Latin American History Commons^™

Challenging Notions Of U.S. Citizenship: The Contributions Of Mexican Americans, Tracy E. Kirby

Master's Theses

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants, in which the idea of “citizenship” has had very strong intrinsic values, and has divided those who “have it” from those who “don’t,” since the first legal construction of such categories in 1790. Longstanding contradictions, characterized by ceremonies awarding citizenship to some and laws of exclusion, deportation, and forced removal for others, have embodied U.S. approaches to citizenship, and created a dichotomy between “citizen” and “alien.” This Master's Thesis will initiate a discussion and reformulation of what it means to be a citizen in the United States, and more importantly …

Consequences Of Contact: An Evaluation Of Childhood Health Patterns Using Enamel Hypoplasias Among The Colonial Maya Of Tipu, Amanda R. Harvey

Master's Theses

Located in western Belize, Tipu was occupied from 1541-1704. This Colonial Maya population from a Spanish visita mission church was analyzed to investigate health disturbances associated with European contact. Dental defect called enamel hypoplasias were scored to assess childhood health. Standard methods of scoring (Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994) were employed to assess frequency, severity, and type of episode in the permanent anterior dentition. For analysis, 325 individuals were placed into age groups of subadults (6-17 years), younger adults (18-35 years), and older adults (36-50+ years). The population was also considered for differences by sex and tooth type.

Results showed a …

La Malinche Como Símbolo De La Nación: Las Exploraciones De La Malinche Como La Madre Que Se Traiciona, Que Se Vende Y Que Se Abandona, Nicole A. Abrams

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the different interpretations of the Malinche related to her role as the translator and lover of the Spaniards during the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the sixteenth century. Centuries later, during the period of Mexican independence in the nineteenth century, Malinche became the traditional symbol of the nation as the mother who betrays, sells and abandons Mexican independence from Spain when Mexicans tried eradicate Spanish influence in your country. In addition, these negative representations of the Maliche as the evil mother, serve to show her as the scapegoat of all conflicts of the Malinche during the Spanish …

Las Malinches De Laura Esquivel Y De Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda: Una Reexaminación De La Malinche Y La Política Sexual En Estos Textos Modernos, Elizabeth R. Ackley

Honors Theses

One of the first women to appear in Mexican post-Hispanic history is La Malinche, the indigenous "language" of the Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés. Historically, Mexicans have associated La Malinche with betrayal because it helped Europeans at least with translation during the conquest of Mexico. In addition, over time, she has become a symbol of both motherhood and the tempting woman in whose hands lies the destruction of Mexico. Although there is not much historical information about this important woman in physical texts, a symbolic image of her has been developed on a large scale in Mexican culture through social institutions. …

Women Against Dictatorship And Repression: A Comparative Study Of The Women’S Organizations Formed In Chile And Argentina Respectively Between 1973-1990 And 1976-1983, Ariana L. Awad

Honors Theses

This project is a comparative case study between the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina who formed during the dictatorship of the military junta from 1976 to 1983 and the groups of women that formed organizations in Chile under Pinochet beginning in 1973. The thesis looks at the roles of specific institutions, such as their respective governments, the United States and the Catholic Church and how they differed in each country. The thesis not only examines the institutional influences on the movements but also how both of their coalitions’ outcomes were influenced by historical factors. At first glance, …

La Formulación De Una Identidad Mexicana Fronteriza En La Frontera De Cristal: Un Proceso De Reconciliación, Alexander W. Brockwehl

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the concept of Mexican identity on the border between Mexico and the United States. The essay focuses on two stories by Carlos Fuentes - "La capitalina" and "La frontera de cristal" - but also considers the theory of Mary Pat Brady, Gloria Anzaldúa, Pablo Vila, and some other theorists to understand and better articulate the message of Sources. Important to the concepts that are discussed in the essay is the phenomenon of globalization and its role in motivating relations between the two countries. The main argument of the essay consists of two parts. The first focuses on …

Reconstructing The Concept Of Terrorism After 9/11: The Case Of Farc-Ep In Colombia, Leland Garivaltis

Honors Theses

Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia- Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) is a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group that formed in the rural sections of Colombia in 1966. The guerilla group has claimed to fight for the marginalized Colombian. Because this insurgent group disrupts the status quo, more recent hardliner governments of Colombia and the United States have vilified the organization publicly to denounce the legitimacy and goals of the Leftist guerillas as well as labeled them terrorists and narco-terrorists. This thesis provides analysis and research to negate the comparison between the rural guerilla fighters and terrorist organizations, while it also provides evidence …

Imperial Infringement Or Self-Destruction? The Demise Of The Caribbean's Black Power Socialist Experiment, Georgia E. Swan-Ambrose

