CHICANO 10B
Introduction to Chicana/Chicano Studies: Social Structure and Contemporary Conditions
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Multidisciplinary examination of representation, ideologies, and material conditions of Chicanas/Chicanos, including colonialism, race, labor, immigration, poverty, assimilation, and patriarchy. Emphasis on critical reading and writing skills. Letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - I really hated this class. It's so boring and basically the same as 10A. Prof. Abrego is soooo boring, she's so full of herself and she low-key seems to have something against white people. The class is really easy with a creative project worth 10%, participation worth 25%, midterm essay worth 25% and a final paper worth 40%. I haven't gotten my grade back yet but I expect an A.
Winter 2016 - I really hated this class. It's so boring and basically the same as 10A. Prof. Abrego is soooo boring, she's so full of herself and she low-key seems to have something against white people. The class is really easy with a creative project worth 10%, participation worth 25%, midterm essay worth 25% and a final paper worth 40%. I haven't gotten my grade back yet but I expect an A.
Most Helpful Review
What can I say, this guy is a waste of time. His lectures are weird, to say the least, and does his best to show how smart he is--at least he thinks he is--and dumb the class is. He wears these weird outfits that look as if they belonged to John Travolta in the 70s, he spends time talking about how gay is the new black, and answer questions as if he is God's gift to Chicano Studies. Its people like you, Eric, that give the dept a bad name. His lectures are nothing more than a soapbox. This class is a real waste of time. The TA's also left much to be desired. My TA, who was Avila's 'teacher's pet' spent more time following Avila around like a lil lap dog than teaching us. Moreover, in lecture, he tried to act like he was Avila--real good training he is getting. This class sucked.
What can I say, this guy is a waste of time. His lectures are weird, to say the least, and does his best to show how smart he is--at least he thinks he is--and dumb the class is. He wears these weird outfits that look as if they belonged to John Travolta in the 70s, he spends time talking about how gay is the new black, and answer questions as if he is God's gift to Chicano Studies. Its people like you, Eric, that give the dept a bad name. His lectures are nothing more than a soapbox. This class is a real waste of time. The TA's also left much to be desired. My TA, who was Avila's 'teacher's pet' spent more time following Avila around like a lil lap dog than teaching us. Moreover, in lecture, he tried to act like he was Avila--real good training he is getting. This class sucked.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - While the course material was fascinating, Dr. Barreto and his TAs made the experience kind of lackluster. My problems with this class are many. 1. The syllabus for the class required students to buy around five textbooks. We only used maybe half of them for the entire quarter. 2. There is a clear lack of unity, cohesiveness, and standardization among how the TAs graded. My TA, Claudia Rodriguez, was absolutely wonderful. Claudia was great at leading class discussions and was clear about what her expectations were. I had two friends who had an absolute nightmare TA. This TA was rude and condescending to them in emails. When receiving their final grades for a final project that required us to research Latinx populations in various cities across the US, my friends reached out to their TA to ask for an explanation. She gave them both Cs for their project because they didn't include "specific information" required by the professor. My friend emailed the professor back and forth; after re-grading her project, the professor gave her a B+. This lack of communication, cohesion, and standardization could have cost her an entire letter grade. 3. My final comment is about Dr. Barreto himself. His lectures were SO BORING. He would literally just make PowerPoint slides and read off of them the entire time. There were a few pictures here and there throughout the slides, but the majority of the slides were a text that had been copied and pasted from the book. Though a smart and accomplished man, I think he lacks the ability to make the information interesting in a teaching setting. Though I have many complaints about this class, I will say that (with a good TA) the class was actually pretty easy. There were only three components of our grade, two of which were a final and a final project. The final was easy if you went to lectures, took notes, and made a mental timeline of the events he talked about. I would definitely be wary of taking this class. I say go for it if you want to roll the dice and risk getting a rude and unfair TA.
Winter 2019 - While the course material was fascinating, Dr. Barreto and his TAs made the experience kind of lackluster. My problems with this class are many. 1. The syllabus for the class required students to buy around five textbooks. We only used maybe half of them for the entire quarter. 2. There is a clear lack of unity, cohesiveness, and standardization among how the TAs graded. My TA, Claudia Rodriguez, was absolutely wonderful. Claudia was great at leading class discussions and was clear about what her expectations were. I had two friends who had an absolute nightmare TA. This TA was rude and condescending to them in emails. When receiving their final grades for a final project that required us to research Latinx populations in various cities across the US, my friends reached out to their TA to ask for an explanation. She gave them both Cs for their project because they didn't include "specific information" required by the professor. My friend emailed the professor back and forth; after re-grading her project, the professor gave her a B+. This lack of communication, cohesion, and standardization could have cost her an entire letter grade. 3. My final comment is about Dr. Barreto himself. His lectures were SO BORING. He would literally just make PowerPoint slides and read off of them the entire time. There were a few pictures here and there throughout the slides, but the majority of the slides were a text that had been copied and pasted from the book. Though a smart and accomplished man, I think he lacks the ability to make the information interesting in a teaching setting. Though I have many complaints about this class, I will say that (with a good TA) the class was actually pretty easy. There were only three components of our grade, two of which were a final and a final project. The final was easy if you went to lectures, took notes, and made a mental timeline of the events he talked about. I would definitely be wary of taking this class. I say go for it if you want to roll the dice and risk getting a rude and unfair TA.
