Professor Gaspar de Alba is a passionate, knowledgeable and eloquent lecturer. However, she is blinded by her own convictions and is either clueless or apathetic as to the effects her words have on her students. She does not tolerate disagreement and is unafraid to tell you so.

I understand UCLA is known for its intense academic expectations, yet her course reading and workload is ridiculously high. But don't tell her or her TA's. They will call you lazy and unappreciative. I am not sure how anyone was able to finish her midterm exam. I got a B which is an insult to all the time I dedicated to the class. This course honestly made me rethink minoring/majoring in Chicana/o Studies.

If you are looking for an easy A, do not take anything with Gaspar de Alba. If you want to learn about how owning a house is tied to racism and Manifest Destiny or how quinceaneras are rituals that marry off young girls to older men, then this is the class for you.

I took La Profe in Fall '15 for BC and she was pretty good. The topics were always entertaining. It wasn't one of those classes were you could fall asleep or be on your phone because she would call you out in front of the class or if you were eating. She assigned a lot of reading for the weeks. There was a two 2-page paper that had to be single space -__- and a lot of group work because the final is a group presentation. So if you do not like group work then this not the class for you because you are in groups from week 2. She also offered 2 extra credit papers. Overall, I do recommend her if you are taking 2 heavy classes and you need to balance your load.

Professor Gaspar De Alba is a woman of eloquent words, but uses them to indoctrinate her students. I had her for my Los Angeles GE Cluster for one quarter, and thus far, she is the worst teacher I have ever had. After loving the first quarter, I was optimistic for the second quarter, though I was very disappointed and upset with the professor. She teaches the Chicano/a studies class at UCLA, so she turned our LA Class into HER cultural studies. She talked about how the white race was and still is cruel, and that the development of the United States was wrong. She is blatantly racist to Caucasians and she voices that opinion on multiple occasions every day in the class. I cannot begin to describe how much she has ruined this class for me, both in my interpretation of Chicano/a studies and how Latino, Chicano, and Hispanics view this country. She does not touch on the multicultural aspects of the City and only focuses on what is important to her and her Chicano/a studies class.

La Profe is AMAZING. It's definitely not an easy A class. So, lazy people don't take this Professor. But for those who are looking for fresh critical analysis on issues pertaining to Chicana/os please do take. Profe is a ballsy, in your face type professor who will tell it like it is. Her viewpoints are refreshing, visceral and candid. She forces everyone to think outside the box and it very creative while doing it. :)