Latin American History Commons^™

Expansion And Ineffectiveness: The Evolution Of The Mexican Healthcare System, Leslie Bejaran Solorio

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

In the 1917 Mexican Constitution, Article 123 Section Number 14, health became an occupational right in which the employer paid for sickness and injuries, a right advocated in the Mexican Revolution. Despite this, it was not until 1943, with the creation of Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Social Security Institute), that it became a reality. Following the creation of social security, other programs were established for federal workers (the Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers), oil workers (Mexican Petroleum Company), and the armed forces (Ministry of National Defense and Secretariat of the Navy). Even then, the …

Riqueza Por Decreto: The Role Of Politics In Shaping The Banking Industry Of Pre-Revolutionary Mexico, Daniel Lorenzen

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the nexus between politics and banking in pre-revolutionary Mexico, particularly during the Porfirian era. It scrutinizes how political entities molded the banking sector to consolidate authority and dictate economic policy. Through an analysis of historical documents, financial records, journal articles, and expert interviews, the study delineates the profound influence of legislative reforms on the evolution of Mexico's financial landscape and power structures.

Mexicanidad Y Negritud: Tracing The Cultural And Legal Exclusion Of Afro-Descendants In México., José A. Chiquito

CMC Senior Theses

In 2019, the Mexican National Congress amended Article 2 of the national constitution to recognize Afro-descendants as part of Mexico’s pluricultural constitution and grant them collective rights. With this, Mexico joined a group of five other Latin American countries to explicitly recognize Afro-descendants in the text of their constitution. Current Latin American scholarship analyzes Afro-descendant inclusion resulting from the creation of new multicultural constitutions. This literature, however, fails to take into consideration those cases where Afro-descendant inclusion happened via reforms to an existing constitution. This paper contributes to existing literature on constitutional multiculturalism by analyzing why the Mexican government recognized …

“An Exercise In International Extortion”: Operation “Intercept” And Nixon’S 1969 War On Drugs, Justin M. Reid

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

When the former senator and vice president assumed the Oval Office in January 1969, President Richard M. Nixon inherited a nation in crisis with drugs playing a central role. At a campaign stop a few months earlier, Nixon announced to a packed convention center in Anaheim, CA, that if elected president he would end the flow of the illicit drugs coming into the United States “decimating a generation of young Americans.”

True to his word, Nixon moved aggressively after his election victory to refocus the federal drug enforcement bureaucracy on drug source control, blaming Mexico as the main culprit. On …

The Aesthetics Of The Mexican Public Garden And Its Photographic Compositions (1912-1982), Victor Hugo Rivera-Diaz

Masters Theses

In Mexico, there are currently several collections of photographs which depict the history and development of public gardens and ecological corridors under the management of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. By focusing on two exemplary collections—the Nacho López Collection and Vicente Luengas Collection—I apply a visual studies approach to the photographic archive in order to formulate the Mexican public garden as a branching set of aesthetic (sub-)categories, all of which take into account the creation of garden landscapes vis-à-vis land use policies and historical accounts during the rise of Mexican modernity. In so doing, the primary sub-categories of …

Paz Y Amor: The Making Of Mexican Hippie Culture, Allie R. Cobb

All Theses

Following the violent government massacre of students in October of 1968, Mexican youth turned away from organized protest and turned on to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Timothy Leary to challenge established society. This project focuses on Mexican hippie culture and Mexican hippie identity. It argues that hippie culture flourished in Mexico because of the development of consumer society and offered a way for Mexican youth to rebel against traditional authority while feeling a part of an international youth culture and at the same time reshaping what nationalism meant to them. In other words, hippie culture offered youth a …

A Treacherous Journey Through Latin America: The Plight Of Black African And Haitian Migrants Forced To Remain In Mexico, Zefitret A. Molla

Master's Theses

The growing presence of Black African and Haitian migrants in Mexico poses a new set of challenges to a country that is already struggling to recognize the presence of Afro-Mexicans and where mestizaje still dominates the national discourse on race. Due to restrictive U.S. and Mexican immigration policies since 2016, many of these migrants have found themselves forced to remain in a country they had only intended to transit through on their journey northward to the U.S. Mexico has only recently taken the necessary steps to recognize its Afro-Mexican population which had been marginalized and erased from history. This paper …

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.

