Arts and Humanities Commons^™

In His Wake: Applying Life's Truths In Fiction, Joseph M. Balderas

Theses and Dissertations

The culmination of the creative work and its introduction attempt to delve into the psyche of what it means to lose someone you love. The screenplay explores the grieving process and the coping mechanisms that accompanies it, with an examination on how far some people are willing to go for closure.

To reach my conclusions, I draw from my own life experience, the experiences of others, and a fine amount of research. It also means to shed light on the impermanent mental strain that chaperon’s grief.

Brava & Gloria: A Mexican Counterstory Screenplay, Jose David Garcia Gilling

Theses and Dissertations

“Brava & Gloria: A Counterstory Screenplay” is a thesis work which combines the theoretical aspects of Latinx representation in films with a full-length, feature film screenplay. In this work I use speculative fiction aesthetics to address the matter of representation and I create a version of how I would like to see Latinxs represented on screen. The story of “Gloria and Brava” is a medium to achieve this. Even though it does not mimic my personal experience as an immigrant, the core of the story is my family’s and my own experience as a Latino in the United States. Consequently, …

Safe Passage, John Molina

Theses and Dissertations

Safe Passage is a novel detailing life in the RGV. The novel is a bildungsroman that follows a group of friends and their experiences in the RGV. The novel sheds light on a region that is rarely examined, and uses flashbacks and flash forwards to show what it is like to age in the RGV.

The novel deals with life growing up near the Texas/Mexico border and relates experiences from the group of friends mentioned in the previous paragraph. The novel describes political and police corruption, drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, and assimilation along the Rio Grande Border. The novel …

The Gloria E. Anzaldúa Journey: Path To Conocimiento A Testimonio Of Queer Heroics, Veronica Solis

Theses and Dissertations

As an auto-historia testimonio, I approach my work from my experience with performance poetry where I used my personal experiences to express the continuum of gender through poetry. I also draw from Gloria Anzaldúa’s “path of conocimiento” as a framework for my narrative stories as queer rites of passage.

Solitude And Our Projected Dreams, David E. Jamison

Theses and Dissertations

“Cineplex” is a creative writing manuscript discussing isolation, escapism, and the way narrative inherently distorts our understanding of the world. Many of my characters are isolated people who create their own fantasies to escape otherwise dreary circumstances. Others try to live their lives by a narrative they see on television or in the news and ultimately discover that reality is infinitely more complex than they have been lead to believe.

Revolution, Mario J. Jorge

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis, Revolution, is a novel of historical fiction set during the Cuban Revolution from 1945 to 1957. Following in the tradition of Gabriel Marquez (100 Years of Solitude), Joseph Conrad (Nostromo), and James A. Michener (Mexico), the unfolding of events begins in the fictional city of Alarico set in Cuba's Oriente Province before spreading into Havana. The prominent figures of the revolution-Batista, Castro, and Guevara-are represented by fictional counterparts in order to circumvent the restrictions of history to tell an exciting story. We follow Fidel's rise to power, as well as the lives of a Cuban miner and his …

How To Live: Growing Up As A Brown Gay Boy In A Conservative, Traditional And Christian Homophobic Family, Felipe Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

How to Live: Growing Up as a Brown Gay Boy in a Conservative, Traditional Christian and Homophobic Family chronicles the life of one brown, gay boy as he navigated culture, racism, religion and traditional family values growing up. Felipe Vasquez, the boy, narrator and author, analyzes events in his life which guided his choices and left lasting impressions. In the chapters hereby presented, he deals with being gay in a machismo culture, being Latino in the 80s, 90s and present day United States and dealing with mental health in a culture that tends to misunderstand mental illness.

Please Hold: Pushing The Comedic Movie Culture Forward, Lonanthony Phillip Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Growing up I always loved to watch movies. I was fascinated with the way the actors and actresses on the screen could spread joy, laughter, sadness, and anger, even making you fall in love by something they said or did. It has been my dream to have the same effect on people through the power of cinema as well. I am going to talk about multiple movies that I feel played a huge part in pushing the comedic movie culture forward. I want to break down and discuss three factors in these movies that I feel are vital when one …

Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Empowerment Through Mimicry, Daniel Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

My collection is a polythetic assortment of poetry, prose poetry, monologue and drama that serves as a polyglottic exhibition of empowerment through mimicry. Like a mockingbird, whom the Aztecs call “cenzontle” in their Nahuatl tongue, my writer’s voice is polyvoiced. I include in this collection an eclectic variety of voices: personas, languages, forms, styles, and identities—often mixing them, in part to entertain and in part to challenge my boundaries as a writer, to stretch my vocal chords, so to speak, but also in part to challenge the lingering prejudice against such mestizaje—or meeting and mixing of cultures (and also voices)—and …