What is a Mosaic?

The Mexican Migration and Apple Mosaic is the third in a series of Mexican Mosaics focusing on migrant labor and the apple industry in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Coursework for the Mosaic includes SPAN 239 Spanish for the Health Professions with Professor Asuncion Arnedo-Aldrich, AMST 200 Introduction to Latino Studies with Professor Laura Grappo,  HIST 314 Latino Immigration with Professor Marcelo Borges, and HIST/SOC 313 Fieldwork Practicum with Professor Susan Rose and Professor Marcelo Borges. Eleven students participate in varying numbers of the offered courses, and present on a final research project of their choice at the end of the semester.

View the syllabus here!

Left to Right: Professors Asuncion Arnedo, Susan Rose, and Marcelo Borges

Previous Mexican Mosaics
The1998 Mexican Mosaic focused on migrant labor in Adams County, Pennsylvania, just South of Carlisle. The 2003 Mexican Migration Mosaic worked with communities in Adams County, Pennsylvania and Peribán in Michoacán, Mexico–communities which lie on opposite ends of the continent, but stand closely connected through family, work and circular migration. Through intensive fieldwork and internships, students came to better understand the economy and culture, living and labor conditions, and lives of people in both regions. Students had the opportunity to pick apples in the Adams County orchards, visit migrant worker camps, teach ESL in school classes and after-school programs, intern in migrant Headstart programs and day care centers, work with health clinics, and interview growers and advocacy groups in Adams County. In Peribán, students were involved in ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing families of migrant workers and people who have settled in Adams County. Both were full-semester Mosaics involving 18 and 23 students respectively taking 4 courses with either 2 – 3 faculty. (Faculty 1998, Anthropology and American Studies; 2001, Anthropology, History,and Sociology; coursework counted in Latin American Studies, Spanish, History, Anthropology, Sociology, and American Studies).

Click here to link to our 1998 and 2003 Mosaic information!