Bascara is very knowledgable about the material and is passionate about his students engaging in it. However, the readings he assigns are very heavy with about 4 20-30 page readings a week and his lectures don't have any structure. No powerpoints, just reading off of something the whole class without any true sense of the topic. The assigned readings for that day won't necessarily relate what will be discussed.
Readings are 'required' but I know most people including myself did not read most of them in their entirety. You'll essentially only need to read some articles to write the 2 short papers, 2-3 in-class prompts (which kinda draw from personal experiences), and final paper. There is also a final group project which can be anything related to the Filipino American experience. Will note that for ALL his papers/project, the prompts are very vague so have fun with that.
However, he grades pretty easily. But good luck trying to find out how you're doing in the class cuz he didn't post any grades until the end of the quarter. (but don't worry too much, just put in the work which isn't too much and you'll most likely get an A) He's overall really nice, but he can be hard to contact. Visit his office hours if you ever want an extension instead of emailing.
Being Filipino, it was great to be in class where I learned a lot about my culture. Interesting class, but could be better structured

You can tell that Prof Bascara just wants people to try and put effort into what he is teaching. Often, class time is filled with either an assignment we present to the whole class (individually), doing an independent assignment, or meeting with our groups for the final project (we meet very early on in the quarter or for general class assignments. Needless to say, he does not spend a huge amount of time lecturing. He kind of allows us to do the readings and learn about Pilipino through research and first hand experience (attending events).

Workload: The readings are INTENSE. As in, most people in the class will NOT be able to get through the readings. Luckily, if you at least read a few of them (deeply) you should be fine. Other than that, we have two papers and a final group project to complete. We also have to attend a Pilipino event and write about it. Most of the other assignments are completed in class.

Grading: Does not seem to grade things throughout the quarter. He does give feedback on some assignments though.

Attendance: He does take attendance every class and does not have recorded lectures. However, I noticed that he will bring his iPad to allow a student or two to join the class via zoom. Which is super nice of him. Though, I wouldn't recommend relying on this option to attend class because so much of what we do is group work, which is impossible to do on zoom.

Textbooks: He provides most of the readings for free on BruinLearn. There is one book that we need to get, but it can be found online for free.

The TA strike heavily affected the course during my quarter so I believe my experience was much easier than the course was intended to be. The format of the class would have been pretty tedious: paper 1 draft, paper revision, paper 2 draft, paper 2 revision, paper 3 draft, paper 3 revision. We only got up to the 2nd revision or 3rd draft, and even then my TA (Kyla, LOVEEE them) was pretty kind when it came to grading so some students didn't submit a 2nd revision or 3rd draft. The topics got increasingly more complex but more interesting in my opinion and they weren't too hard to reach the word count. There was a super easy midterm assignment where we just made up our own questions from the readings, no final. There was a quarter long section project we were supposed to create and present but we never got to it. The class as a whole was pretty interesting and I got to learn things about Asian history that I was never aware of but Professor Bascara spoke very theoretically every lecture which made it hard to follow. He also speaks very softly so sitting in the back didn't really help. Overall, cool guy and cool class. I was lucky to be able to fulfill my diversity and writing 2 requirement without much effort.

I found the content to be pretty interesting but I didn't really enjoy the lectures because I didn't find them to be engaging. Your class grade basically consists of 3 papers and in my opinion, the prompts were super vague, and even asking about them during office hours didn't make them much clearer. However, they were graded pretty easily. Overall, I thought the class was slightly boring but I would say that it's an easy GE because even though there is quite a bit of reading per week, you can definitely get away with not doing them and the papers were pretty easy and mostly relied on personal experiences with maybe 1-2 required quotes from the readings.

I have a lot of respect for Professor Bascara because I can tell his thoughts are very complex and interesting. However, his lectures are incredibly dry and boring and you'll probably end up falling asleep on a couple occasions. The good thing about this class is that there is no midterm. My TA was also another plus, since he made the discussions very interesting.

I think its very important that you have to be interested in the course to succeed.

For the final, you should be pretty familiar with your readings and be able to think on the spot for the essay.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class because of its discussion when my TA elaborated further on Professor Bascara's complex ideas.

So I signed up for this class thinking it'd be an easy GE and all that good stuff. Turns out, there's a TON of readings to do so be prepared for that. His final is pretty much based off of the readings that are assigned. That said, there is no point in attending his lectures because his lectures are random and vague. One minute he's talking about racism, the next he's talking about mangoes. I suppose it would make more sense if I didn't fall asleep all the time. There was no lecture that I did not fall asleep in. The only lectures that I would recommend going to are the ones during the last few weeks, where he reveals essay prompts and example short answers.

There are two papers and one final and they're both based off the readings. Again, no point in attending lectures. I would recommend finishing the papers early to have your TA look over them. The final consists of two essays and 13 short answers, all from the readings so I would suggest you look over the readings in order to study.

Overall, I would not suggest taking this class. It was very broad and I felt that all we talked about was racism and activism. I got an A in the class but I had to spend a lot of time on the readings and on the weekly journals we had to do. I suppose it was fairly easy, but just prepare yourself for a lot of irrelevant busywork.

I took his Filipino Experience 133 class. He is very professional and a very easy grader. I turned in many assignments that I thought I did not do too well on but he always gave a better grade than I deserved. His format of the class is very easy. He makes you appreciate Filipinos and their history. TAKE HIM YOU WILL ENJOY IT AND AS LONG AS YOU SHOW UP and do the work YOU'LL GET AN A!!

Those who are taking this class, prepare to read multiple passages almost every week and write journals. The lectures are incredibly boring but Prof. Bascara does provide insight on the readings that can be used when doing journals. Getting a helpful TA is probably the most important thing in getting an A just because he/she will help you on your two essays (one short, one long) during the course. The workload isn't too bad if you read everyday but if you're the type of person to do all the readings before discussion, then life is gonna suck. Overall, this course wasn't super hard nor was it super easy. As long as you get your work checked before turning it in and actually read the assigned passages before midterm/final, then attaining an A is definitely possible.

Professor Bascara seems to be a very nice man but I had a difficult time relating his lectures to the materials that were covered. There are abundant readings (which was expected since the class was a 5 units course) and the professor expected us to understand the main points for each readings(many of them were pretty lengthy readings that took a lot of time). We had one additional book to read for the final.
Overall, the class was not extremely hard though was not worth of all time consumed reading the course articles. The lecture was unclear and unrelated that I almost felt like I was self-studying the matter. The words professor used were unnecessarily difficult and sophisticated, which made the lecture even more confusing and unclear.

I really liked this class, it was nice to study different Asian cultures and how it related and interacted with American culture.
Before Lectures the professor would play contemporary music and that really woke me up after 8am discussion. My TA, Diana, is really nice and helpful and she helped with the two essays (one short, one long). The lecture were from powerpoint slides and it helps to sit in the front or else you will fall asleep. He synthesizes ideas for you so pay attention and you can get ideas about the sometimes arbitrary readings.
There is a lot of reading but they are not too hard. There are one page journals due each week, one short essay (one page), one longer essay (5 pages), and a final that is really easy and only based on readings.