Chicanx-Latinx Studies

As a Chicanx-Latinx Studies student, your exploration of identities, cultures, and experiences of the Chicanx-Latinx narrative will provide you with a deeper understanding of our interconnected world

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About This Program

  • You will study three areas of the Chicanx-Latinx experience: 1. Educacion: Identities, Cultures and Communities; 2. Experiencia: Literature, Music, and Representation; and 3. Sin Fronteras: Experiences in the Americas. 
  • Our program is part of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies (IDCLS). Established in 1969, it stands as the nation’s second oldest studies department in this field. A variety of resources throughout the 5Cs will be available to you. 
  • As a major in the field, you will be immersed in the Chicanx-Latinx community with community-learning opportunities and civic engagement experiences. 

At a Glance

Degree Awarded

  • Bachelor of Arts

Field Group

Chicanx-Latinx Studies

Program Type

Area of Study

Chicana/o‐Latina‐/o Transnational Studies is also offered through this program.

Get Involved

portrait of alum Jocelyn Vega-Robledo

Research

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow Jocelyn Vega-Robledo ‘23, a Sociology and Chicanx Latinx Studies double major, conducted research on the parental involvement experiences and contributions of farm-working families in connection with their children's educational attainment.

Read the Story
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Latinx Student Union

Our on-campus Latinx Student Union, located in the Gold Student Center, provides workshops, events, and resources for Latinx students and their allies. 

Pitzer Latinx Student Union
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Chicano Latino Student Affairs (CLSA)

Chicano Latino Student Affairs (CLSA) provides enrichment programs and services that enhance the academic success and personal development of Chicanx/Latinx students at The Claremont Colleges.

CLSA Website

Chicanx-Latinx Studies Program Details

View Course Catalog

What You Will Learn

  1. The history and experiences of people of Latin American descent within the hemisphere, particularly within the United States and the wider diaspora.  
  2. How to analyze these experiences through the lens of broader social processes such as social class, global economics, forced and voluntary migrations, social movements, and gender.
  3. Make connections to the Chicanx-Latinx community through participatory research and community-based learning.  

Learn More

Visit the Chicanx-Latinx Studies Field Group page for more information and resources. 

Chicanx-Latinx Studies Field Group

Language Requirement:

All CLS majors must demonstrate fluency in Spanish by completing SPAN 044 PZ, an equivalent course, or a language assessment.

Four Required Courses:

  • CHST 015 CH – Intro to Chicanx Latinx Studies (encouraged for 1st/2nd yr) 
  • CHST 120 CH – Fronteras/Borders: Methods & Research 
  • CHST 190 CH – CLS Senior Seminar (fall, senior year)
  • CHST 191 CH – CLS Senior Thesis (spring, senior year) 

or

  • CHST 192 CH – CLS Senior Project (spring, senior year) 

Three courses from the following list of introductory courses: 

  • CHLT 061 CH – Contemporary Issues of Chicanas & Latinas 
  • CHLT 072 CH – Introduction to Central American Studies Part I: Histories & Cultures 
  • CHST 028 CH – Introduction to Central American Studies Part II: Contemporary Politics and Cultures in the US 
  • CHST 077 CH – Chicana-Latina, Gender & Popular Culture 
  • HIST 017 CH – Intro to Chicanx Latinx History
  • HIST 032 CH – Latin America Since Independence
  • HIST 034 CH – Mexico; from Indigenous Societies to Modern State
  • PSYC 084 CH – Psychology of the Chicanx Latinx Experience
  • SOC 030 CH – Chicanxs Latinxs in Contemporary Society
  • SPAN 127 CH – Literatura Chicana en Español 

Three courses each from each of the following areas of concentration: 
NOTE: Double-counting of courses to satisfy the requirements listed above is not permitted. Consult your advisor or the department chair about any courses that are not included below. 

