Latina / Latino Studies Informaion

University of California-Los Angeles

Availability / Marketing of Content

The University of California in Los Angeles has a blurb of a page for their Latin American Studies program found jumbled in among the rest of the International Institute's main site. Although it is a fairly prominent and large program at the school, it is barely known through their main site and that site is quite hard to find. The formatting of the page is quite aesthetic, it focuses the eye on the main topics of the page and the color coordinating makes it easy to read. However, by the general looks of the page, you could hardly know that it is an actual degree offered at the school. There are good links to more information about the program, but the sites they are linked to can be rather drab, and not very appealing to the potential student.

However, the website for the Chicano/a Studies department at UCLA is a different story. The webpage is vibrant and attractive and makes it quite easy to find the information one might be looking for. The link are quite clear and go to attractive and distinct sites which market the program quite well. They lay out the program in an orderly and attractive way that suits the program and the goals of the program. Overall, the Chicano/a Studies website beats the Latin American Studies website hands down.

Courses Offered

UCLA offers many courses in Latin American Studies. Aside from the obvious introductory Latin American Studies courses and language courses in Portuguese and Spanish, they also offer courses in interdisciplinary topics. Quite a few of their courses are offered in the fields of fine arts and linguistics. Also, there are many courses in anthropology and sociology. All of these courses tie into Latin American Studies, because they are discussing these topics in reference to how they relate to Latin America.

UCLA also offers a variety of courses in Chicano/a Studies. There are the general core courses for Chicano/a Studies as well as Spanish language courses. There are also quite a few courses on Chicano/a literature and theatre. One of the more interesting topics is that there is a whole course devoted entirely to Chicana lesbian literature, as that is a rising field in Chicano/a literature. There are also courses teaching about bilingual writing and farmworker movements. Most of the topics offered seem to be interesting and very informative on Chicanos/as as a whole.

Program Structure

UCLA offers a major, minor and masters program in Latin American Studies. For the major, five to six preparation courses in Latin American Studies, including foreign language courses in Portuguese and Spanish. To achieve this major, the student must be proficient in both languages. Then, the student must complete sixteen upper division courses, consisting of core courses in the student's selected field, theory & methods courses, and other courses outside the selected field. The core choices are arts & humanities, social sciences, and ecology and environment, all of which have several field paths within the core.

UCLA's minor in Latin American Studies is a little less intense, but focuses on the same areas of study. To prepare for the minor, a student must take either Portuguese or Spanish and also a history or basic Latin American Studies course. The only other requirement for the minor is that the student must complete five upper division courses in two of the three cores mentioned above.

UCLA also offers a major and minor in Chicana and Chicano Studies. The requirements for the major are two basic Chicano/a Studies core courses, proficiency in Spanish, and fifteen upper division courses in Chicano/a Studies related fields. The minor requirements are thirty credit hours in Chicano/a Studies courses.

Demographics

The city of Los Angeles, California is reported in the 2000 census as having 46.53% of it's population to be of Latin American descent. While, UCLA boasts only 14% of its incoming student body to be Hispanic. The difference in these numbers might be accounted for by the lack of public funding for some of the schools in Los Angeles, which could lead to a decrease in the number of Latinos/as at UCLA. Also, it could be because many of the people that go to UCLA come from different parts of the state and not necessarily just from Los Angeles.

Sources

UCLA International Institute. (2006). Retrieved March 1, 2006, from University of California Web site: http://www.international.ucla.edu/idps/las/

The UCLA Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies and the Cesar E. Chavez Center for Inderdisciplinary Instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved March 1, 2006, from University of California Web site: http://chavez.ucla.edu/