Annotated Bibliography
Oral history interview with Judith Baca, 1986 August 5-6 in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Readily available online, this interview with Baca is an excellent background for teachers, an excellent example for students of the power of a primary source, but also a good resource for art-career minded students to pursue as a very honest look at Baca’s career.
Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology edited by Jennifer A. González, C. Ondine Chavoya, Chon Noriega, and Terezita Romo
Focused more on the philosophy and the practice than a history textbook, and with chapters by Baca and other major artists and scholars, this is an excellent resource for teachers with only a passing understanding of Chicano/a art.
Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot
This book is an excellent exploration on more meta questions of historiography: what makes it into the archive and the narrative and what doesn’t, and how does power come into play?
Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson
While this curriculum is about a specific community, this book broadly explores how ethnic and national communities are formed, especially in the modern era. A good starting point for teachers examining the why of much of post-colonial Latin American history and how it impacts migration to the US.
Latinos in Dixie: Class and Assimilation in Richmond, Virginia by Debra J. Schleef and H. B. Cavalcanti
Having been published in 2009 much of the statistics are outdated as the Latino community in Richmond continues to grow. However, their rigorous exploration on how class, race, national origin, religion, gender, and more impact the formation and expression of ethnic identities is a good resource for thinking outside the homogenization that can occur under the “Hispanic” umbrella.
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan González
This book is my most recommended primer for any teacher without a political science or history background seeking to understand why your classroom demographics are as they are. Many chapters chart the history behind the migration patterns of specific countries to America, and the different ways immigrants from these places were treated by America depending on the particular crosshairs of Cold War era interventionism they found themselves in. This book was most helpful in answering my question as to why Virginia has such a large El Salvadorean population, and what precipitated this migration.
Smarthistory.org
This website is full of resources I would recommend for introducing Mexican Muralism more broadly to students. It compiles videos, essays, photos, and more resources by Art History experts and introduces and summarizes in a way scaffolded for student understanding. Much of the resources are geared towards the AP Art History curriculum, and you may need to scaffold the essays for students who are less fluent readers.
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