HIST 159
Latin America in the 19th Century
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Intensive analysis of economic, social, and political problems of Latin American nations from their independence to around 1910. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
GOOD GOD - the ABSOLUTE WORST. The Chicana/o Studies Dept should be embarrassed to have this low caliber of academics among their curriculum. I REALLY looked forward to taking his class because of who he is in regard to the Chicana/o Movement of the 60s, and Im sad to say how terribly disappointed I am. Where should I start? Well, how about starting with his sorry excuse for a syllabus. Everything about it is totally unclear and lacks pertinent dates. He referred us to his online syllabus, but then passed out another syllabus in class that was different. He didnt stick to either syllabus anyway. He's totally rude and condescending to students - he'll either just completely ignore your question or will cut you off mid-sentence. Wont answer vital questions such as "what date is the midterm?" He didnt tell us until about 4 days before. Writes weird stuff on the board - seriously, I dont know how else to describe it other than "weird." Makes ZERO sense. He shows 5 minute snippets of films, quickly having his T.A. move onto the next one, with basically no info on what he expects us to get out of these. Its just a montage of 5 minute snippets and makes no sense. During the midterm, he turned on a film "to get us in the mood" AT THE SAME TIME WE WERE TAKING THE EXAM! I couldnt even concentrate on what I was writing! On the 1st day of class, he quietly announced that on the last day of class, he would be requesting a list of all the films shown - most students didnt even HEAR him say this; I just happened to hear it from another student. He doesnt even give the names to most of the films he shows. THEN, adding insult to injury, he wants you to make REFERENCE to the films in the IN-CLASS Essay/Final, WITHOUT using the list of films - the list needs to be turned in AFTER you take the final! How nuts is that? His lectures are just ramblings off the top of his head - there's NO PLANNING at all. In fact, he asks students to stand up and "say a few words" in front of the class, so that he doesnt have to. Any time you raise your hand, he asks you to stand up and address the class. So you get a bunch of undergrads who dont know sh*t about Chicana/o history (or rather THINK they do because they've taken a class at a city college) talking out of their as*es. I dont pay top dollar to hear fellow undergrads teach the class. His TA is even WORSE than he is - doesnt answer email, cant give a straight answer to save his life, and there's NO logic in his grading. He doesnt give any indication why you got the grade you did - just a simple grade with no writing on it to clue you in to where points may have been deducted. Bottom line - he simply doesnt care anymore. He thinks the class is a joke. He drags himself into class in the morning, looking like he had a really rough night. He clearly doesnt want to be there. I feel so bad saying this about someone who had such a huge role in Chicana/o history but students NEED to be warned. This guy seriously needs to retire; while he may have been a huge driving force in the Chicana/o Movement back in the day, he's now totally counter-productive in his work (if you can call it that) as a UCLA professor. I learned absolutely nothing in this class. Its unbelievable that UCLA has tolerated this. A complete WASTE of my time and money.
GOOD GOD - the ABSOLUTE WORST. The Chicana/o Studies Dept should be embarrassed to have this low caliber of academics among their curriculum. I REALLY looked forward to taking his class because of who he is in regard to the Chicana/o Movement of the 60s, and Im sad to say how terribly disappointed I am. Where should I start? Well, how about starting with his sorry excuse for a syllabus. Everything about it is totally unclear and lacks pertinent dates. He referred us to his online syllabus, but then passed out another syllabus in class that was different. He didnt stick to either syllabus anyway. He's totally rude and condescending to students - he'll either just completely ignore your question or will cut you off mid-sentence. Wont answer vital questions such as "what date is the midterm?" He didnt tell us until about 4 days before. Writes weird stuff on the board - seriously, I dont know how else to describe it other than "weird." Makes ZERO sense. He shows 5 minute snippets of films, quickly having his T.A. move onto the next one, with basically no info on what he expects us to get out of these. Its just a montage of 5 minute snippets and makes no sense. During the midterm, he turned on a film "to get us in the mood" AT THE SAME TIME WE WERE TAKING THE EXAM! I couldnt even concentrate on what I was writing! On the 1st day of class, he quietly announced that on the last day of class, he would be requesting a list of all the films shown - most students didnt even HEAR him say this; I just happened to hear it from another student. He doesnt even give the names to most of the films he shows. THEN, adding insult to injury, he wants you to make REFERENCE to the films in the IN-CLASS Essay/Final, WITHOUT using the list of films - the list needs to be turned in AFTER you take the final! How nuts is that? His lectures are just ramblings off the top of his head - there's NO PLANNING at all. In fact, he asks students to stand up and "say a few words" in front of the class, so that he doesnt have to. Any time you raise your hand, he asks you to stand up and address the class. So you get a bunch of undergrads who dont know sh*t about Chicana/o history (or rather THINK they do because they've taken a class at a city college) talking out of their as*es. I dont pay top dollar to hear fellow undergrads teach the class. His TA is even WORSE than he is - doesnt answer email, cant give a straight answer to save his life, and there's NO logic in his grading. He doesnt give any indication why you got the grade you did - just a simple grade with no writing on it to clue you in to where points may have been deducted. Bottom line - he simply doesnt care anymore. He thinks the class is a joke. He drags himself into class in the morning, looking like he had a really rough night. He clearly doesnt want to be there. I feel so bad saying this about someone who had such a huge role in Chicana/o history but students NEED to be warned. This guy seriously needs to retire; while he may have been a huge driving force in the Chicana/o Movement back in the day, he's now totally counter-productive in his work (if you can call it that) as a UCLA professor. I learned absolutely nothing in this class. Its unbelievable that UCLA has tolerated this. A complete WASTE of my time and money.
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