Honors Theses

The Caribbean’s experimentation with Black Power and socialism was the highest expression of its self-emancipation and self-definition. This thesis explores the reasons why this experiment, the dawning of a new day as it freed the masses from the grips of colonial constraints, was suppressed. It deconstructs which factor had a greater impact on the failure of the Caribbean’s nation-building process, internal strife and contradictions, or U.S. imperialistic hegemonic greed. Beginning with the exploration of intellectual and inspirational rhetoric of freedom, equality and black liberation, these ideological thinkers inspired the Caribbean to fight for independence. A case study evaluating four Caribbean …

A Community Of Modern Nations: The Mexican Herald At The Height Of The Porfiriato 1895-1910., Joshua Salyers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Mexican Herald, an English language newspaper in Mexico City during the authoritative rule of Porfirio Díaz (1895-1910), sought to introduce a vision of Mexico's development that would influence how Mexicans conceived of their country's political and cultural place within a community that transcended national boundaries. As Mexicans experienced rapid modernization led partially by foreign investors, the Herald represented the imaginings of its editors and their efforts to influence how Mexicans conceptualized their national identity and place in the world. The newspaper's editors idealized a Mexico that would follow the international model of the United States and embrace Pan-Americanism. …

Survivor Song: The Voice Of Trauma And Its Echoes, Jennifer Rinaldi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For societies and cultures that experience mass torture and trauma, giving voice to the story of what happened is significant for both the specific individuals who have survived or witnessed the trauma, and the culture that is forced to process it and incorporate the experience into its collective identity. Testimonial literature that resulted from the detention and torture of desaparecidos under the military dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s and 80s, and the genocide of the Armenian people in 1915, reveals many different approaches in the ways that people write about torture and trauma. In attempting to find a voice …

Nationalism And Its Expression In Cuba’S Art Music: The Use Of Folklore In Mario Abril’S “Fantasia (Introduction And Pachanga)” For Clarinet And Piano, Nikolasa Tejero

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

In the centuries since the colonization of the New World, the people of Cuba created a strong musical tradition. Initially, their music mirrored the European composition canons of structural, melodic and harmonic order. The eventual confluence of its distinct cultural elements (i.e. the European, African, and, to a lesser extent, Amerindian) led to the emergence of a new, distinctly Cuban musical tradition.

The wars for independence that began in the United States and Europe in the eighteenth century created a surge towards political and cultural autonomy that swept across the Latin American colonies, generating a wave of nationalism during the …

Commitment Beyond Morality: American Complicity In The Massacre At El Mozote, El Salvador, 1981, Dustin Hill

Online Theses and Dissertations

In order to highlight the complicity of the American government, this thesis will discuss in depth the most important massacre perpetrated by the Salvadoran military. While the American government maintained publicly that respect for human rights was one of the main goals of its mission in El Salvador, the six billion dollars of aid and American actions in the region belied another reality. This examination argues that it is clear that the massacre at El Mozote in late 1981 was the direct result of U.S. foreign policy initiatives. Although the Americans kept themselves insulated to provide for plausible deniability, the …

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza De Vaca Y Sus Narrativas Sobre La Exploracion Del Rio De La Plata (1540-1545), Maria Del Pilar Lopez-Castilla

Dissertations

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca remains one of the most enigmatic and audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, from the ruling elite to the wider public, are given the tools to understand and shape the new spheres of public life. Writing becomes a powerful tool in the shaping of a new reality, and as such, it must be studied with extreme care, so that a modern reader is able to discern where history ends and fiction or manipulation of history begin. The contact and constant negotiations for power between the two worlds cause a restructuring of the old discursive …

The Political Imaginings Of Slave Conspirators: Atlantic Contexts Of The 1710 Slave Conspiracy In Martinique, Jeffrey Scott Thomas

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

The Mexican Hydra: How Calderón's Pursuit Of Peace Led To The Bloodiest War In Mexican History? Will The Mexican People Inherit A Failed State In 2012?, Marco A. Pinon-Farah

CMC Senior Theses

THE MEXICAN HYDRA: HOW CALDERÓN’S PURSUIT OF PEACE LED TO THE BLOODIEST WAR IN MEXICAN HISTORY. WILL THE MEXICAN PEOPLE INHERIT A FAILED STATE IN 2012?

Abstract

Marco Antonio Pinon-Farah

The drug-war in Mexico (2006-present) has accelerated at a chilling rate, claiming the lives of 35,000 Mexican people. Since President Felipe Calderón assumed office, Mexico has been battling an internal beast unlike any it has known, the Mexican Hydra. Like the mythical creature, the Mexican cartels have proven capable of not only combating the government forces, but also of regenerating and strengthening themselves in the face of increasing government scrutiny …

Confraternity And Community : Negotiating Ethnicity, Gender And Place In Colonial Tecamachalco, Mexico, Annette Dionne Richie

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Cofradías, lay religious brotherhoods introduced to New Spain by Mendicant friars in the mid-16th century, were optimal vehicles for corporate consciousness. This case study in colonialism, evangelization and ethnic politics centers on avenues and strategies for assessing, accommodating and rejecting cultural elements from "foreign" groups, as well as the freedom to assemble and incorporate, but also marginalize, others.