Digital Commons Network^™

Bullet-Proof Boll Weevil: The History Of Boll Weevil Eradication, Evan A. Berg

Theses and Dissertations

Farmers and entomologists have all experimented with various methods to find the best way to defeat the United States' boll weevil. The techniques themselves, while expansive, can be examined within the scope of the years that they were used. This provides an exciting insight into how cotton pest management became more complex as the decades moved on and revealed how the science of cotton pest management evolved to deal with the boll weevil and other future cotton threats.

It Must Have Been Your Eyes, Christian Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

This fiction book entails the story of a Mexican orphan girl, Mariana, who is propelled on to a journey to the U.S. along with her mysterious ability to see the future in people’s eyes. Her plight lands her on a shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children in Texas where she is forced to confront her fears and grow. In this surreal story that is based on true events, our times are reflected and even our future

Resisting Whiteness & White Supremacy Through Mexican American Studies, Josue Puente

Theses and Dissertations

In 2018, the Texas Board of Education approved the creation of a Mexican American Studies High School elective course. However, before this course became a reality member on the board pushed to end the course all together. Board members opposed to the creation of a Mexican American Studies course argued that the class could represent a division between different groups under the banner of “we are all Americans”. This thesis centers on the implications are from the narrative created by the social studies standards and the role these standards play in supporting whiteness and supporting white supremacy that has been …

To Love The Birds And The Places They’Ve Made Their Home: Poems From The Magic Valley, Alyssa B. Garza

Theses and Dissertations

The theme of the collection could be summed up in these lines written by Caryll Houselander in The Reed of God, “body and soul together give glory to God: the sharper the capacity for sorrow and joy, the greater the hallowing...Christ laid hold of the world with His human hands...He wed Himself to it. Our life is the response of the bride” (66–67). Our loving connection to every human person is our loving connection to Christ—charity is our bride-ness. The poems follow one bride through her journey, with the author’s environment (the Rio Grande Valley) coloring the verses, as …

The Smuggler Journals: Transgressing And Policing The Border In The Rio Grande Valley, Lupe Alberto Flores

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis summarizes recent human smuggling scholarship and provides ethnographic insights into migrant smuggling in a border zone that is my home. Through exploring my own experiences and observations of smuggling and militarized border policing, and those of other interlocutors in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, I advance nuanced understandings of the symbiotic processes of irregular migration and of the people who brokerage a great deal of these journeys across militarized borders. I analyze fieldnotes that highlight the quotidian realms in which gender and power play out when irregular migration takes place and argue that acts of border …

Women, War, And Planes: Women Airforce Service Pilots' Experience Working Alongside The Army Air Force During World War Ii, Stephanie Michelle Cavin

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Women, War, and Planes discusses the Women Airforce Service Pilots’ (WASP) experience during World War II as a non-militarized program working alongside the Army Air Forces in the continental United States. The mostly white, twenty to thirty aged pilots recruited from a national pool of women flew many different types of planes from basic, lighter aircraft to heavy, four engine models. The Army Air Forces and WASP leaders promised pilots full militarized status. However, the WASPs never received military status or rank while in the program, and in turn, did not receive the same protections afforded to men of who …

The Soul Of Man Under Capitalism, Joe L. Cantu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This paper examines the consciousness of three literary characters, divided by space and time, from mid nineteenth century Russia, mid twentieth century Italy, to late twentieth century American society. This paper exposes literature’s rendition of modern man’s varying consciousness as shaped by the changing social conditions around him. This paper recognizes these varying social conditions as different stages in capitalism’s development. Capitalism has a history; the literature this paper examines discloses its negative impact on the consciousness of its characters. In analyzing Notes from the Underground, Contempt, and American Psycho, three novels separated by geography and spanning a timeframe of …

Aqui Es: The Rhetoric Of Identification In An Act Of Local Branding, Bonnie M. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Brands are a large part of our cultural discourse. In the Rio Grande Valley a group of network-marketing sponsored entrepreneurs has tapped into branding as a rhetorical resource. I use Burke’s concept of consubstantiation to analyze the rhetorical motives represented both in the use of branding in general and in the “Aqui Es” sign utilized by local nutrition clubs. Burke’s concept of consubstantiation allows me to contextualize the production of the sign and open avenues to explore the relationships behind the sign’s use. I then utilize Lacanian psychoanalysis to explain the psychological motives behind the sign’s use and production. I …

Walking Out: The Success Of The Edcouch-Elsa Student Walkout Of 1968 Through The Media, David Robles

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study demonstrates how the success of the Edcouch-Elsa walkout of 1968 was brought upon not only by its organization, non-violent tactics, land mark victory in federal court, and support from several of Mexican American organizations. What also aided the student movement in Edcouch-Elsa was the media attention and how it influence the Rio Grande Valley community not only to question the tactics being used towards Mexican American students in the local educational institutions, but also created public discourse over the issues of race, equality, and students’ rights. Using various academic books of the subject, newspaper clippings of the time …

