Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Acculturation Effects On Preference For English And Spanish-Language Tv Commercials Among Hispanic Audiences Of Mexican Descent, John Burton

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The growth of the U.S. Hispanic population and its purchasing power over the past twenty years continues to be monitored closely by corporate interests anxious to gain market share and brand loyalty of the segment that now represents the largest minority group in the country. Marketers continue to look for competitive advantages in effectively communicating targeted messages to Hispanics in order to increase revenues and profits.

This study focused on the historically dominant mass-reach medium of television and explored concepts of acculturation theory to examine the effects of acculturation sub-dimensions on TV commercial language preference and attitudes among Hispanic audiences …

This Is The Art Form: Examining Concept Albums' Methods Of Constructing Meaning In The Digital Age, Mario Alonzo Dozal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examined how the communicative characteristics of concept albums (music albums that center on a specific theme) have been adapted from a traditional physical form to exist in the digital age. Using three rock concept albums, this study examined how three different formats (vinyl, audio compact disc, and digital download) of the same concept album communicated the overall theme of the album to listeners, and also examined the advantages and disadvantages of each format. Additionally, using discursive analysis, this study sought to expand the academic literature on concept albums by examining the role that supplementary material plays in helping …

Frases Que Se Escriben En La Nevera, Daniel Rios Lopera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rinocerontes que comen galletas de soda y niños que le recortan los ojos de las fotos de sus vecinos. Un payaso triste que no puede dejar de sonreí­r y un doblador de voces que ha perdido su propia voz. Un niño al que su hermano fantasma le dibuja pecas azules noche tras noche y un señor que habla con un loro en francés.

Una historia jamás contada. Un relato que jamás usted ha leí­do.

Mexican Immigrants´ Foodways In El Paso, Texas, 1880-1960s: Identity, Nationalism, And Community, Juan Manuel Mendoza Guerrero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Although food for Mexican immigrants in El Paso has been through history, with their differences in time, a very important element of their culture, while site that has influenced identity, sense of nation and community, academic studies for this geographic area and for this specific group, are almost nil. This dissertation aims to contribute something to fill this gap. Here, it discusses the historical changes and continuities of Mexican food from 1880 to 1960s, during which time retention, cultural assimilation, and inventive were part of the many processes experienced for Mexican immigrants in their relation with food. The most important …

The Impact Of Literacy Through Movement In A 3rd Grade Hispanic Classroom, Daniel Peregrino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study examines the effects of a kinesthetic literacy-training program on the complexity of narrative production and performance on the Garfield Motivation to Read Survey in a group of four 3rd grade elementary students. The 3rd grade teacher attended a Literacy Through Movement workshop to learn a range of movement-based literacy activities and methods for the classroom. The LITMO program was then implemented as part of a language arts poetry module for 3 weeks in her classroom. Changes in four students' performance on the Garfield Survey and narrative samples were measured before and after the LITMO intervention. Results suggest …

Targeting Minorities: An Inductive Exploration Of The Fbi's Impact On Social Movements (19602-1970s), Crystal Jewel Bustillos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work undertakes the daunting task of examining the role of the FBI in targeting social movements which occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. It further explores the impact this targeting had on the Chicano movement by drawing comparisons between what transpired with the Chicano movement and comparing it to the African American movement. To this end, various archival data was gathered as well as primary sources and expert interviews.

Al-Shabaab's American Recruits: A Comparative Analysis Of Two Radicalization Pathways, Matthew Wade Richardson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

From 2005 to 2011, at least 41 Americans joined, or attempted to join, al-Shabaab, Somalia's preeminent terrorist organization. This thesis examines the radicalization process for al-Shabaab's American recruits by dividing the sample into two groups: non-Somali and Somali. The author employs causal flow diagramming as a means of visualizing each group's unique radicalization pathway. While most of the non-Somali recruits were motivated by political grievances and Salafism, most of the Somali recruits were motivated by identity conflict and nationalism. Considering al-Shabaab is both a religious and an ethno-nationalist terrorist organization, these results make sense. Radicalization within diaspora communities is a …