Most Helpful Review
Okay, Okay. This is going to be an HONEST review! I know that as I was in this class, I hated it so much just because of all the work we had to do. [It actually wasn't even that much -- all that was a lot was the readings]. So, if you are good with managing your time, take this. Anyways, I complained a lot because I felt I had a lot of work to do! But, now that I am out of this class, I feel like i LEARNED so MUCH! Like, I kind of forget things I've learned, but this class I find myself still knowing what we learned.! This class, I think made me more conscious of everything around me. The midterm and final study guides can be a bitch, but if you've been reading, you should be fine! And, everything on the midterm/final study guide is the EXACT same thing, she will not give you tricky stuff. So just study! Lecture sucks -- she some what sucks (However, she is very knowledgeable about the material) what we learned is GREAT! If you want a lazy class, don't take this. if you want an easy A, don't do this. If you want to learn, take this. If you like to learn about women, inequalities, chicanos, immigrants, etc. take this.
Okay, Okay. This is going to be an HONEST review! I know that as I was in this class, I hated it so much just because of all the work we had to do. [It actually wasn't even that much -- all that was a lot was the readings]. So, if you are good with managing your time, take this. Anyways, I complained a lot because I felt I had a lot of work to do! But, now that I am out of this class, I feel like i LEARNED so MUCH! Like, I kind of forget things I've learned, but this class I find myself still knowing what we learned.! This class, I think made me more conscious of everything around me. The midterm and final study guides can be a bitch, but if you've been reading, you should be fine! And, everything on the midterm/final study guide is the EXACT same thing, she will not give you tricky stuff. So just study! Lecture sucks -- she some what sucks (However, she is very knowledgeable about the material) what we learned is GREAT! If you want a lazy class, don't take this. if you want an easy A, don't do this. If you want to learn, take this. If you like to learn about women, inequalities, chicanos, immigrants, etc. take this.
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Most Helpful Review
While his lectures may seem dull to some, I personally found them very interesting and eye opening. Not only were the topics we discussed and readings we read very interesting, Professor Hernandez generously broke down each reading via powerpoints so that we could get the main ideas to help us with our final and midterm. He expanded on the course material and related it to current issues which I very much liked. There were 3 pop quizzes during the quarter, one of which was dropped, a takehome 5 page midterm and final, and 4 2-page response papers. Very doable. He's very fair and you could tell that he actually cares about student learning because he tries to engage all 300 kids in a discussion during lecture.
While his lectures may seem dull to some, I personally found them very interesting and eye opening. Not only were the topics we discussed and readings we read very interesting, Professor Hernandez generously broke down each reading via powerpoints so that we could get the main ideas to help us with our final and midterm. He expanded on the course material and related it to current issues which I very much liked. There were 3 pop quizzes during the quarter, one of which was dropped, a takehome 5 page midterm and final, and 4 2-page response papers. Very doable. He's very fair and you could tell that he actually cares about student learning because he tries to engage all 300 kids in a discussion during lecture.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Damn. You ever read the reviews of a professor and like 99.9% talk about how garbage the professor is? But then you go on 'my class planner' and find out that that's your only option for the class? Seriously thought these reviews were just over exaggerated or something, but y'all this professor really does SUCK big time. This class gives the chicano department a bad name. Why does the department think bringing this celebrity to campus is such an innovative idea?? Jesus, even I could teach this class better. Only focus was: 1) Trump (pretty sure he himself said he was obsessed with him 2)CHINAAAA and 3) Trade wars (which no one had a single clue what he was talking about). Not only is his teaching TERRIBLE, but just imagine all the freshmen kissing his butt by laughing at his "jokes" and buttering him up. Aside from his teaching, he was incredibly unorganized and had a huge lack of miscommunication, to the extent that even my TA said a lot of the things he would do/ say, they did not agree with. He would always talk about "me me me" "Oh they love me in China" (dude, how is that possible when there are 1 BILLION PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE), "Oh i'm going on this trip for this conference blah blah but don't worry I'll be back"- NO, you are a PROFESSOR and your LECTURES should be your priority. But of course, this self-centered man, who went off to say he's given speeches in front of border patrol who BEGGED him (yeah, he said that) to come and gave him a STANDING OVATION (*insert 'and everybody clapped' meme*) Also, shoutout to my TA ROSA, who is an absolute Godsend and I assure I would have gone crazy in this class if it wasn't for her. Avoid this professor at all costs. Not worth your time. No wonder only 1/4 of the class goes now.
Fall 2019 - Damn. You ever read the reviews of a professor and like 99.9% talk about how garbage the professor is? But then you go on 'my class planner' and find out that that's your only option for the class? Seriously thought these reviews were just over exaggerated or something, but y'all this professor really does SUCK big time. This class gives the chicano department a bad name. Why does the department think bringing this celebrity to campus is such an innovative idea?? Jesus, even I could teach this class better. Only focus was: 1) Trump (pretty sure he himself said he was obsessed with him 2)CHINAAAA and 3) Trade wars (which no one had a single clue what he was talking about). Not only is his teaching TERRIBLE, but just imagine all the freshmen kissing his butt by laughing at his "jokes" and buttering him up. Aside from his teaching, he was incredibly unorganized and had a huge lack of miscommunication, to the extent that even my TA said a lot of the things he would do/ say, they did not agree with. He would always talk about "me me me" "Oh they love me in China" (dude, how is that possible when there are 1 BILLION PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE), "Oh i'm going on this trip for this conference blah blah but don't worry I'll be back"- NO, you are a PROFESSOR and your LECTURES should be your priority. But of course, this self-centered man, who went off to say he's given speeches in front of border patrol who BEGGED him (yeah, he said that) to come and gave him a STANDING OVATION (*insert 'and everybody clapped' meme*) Also, shoutout to my TA ROSA, who is an absolute Godsend and I assure I would have gone crazy in this class if it wasn't for her. Avoid this professor at all costs. Not worth your time. No wonder only 1/4 of the class goes now.
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