Mariguano, Juan Ochoa

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Mariguano is a fictional account of a young man growing up in a family in whose patriarch is a Mexican drug lord. The narrator, el Johnny, and his father, Don Julio, crisscross through Mexico with total disregard for distance or time bribing comandantes and stopping turf wars all in preparation for their next score. The novel culminates in Don Julio’s attempt to fix the 1988 Presidential election in Mexico. Don Julio’s son, El Johnny, lives to tell the tale of the rise and fall of his father’s drug smuggling empire and of the destruction of his family. The events in …

Life Stories Of Four Conjunto Musicians: Adding To The Culturally Relevant Curriculum Of The Rio Grande Valley Schools, Andres Martinez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examines music and culture and their importance in the learning process. As early as 1838, Horace Mann and later John Dewey (1916), Tim Brophy (1992) and others were expounding the benefits of music as a necessary element of the school curriculum. Julio Cammarota (2008), Geneva Gay (2000), Alan Singer (1994), Banks and Banks (1989) and others have argued for the importance of culture in the curriculum to enhance learning. Both elements have a unique place in the school curriculum. A brief history of the genre is presented beginning with the early years (mid 1800s), the development years (early …

El Huisache Es Pocho, Pero Las Raíces No: Poems, Isaac Chavarria

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This project is a collection of pocho poetry. The poems in my collection emphasize my identity as pocho. The term “pocho” is often used as a derogatory term describing a Mexican American who has lost the ability to speak Spanish. I recontextualize the border pocho as an occupant of two nationalities, as well as several social classes. Along with poets who identify themselves as Chicano/a, I am inspired by family and acquaintances who self identify as Chicano/a, Hispanic, Mexican American, or Mexican. I believe the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas is a unique enclave influenced by its people, landscape, …

Con Mis Manos / With My Hands: A Documentation Of Specific Cultural Elements Required For A Play Set In South Texas, Emily Ruby Fierros

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This paper attempts to explain the significant cultural elements necessary for a play set in South Texas. Three important elements that are needed to justify the importance of this production are addressed: Preplanning, Production Record, and Evaluation. Chapter 1: The Preplanning explains the purpose and approach of the play through internal and external analysis. Both of these concepts will help develop the understanding of the culture of a play. Chapter 2: The Production Record contains the complete record of the elements used throughout the production of the play. Chapter 3: The Evaluation of the production describes the success of this …

Viviendo Sin Inglés: Los Efectos Sociales Del Dominio Limitado En Inglés Entre Residentes Mexicanos En El Condado De Hidalgo, Texas, Ericka Benavides

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

El propósito de esta tesis es intentar describir las experiencias que una persona de aptitud limitada en el inglés vive y enfrenta en el condado Hidalgo, Texas. Las entrevistas y escritos brindaran testimonio de los conflictos y limitaciones que una persona de aptitud limitada en el inglés afronta para superarse académicamente, conseguir empleo y tener acceso a servicios médicos en los Estados Unidos. La siguiente información presentará una crítica basada en el análisis sociolingüístico de las condiciones que restringen el avance económico y social necesario para que estas personas logren superarse. Al final, se presentarán propuestas para una mejora estatal …

Art, The Social Enzyme: The Emergence Of An Art Community In The Rio Grande Valley, Heaven Lashley

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study explores the emergence of an art community in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) region of South Texas. In researching this objective, I relied on observations at many gallery public functions where I had the opportunity to observe the interactions between prospective buyers, gallery owners and artists. I also visited with gallery owners and artists many times in small group settings where I raised open ended questions about the region's artists and other historical developments that would allow me to put together a cohesive story about the emergence of the art community

This study began as an unstructured exploration …

Mariguano, Juan Ochoa

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This book is in many ways autobiographical, but at the same time attempts to tell the story of the many silent characters that have long been omitted from most works on border life. By “silent characters” I am referring to those who operate on the margins of a marginalized society. The reader will be allowed to glimpse inside the life of a social group that values silence and indifference as basic survival skills.

It is this value on silence and indifference that have forced these stories to go unrecorded for so long. Aside from meeting my thesis requirements, it is …

Herstory, Rita Kathryn Roney

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of Theatre at the University of Texas - Pan American in the 20th Century, from its inception in the Fall of 1934 through the Summer of 2001. It is written as a series of oral interviews with two women whose tenure at The University of Texas - Pan American covers that period. Mrs. Ruth Owings Blalock founded Theatre at the then Edinburg Junior College in 1934. Dr. Marian F. Monta was hired as her replacement in 1971 and continues to serve as area head of Theatre.