Latin American History Commons^™

Dulce Sueños De Tierra, Sweet Dreams Of Earth, Jordany Genao

Theses and Dissertations

Jordany's paper congregates their archival research into an art practice that examines the decolonial impulse to excavate the self and produce autonomy. Using ceramics to reference and re-animate Taino ritual objects found in museums, resulting in alternative museology, their work seeks to honor Caribbean ancestors by subverting colonial history.

Sheriffs, Outlaws, And No Good Cowboys: An Analysis Of The Violent Struggle For Power In Eastern California Borderlands, Brennan Krebs

History | Senior Theses

As the United States continued to expand during the nineteenth century, the creation of new states and acquisition of foreign territory posed many problems for the people living or attempting to live within these territories. On paper, the borders of these lands were clearly defined. However, the infant United States was still a vast array of “borderlands” that many groups, especially indigenous peoples, refused to believe were legitimate. California is no stranger to such conflicts that perpetuate the disregard for borders and the law for one's personal gain. The advent of ranchers and miners in the Owens Valley created a …

A Parar Para Avanzar: To Stop/To Stand/To Strike To Advance, Christina N. Barrera

Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents the first fragments of a political framework outlining how I situate my work, which lives between “craft” and “art” models of making and between colonized and colonizing traditions. My writing proposes ways of making and being informed by practices, strategies, and organizing that work towards greater autonomy and liberation under these conditions.

The Political Power Of Museums: A Case Study On The Museum Of Spanish Colonial Art, Emily Snyder

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

Museums hold an esteemed position that grants validity to the objects and history held within them based solely on their inherent authority as institutions. This makes the analysis of what museums portray incredibly important given the extent of people’s belief that they hold the power to determine authoritative truth concerning art, history, and society. In the late 1970s, museums underwent a period of change tied to becoming more pluralistic. Beginning in the 1990s, many museums touted their postcolonial status in the wake of their inclusion of and collaboration with traditionally outsider communities. Despite this change appearing to create more diverse …

The Tale Of Two Countrysides: The Shaping Of Landscapes In Hispania And Spanish Latin America, Andrew R. Abrams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The way that culture expands and transforms in a colonial context has often been viewed in a top-down approach. This thesis focuses on the spread of culture in the Roman conquest of Spain and the Spanish conquest of Latin America. By framing the argument with a discussion on Romanization, this paper shows the presence of the ideas surrounding Romanization in a new context. By investigating what material culture shows, this thesis looks to the countryside to find examples of cultural change. It argues that the villa landscape should be seen as the indicator of the Romanization of Hispania. The structure …

The U.S.–Mexican War: Visualizing Contested Spaces From Parlor To Battlefield, Erika Pazian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The U.S.-Mexican War[1] (1846-1848) was a watershed event that transformed the North American continent politically, socially, and ideologically. With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico lost approximately half of its national territory in the north, and the United States acquired the modern states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and portions of Colorado and Wyoming. Both nations were plagued by internal conflicts after the war, and each was plunged into civil war within fifteen years of its conclusion.

During this time of turmoil, Mexican and U.S. artists created and recreated myriad images …

Ancient Pottery Making At Cerro San Isidro, Nepeña Valley, Peru, Kaitlyn M. Lowrance

LSU Master's Theses

Located in the Nepeña Valley of north-central Peru, Cerro San Isidro was first documented in the 1930s when the valley was initially surveyed. While numerous sites along the valley, particularly those located in the lower valley, have been extensively researched since this initial survey, members of the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Cerro San Isidro (PIACSI) conducted the first formal excavations in 2019. My thesis project analyzes the ceramic artifacts – in particular pottery fragments – from that field season in order to evaluate continuity and change in morphological and technical styles from the Early Horizon through the Late Intermediate Periods …

Yankee Go Home: Roci In Latin America, Vitoria Hadba

Theses and Dissertations

In 1984, at an event hosted by the United Nations, American artist Robert Rauschenberg announced his most ambitious and controversial project to date: the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange—or ROCI. Blending primary source documents with social art history, I retrace the artist’s steps—and missteps—during the first leg of his tour through Mexico, Chile, and Venezuela. This thesis investigates the convoluted political implications of ROCI in Latin America during the transitional period in which binary Cold War politics were ebbing amidst the rise of a global free-market economy.

