Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Learning To Speak: Poems, Celina A. Gomez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This project is a collection of poetry that weaves together past, present, and the hopes of a future that causes change. It is set in South Texas and discusses borders spanning from social class, language, and identity. The collection primarily focuses on the Chican@ voice and the shame that comes from the borderlands. I have drawn from the Rio Grande Valley as a source of inspiration while also using family experiences, my own reaction to shame, and the possibilities of an empowered voice.

Not My Son, Cynthia Marie Lopez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This screenplay is an intimate and honest exploration of the nature of various relationships between fathers and sons. It explores how fatherly expectations can make lasting impacts, both helpful and detrimental, on their sons that can ultimately drive a wedge between them if the sons think they have failed their fathers or if the fathers think that the sons have not lived up to their potentials. The screenplay also lightly explores the quest for perfection and what ultimately is the price of that quest, especially for those who cannot meet those unrealistic expectations imposed on them by their parents and/or …

Women's Speech As Reflected In The Television Series, Friends, Gema Del Moral

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This research focuses on analyzing how contemporary women’s speech is reflected in the popular television show Friends through the characters’ differences in gender and their variances in language forms. The aim of this thesis is to find out if there are certain lexical and syntactical characteristics that distinguish women’s language from men’s language. In this study, a corpus linguistic approach is used to collect the data and make a quantitative analysis based on the verbal communication of the characters involved in Season 4 of Friends. The analysis of the linguistic features of verbal communication of all the characters in Season …

A Conversation With Rita Moreno: Examining The Employment Challenges Of The Latino Actor, Valente Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Rita Moreno has worked as an actress for more than 70 years. Her first acting job was in the play Skydrift, on Broadway, at age 13, in 1944. She is in an unusual position having garnered all the major acting awards and the presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award bestowed upon a non-military person in the United States. She is the only Latino EGOT as she has an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony, the top awards in the field of entertainment. I thought it would be interesting to ask her what her biggest challenge was in …

Doc And The Chimera Conspiracy, Jesus Beltran Ii

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Doc and the Chimera Conspiracy, is a story that takes place in a world which diverged from our own in 1861 and led to a cooperation between the stoic science of Europe and the holistic science of indigenous people around the world. It is because of the cooperation that there is an explosion in advancements of science and technology. One of these advancements is the creation of Clones and human/animal genetic creations known as Chimera. I tell the story of Jack (a.k.a. Doc) a Chimera who lives in this present day, alternative Earth. The story teeters on the edges of …

Queer Monsters, And Bruno & His Speaking Queers, Charles R. Mcgregor

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This multi-genre thesis spans across nonfiction (Queer Monsters), poetry (Bruno & His Speaking Queers), and fiction (A Queer Empire Named Eden) in an attempt to break down the categorical control the hegemonic powers like to assert over not only the arts, but gender and sexuality as well. The creative pieces are unapologetically polemic tackling queer issues and the newfound surge in acceptance for queers across the United States. The creative works question how far queers should assimilate into a hegemonic system that was built with heteronormativity enshrined as one of its cornerstone pillars. The nonfiction piece tracks the author’s own …

Study Of Creative Processes That Lead To Successful Visually Narrative Art Products, Denissa U. Kiehl

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The success of an artist’s work depends upon a few key factors. No matter which field of study you pursue as an individual it is important to examine and understand previously collected knowledge and works developed within that field. Once an artist has learned from the successful “Old” methods and examples of artworks he or she may then combine the “Old” with some of his or her “New” methods and ideas. When it comes to visual narrative art there is a large variety of visual art and other creations to learn from. Factors related to decision making will change with …

Difference In The Perception Of Political Art Inside And Outside The Art Gallery, Jose Maria Parga

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of the research for this exhibit was to explore whether a major difference exists in the way political art is perceived by an audience when the art is in an art exhibition and when it is seen in an urban environment. Since the subject matter of En el País de No Pasa Nada, is the current wave of violence and corruption happening in Mexico, the targeted audience for this exhibited is limited to Mexican people and people on the US border with Mexico. If there is a difference in perception, what does the work of art gain, and …

Reflections Of Oppression, Fatemeh Semiari

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis is an investigation into the lives of women living in Iran. I develop a critical framework for understanding it. It is now my understanding that women suffer greatly from the restrictions they are subjected to. I discuss what some of these restrictions are, and how these pressures create turmoil and confusion within some women. The artwork created for my thesis project is a reflection upon the relationship between social proscription and a woman’s desire to express her individuality publicly. The women I portray in my thesis project exhibit a range of emotions such as anger, depression, despair, defeat, …

Landing: On The Other Side, Marianita Escamilla

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Landing: On the Other Side a collection of essays that discuss one woman's struggle with the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia (FM). The narratives are organized non-chronologically because the more pervasive effects of this chronic illness manifest in waves that do not follow a simple means of progression. Rather, FM's most powerful symptom is the highly variable pain strength coupled with its unpredictability.