Androgyny And Musical Identity: Glitz, Glamour, And Everything In Between, Tanya Yvette Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Discourse of androgyny and how it functions and how it is constructed will be central to analyzing how it is utilized in popular music and how artists, particularly androgynous artists, use it to complicate their expression of identities. Androgyny is described as a mixing of both male and female genders, where there can be distinct lack of coherent gender identification. Androgyny has been revealed as an identity that neither men nor women are born with, but embody through time. It is important to illustrate a growing recognition of androgynous artists to offer us an opportunity to glimpse the spectacular evolvement …

The Rhetoric Of Construction: A Comparative Case Study Of The Language Of The U.S. - Mexico And Israel - Palestine Border Walls, Jesse Adam Kapenga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research examines the language and rhetoric of fear used to justify the walls and fences built by the American government along the U.S. - Mexico border, and by the Israeli government around the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It focuses specifically on the rhetoric used by the head of government of each country (the American president and the Israeli prime minister) during the years 2001-2011 to explain and justify the construction of a physical barrier as a measure of national defense and self-preservation.

Design And Development Of An Optically Accessible High Pressure Combustor, Jesus Nunez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Currently in the US there is a push to reduce the nation's energy dependence from foreign fuel sources. One of the most abundant fuels in the US is coal with the nation's coal reserve accounting for 25% of the coal in the world. Due to coal being an abundant resource in the US and the need to reduce the dependency on foreign fuel sources coal derived synthetic fuels have been studied for use in gas turbines. Modern gas turbine combustors must operate over a range of different fuel compositions which includes fuels with high hydrogen fuel content (HHC). To ensure …

Sexual Racism In A Gay Community On The U.S.-Mexico Border: Revisiting The Latin Americanization Thesis Online, Jesus Gregorio Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this investigation is to examine racism in a sexual context or as it shall be defined here, sexual racism, along the border town of El Paso, TX by expanding upon Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's (2002) Latin Americanization Thesis of tri-racial stratification that posits that the U.S. will reflect a three tier racial structure with the White race on top, then an intermediary group of Honorary Whites and a Collective Black category at the bottom. This study will expand upon the Latin Americanization Thesis by examining the intersection of race/ethnicity with sexuality. Specifically, I will add to this thesis by …

Book Of Rooms, Miranda Arocha Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This book of poems is a meandering journey through various rooms, temporary residences. Lyric poems alternate with prose-poems. In sections such as "Body Orbit" and "Exits and Edges," the poet probes artifacts of memory and culture, investigates her relationship to a variety of places (a monastery, a used bookstore, Taco Bell, a website), and explores silence and the sacred. Of central concern is impermanence and the nature of awareness itself. Grounded in autobiography, the poems reflect time spent in a Buddhist monastery and the city of El Paso, TX.

Leonard Bernstein: Conductor, Educator, Jonathan Vogan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to delve into the life and work of Leonard Bernstein and his contributions to the world - more specifically - the world of music. The discussion will focus primarily on his contributions to the field of conducting as well as some of his educational endeavors. This will be achieved using biographical information and audio/visual recordings of his conducting and teaching.

Managing Internal Migration In Modern China: Regional Interests And Forced Removal, 1949-2010s, Bryan Winter

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores how the People's Republic of China (PRC) has attempted to halt internal migration, particularly rural-to-urban migration, in order to maintain socio-political control, and how by the mid-1980s migrant laborers from the countryside had unintentionally created conflicts between authorities from different regions of the country who were either for or against large-scale migration. With the advent of a more open market system that was created after the economic reforms began in 1978, we see that the migrants' movements exposed the differing economic situations of the wealthier coastal provinces and the poor inland ones. This, in turn, led to …

