Downtown Juárez: Underworlds of Violence and Abuse. University of Texas             Press, 2021. (One chapter excerpt is provided.)

THURSDAY, July 20th: Textbooks, Art, and Methods about History

Primary Readings or Texts

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.]

Secondary Readings or Texts

Moraga, Cherríe L. “La Güera.” Sept. 1979.

Ruggiero, Adrianna, and Yalda T. Uhls. Exploring the Landscape of Live Theatre for Young Audiences in the U.S. Center for Scholars and Storytellers, 2020.

Viewing

Ybarra-Frausto, Tomás. Rasquachismo. https://vimeo.com/27727487

 

FRIDAY, July 21st: Borderlands Families: The Women, Men, and Children on the Border

Primary Readings or Texts

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.]

Viewing

Reck, Caroline, and Rupert Reyes. Cenicienta. Directed by Adriana Dominguez. UTEP Department           of Theatre and Dance, 2021.

[Due to permissions, limited access to link for viewing will be provided a day in advance.]

 

 

 

WEEK TWO: July 23rd – July 29th, 2023

 

Narratology and the Construction of Identity and Binationalism:

Telling the Stories of the Chihuahuan Desert Borderlands

 

GUIDING QUESTIONS

  1. What is narratology?
    1. In history?
    2. In literature?
  2. What influences the making and establishing of borders?
    1. External interests?
  3. How does binationalism inform border people’s cultures and literary production?

 

MONDAY, July 24th:  Teaching Narratives through History and Literature

Primary Readings or Texts

Bowles, David. They Call Her Fregona: A Border Kid’s Poems. Kokila, 2022.

            [Book is provided in print format.]

Longoria, Margarita, editor. Living Beyond Borders: Stories about Growing Up Mexican in         America. Viking Books for Young Readers, 2021. [Book is provided in print format.]

Secondary Readings or Texts

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Chapter 5: How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands / La Frontera: The New          Mestiza, (5th ed.). Aunt Lute Press, 2022.

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “To Live in the Borderlands Means You.” Borderlands / La Frontera: The New            Mestiza, (5th ed.). Aunt Lute Press, 2022.

Ríos, Alberto Álvaro. “The Border: A Double Sonnet” [poem]. Poets.org, 2015.

 

TUESDAY, July 25th: Borders and Politics in Action

Primary Readings or Texts

Longoria, Margarita, editor. Living Beyond Borders: Stories about Growing Up Mexican in         America. Viking Books for Young Readers, 2021. [Book is provided in print format.]

Secondary Readings or Texts

Bejarano, Cynthia, “Border Rootedness as Transformative Resistance: Youth Overcoming          Violence and Inspection in a U.S.-Mexico Border Region,” Children’s Geographies 8, no.          4, (2009), pp. 391-399.

Rodríguez, R. Joseph. “‘We Remember and Pronounce’: On the Vital Finding and Making of Poems.” Literacy and the National Council of Teachers of English. (April 16, 2016). [essay]

Alternate site: https://sway.office.com/CwaDu3DE6scGPNxZ

Optional Reading

The GroundTruth Project. GroundTruth: A Field Guide for Correspondents (2017).

WEDNESDAY, July 26th: Documented Borders via Narratology

Primary Readings or Texts

Longoria, Margarita, editor. Living Beyond Borders: Stories about Growing Up Mexican in         America. Viking Books for Young Readers, 2021. [Book is provided in print format.]

Luna, Sheryl. Magnificent Errors: Poems. Notre Dame Press, 2022.

[Book is provided in print format.]

Secondary Readings or Texts

Mora, Pat. “La Migra” [poem]. Ms. Magazine. Jan. 1993.

THURSDAY, July 27th: Narratives and Influences on the Stage

Primary Readings or Texts

Longoria, Margarita, editor. Living Beyond Borders: Stories about Growing Up Mexican in         America. Viking Books for Young Readers, 2021. [Book is provided in print format.]

Luna, Sheryl. Magnificent Errors: Poems. Notre Dame Press, 2022.

[Book is provided in print format.]

Secondary Readings or Texts

Rodríguez, R. Joseph. “In the Antropoetas and Muses We Trust: Reading and Teaching the        Poetics about the Borderlands and Chihuahuan Desert.” Pennsylvania Literary Review,         vol. 10, no. 2, Summer 2018.

FRIDAY, July 28th:  E-Portfolios

Primary Readings or Texts

Longoria, Margarita, editor. Living Beyond Borders: Stories about Growing Up Mexican in         America. Philomel Books, 2021. [Book is provided in print format.]

Secondary Readings or Texts

Rodriguez, José Antonio. “La Migra” [poem]. The New Yorker, 19 June 2017.

Collins, Billy. “The Teacher” [poem]. Poetry, November 2003.