  1. Educación: Identities, Cultures and Communities
  2. Experiencia: Literature, Music and Representation
  3. Sin Fronteras: Latinx Experiences in the Americas

1.  Educación: Identities, Cultures and Communities

  • CHLT061 CH – Contemporary Issues of Chicanas & Latinas
  • CHLT110 PZ – Latinx Community Health
  • CHLT115 CH – Gender, Race and Class: Women of Color in the U.S.
  • CHLT157 CH – Latina Activists Work & Protest
  • CHLT166 CH – Chicana Feminist Epistemologies
  • CHLT 170 CH – Black & Indigenous Central Americans
  • CHST077 CH – Chicana - Latina, Gender, and Popular Culture
  • CHST 101 CH – Community Partnerships (CP) CHST125 CH - Latinxs in the 20th Century CHST132 CH – Immigrant Youth: Education, Access, and Activism
  • CHST136 CH – Latinx Social Movements: Identity, Power, and Resistance
  • CHST140 CH – Latinx Activism & Struggles for Sanctuary in the San Gabriel Valley
  • HIST101S CH – Latinx Oral Histories (CP)
  • HIST127 CH – American Inequality
  • POST107 CH – Latino Politics
  • POST118 PZ – The Criminalization of Latinxs & Resistance
  • POST198 CH – God in the Barrio
  • PSYC084 CH – Psychology of the Chicanx Latinx Experience
  • PSYC180N CH – Seminar in Latinx Mental Health
  • PSYC189P PO – Seminar in Health and The Latinx Experience
  • RLST173 CM – US Latino Religions and Politics
  • SOC030 CH – Chicanxs - Latinxs in Contemporary Society
  • SOC114 CH – Los Angeles Communities: Transformations, Inequalities and Activism
  • SOC150 CH – Chicanxs - Latinxs and Education
  • SPAN153 PO – Spanglish in Context: Bilingualism in the United States 

2. Experiencia: Literature, Music and Representation   

  • ARHI130 PO – Modern Latin American and Chicanx/Latinx Art
  • ARHI131 PO – Border Art: U.S.-Mexico and Beyond
  • CHST064 CH – Chicanx Music from Genre to Experience
  • CHST066 CH – Fandango as a De-Colonial Tool
  • CHST067 CH – Chicanx Art and Its Antecedents
  • CHST074 CH – Women Who Rock: The Archive, Pop Music and New Media
  • CHST126B CH Contemporary Chicanx Literature
  • CHST130 CH (Re)Claiming Voices & Sharing Stories in Chicanx Latinx Communities
  • CHST182 CH Death Squads and Dictators
  • CHST184D CH – Chicanx Short Fiction
  • CHST185B CH – Narratives of U.S. Mexico Borderlands
  • CHST185C CH – Voices of the Tropics: Latina Literature of the Caribbean
  • CHST186 CH – Seminar in Late 20th Century Chicana Literature
  • CHST187 CH Revolution and Romance: Latinx Literature of the Caribbean and Beyond
  • MUS130 SC – Rhythm and the Latina Body Politic 

3. Sin Fronteras: Latinx Experiences in the Americas

  • CCHLT060 CH – Women in the Third World
  • CHLT072 CH – Intro to Central American Studies Part I: Histories and Cultures
  • CHLT085 PZ – Gender, Radicalism & Revolution: Central American Feminisms
  • CHLT 105 PZ – Undocumented Los Angeles: The Untold Story of Organizing
  • CHLT120 PZ – Immigration from “The Tropics” to the Borderlands: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
  • CHLT 148 PZ – Immigration from “The Tropics” to the Borderlands: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
  • CHLT153 CH – Rural and Urban Social Movements
  • CHLT160 CH – Queering (Im)Migration: LGBTI & Gender Nonconforming Migration from Central America
  • CHST028 CH – Intro to Central American Studies Part II: Contemporary Politics and Cultures in the U.S.
  • CHST121 CH – Artivistas in the Americas
  • CHST128 CH – Latinx Citizenship: Race, Rights, and Resistance
  • EA099 PO – Introduction to Urban Health Equity: Uncovering Local and Global Disparities
  • ECON115 PO – Economics of Immigration
  • HIST017 CH – Introduction to Chicanx Latinx History
  • HIST025 CH – All Power to the People! Social Movements for Justice
  • HIST031 CH – Colonial Latin America
  • HIST032 CH – Latin America Since Independence
  • HIST034 CH – Mexico; from Indigenous Societies to Modern State
  • HIST080 PO – Revolutions, Uprisings, Coups, and Interventions in the Americas since 1910
  • HIST101T CH California in the Sixties
  • HIST130 CH – Mexico-United States Border: Diaspora, Exiles, and Refugees (CP)
  • HIST132 PO – Political Protest and Social Movements in Latin America
  • POST174 CH – U.S. Immigration Policy
  • POST175 PZ – Immigration and Race in America
  • SPAN131 SC – Representations of Queer Lives in Latin America
  • SPAN140 PO – From Borges to “Literatura Lite”: Gender and Genre in Contemporary Latin American Literature and Culture
  • SPAN142 PO – Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad
  • SPAN154 SC – Trans-Caribbean Formations: Translating Identity, Race, & Gender in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, & Puerto Rico
  • SPAN183 SC – Interculturality and Bilingualism in the Andes