El Movimiento: A Brief Analysis Of The Role Of Core Activists In The Development Of A Unified Social Movement In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Luis Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis attempts to solve the question of why, despite the efforts of many social activists, there is not a unified social movement in Ciudad Juárez, México. My hypothesis is that social activists who are able to distinguish between a collective project and a personal project are more likely to create a successful social movement than those who tie their public identity with their personal identity. The reason seems to be that individuals who do not make this distinction are not able or willing to create networks beyond their ideologies, as well as beyond their personal direct influence and control, …

"How Do We Not Go Back To The Factory?" Negotiating Neoliberal Conditions In A Latina-Led Transnational Development Organization In El Paso (Texas), Anthony Michael Jimenez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: As the structure of the global economy shifted the United States' manufacturing base South of the U.S-Mexico in the years up to and post-NAFTA, thousands of women of Mexican descent residing in El Paso (Texas) were displaced from their garment factory jobs and left without social, political and economic support. Subsequently, some of these women joined La Mujer Obrera, an organization committed to fostering community development for low-income women from both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. The organization faces difficulties in receiving economic aid from the local government, which is apparently due to their development model being incompatible with …

The New Mexican Migration: Remembering Violence, Connecting, And Living In The Third Space, Uriel G. Posada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The concept of identity has become a topic of discussion in the last few decades, especially with the growing immigration across several countries. Countries such as the United States and Canada are receiving people who arrive from different parts of the world and who are changing the composition of these countries. In this thesis I explore how a group of Mexican journalists are adjusting their identity as they live in countries outside of Mexico. Five of the journalists are now living in the United States, and one of them is in Canada. They were forced to leave Mexico after they …

Mother Of Three Drowns Children And Other Stories, Laura L. Stubbins

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A collection of short stories depicting fictional characters facing what is absent from their lives.

In The Spirit Of Liberation: Race, Governmentality, And The De-Colonial Politics Of The Original Rainbow Coalition Of Chicago, Antonio R. Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Original Rainbow Coalition was a revolutionary alliance established in Chicago in early 1969 by the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Organization, and the Young Patriots. The alliance connected one of the largest Black Panther chapters in the country with its headquarters in the heart of North Lawndale, to militant organizations in other outcast communities of the city. In Uptown, the Young Patriots were rooted in almost a decade of grassroots efforts that aimed to organize poor people in a community that featured a large population of southern whites who migrated to Chicago. And in …

The Armchair Daoist, Robert Lucky

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This collection of poems is in three parts with a critical introduction. It explores the creation of identities and truths and the production of meaning. The collection comprises free verse poems, prose poems, tanka, senryu, and haibun, a Japanese form of prose poem. The last section parodies and pays homage to Chuangzi and Laozi.

A Petición Del Público, Daniel José Centeno

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

La vida tragicómica de un bolerista venezolano en la decadencia.

Guerreras Sitiadas: Ansiedades De Género En Dos Obras Del Siglo De Oro, Daniel Alfredo Vega

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Uno de los momentos más dramáticos de la historia de España fue la Guerra de Sucesión Castellana que tomó lugar entre 1475 y 1479. Durante ese periodo, se desató una contienda de sucesión por el trono que habí­a quedado vacante tras la muerte del rey Enrique IV. Siglo y medio más tarde, Lope de Vega y Tirso de Molina escogieron este conflicto como telón de fondo para ambientar dos obras dramáticas en las cuales se ven representadas diversas ansiedades y temas relacionados con género.

Porfirismo During The Mexican Revolution: Exile And The Politics Of Representation, 1910-1920, Nancy Alexandra Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work broadens the narrative of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) by incorporating the perspective of the supporters of dictators Porfirio Dí­az and Victoriano Huerta. I focus specifically on urban professional "Porfiristas," examining the changes and continuities in their identity over the course of the revolution. Identity formation is the central theme of this study, and I rely on memoirs, newspapers, government documents, and oral history interviews in order to analyze the motivations of Porfiristas as they fought to sustain their worldview during a decade of global conflict.