Sea-Level Rise And Settlement At Ta’Ab Nuk Na, Belize: Analyses Of Marine Sediment From The I-Line, 4m Transect, Conner B. Flynt

LSU Master's Theses

The ancient Maya of Mesoamerica created a culture with writing, religion, and vast trade networks. These trade networks are evident on the southern coast of Belize, where archaeologists have found sites dedicated to salt making. One of these sites, Ta’ab Nuk Na, was the subject of this thesis. Sediment and charcoal samples were collected from this site by the Underwater Maya Research Group led by Heather McKillop and E. Cory Sills. For my thesis research, I subjected these samples and components within them to loss-on ignition, radiometric dating, and microscopic analysis. Loss-on ignition was used to ascertain organic material percentage …

Pilgrimage To The Virgin Of Juquila: The Negotiation Of Catholic Institutional Power In Colonial Oaxaca, Paloma Barraza

Art & Art History ETDs

Despite the contemporary popularity of the pilgrimage site of the Sanctuary of Santa Catarina of Juquila, the statuette of Oaxaca’s Virgin of Juquila is often eclipsed by the more well-known tilma image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The limited art historical scholarship has failed to address the statuette of the Virgin of Juquila as an icon that signifies both Indigenous and Catholic power dating back to the seventeenth century. Dominican missionaries used the statuette as a mediator for religious conversion practices in the local Chatino community. Furthermore, the moment the Virgin of Juquila gained significant Indigenous popularity …

Claiming The Remains Of The Past: The Return Of Cultural Heritage Objects To Colombia, Mexico, And Peru, Pierre Losson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My research explores the reasons why three Latin American states (Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) claim the return of cultural heritage objects from holding institutions in the Western World, such as museums and universities. The literature on returns and restitutions, which focuses on questions of ownership and possession of objects, opposes two conceptions of cultural heritage: on the one hand, the internationalists argue that the location of a cultural object must be decided according to the interests of science and education, for the benefit and in the name of humankind; on the other hand, the nationalists consider that cultural heritage is …

Traces Of Identity: Portraiture In The Work Of Teresa Margolles, Alexandra M. Perez

Art History Theses and Dissertations

Teresa Margolles, born in Culiacán, Mexico, is a socially engaged conceptual artist whose work examines the causes and consequences of death from the 1990s to the present in her home country. Margolles’s work has been largely discussed in the context of death and violence, and this thesis expands upon this literature by including the concepts of identity and portraiture. By examining how Margolles’s installations, sculptures, and photography use material remains to display identity and memorialize victims, this thesis argues that Margolles not only creates memorials, but also portraits of the fallen victims.

Using the frameworks of portraiture, the index, and …

Dance Of Exile: The Sakharoffs’ Visual Performances In Montevideo (1935–1948), Pablo Munoz Ponzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life-work chronology of the dancers and choreographers Clotilde von Derp (whose surname then was Sakharoff) and Alexander Sakharoff, who were exiled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1941 and 1948. During their stay in the Rio de la Plata region, the Sakharoffs stirred up the art scene by performing extremely detailed dances with great attention to costume design. This thesis begins with a review of the reception of the dancers’ performances by the artistic and cultural circles in Montevideo, arguing that the Sakharoffs’ “queer” trajectory resonated with the Uruguayan artistic community, influencing the creation …

