Digital Commons Network^™

Gender, Empowerment And Coffee In Mexico And Central America: A Policy Analysis, Lisa M. Fry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coffee is an important commodity for Central American countries. Like other agricultural production, coffee production in the region is undergoing a “feminization” in which women become the primary producers. However, female agricultural producers face constraints that their male counterparts do not. This study analyzes policies to determine if they promote or continue the inhibition of empowerment of female coffee producers. The results of the study indicate that policies relating to Central American coffee production are promoting women’s empowerment, but implementation remains weak. Policy recommendations are included.

Diaspora Caribefia: Nostalgia Y Lenguaje En Las Novelas De Esmeralda Santiago, Julia Alvarez Y Cristina Garcia, Ruben J. Nazario

MALS Final Projects, 1995-2019

No abstract provided.

Zapatismo’S Otra Campaña: Its Efforts For Autonomy And The Construction Of An Anti-Capitalist Social Coalition In Mexico, George J. Williams

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper examines the extent to which La Otra Campaña (The Other Campaign) has succeeded in constructing anti-capitalist social coalitions in Mexico. Through a social movement theoretical lens, I analyze the dynamics of three distinct movements within La Otra: (1) the indigenous Zapatistas of Chiapas, (2) the CNUC, a campesino group from Tlaxcala, and (3) the Pancho Villas, an urban housing organization from Mexico City. Based on personal interviews, field notes, and participant observation, this paper compares the tactics and organizing techniques employed by each movement. It explores the ways in which the Zapatista project of “autonomy” has been appropriated …

Parenting Practices And Child Mental Health Among Spanish Speaking Latino Families: Examining The Role Of Parental Cultural Values, Melissa Renee Donovick

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to evaluate observed parenting practices among first-generation Spanish-speaking Latinos living in Utah. Participants included 50 families with a child between the ages of 4 and 9. Parents and their child engaged in a behavioral observational task that was coded for parenting dimensions and styles to determine if they predict child outcomes among Latino families. Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist to assess for behavioral problems. Observations were coded using the Parenting Scale, developed specifically for this study. In general, parents received high ratings on warmth and demandingness, and lower ratings on autonomy granting. Parenting …

Mapu Lahual: Ecotourism And Indigenous Rights In Chile, Danielle Dean

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract: This thesis will assess the efforts of international organizations (IGOs) and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) to facilitate self-determination and economic independence for the indigenous Mapuches peoples in Chile. My hypothesis is that both IGOs and INGOs to a great extent have helped indigenous peoples gain substantive rights in Chile. When analyzing Chilean progress in indigenous rights, three topic areas were identified. The first considers how the constitutional frameworks support indigenous rights and what rights are guaranteed or hindered due the Chilean 1980 constitution. The second is the economic inclusion and independence of the tribes or communities. Ecotourism projects have …

The Identity And Integration Of The Quichua-Speaking People Of Highland Ecuador, Marie-Genevieve Sasseville Babecki

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In 1990 a massive pan-indigenous uprising occurred throughoutEcuador. This uprising paralyzed the nation and brought the newly politicized ethnicity of indigenous people as political actors to national attention. This led to an increasingly contentious struggle for power, related to the historical verticality of classes based upon ethnicity. But why did ethnicity now become politicized in such an explosive manner and how is this politicized identity formed?

Examining historical context, we trace the evolution of state discourse which greatly shapes identity from one of separation and segregation of indigenous peoples and Hispanic elites, to greater inclusion of all populations as citizens. …

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

Privatization Of Water In Latin America: A Case Study In Bolivia, Jason Segers

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

La Mujer Se Va Pa’Bajo: Women’S Health At The Intersections Of Nationality, Class, And Gender, Mary Alice Scott

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This research utilizes an intersectionality framework to examine the complexity of social location and its effects on women's health. By examining connections among the state, processes of globalization, and the production of health inequalities for poor women in a rural community in southern Veracruz, Mexico, the research highlights the nexus of nationality, class, and gender. Four interconnected contexts are explored: (1) women's increasing paid and unpaid labor in the context of a poverty of resources brought on by sustained economic crisis; (2) the maintenance of reproductive labor as the responsibility of women; (3) the development of migrant "illegality" and its …

