In the Fall of 2022, I began teaching in the philosophy department at Texas State University (TXST), which has been a proud Hispanic-serving institution for over a decade. Toward the end of the semester, my department chair asked if I would be willing to teach PHIL 4373: Latin American and Latinx Philosophy the following Spring. I agreed and immediately got to work on crafting the syllabus. Before proceeding any further, I should mention that my interest in Latin American philosophy is deeply personal. My father is a second-generation Mexican American and is one of eleven children. My grandparents immigrated from Amatitán, Mexico to California before he was born, and they laid down roots in the predominantly Spanish-speaking Yuba City (Sutter County) and Woodland (Yolo County), where they tilled the land much like they had back in their home country. Within the vibrant and fast-growing Mexican community there, my family was involved in providing various forms of mutual aid—from educational and legal services to daily food kitchens—for migrants coming mainly from Jalisco and Guadalajara. As a child of the ‘60s in California, even my father’s forays into the free-thinking of the vibrant countercultural movement had a Latinx flavor, as he often regaled me with stories of late-night conversations with Carlos Castaneda. So, to make a long story short, my interest in teaching Latin American philosophy stems partly from a desire to learn more about my heritage.
I drew inspiration from a wide variety of resources as I developed my Latin American Philosophy syllabus for TXST. First and foremost, my colleague Lori Gallegos de Castillo, who regularly teaches the course, graciously sent me multiple versions of the Latin American Philosophy syllabus that she had used for the course. She also recommended a collection of essays entitled Latin American and Latinx Philosophy: A Collaborative Introduction (2020, Ed. Robert Eli Sanchez Jr.), which serves as a beginner’s guide to Latin American and Latinx philosophy. The book consists of twelve chapters, each written by a prominent scholar in the field. As a professor teaching Latin American philosophy for the first time, I found this text to be indispensable and ended up including several essays from it that really set the stage for the rest of the semester. From James Maffie’s comprehensive overview of Aztec/Mexica philosophy (Chapter 1), to Alejandro Santana’s critical examination of the so-called “The Indian Problem” and its connection to the Vallodolid debate (Chapter 2), to José-Antonio Orosco’s critique of “the Latinx threat” narrative (Chapter 3), to Lori Gallegos de Castillo and Francisco Gallego’s investigation into the defining characteristics of “Latin American philosophy” and “Latinx philosophy” (Chapter 12), the text introduces students and professors to key issues in Latin American philosophy while remaining largely jargon-free.
Another resource that was invaluable when it came to drafting my syllabus was the “Diversity and Inclusiveness Syllabus Collection.” The collection includes several Latin American philosophy syllabi from leading scholars in the field, such as Linda Martín Alcoff, James Maffie, and Amy Reed-Sandoval. In particular, reading through Alcoff’s syllabus gave me the idea to include Simon Bolívar’s famous “Jamaica Letter,” which not only constitutes one of the earliest calls for Latin American independence and unity but also illustrates the ongoing class and ethnic divisions that continue to present obstacles to these objectives.
The first reading I assign on my Latin American and Latinx Philosophy syllabus is a selection from Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and students often identify it as one of their favorites (along with Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera). Many students in the class resonate with Freire’s distinction between the “banking model of education,” which treats students as docile learners, and “problem-posing education,” which views students as critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. I believe that beginning the semester with this text encourages active learning as a collective process from the start.
After teaching this course in Spring 2023, and then again in Spring 2024, I have made some minor changes to the syllabus. First, spurred by class discussions, I added two readings that focus directly on the problem of anti-black racism within the Latinx community, both of which are published in The Afro-Latin@ Reader (2010): Carlos Flores’s “Desde el Mero Medio: Race Discrimination within the Latin@ Community” and Rosario Jackson’s “Profile of an Afro-Latina: Black, Mexican, Both.” Second, I added a peer-review activity that allows students to give each other feedback on their major essays before they are due. I think that including group work, especially in smaller classes like this, helps students to articulate their ideas more clearly and develop a sense of camaraderie with their fellow classmates. Ultimately, my aim in this course is to introduce students to new, original, and sophisticated ways of thinking and, more specifically, to provide them with a broad overview of Latin American philosophy, extending all the way from Pre-Columbian to contemporary-Latinx philosophy.
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Mariah Partida
Mariah Partida is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Philosophy at Texas State University. Her research interests include 19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, and Disability Studies. She currently teaches courses in introductory ethics, logic and critical thinking, and Latin American philosophy.