 

Course with a service learning or civic engagement component:

One of the courses taken to satisfy the CLS minor must include a service learning or civic engagement component. This requirement is an overlay. 

The following courses include a service learning or civic engagement component: CHLT 085 PZ, CHLT 110 PZ, CHLT 148 PZ, CHLT 153 CH, CHLT 157 PZ, CHLT 160 CH, CHST 101 CH, CHST 128 CH, CHST 132 CH, CHST 136 CH, HIST 101S CH, HIST 130 CH, POST 107 CH, SOC 114 CH, SOC 150 CH 

Resources

Download the fillable Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies (IDCLS) Major & Minor Worksheet. 

Download IDCLS Worksheet [PDF]

A minor in Chicanx Latinx Studies requires a minimum of six (6) courses in the subject area, excluding the Spanish Language classes (SPAN 044 SC or equivalent). 

Language Requirement:

All CLS minors must demonstrate fluency in Spanish by completing SPAN 044 or equivalent competency in Spanish 

Required Course:

  • CHST 015 CH or CHST 028 or CHLT 072 

One course from the list of introductory courses

  • CHLT 061 CH – Contemporary Issues of Chicanas & Latinas
  • CHLT 072 CH – Introduction to Central American Studies Part I: Histories & Cultures
  • CHST 028 CH – Introduction to Central American Studies Part II: Contemporary Politics and Cultures in the US
  • CHST 077 CH – Chicana-Latina, Gender & Popular Culture
  • HIST 017 CH – Intro to Chicanx Latinx History

One course from each of the three areas of concentration:

          1.  Educación: Identities, Cultures and Communities
          2.  Experiencia: Literature, Music and Representation
          3.  Sin Fronteras: Latinx Experiences in the Americas

One additional course from one of the areas of concentration.
PLEASE NOTE: Double-counting of courses to satisfy the requirements listed above is not permitted.

Course with a service learning or civic engagement component:

One of the courses taken to satisfy the CLS minor must include a service learning or civic engagement component. This requirement is an overlay. The following courses include a service learning or civic engagement component: CHLT 085 PZ, CHLT 110 PZ, CHLT 148 PZ, CHLT 153 CH, CHLT 157 PZ, CHLT 160 CH, CHST 101 CH, CHST 128 CH, CHST 132 CH, CHST 136 CH, HIST 101S CH, HIST 130 CH, POST 107 CH, SOC 114 CH, SOC 150 CH 

The Chicano/Latino/a Transnational Studies has three primary purposes:

  1. The first is to understand the history of the Chicano/Mexican people and other Latinos living in the Americas. 
  2. The second is to use these experiences as an analytical window into broader social processes such as social stratification, global economics, diasporas, forced and voluntary migration, social reproduction, social movements, racial formation, political engagement, interlocking axes of sexuality, gender, race, and social class. 
  3. The third is to connect the classroom to the community through the application of critical pedagogy, participatory research, and community-based learning.

Course Catalog

View Chicana/o‐Latina‐/o Transnational Studies in our course catalog. 

View Course Catalog

Chicanx-Latinx Studies Faculty

Our Chicanx-Latinx Studies program is part of the The Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o~Latina/o Studies (IDCLS). Visit the IDCLS website to view all participating faculty across the 5Cs.

View all Chicanx-Latinx Studies Faculty
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Suyapa Portillo Villeda

  • Professor of Chicano/a-Latino/a Transnational Studies
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Adrian Pantoja

  • Professor of Political Studies/Chicano Studies
  • Political Studies Field Group
  • Chicanx-Latinx Studies Field Group

Contact Us

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Suyapa Portillo Villeda
  • Professor of Chicano/a-Latino/a Transnational Studies

Scott Hall 221

Contact Professor

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