The mass marketability of this text, as with other illness/disability narratives, lies in the universal message of prevailing against adversity. A person need not suffer from this illness or any ailment to comprehend the narrator's plight. While this …

Last Breath, Marshall James Saenz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Last Breath is a Gothic Web Series about a girl who recreates her identity while recovering her lost memory. She discovers dark family secrets and a rigid society that is as equally imprisoning as her room. Ultimately, she engages in a game of intrigue, putting her family name and soul at stake. The story incorporates traditional Gothic and Southern Gothic influences described by Bailey, De Vore et al., Radcliffe, and others. The issue of format is analyzed using insights by Felicia Day, Syd Field, Tennessee Williams, and Robert McKee. The Web Series remains a pioneering medium. Shows such as The …

Narrative Structure In The Works Of Frederic Rzewski, Bree K. Guerra

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis examines the compositional strategies Rzewski applies to affect his audience’s expectations so that the experience of the work parallels the political and philosophical ideas within it. Employing musical narrative theory as a way to characterize the process of expectation that can guide the perception of musical meaning, I explore how Rzewski’s pieces support or reject interpretation through a musical dramatic trajectory in ways that reflect the concepts behind the work to argue that: 1) Rzewski’s early variation works follow a linear narrative whose sequence of musical transvaluation conveys dynamics of socio-political problems and suggest solutions through collective action; …

Special Delivery, Jacob M. Guerra

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Special Delivery is a play that focuses on gender roles, specifically that of the Latino male in today’s culture.

Generations Apart: Exploring The Generation Gap In Theatre, Jesus Briones

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis attempts to find relationships among three different ethnic groups (Jewish, Chinese, and Italian) presented in the following plays. First, there is an explanation of four different types of generation gaps that are discovered throughout the first play of examination, Fiddler on the Roof. There is a technology gap, a cultural gap, a religion gap, and an assimilation gap. Each of these gaps is present within Fiddler on the Roof and is varied throughout the remaining plays examined (Flower Drum Song and Over the River and Through the Woods). Each “gap” will be given an explanation and how it …

I,Metaboy, Mario Leal Jr.

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

I,metaboy is a stage play about a young homosexual couple, one a soldier and the other a writer, during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s and the struggles they encounter in their relationship when the soldier marries a woman to pass in the military. The story follows in the tradition of other Queer literatures that explore the state of the trope of the homosexual male within his given historical period. This historically places the identity. I,metaboy is based on an amalgamation of imagery from a variety of media (theatre, literature, TV, film, social policy, historical texts, myths, …

U.S. Jazz In The 1950s, Amanda Canales

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

I have examined jazz music in the United States during the 1950s and argue that its popularity in various demographics illustrates that despite social and racial tensions jazz unified them. By explaining this we learn that Jazz’s popularity with different groups reflects not only jazz’s ever present flexibility but how societal values and issues are shown respectively. A brief background of the U.S during the 1950s, three key definitions for the nonconformist, conformist and purist as well as a brief history of jazz during the 1950s can be found in the introduction. Chapter II through IV deals with the specific …

My Purple Summer: A Comparative Analysis Of Frank Wedekind's Play "Spring Awakening" And Steven Sater's Adaptation "Spring Awakening: A New Musical", Joel A. Garza

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this academic thesis is to study and analyze Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening and its adaptation Spring Awakening: A New Musical, written by Steven Sater. This study includes an analysis of musical theatre and its history, an analysis of Frank Wedekind’s original work and a comparative analysis with Sater’s adaptation. Also, the thesis explores the “Post-Modern Musical,” a new form of production currently being produced on Broadway. The main focus of the thesis is to analyze how Spring Awakening affects contemporary audiences, this is done through an analysis of the music and themes associated with the modern production.

La Joya Isd Fine Arts: Teaching Mexican Identity Through Music And Dance, Katrena H. Henry

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The La Joya Independent School District has made a serious effort to cultivate and promote mariachi, conjunto, and folklórico programs at the middle school and high school level. Students give numerous performances throughout the year and these programs have exposed thousands of people to the music and traditions of Mexico and the border region. What draws so many students to these particular programs in La Joya ISD? What sense of "Mexican identity" do these programs create for its participants? Through observing various performances, interviewing educators, students, and community members, I explore why these programs are considered essential by the school …

Zumba® Fitness As A Cultural Mediator, Cole E. Durain

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This ethnography describes local experience as it pertains to aspects of music, dance, and fitness which are compiled into Zumba® Fitness classes of the Rio Grande Valley. While Zumba is not unique to this region, it is locally interpreted based on geo-cultural factors of the Texas-Mexico border region. A large part of Zumba’s success in the Valley can be attributed to the way music is used to identify with regional popular culture and becomes a catalyst for changing the way locals think about health. Research gathered through participant-observation shows that Zumba has become a cultural expression where participants perform both …

"Aliens Say What Humans Can't": Popular Culture And Totalitarianism In "The Twilight Zone", Lisa M. Howell

