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Pachuquismo E Identidad Nacional Imaginada En Los Estados Unidos Y México En La Década De 1940, Isabel Saavedra-Weis Jan 2023

Pachuquismo E Identidad Nacional Imaginada En Los Estados Unidos Y México En La Década De 1940, Isabel Saavedra-Weis

Hispanic Studies Honors Projects

Pachuquismo was a counterculture born in the barrios of East L.A. in the 1940s. Mexican-American youth created their own social group defined by specific clothing (zoot suits), music fusions (mambo and swing), and linguistic dialects (caló). However, on both sides of the U.S. and Mexican border, pachucos had a poor reputation. In the U.S., mainstream media portrayed pachucos as juvenile delinquents and domestic threats. In Mexico, pachucos were mimicked and heavily criticized for their Americanization. In this essay, I identify how U.S. and Mexican mainstream media reacted to pachucos, and what those portrayals can tell us about the imagined national …


Chacra Farming, Peasant Livelihood Portfolios And Identities In The Peruvian Andes, Anna C. Bebbington May 2019

Chacra Farming, Peasant Livelihood Portfolios And Identities In The Peruvian Andes, Anna C. Bebbington

Geography Honors Projects

Nearly fifty years after land reform in Peru, and in the face of dramatic climatic and social change, small-scale, high-altitude agriculture and the livelihoods of peasant households have fundamentally changed.Nonetheless, low-input subsistence agriculture, known as chacra agriculture, remains a prominent feature in Andean landscapes and peasant livelihoods. Drawing on research conducted in two agro-pastoral communities in the Ancash region of Peru, this thesis seeks to show how and why households in these communities continue to rely on the chacra as part of their livelihood strategies. While seeking to understand the role of the chacra in peasant livelihood portfolios, I consider …


Coca, Capitalism And Decolonization: State Violence In Bolivia Through Coca Policy, Margaret A. Poulos Apr 2018

Coca, Capitalism And Decolonization: State Violence In Bolivia Through Coca Policy, Margaret A. Poulos

Political Science Honors Projects

I approach Bolivian coca policy under Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous President, as a site to examine the broader issue of decolonization. My paper argues that the new General Law of Coca, passed in March 2017, is part of a larger systemic pattern of violence towards historically disenfranchised communities in Bolivia, despite Morales’ indigenous Aymara identity and pro-coca activism. Drawing on interviews I conducted and a postcolonial theoretical framework, I analyze how although Morales has rhetorically advocated for indigenous communities and decolonizing Bolivia, colonial legacies supplanted in the subjectivity of Bolivians and institutions of its government have persisted. I suggest …


El Andaluz Y El Español Estadounidense: Exploring Traces Of Andalusian Sibilants In U.S. Spanish, Carolyn M. Siegman Apr 2018

El Andaluz Y El Español Estadounidense: Exploring Traces Of Andalusian Sibilants In U.S. Spanish, Carolyn M. Siegman

Hispanic Studies Honors Projects

The Andalucista Theory claims that Andalusian Spanish was particularly influential during the development of Spanish in Latin America during the time of Spanish colonization. The present study seeks to examine traces of Andalusian Spanish in Spanish in the United States, considering the added level of complexity brought by contact with English and heightened contact with other dialects of Spanish. By examining 10 interviews from Andalusian Spanish speakers and 12 interviews from Spanish speakers in the U.S., we provide a comparison of the modern-day phonetic realizations of , , and in these two distant linguistic regions.


Activating Informality: Negotiating Urban Identities In Bolivia And Brazil, Georgia E. Gempler Jan 2017

Activating Informality: Negotiating Urban Identities In Bolivia And Brazil, Georgia E. Gempler

Latin American Studies Honors Projects

Drawing on original research, this paper explores the relationship between community identity and informality in Bolivia and Brazil, answering the question “How does informality influence and operate as identity in the social imaginary of urban Bolivia and Brazil?” Based on case studies of informal settlements in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia and Niterói, Brazil, I argue that informality is a tool of social control, community resistance, and identity consolidation. Community identity is informed by the territorial stigmatization of place through national conceptualizations of race and violence, and histories of marginality, resulting in resistance identity and insurgent citizenships.


“Somos Mujeres Y Seres Humanos:" Historias De Vida Y Sanación Con Inmigrantes Latinas Sobrevientes De Violencia Domestica, Sofia Halperin-Goldstein May 2015

“Somos Mujeres Y Seres Humanos:" Historias De Vida Y Sanación Con Inmigrantes Latinas Sobrevientes De Violencia Domestica, Sofia Halperin-Goldstein

Hispanic Studies Honors Projects

While storytelling has been a source of resistance and survival within communities of color for centuries, the therapeutic potential of the personal narrative has only recently been recognized and adopted by health-related fields. Based on a year-long oral project history project with eight immigrant Latina mothers and survivors of domestic violence, this thesis examines the connection between healing and storytelling in the specific context of trauma and societal oppression. The value of this project extends beyond the act of recording an oral history, given the intersectional discrimination experienced by the participants as women of color, immigrants, and members of the …


Cross-Continental Care: Us And Cuban Medical Internationalism In Bolivia, Madeleine Blain Jan 2015

Cross-Continental Care: Us And Cuban Medical Internationalism In Bolivia, Madeleine Blain

Latin American Studies Honors Projects

How can something as commonplace as going to the doctor influence international politics? In Bolivia, medicine is bound in politics. The political structure of a country both influences the approach to health care, and determines how that approach is most effectively implemented internationally. Building upon a framework of conceptual difference between capitalist and socialist health systems, this paper examines “effective” models of US and Cuban international health care on both a political and individual level. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in a Bolivian hospital, interviews with doctors working internationally, and current literature, I seek to discern what defines “effective” international health …


Political Agency In The Era Of Obama And Evo: Local Legacies Of Contestation In Atlanta And La Paz, Jeanne Stuart May 2014

Political Agency In The Era Of Obama And Evo: Local Legacies Of Contestation In Atlanta And La Paz, Jeanne Stuart

Latin American Studies Honors Projects

Often framed as polar political opposites, Bolivia and the United States now share a historical milestone: the victory of a presidential hopeful from a marginalized racial community. The elections of Barack Obama and Evo Morales serve as important victories in the political incorporation of African Americans in the United Sates and highland indigenous communities in Bolivia. Using Atlanta, Georgia and El Alto/La Paz as case studies, this paper addresses how descriptive representation in elected public office fits within a larger framework of political agency and long-term incorporation for marginalized demographics. I argue that African Americans in Atlanta have historically prioritized …


We Have Something To Say: Ideas And Mobilization In The Migrant Solidarity Movement, Leif Johnson Jan 2011

We Have Something To Say: Ideas And Mobilization In The Migrant Solidarity Movement, Leif Johnson

Latin American Studies Honors Projects

Despite the existence of strong anti-immigrant sentiments across the United States, a movement in solidarity with undocumented migrants has emerged in southern Arizona and other heavily traveled border regions. Based on participatory research with the organization No More Deaths / No Mas Muertes, this thesis works towards an understanding of the ways in which this migrant solidarity movement reframes migration within a highly oppositional ideational space. My research suggests that, when examining movements that strongly reject accepted viewpoints, it is important to understand framing not only through analysis that examines a movement or organization as a whole, but also to …