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

Lords From The Desert, Caroline Mercado

Capstones

Lords from the Desert

This work explores a reality that is little talked about: how the most prestigious pre-Columbian art exhibits in the United States hide a murky origin. From looting of temples to illicit art trafficking, to smuggling and collectors’ affairs, the pieces gain value in proportion to the social prestige of their owner. Along the way, the most important is lost: research that provides context and allows us to know history. The First World wins a seductive, but simplistic story. The Third World, from which all these cultures emerge, loses patrimony and possibilities of understanding themselves. A pair …

Indigenous Political Organization In Huamachuco, Peru, In The Early Seventeenth Century., Carolina Delgado Domínguez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores socio-political practices in the former Huamachuco province (upper Virú valley, northern Peru) through the analysis of a legal document from the first decade of the 17^th century. I analyze a litigation regarding indigenous political organization during the first centuries of the Colonial period. This case sheds light over the interaction between a cacicazgo (chiefdom) in the highlands of Huamachuco, and a cacicazgo in Simbal in the middle zone between the coast and the highlands (the chaupiyunga ecological zone), and on endurance of pre-Hispanic political practices during the early Colonial period in the Peruvian north. The 16 …

Testimonies Of Violence: Images Of Franciscan Martyrs In The Provinces Of New Spain, Emmanuel Ortega

Art & Art History ETDs

In the middle of the eighteenth century, Franciscan martyr portraits became popular in monastic spaces of the Spanish viceroyalties of central Mexico. To visually construct the meritorious life of these martyrs, artists drew inspiration from hagiographic chronicles that described various Native rebellions, which featured the graphic depiction of the gruesome deaths of friars. The prospect of martyrdom enticed novices to follow in their footsteps in service to God, but also to the Crown, whose presence in the northern territories of New Spain intensified during the period of the Bourbon reforms. In my dissertation I explore this propagandistic approach to martyr …

La Identidad Cultural A Través Del Espacio Urbano Y Arquitectónico En La Ciudad De México: El Caso De La Villa De Guadalupe, Jamil Afana

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Today, the revered sanctuary of Tepeyac where the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe appeared in 1531, is one of the most visited sites in Mexico and one of the most culturally characteristics spaces of Mexico City. The urban and architectural space of guadalupanista sacred enclosure has continuously transformed since the sixteenth century. This focuses primarily on the years 1976 to 2011 to analyze the Mexican cultural identity that has developed during that time. Both dates are important because they represent the last two built interventions within the sanctuary and they mark the urban image of the sacred space and surroundings. In …

Impermeable Assemblages: Flooding, Urban Infrastructure, And Stormwater Politics In São Paulo, Brazil, Nate Millington

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This project analyzes efforts to remake the relationship between water and city in São Paulo, Brazil. Currently experiencing overlapping problems of flooding, scarcity, and pollution, São Paulo illustrates the challenges of managing water in a contemporary mega-city. This dissertation subsequently considers the city’s water management through an approach that borrows from urban political ecology, social studies of science, and post-colonial urban theory. With an epistemological grounding in these literatures, this project analyzes ongoing conversations about water management in São Paulo, and focuses on how water is encountered and engaged with in the landscape by engineers, artists, and activists. This project …

To Be Magic: The Art Of Ana Mendieta Through An Ecofeminist Lens, Elizabeth Ann Baker

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Ana Mendieta was a Cuban-born American artist whose unique body of work incorporated performance, activism, Earth art, installation, and the Afro-Cuban practices of Santería. She began her career at the University of Iowa, were she initially received her degree in painting in 1969. It was not until 1972 that Mendieta shifted radically to performance art.