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study analyzes the political and social context of key episodes from 1959 to 1964 of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. His science fiction television series, nestled against the backdrop of the Cold War, showcased his viewpoints on controversial issues from the Holocaust, postwar gender issues, McCarthyism, nuclear war and totalitarianism. As he was often fond of saying, “Aliens Can Say What Humans Can’t.” Also integrated in this study is showing how The Twilight Zone served as both an agent of change as well as a reflection of the times. This in turn, encouraged the masses to question and modify …

The Conditions Of Production Surrounding “Crawling With Monsters”: A Way To Create Social Consciousness Through Theatre In South Texas, Jorge Augusto Contreras

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Evaluating theatre's actual contribution to social development is subjective. There is a specific field of study that has been born from the need to incorporate all theatre outside the mainstream that seeks to do more than entertain an audience: “Applied Drama” or “Applied Theatre.” This study argues that through the process of creating the play Crawling with Monsters a group of UTPA students were empowered to make social change and ended up doing a critically acclaimed applied drama project regarding Mexico's drug war. After an introduction to the formation of the group and the situation to which it was responding, …

Another Sort Of Life: A Novel, Andrew S. Hollinger

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the critical introduction of this thesis, I examine the academic and creative impulses that helped me to complete this novel. In particular, I detail my seemingly nonlinear course of study as I planned, wrote, and reflected on this novel draft. This work required significant research and study outside the field of creative writing: health care systems, cancer, shame, vulnerability, guilt. I discuss at length the processes by which I became knowledgeable of these subjects, and how even after the first draft of the creative work was completed, I continued to create a more nuanced and sophisticated concept of my …

The Last Orchard, Caleb David Camacho

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Last Orchard is a screenplay about two rival groups of ten-year-olds in 1989 Pharr, Texas. Their elementary school conflicts create a neighborhood war within their mobile home park, coinciding with the entire park's wide eviction and land ownership crisis. The story is written with a mythic fiction approach – a method I learned through Carl Jung's and Joseph Campbell's works on archetypes, mythology, and the hero's journey; it is a practical tool for storytelling. The Last Orchard is based on Homer's Iliad: the Trojan War, its heroes, and gods. Some plays and numerous films have their mythic counterparts, along …

The Imagineknights: An Experiment In Imagination, Rachel Saldana

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

I planned to write an experimental children’s play that would entertain an audience of children and promote the importance of imagination. The final draft starts out immersed in imaginative design elements to grab the audience’s attention from the start. The Witch sets the mood, entering in an elaborate costume, casting a spell that will carry throughout the play. As far as whether my play will entertain, I did not produce this play to get concrete results. Instead, I utilized some techniques that have been consistently successful in other children’s plays. I have done much research and shown my play to …

"Threads Of Belief", Erum S. Javed

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

As the needle pierces the fabric, the thread finds its way. As the needle lays its rhythmic path, the thread follows the needle, creating a specific sound and pattern. The needle and the thread together create something new or mend something old. As an artist I have found my direction, and sensitivity, the same as the thread that finds its way by filling and tying the spaces between other threads in the fabric. As I draw the point through every stitch, I am drawing a thought, a moment, an expression from past and present. I seek a thread, a theme, …

The Mexican Identity And Music: Audioscapes And The Transnational Death Metal Band Brujeria, Michael D. Mena

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The California-based Mexican-American “activist” metal band Brujeria, uses a powerful, yet conflicting, blend of nihilism, anarchism, and racism with a dose of hyper-patriotism in its attempt to convey the voice of oppressed Mexicans on both sides of the border. While it is uncertain whether or not Brujeria is intentionally political, their live performances and song lyrics are highly critical of both the U.S. and Mexico regarding immigration policy, border-crossing, and other issues which have resonated among an international audience. In this paper I explore the conflicting notions of space, performativity, binationality and U.S. Mexico relations within the context of Brujeria …

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 …

After “Borderlands” The Making Of An Academic Chola: Poems, Veronica Sandoval

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This poetry collection is by a Mexican American spoken word, performance poet, Lady Mariposa, from Sullivan City turned Chican@ feminist after coming to terms with her mestizaje through Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza. In Lady Mariposa’s journey as an “Academic Chola,” the term “chola” articulates her Chican@ identity and creates a new space in academia by using “chola” as a hybrid of identity and style in the formation of her poetics. Her poetry can also be called pocho, pocha, Tex-Mex and code switches. She is inspired by Chican@ literature and history, lowriders, cholo culture, cholas, jazz, hip …

Poeta Power: The Poetic Journey Of La Erika: Poems, Erika Marie Garza-Johnson

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This is a collection of poetry set in the borderlands of deep South Texas. The poems take as their subject Chican@ identity, family, the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, Edcouch-Elsa, Texas, cancer, sexuality, Chicana feminism, childbirth and children, marriage, education, folklore, epithets, among others. As a cycle, they represent the poet‘s development through key stages in her life, including childbirth, marriage, and death of a parent. Many poems in this collection also reflect the linguistic diversity of the U.S.-Mexico border through the poet’s use of code-switching and Tex Mex.

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 …