100 Years of Solitude in the Southwest
Instructor: Carlos Francisco Jackson, Department of Chicana/o Studies, College of Letters and Science
Description: This seminar will be reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, 100 Years of Solitude. This novel is a timeless masterpiece that provides the reader with a window with which to view the social and political developments in the Americas since European contact in 1492. Marquez, in his Nobel Prize acceptance lecture described the distorted, fantastical, and implausible view European Colonists placed on the Americas and in the following quote he specifically elaborates on the Spanish attempt to find the mythical fountain of youth in today’s American Southwest: “In his search for the fountain of eternal youth, the mythical Alvar Núñez Cabez de Vaca explored the north of Mexico for eight years, in a deluded expedition whose members devoured each other and only five of whom returned, of the six hundred who had undertaken it. One of the many unfathomed mysteries of that age is that eleven thousand mules, each loaded with one hundred pounds of gold, that left Cuzco one day to pay the ransom of Atahualpa and never reached their destination. Subsequently, in colonial times, hens were sold in Cartagena de Indias, that had been raised on alluvial land and whose gizzards contained tiny lumps of gold.” Marquez used these examples of folly in his lecture to explain that historical truth and magical realism are often equally valid forms of storytelling. Similar fantasies and storytelling led to the colonization and mass population of California and the American Southwest with the gold rush and the promise of productive lands.
Format: This seminar will use this book as a guide to discuss the colonization and conquest of the American Southwest. Selected supplemental articles will be utilized to provide a specific focus on the experience of people whose lives were altered due to Spanish and American colonization in the Southwest. The seminar will meet for two hours once a week for ten weeks. The seminar will be reading and discussing the novel while simultaneously making contemporary and historical connections between the text and the historical development of the Southwest. Grading: Students will be evaluated based upon three factors. Attendance/participation (20%): for full credit students must attend all sections and be fully prepared for discussion by reading the assigned material. Students will be expected and encouraged to share their perspectives on the reading’s content and relevance. Discussion Questions (20%): Students will be expected to lead one class discussion by creating discussion questions that prompt dialogue on themes relating to the course. Journal (30%): Students will be expected to keep a journal of their thoughts that relate to the reading and seminar’s discussions. These will be collected three times throughout the quarter. Analytic Paper (30%): Each student will write a 5-page paper on a topic that will be chosen in consultation with the Professor.
About the Instructor: Carlos Jackson is an Assistant Professor in the Chicana/o Studies Program. He is an artist and writer whose current book project is a survey of the Chicano Art Movement. He has exhibited his paintings, prints, and murals nationally and is currently the first Director of the Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA), a Chicano Studies community based art center located in Woodland, California.