Mujeres Haciendo Frente Al Desplazamiento Forzado / Women Confronting Forced Displacement, Rocio Clarisa Lemus

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The main question of this research whether or not a relationship exists between gender and forced displacement. More specifically, my interest is to document the experiences that women undergo when they are forced to leave their places of origin due to the Colombian War. The present research looks both to study the current condition of women who live in displaced condition in Bogotá and to contribute to the discussion regarding the concept of ambivalent empowerment. The analysis of the information is enriched by the Intersectionality Theory of Patricia Hill Collins . The research method and design used in this research …

Phenomenology Of Embodied Dreamwork With Puerto Rican Women: A Dissertation, Lourdes F. Brache-Tabar

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The author investigated the experience of embodied dreamwork. Participants were eight Puerto Rican women who were chronically ill, of low socioeconomic status, who lived in Boston. The data were analyzed using transcendental phenomenology. Each participant engaged in one embodied dreamwork–unstructured interview session lasting approximately 1.5 hours. In addition, each participant drew a picture of how she felt after the dreamwork interview. This snowball, purposive sample gave detailed information about how they experienced embodied dreamwork. The participants’ statements were grouped into themes: (a) sense of place—environment, surroundings, spatiality; (b) the players—self, others; (c) plot; (d) in the sea of emotions—naming affective …

The Impact Of Cartel Related Violence On Ongoing Traumatic Stress And Self-Medication In Young Adults Living Along The U.S./México Border, Thom J. Taylor

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ongoing Potentially Traumatic Stress (OPTS) as a result of violence and insecurity along the U.S./México border remains understudied. Many residents of the border may be both indirectly and directly exposed to potentially traumatic events on an ongoing basis, particularly in the city of Cd. Juárez, México. The present study examined the impact of the violence and insecurity on daily traumatic stress levels and the potential for self-medication via alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drugs within Spanish speaking young adult residents and commuters to Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, México. Participants (N = 121) completed multiple online reports of location in and travel to …

Migration, Food And Cultural Production Across Changing Afro-Ecuadorian Geographies, Amelia J. Swinton

Honors Theses

The human geography of Ecuador is changing. Urban Afro-Ecuadorians now outnumber those living in the two rural regions that have been the ancestral homelands of the population. This physical transformation assaults Ecuador's historically racialized geography, which conflated cities, modernity and white-mestizo identity. Though Afro-Ecuadorians living in the rural north had previously been physically and figuratively located outside of the national project, Ecuador’s new constitution has sought to reverse this institutionalized exclusion. National belonging has been reframed through the concept of interculturality, which recognizes diversity and equality at the same time. I conducted two periods of fieldwork in the north-central Chota …

Bilingual Visual Culture In New York : Socially-Engaged Latina Artists And The Discourse Of Hybridity, Solmerina Aponte

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the aesthetic visual discourse of hybridity manifested in the works of contemporary socially-engaged Latina artists of the New York diaspora. For Latin America and the Caribbean, regions where sociopolitical history has generally exhibited a tumultuous trajectory, the arts have provided a formidable venue for addressing the social concerns engendered by this turbulent history and for studying the creative ways in which artists interpret them. The symbiotic bond created between art and politics would become a cultural force and tradition in the history of struggle that characterizes the countries that are part of …

A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Mexican Immigrants' Economic Incorporation In The United States, Miao Chunyu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation research is a comparative study of the economic incorporation of the unskilled Chinese and Mexican immigrants in the United States. This comparative approach is justified by the fact that these two groups share striking similarities in human capital, social networks, and immigrant flow patterns, whereas they also differ significantly in their migration cost, transnational practice, and reception in the U.S. labor market. This research investigates three specific aspects of their labor market experience: participation in self-employment, job transition, and earnings growth. Essentially I hope to find out whether these immigrants can achieve economic mobility over time and in …

Climate Change And Indigenous Peoples In Latin America, Amy C. Rademacher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the detrimental effects of climate change on indigenous peoples in Latin America. Indigenous peoples throughout the region tend to live subsistence livelihoods, which tie them closely to their land and the surrounding environment. This close relationship often means that indigenous peoples acutely experience the effects of climate change and are more susceptible to its negative outcomes than other populations. Further, indigenous peoples in the region lack the mitigation and adaptation capacities to deal with damaging climatic effects.

