"Perfection"

Sometimes in order to be "perfect", we need to be imperfect. In order to create change, we need to take our own initiatives, and act out against the "norms" that society has bestowed upon us. Creating imperfection, or chaos, forces the dominant to hear what the oppress have to say, as well as point out the society’s distorted point of view of perfection. Change can only occur when our society, as a whole, accepts the fact that nothing is perfect. If society accepts this notion, we can then begin a new day.

Excerpt from reflection on Pike's U.S. & Latin American Chapter 1

"This leads to the idea that Pike explains on page 6 when he says, “Men, as they tend to perceive the situation, are the creators of civilization. Men, as they tend to perceive the situation, are the creators of civilization and the architects of progress, whereas “women are the manifestations of nature. The implication is that men develop culture in order to understand and control the natural world, while women, being the embodiment of the forces of nature, must be brought under the civilizing control of men”. It makes me wonder how twisted the image of nature is. That to some degree nature is encapsulated to connect with women but subordinately be controlled by men. In totality men have created culture, build civilizations, and deconstructed nature, and thus given nature its name. So if women were to be the “symbol” of nature they are also controlled, and so are the views towards Latinas (and other women in the world)." - Melisa Garcia

Tacit Acceptance

Tonight's class was really clarifying and thought provoking. I'm coming to a much greater appreciation of the significance of examining the rhetoric we encounter and utilize. I found myself really working over the interrelationships of the concepts of gender roles, racial stereotypes, and ecological relationships in this week's readings and film. It seems like all three of these important facets of life are rarely something we question or consider the genesis of. Instead we largely accept things the way they are due to cultural and institutional influence, through routines and implied normality, and through the way we understand nature. Tonight's class and this week's readings have really culminated in an "Aha!" moment for me. I hadn't really wrapped my head around the importance and significance of rhetoric regarding ecology, until today when it hit me that the interrelated and overlapping aspects of society that go on without being challenged are largely tacitly accepted due to an engrained rhetoric and sense of normalcy around prevailing ways of thought. To change our own rhetoric and the way we engage with others, is by its very nature the first step in challenging aspects of our world that could stand to be more closely reflected upon.

That being said, to round out this blog post, we are supposed to post a picture of ourselves. Here is one of me engaging in one of my favorite activities (hiking), meanwhile not tacitly accepting the routinely engrained belief that trees are not food.

Abiquiu

Abiquiu

-Michelle

Ribbon streams carve red

soil, winter dusts tender souls

like shadows flowing.

Bienvenidos!

Muchisimas gracias!
And welcome to our class Chicano Ecology Blog.  Looking foward to exploring the stories, environmental rhetorics, and writing about the Southwest and Latin America. 
Que vaya bien! Dr. Michelle Kells

 

 

 

Dr. Michelle Hall Kells

University of New Mexico

Spring 2014

ENGL 440/540 Latin American Studies Program

Chicano/Latin American Ecology and Rhetoric of Environmental Justice

“As the stones from millions of years reckon, man and machine are no more than

a shadow of a mote of dust” -Leslie Marmon Silko The Turquoise Ledge (315).

This course will explore Chicano/Latin American Ecology and environmental writing through the critical lens of  rhetorical theory.  We will examine diverse textual representations of the environment (constructions of  Greater Mexico, the US-Mexico border, and Latin America) as exigences for social action.  Half of the course material will focus on Latin America and the other half will focus on US-Mexico border issues. The purpose of this class is to create a community of environmental thinkers and to cultivate opportunities for considering our roles as citizens, activists, scholars (of place).  Participation in field exercises and other learning environments will be integral to this course.  Our reading list will include environmental texts within and beyond the Southwest region to include Greater Mexico and Latin America ( as places and rhetorical constructions).

 

We will examine, apply, and critique contemporary rhetorical environmental texts as well as analyze case studies in 20^th century environmental writing and activism. Each theoretical system of rhetoric advocates a model of symbolic action and maps the exercise of influence within a socio-historical context. The study of environmental rhetoric calls attention to the means by which activists represent and advance their interests as individual agents and collective entities on behalf of diverse places and their citizens. Environmental writing is social action; creative and symbolic; dynamic; context-dependent; intrinsic to human communication; inherent to all forms of social organization. These conceptual framing principles (as topoi) will inform our analyses of place, citizenship, agency, and arguments about the multiple uses of cultural/environmental  resources. 