Desde La Periferia De La Milpa: Testimonios De Msm De Los Ranchos Y Los Pueblos De Southern Mexico (From The Periphery Of The Cornfield: Testimonies Of Msm From The Ranches And Towns Of Southern Mexico), Luis Esparza

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to celebrate and honor resistance strategies MSM have originally implemented, inherited, and recreated. I accomplished this using a pláticas[1] methodology (Fierros & Delgado-Bernal, 2016). This is a methodology that humanizes participants by treating their testimonials as legitimate knowledge (Fierros & Delgado-Bernal, 2016). Together, my contributors and I constructed a list of resistance strategies as they tied their experiences in relation to and against repressive colonial rhetoric that continues to be re-articulated in the rural.

[1] Talks

The Limits Of Natural Boundaries: A Botanist’S Experience Of Mexico’S Northern Border In The 1800s, Hattie Wilder Karlstrom

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Statewise: Jurisdictional Fictions, Transnational Politics And Remaking The Nation State On The Chiapas-Guatemala Border, 1821-1899, Lean Sweeney

History ETDs

Statewise: Jurisdictional Fictions, Transnational Politics And Remaking The Nation State On The Chiapas-Guatemala Border, 1821-1899, focuses on the undrawn border between Mexico and Guatemala during the nineteenth century. I argue that this lack of national definition allowed social actors and state authorities in both Mexico and Guatemala to successfully negotiate alliances and competing territorial claims. In this space of "jurisdictional fiction," where the Mexican and Guatemalan governments' claims to authority were undermined by their lack of political, economic and military control, exiles could become political leaders, contrabandists could hold the keys and records to the customs house, displaced indigenous …

Mexico: Neoliberalism, Popular Grievances, And The Rise Of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Irving Cortes-Martinez

Honors Theses

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly referred to as AMLO, has become Mexico’s first leftist president in over seven decades. He has promised to get rid of Mexico’s problems through a peaceful but radical transformation, while placing the needs of the people first. For the past three decades, the nation’s political and economic systems have failed to create positive results. Mexico currently faces mass inequality and poverty, corruption and impunity, and insecurity and organized crime. Through his political activism and most importantly, his political narrative, AMLO has become a popular actor and is seen as the president who will implement lasting …

Ciudadanos: Constructing The Nation At The Margin Of The State In Venezuela, Colombia, And Mexico, 1846-1870, Duncan Riley

Departmental Honors Projects

Recently, there has been significant historical inquiry into the political role plebeians played in early republican Latin America. However, the role of plebeians in liberal nation-building efforts in the early 19^th century has received far less attention. This study addresses this question through case studies of Ezequiel Zamora in Venezuela, Ramón Mercado in Colombia, and Juan Álvarez in Mexico. Each of these men, as local leaders of liberal societies in rural areas, interacted directly with plebeians in their efforts to build national liberal political movements, acting as mediators between national liberal parties and their plebeian supporters. Through this interaction …

Las Mujeres Sinarquistas (1937-1962): Las Manos Ocultas En La Construcción Del Sentimiento Nacionalista Mexicano De Derecha, Eva Nohemi Orozco-Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Unión Nacional Sinarquista (UNS) was perhaps the most influential right-wing opposition movement in Mexico when it was founded in 1937. The UNS regarded the Mexican Revolution as the source of many of the country’s problems and championed Catholic nationalism as the solution. Women were actively involved in advancing the goals of the movement and they played an especially prominent role in developing and implementing Sinarquista social and educational programs. In contrast to some other right-wing organizations, women from lower economic strata formed the backbone of the Sinarquista women’s organization, known as the Sección Femenina. These women protested in the …

Powerhouse Chihuahua: Electricity, Water, And The State In The Long Mexican Revolution, Jonathan Hill Jr

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

State formation has for decades been a major analytical focus for historians of Mexico, especially during the armed Mexican Revolution (1910–20) and the “long” political and social revolution which continued for decades thereafter. Since the 1980s, the cultural turn in the humanities has produced groundbreaking works in the field and introduced a model of state formation framed around hegemony, subaltern agency, and the nation. While these reflect prevailing approaches, this dissertation joins more recent interdisciplinary work on Mexico in conversation with a ‘material turn’ in the humanities and social sciences. Focusing on the policy debates and infrastructural networks which attended …