My study draws upon the frameworks of post-colonialism, feminist theory, cultural studies, migration/diaspora …

Development Of The Control And Ignition Systems On A High Pressure Gas Turbine Combustor, Carlos Alejandro Valdez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The ignition and control systems of a laboratory scale high-pressure gas turbine combustor were developed in the present work. This work provides a detailed description of the design, development and testing of the remote control system developed for a High Pressure Gas Turbine Combustor (HPTC).

The combustor has the capability to operate at pressures up to 1.5 MPa and temperatures up to 2400 K. It is also designed for a maximum air and fuel flow rates of 81.93 g/s and 35.77 g/s respectively. The fuel used will be CH4 for the early experiments but it is designed to operate using …

Natural Rights And Equality: The Case Of Injustice In The Senate, Adrian Acosta

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that the Senate, as it is composed, goes against America's basic ideas of equality. First it examines the foundation of America's ideas of justice and natural rights. This is done by examining both Hobbes and Locke and how they helped influence America's ideals and, more specifically, how equality became a natural right. After that, it takes on whether or not these ideas are still valid to this very day. The thesis proceeds by examining the documents that helped form America and the system of government that got instituted after the second constitutional convention. Subsequently, it …

Asl Versus Gestures: Mothers Promotion Of Manual Communication With Their Children, Vanessa Michelle Arreola

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Using ASL and/or gestures has been found to facilitate verbal language in hearing children and has become a new area of interest among researchers. Because socioeconomic status plays a role in behaviors and language development, this study was designed to target individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds in the hopes of finding whether ASL or gestures were used more by their children, whether mothers are capable of promoting the use of ASL in the home environment, and whether ASL or gestures was preferred more by the mothers. Mothers were taught ASL signs based on the MacArthur Communicative Index and gestures in …

The Big Green Mama-Mind-Fuck Machine, Byron W. Cross

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

PREFACE

"so much depends upon

a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water

beside the white chickens."

-W. C. Williams

The Big Green Mama-mind-fuck Machine was born in a debris field of violence, of conflict. I write mostly from an autobiographical place and a debris field is the perfect way to describe the careful stitching together of my experiences, taking a memory and extracting the emotional boom it left behind. I take the piece and spin it in zero gravity, carefully examining it. For this reason, writing an Ars Poetica without "I" would be an impossibility for me. So, after …

The Private Business Of Porfirio Dí­Az And The Early Modernization Of Mexico, 1876-1911, Jorge H. Jimenez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Porfirio Dí­az came to power in 1876 and ruled Mexico for over three decades. This period has been known as the Porfiriato. Mexico's economy became part of the modern global market and the country experienced a process of industrialization, the rise of foreign trade, the expansion of communications, and the emergence of new social classes. These series of economic and social transformations have been linked with the country's early modernization.

My dissertation contributes new insights into Mexico's process of modernization and shows how this transformation brought the rise of an entrepreneurial class under Porfirio Dí­az guidance and leadership. My dissertation …

The Bonds Of A Common Faith: Catholicism, Marriage, And The Making Of Borders In Nineteenth-Century Paso Del Norte, Jamie Matthew Starling

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Roman Catholic Church occupied a central place in life in the U.S.-Mexican borderlands as it governed interpersonal relationships, marriage, and family law from the Spanish colonial period until the 1860s and 1870s. This project examines the role of this church in Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas) as a social institution that regulated domestic life against the backdrop of dramatic political, economic, cultural, and ecological transformations. The central sources for this study are the marriage records of the Parish of Guadalupe. This church emerged as a Franciscan Mission for the indigenous Manso people in …

Writing Across Institutions: Studying The Curricular And Extracurricular Journeys Of Latina/O Students Transitioning From High School To College, Todd Ruecker

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is based on a year and a half multi-institutional study of seven Mexican American students transitioning from high school to a community college or a university. It explores the differences between high school, community college, and university literacy environments, focusing on the following: the impact of standardized testing at the high school level, the role of rhetoric and composition disciplinary expertise in shaping first-year composition (FYC) curricula, writing in the disciplines, and the digital divide between institutions. Seven case studies examine students' literacy experiences across institutions as well as both challenges and sources of support in and beyond …