 

The rich literary and rhetorical legacy of twentieth century environmental writing will be examined through diverse textual artifacts (and genres) including public rhetoric, film, poetry, speeches, essays, letters, creative nonfiction as well legal treatises and policies.  These different genres tell the stories of collective struggle, achievement, and citizenship that shape current trends in the Southwest, US-Mexico border, and Latin America in terms of education, law, socio-economic status, government, private organizational policies, indigenous communities and political participation related to the environment and its use. This course will focus on literary and political texts of the 20^th century representing the ecology of place with special emphasis on the environmental justice movements in relation to land and water rights, climate refugees, biodiversity depletion, solastagia, etc. (as these movements evolve into the 21^st century). 

 

NOTE: This course has been designed for undergraduate and graduate students in Rhetorical Studies (Department of English), Latin American Studies, Chicano Studies, Sustainability Studies, Political Science, and Sociology. We will focus on the range of arguments (across genres and discourse communities in public/popular cultures) about the environment and ecological ethics land/earth literacies) throughout the 20th century—applying a pragmatic approach to modern rhetorical theory as a critical lens.  Final course projects will be adapted to the specific needs, interests, and genre-practices of the students in my course with respect to their different disciplines and scholarly goals.  

 

Chicano Ecology Blog:

Students will post segments of our weekly Reader Response Reflection Journals to our class blog at:

http://unmchicanoecology.blogspot.com/

 Required Texts:

ü  Paul Farmer. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor.

ü  M. Jimmie Killingsworth and Jacqueline S. Palmer. Eco Speak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America.

ü  Joan Martinez-Alier. The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation.

ü  Devon G. Peña. Chicano Culture, Ecology, Politics.

ü  Frederick B. Pike. The United States and Latin America: Myths and Stereotypes of Civilization and Nature.

ü  Thomas A. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith. Modern Latin America.

 Required Films: (Available at Zimmerman Library Reserve Desk)

ü  Salt of the Earth.

ü  Milagro Beanfield Wars.

ü  When the Mountains Tremble: Rigoberta Menchú

 Learning Outcomes:

Course readings, assignments, films, field exercises, and class discussions are designed to promote the following learning outcomes:

·         Engage the analytical resources of rhetorical studies to current environmental issues;

·         Interrogate questions related to environmental ethics, public health, as well as bio-diversity and natural resource depletion;   

·         Examine structural systems of exploitation impacting vulnerable communities and diverse environmental contexts in the U.S. Southwest and Latin America;

·         Analyze the rhetorical representation of the complex economic and political relationships conditioning environmental justice and human rights;

·         Apply and integrate concepts of rhetorical studies to environmental texts;

·         Guide and participate in class discussions of course readings;

·         Participate in field exercises and public rhetoric events;

·         Critically analyze environmental rhetorics across academic and public cultures;

·         Conduct observations and generate field notes about diverse environmental sites (natural and constructed spaces);

·         Connect  learning to the environmental rhetorics of everyday life;

·         Develop an intellectual project through course assignments around the one of the major themes of environmental rhetoric;

·         Explore regional environmental resources and build awareness of local communities;

·         Cultivate alliances with peers and work collaboratively toward common goals.

Solar in California, Premonition of Boom or Bust?

I recently came across an article that claimed solar growth in Clalifornia was larger last year, than in the last 30 years combined. It seems like an interesting trend, but some point out that might actually be cause for some problems for utility companies that could be passed along to consumers that aren't able to get into solar (the impoverished, renters, and those with bad credit).  While solar might seem to be perfect for many of our southern states, it is unfortunate that it might also be cause for creating an energy affordability disparity between those that can afford to take advantage of it and those that will be stuck with higher utility prices. From what I understand, the issue for utility companies boils down to the infrastructure costs and peak energy demand not scaling down along with the decrease in dedicated consumers, which leads to a need to increase the per kilowatt hour prices to maintain the infrastructure necessary to meet peak power demands. So, the more people that switch to solar, the more the price per kilowatt hour will rise for those without, unless solar consumers are stuck with a higher surcharge for being connected to the grid (or go completely off grid and invest in battery banks - which leads to plenty of issues when it comes time to dispose of the batteries). Overall, it seems like (barring advancements in battery technology) we might still have some tough policy decisions that will need to be made on utility pricing in light of potential solar booms. Just something I found interesting enough that I thought might be worth sharing here. It is strange to consider the awkward implications of increased economic disparity potentially becoming linked with this ecologically sound energy resource.

*The above picture is of an "earthship" in Northern New Mexico. Source link.