La Pena Negra: Mexican Women, Gender, And Labor During The Bracero Program, 1942-1964, Mayra Lizette Avila

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most research on México and the Bracero Program has centered on the experiences of men. The scholarship details their decision to leave México, their experiences crossing the border and working in the fields, and their return migration home. "La Pena Negra: Woman, Gender, and Labor, During the Bracero Program, 1942-1964" adds to Bracero scholarship by looking at how the Mexican consulate dealt with Bracero treatment and death. However, the program did not only impact male laborers, but their spouses and family who they left behind in México. Women and families' survival depended on the female ability to adapt and negotiate …

What Does It Mean To Belong In San Antonio? How The Battle Of The Alamo And The Cart Wars Shaped What It Means To Be American Through The Institutionalization Of Discrimination And Violence Toward Those Of Mexican Descent, Madison Endesha Sharp-Johnson

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Dialectics Of The Community: Mexican Production Of Death, Blanca Judith Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work attempts to provide a discussion of the current waves of violence present in the northern border of Mexico. The country became a neoliberal state during the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The external debt and the historical corruption of the Mexican government placed Mexico in a vulnerable stage leaving its sovereignty with a fissure before the eyes of international circles of power. The adoption of a neoliberal economic system has impacted all the social tissue. The euphoric discourse of advancement and opportunity was spread by ideological apparatus, and people in constant need accepted positively the system. The …

The Diet And Subsistence Methods Of The Maya: Their Health And Cultural Consequences From The Pre-Classic Era To Today, Rachel E. Watson

Honors Undergraduate

The Maya, a once great civilization, seemingly vanished without an obvious reason, before the Spanish landed in the region. Some say that their downfall was a result of famine and inadequate nutrition. Surprisingly, most of the archaeological evidence surrounding the Classic Maya diet and subsistence methods indicates that they both adequately sustained the population to the point where there has been practically no change over hundreds of years. Change did not occur to the Maya diet or the classic subsistence methods until the late twentieth century when the tourism industry exploded in the area of the former Maya empire. The …

Negotiating Mexican Citizenship: Examining Implications Of A Narco-State And Rebellions In Contemporary Mexico, Nereida Guadalupe Montes

Scripps Senior Theses

Neoliberal has bee largely responsible for the creation of a narcoestado. As the Mexican state abandon its previous cultural projects such as education, employment, and social services, economic void increased. Narco-traffickers have increasingly filled this vacuum. Arguably, the weaken pillars of Mexican society allowed narco-trafficking to penetrate the areas once fulfilled by the state. It has led to the recruitment of economically dislocated farmers and citizens to turn to narco-trafficking for financial stability. Although, the state and narco-traffickers at times compete with each other to fulfill some of these functions, they also at times co-exist and merge into what …

Partisanship In Mexico: Influence Of Violence And State Spending, Christopher White

CMC Senior Theses

This paper serves to further investigate factors influencing partisanship in Mexican politics with a focus on state spending and drug violence. With state spending, this paper builds on prior literature about political effects of federal social spending (Handelman 1997, Domínguez and Chappell 2004, Díaz-Cayeros 2009) to propose a similar theory regarding state social spending. The proposed panel data model for national elections between 2000 and 2012 finds that for diputados elections, a thousand-peso increase in state spending had a statistically significant influence on party voting – boosting PRI candidates (typically incumbents) by 0.66% and hurting both PAN and PRD candidates …

The New Wine: Spirit, Transformation, And Gender In The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1960-1990, Jacob Aaron Waggoner

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Charismatic Catholic Renewal (CCR)—known in Mexico as the Renovación Cristiana en el Espíritu Santo—saw Roman Catholic believers experience ecstatic spiritual practices native to neo-Pentecostalism. At first highly ecumenical, CCR emerged from loosely organized prayer meetings in the late 1960s and early 1970s to become a coherent movement by around 1975. Like many developments after the Second Vatican Council, CCR represented an effort to revitalize the Church by re-centering and empowering the laity. Reflecting a broader reactionary shift in the 1980s, the Renewal gradually shed its potentially liberating elements. This transition was especially notable in the context of the U.S.-Mexico …