Though she was raised Catholic, she developed an interest in the rituals involved with Santería, a culturally predominant Cuban religion, and it deeply influenced her work in her choice of materials and settings. Santería is one of the major faith-based lifestyles of Cuba …

Antithetical Commentaries On X, Y And The Disruption Of Being, Eva Rocha

Theses and Dissertations

Through discursive essays and poetic narrative, Antithetical Commentaries on X, Y and the Disruption of Being explores the tenuous relationship between modes of measurement and the struggle for human relevance in the post-contemporary digital age. In the introductory essay, “Not the Feather, but the Bird”, I give an overview of the inherent problems of object-oriented ontology, and how it relates to aesthetics and social issues of our times. In the Developmental Overview, I detail how I developed my installation approach and techniques, particularly with regard to the three-way dynamic of the artist:work:viewer relationship and how it can encourage …

Cajamarca Ceramic Spoons From Northern Peru: Forming A Symbolic Function, Jeanette Louise Nicewinter

Theses and Dissertations

Ten painted Cajamarca-style ceramic spoons form the foundation for an investigation of the way that these seemingly utilitarian objects were bestowed with economic and symbolic value both within and outside of the borders of the Cajamarca region, located in the north highlands of present-day Peru. Since the ceramic spoons have been recovered from sites associated with large and powerful societies and states, such as the Moche of the north coast and the Wari of the central highlands, an analysis of the form, style and imagery present on these spoons reveals how these objects transcended cultural boundaries. To assess and evaluate …

Performing Conquest And Resistance In The Streets Of Eighteenth Century Potosí: Identity And Artifice In The Cityscapes Of Gaspar Miguel De Berrío And Melchor Pérez De Holguín, Agnieszka A. Ficek

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the ways in which Potosí's two most influential colonial artists represented the urban dynamics of race, class and labor in their depictions of the Andean 'City of Silver' during the eighteenth century, when silver production, profits and population were dramatically declining.

Virgin Of Guadalupe: The Evolution Of Mexico's Mother Image Into A Cultural Icon, Tashina Garcia-Garza

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Since its time of creation, the Virgin of Guadalupe image has been used in various political, social, and humanitarian struggles throughout Mexico and the United States. This remarkable image is responsible for unifying the people during post-conquest Mexico when discriminatory treatment and slavery of the indigenous people was common. The image is a symbol of Mexican nationalism embedded with Catholic and Aztec religious beliefs that has evolved into a popular cultural icon. This progression of her popularity can be seen in artistic expression from Mexican artists in the sixteenth century to the Chicano art movement in the twentieth century United …

Manuel De La Cruz Gonzalez: Transnationalism And The Development Of Modern Art In Costa Rica, Lauran Bonilla-Merchav

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While scholars are increasingly scrutinizing twentieth-century Latin American art and inserting it into the canon of modern art history, studies of the region usually leap from Mexico to South America, skipping Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. This is not due to a lack of dedicated artistic effort in the isthmus, but rather to poor cultural infrastructure, which made being a modern artist in the region particularly challenging, and the underdeveloped state of local art histories, which have yet to traverse national borders. This oversight of Central American art makes it difficult to grasp the full …

"La Venus Se Fue De Juerga Por Los Barrios Bajos": Nacho López, Mass Culture, And Modernity, Jenifer L. Caneschi

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Urban Archaeology Of Early Spanish Caribbean Ports Of Call: The Unfortunate Story Of Nombre De Dios, Maria Fernanda Salamanca-Heyman

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The sixteenth-century port of Nombre de Dios in Panama played a crucial role in the colonization of America. From 1519 to 1597, Nombre de Dios was the Atlantic port connecting Spain with the southern Pacific colonies in America. Even though its importance to Spain's New World colonial settlement has been widely recognized, there has never been systematic historical or archaeological research undertaken to document this colonial town and describe its establishment and subsequent development and abandonment.;This study employs a comparative approach to early Spanish urban settlement in Latin America, and combines archaeological and archival data to explain the unique history …

History, Memory, And [Archaeological?] Heritage At Nombre De Dios, Panama, Meghan Habas Siudzinski

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

St Eustatius And The Caribbean Trade System: A Study Of Eighteenth And Nineteenth Century Coins From The Caribbean, Maria Fernanda Salamanca-Heyman

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Fortifications Of St Eustatius: An Archaeological And Historical Study Of Defense In The Caribbean, Bryan Paul Howard

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.