This research was designed to view the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples through a human rights framework, …

Central Bank Independence: Rules, Practices, And Outcomes, Douglas Aaron Block

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In recent years interest has grown in central bank independence as research has shown that it may affect many important financial issues such as unemployment, inflation, and inflation variability, among others. However, empirical evidence regarding its effect has been inconclusive and there is low correlation among various legal central bank independence measures. In this thesis, I attempt to resolve these problems by generating a new measure of legal central bank independence that takes into account divergence between laws and practices. I then measure the impact that democracy and proportional electoral systems have on reducing this divergence and find that democracy …

The Effects Of Acculturation On Healthcare In The Mexican-Origin Community: El Paso County, Texas, Aurelio Saldana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study was built around the understanding that there is complexity in the "Hispanic"¹ health care/acculturation phenomenon. The El Paso region provides an environment where an array of cultural influences produces an acculturation process whose dynamics appear to be unique but in fact are not dissimilar to other regions where cultures are coming into contact with each other. The way borderland acculturation manifests itself in local "Hispanic" healthcare behaviors contradicts the concept of the neat move from "traditional" to the "formal" biomedical paradigm. The actual behavior observed adds support to the more complex, segmented, multi-dimensional interpretations of healthcare behavior adaptation …

Rituals Of The Re-Founded Bolivian State, Raquel Elizabeth Nava Cerball

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Power To Choose?: An Analysis Of The Implications Of Gardasil For Immigrant Women, Olimpia Lee Pizzardi

Honors Papers

When the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, first entered the U.S. market in 2006, its groundbreaking promise to prevent cervical cancer and its status as a costly, gender-specific drug captured the nation's attention. Two years later, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began to require the HPV vaccine from immigrant women and girls as part of the naturalization process. In stark contrast to the journalistic stir that Gardasil provoked, the new immigration requirement went unnoticed until the National Coalition for Immigrant Women's Rights (NCIW) called it to attention. I examine the discursive practices and sociohistorical contexts that enabled the problematic …

Short Term Strategies For Long Term Power: The Rise And Potential Fall Of Hugo Chávez, Linden E.S. Schult

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the route to power of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez and the methods by which he has remained in power throughout his presidency. Also, it explores the potential for Chávez to lose power, given the current economic and political situation in Venezuela. The importance of the oil industry, Chávez's suppression of the opposition and control of the media, and constitutional changes and reforms are all discussed as keys to Chávez's continuance in power.

The Transnational Gaze: Viewing Mexican Identity In Contemporary Corridos And Narcocorridos, Charlene Ladawn Montano

Honors Papers

Through the lenses of technology and gender I offer a new perspective on the employment and utilization of corrido tropes throughout history and in modern culture. Technology has expanded the transnational gaze, not only increasing the sheer number of listeners but also incorporating a visual element to the (narco)corridos. The enlarged and geographically diversified community of listeners coupled with visual elements only strengthens the tropes evident since the earliest corridos.

Gender is markedly absent in the literature that discusses corridos, but its presence in the tradition has a strong influence on the Mexican mask. The ways in which gender is …

Flying Under The Radar With The Royal Chicano Air Force: The Ongoing Politics Of Space And Ethnic Identity, Ella Maria Diaz

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

This dissertation explores the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), a Chicano/a arts collective that produced numerous murals in Sacramento, CA, for over forty years. Grounded in Mexican and US aesthetic traditions, their murals reflect cultural hybridity and re-imagine US history through a Chicano/a perspective. Many of their works were and are located in Sacramento's Chicano/a barrios, while others occupy interethnic, public space in the vicinity of the State Capitol. By encoding hidden Chicano/a iconographies within each mural, the RCAF offers what scholar Alicia Gaspar de Alba calls "alter-Native" narratives of American history because they posit "Other" views of local history, …