Selling Narratives Of A Mexico In Crisis: Environmental Reporting In Excélsior And Uno Más Uno, 1983-84, Adam Behrman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the diverse environmental narratives found in more than 200 stories published by two Mexican national newspapers, Excélsior and Uno Más Uno, in 1983 and 1984, a period of economic and environmental crisis. It argues that the popularity of environmental issues permitted column space for journalists, environmentalists, researchers, rural peasants, the urban poor, and government administrators to present their many different environmental narratives for the reading public’s consideration. Focusing on how journalists and their sources described air pollution, forests, and water crises in the pages of Excélsior and Uno Más Uno, this thesis brings out many …

Attitudes About Work And Time In Los Angeles, 1769-1880, Tyler D. Lachman Mr.

Theses

This thesis argues that the industrious Californio people continued to prosper in Los Angeles after statehood in 1850. Certain historians have emphasized the hardworking Californio culture at various points in Los Angeles history. But no one has defended their overall work ethic. Thus, this thesis goes farther than other historians in discrediting the notion that Californio Angelinos died out quickly because they could not sustain success under American leadership.

The Importance Of Strong Governmental Institutions In Military Subordination: Mexico And Argentina, A Comparative Study, Eli Landman

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the history of civil military relations in Mexico and Argentina in an attempt to understand why Mexico was able to subordinate its military following the fall of the Porfírian military regime, while Argentina experienced decades of military intervention into the civilian sphere. It argues that strong governmental and political institutions in Mexico were the key to subordinating the Mexican military to civilian control, while patterns of populist political movements in Argentina hampered the formation of strong governmental institutions that would have enabled the subordination of the military to civilian control.

Understanding The Role Of Women As Leaders In Mexican Politics: Looking Back And Moving Forward, Rafael Tovar Y Lopez-Portillo

Dissertations

The constant changes that occur in a globalized world have pushed gender equality to the forefront of many debates in the western world. Nevertheless, cultural values continue to influence the way in which governments, societies, and individuals behave in regard to the roles that men and women play. In Mexico, despite the cultural values that are embedded in society, women have been able to succeed in areas where, until a few decades ago, it would have been unimaginable. During the last forty years, the Mexican government has gone through a gradual transformation that has allowed women to become an active …

Creating The Ideal Mexican: 20th And 21st Century Racial And National Identity Discourses In Oaxaca, Savannah N. Carroll

Doctoral Dissertations

This investigation intends to uncover past and contemporary socioeconomic significance of being a racial other in Oaxaca, Mexico and its relevance in shaping Mexican national identity. The project has two purposes: first, to analyze activities and observations of cultural missionaries in Oaxaca during the 1920s and 1930s, and second to relate these findings to historical and present implications of blackness in an Afro-Mexican community. Cultural missionaries were appointed by the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) to create schools throughout Mexico, focusing on the modernization of marginalized communities through formal and social education. This initiative was intended to resolve socioeconomic disparities …

Memory, State Violence, And Revolution: Mexico's Dirty War In Ciudad Juárez, Vanessa Claire Johnson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

After the uprising that took place in Madera, Chihuahua on September 23, 1965, the first armed challenge to the state since the Mexican Revolution, the north became a region of historical significance for understanding the subsequent "Dirty War" that spanned from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Ciudad Juárez was a key locale in which a wide variety of revolutionary groups conducted both open and clandestine activities. Attempting to rouse the masses, a dedicated few organized protests, counter-meetings, popular assemblies, and launched a prepa popular to reorganize and democratize education. The Mexican state responded to these events with repression, …

Indigenous Cuisine: An Archaeological And Linguistic Study Of Colonial Zapotec Foodways On The Isthmus Of Tehuantepec, Michelle R. Zulauf

Graduate Masters Theses

Cuisine refers to the ethnically idiosyncratic food choices and the manner and methods in which these foods are prepared and served. In this investigation I will explore traditional Zapotec cuisine and its early colonial changes and continuities on Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec by examining available food sources, food preparation techniques and equipment, and food serving traditions evidenced at the archaeological site of Rancho Santa Cruz. In order to achieve this I developed a two-fold analysis. The first component was the analysis of the Vocabulario en Lengua Zapoteca published by Fray Juan de Córdova in 1578. This historical dictionary provides an …

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 …