Mexican
American Studies : A Pedagogy
Not Sociology
By
Rodolfo F.
Acuña
We have allowed the uninformed and ignorant to
define what Mexican American Studies is. Every time I discuss the subject I
feel as frustrated as a scientist trying to explain science to a creationist.
No matter how well you know the field those who do not want to believe will
distort your words to fit their preconceptions and belief system.
As I have explained, MAS or Chicana/o Studies is not
sociology. MAS has courses in sociology that examine the MAS corpus of
knowledge but MAS does not belong to the field of sociology. If it were
just sociology, it could be reduced to one or two courses on race.
MAS is a strategy that incorporates
multi-disciplines. The truth be told, if the academy had cared about Latinos,
which are the second largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world, it would
have hired specialists to explore the role of Mexican Americans and other
Latinos in the United States.
If this had happened Latino courses would be
integrated organically within departments. But consequent to the racism in
higher education this field of study has been ignored. Even today, most
academic departments do not offer a single MAS or Latino course or employ a
single Latino faculty member.
Incredible but most schools of education have not
developed courses on how to teach or counsel Latino students. This is criminal
since I would not expect, no matter how good she is, an optometrist to perform
open heart surgery.
(Editors note: Apply the above to the elimination of Bilingual Multicultural Education at CSU Sacramento. Including support of the elimination by "Latino" faculty.)
