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Changing with the times

ASU’s Chicano Studies is being transformed

In keeping with dynamic changes occurring in Arizona’s Latino populations, Arizona State University’s Department of Chicano/a Studies is transforming into a Department of Transnational and Transborder Latina/o Studies.

Carlos G. Vélez Ibáñez, the new CCS chair, says department staff is currently drafting a strategy plan that will lay out the overhauled program’s new direction, curriculum, and partnerships. The strategy also involves hiring new faculty to shore up expertise in the new areas.

In addition, the goal is to train and graduate students who will be bilingual and bi-literate in Spanish, and provide them with “value-added” degrees that will allow them to enter careers in transnational academia, business, media, and arts.

“As far as the department was concerned, we can’t just stop at the border,” Vélez explains. “Our direction is much broader. We want to capture this whole transnational phenomenon.”

He says the switch from focusing on the Chicano culture to including other Latino cultures is prompted by migration from Mexico and other areas.

“It (the department) is going to have to be inclusive of other Latinos,” he says. “It can’t just remain Chicano, because the changing demographics won’t allow it. If we are going to have national prominence, we have to expand our horizons beyond Arizona.”

Vélez, who has held chair posts at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Arizona, was brought on in April to oversee the transformation. He says that while plans are still in a tentative form and must be approved by university administration, the finished product will “probably” end up as he describes.

TRANSITIONS

Former CCS chair Cordelia Chavez Candelaria has stepped aside and is nominated to become a ASU Regents’ Professor for 2006. Being named a regents professor is considered one of the Arizona university system’s most prestigious academic posts.

The new Department of Transnational and Transborder Latina/o Studies will focus on several areas, Vélez says.

These areas are:

U.S. and Mexican Regional Immigration policy and economy. This area of study will focus on Mexican migration into the Southwest and different areas of the U.S., as well as transnational dynamics involving Mexico’s economy with other countries.

Transnational Media, Literature and Arts.  This includes cinematography, video and electronic communication, performance art, cultural and literary studies, and long-distance learning.

Transborder community development and health. These studies will focus on health problems in the region, disparities among residents, as well as political,  economic, and  environmental impacts on the region’s health issues.

Transfrontier Language, Education, and Culture. These studies focus on the region’s bilingual and cross-cultural practices of transfronterizos, or those people who migrate across borders.

Vélez adds that two field schools would be created, one in south Phoenix and one in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The field schools would serve as centers  for leadership instruction, experimentation, and project development for students and community members. The students in Veracruz would be provided living and expense stipends.

The department is also discussing partnerships for study tracks with the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the ASU Center for Community Development and Civil Rights, headed by Presidents Fellow Raul Yzaquirre.

Not everyone is happy about the focus and name changes. Raul Aguirre is head of REA public relations agency in Tucson and Phoenix. He is considered a Chicano activist for his work in media and the Tucson community.

Aguirre believes the changes dilute the department’s study of the Chicano culture and does a disservice to the Chicano civil-rights struggle by Cesar Chavez and others during the Sixties and Seventies.

“I’m disappointed that the focus is being taken off Chicanos,” he says.

Vélez says that the transformation will result in degrees that will allow students to keep up with changes occurring in the Latino cultures and economies.

“The intercultural scope has to be much greater, broader and deeper,” Vélez says.