Latin American History Commons^™

Fear And Trepidation: The Socio-Cultural Impact Of Maritime Piracy And Illicit Smuggling In San Francisco De Campeche 1630 - 1705, Victor Alfonso Medina Lugo

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Piracy has a long history globally, but one of the most extreme periods of pirate activity occurred in the Caribbean Sea during the 16th through the 18th centuries. This thesis analyzes the socio-cultural impact that piracy produced in the port town of San Francisco de Campeche, located in the coastal area of the province of Yucatan in the Kingdom of New Spain. In this port and settlement, Spaniards, the Indigenous population, peoples of African descent and people from throughout the Spanish Empire suffered together the atrocities of the violent sackings and plundering by various groups of robbers from the sea …

Predecessors To Progress: A Cultural Exposition Of Ancient Aztec Influence On Modern-Day Mexico City., Mariel Arias

McNair Scholars Research

This research explores cultural factors contributing to the state of modern-day Mexico City, specifically to expound on how Aztec economic, agricultural, and social-class structures have demonstrably influenced present-day Mexico City. An analysis of texts, letters, books, statistical records, economic and agricultural trend analyses will be among the sources accessed in order to draw informed conclusions.

Becoming A Superpower: China’S Rise And The Belt And Road Initiative In Latin America, Garrett Bullock

History Summer Fellows

Is China a Superpower? Will it become one? After half a century of establishing a strong international military presence, thriving economic growth, domestic/international political authority, and considerable cultural “soft power”, the PRC has emerged as a hegemon capable of competing in international geopolitics. Nevertheless, these questions remain unanswered. For this reason, this research explores what it means to be a superpower, whether China is or will be a superpower, and, importantly, what impact China’s rise has on the world. To do this, this research explores existing debates surrounding China’s current global status, the historical emergence of the PRC as a …

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 …

Media Discourses That Normalize Colonial Relations: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of (Im)Migrants And Refugees, Meng Zhao, Jorge Rodriguez, Lilia D. Monzó

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The im(migration) and refugee crisis that are being exacerbated under the Trump administration, is a manifestation of empire-building and the long history of colonization of the Global South. A Marxist-humanist perspective recognizes these as consistent aspects of a clearly racist global capitalism that functions in the interest of multibillion dollar U.S.–based corporations and increasingly transnational corporations. Trade agreements, international economic policy, political intervention, invasion or the threat of these, often secure corporate interests in specific countries and regions. The authors use critical discourse analysis to examine the discourses around Mexican, Central American, and Syrian im(migrants) and refugees as examples of …

Recife: The Cradle Of Jewish America, P.V. Viswanath

Faculty Working Papers and Articles

Recife is the location of the first synagogue and the first Jewish community in the New World. The original Jewish community was formed during the period of the Dutch occupation and was mostly Sephardic. It wasn't until the second decade of the twentieth century that Jewish life in Recife was rekindled, this time mostly Ashkenazi. Even though the two periods of Jewish life are distinct, they both show signs of a similar underlying vitality.

Charlie Wilson's First War: Challenging Carter's Human Rights Policy Through His Support For Anastasio Somoza Debayle, 1977-79., Sherman J. Sadler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the support of Congressman Charles Wilson, D-TX, for the Nicaraguan government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle from March 1977 to July 1979. A narrative of Wilson's actions and motivations it relies heavily on his congressional papers for primary sources. This work argues that Wilson was motivated by his personal anti-Communist beliefs to challenge the perceived biased application of the Carter Administration's human rights policy against the Somoza regime. He saw the administration's abandonment of Nicaragua, a traditional Cold War ally after four decades of loyal support, as directly contributing to the rise of …

New England Slave Trader: The Case Of Charles Tyng, Paul J. Michaels

Master's Theses

Charles Tyng has been heralded as an American hero after the posthumous publication of his memoir, Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833, in 1999. Recent research involving British Treasury report books from the nineteenth century suggest otherwise – that Tyng actively promoted and was engaged in the illicit trade of African captives. A Boston Brahmin, Tyng applied the lessons of his time at sea with Perkins & Company, the opium trading firm, to his occupation as an agent of notorious slave trading firms in Havana. This paper uses as evidence records of the captures …

Us And The Cold War In Latin America, Thomas Field

Publications

The Cold War in Latin America had marked consequences for the region’s political and economic evolution. From the origins of US fears of Latin American Communism in the early 20th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, regional actors played central roles in the drama. Seeking to maximize economic benefit while maintaining independence with regard to foreign policy, Latin Americans employed an eclectic combination of liberal and anti-imperialist discourses, balancing frequent calls for anti-Communist hemispheric unity with periodic diplomatic entreaties to the Soviet bloc and the nonaligned Third World. Meanwhile, US Cold War policies toward …

Colonialism To Carnival: Tracking Centuries Of Racialized Imagery Of Brazilian Woman, Livia Dias

Theses

The thesis explores how the image of Brazilian women, which is highly racialized and sexualized, was constructed historically, and try to understand why Brazilian women are seen as they are in the twentieth century. Throughout the chapters, I will analyze historical documents that I argued helped to construct this image inside Brazil and worldwide.

Bolivia: Subaltern Politics In The Age Of The New Latin American Left Participation & Representaiion, Annika Gunderson

Augsburg Honors Review

Through the voices of Bolivian women's organizations, testimonios [testimonials] deliver the message of many: the many who struggle against hierarchy and the status quo in order to organize, the many who seek to form a more representative, inclusive and deliberative State, and the many who, even centuries after the Spanish conquest, continue experiencing both external and internal colonization. A collective Bolivian action, encompassing both distinct and mutual identities, is manifested through these testimonios that serve to amplify the voices of the people. Using the land as a metaphor, the plights of many Bolivian women are explored.

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 …

"Actividades Femeninas" Collective Exhibitions Of Women In Chile Between 1914 And 1939, Gloria Cortes

Artl@s Bulletin

In 1927 the Great Female Exhibition was held in Chile within the framework of the fiftieth anniversary of the Amunátegui Decree (1877), a precept that allowed women to go to university. The Exhibition was the result of a series of initiatives by the high bourgeoisie that began in 1914 with the creation of women's organizations such as the Women's Art Society.

Twelve years later, in 1939, the MEMCH —Pro Emancipation Movement of Women in Chile— held the Feminine Activities exhibition, conceived as a response to previous experiences led by the elite, and focused on the political and social …

Unintended Consequences: U.S. Interference In El Salvador, The Salvadoran Diaspora, And The Role Of Activist Community Organizations In Establishing A Salvadoran-American Community In Los Angeles, Blake Bergstrom

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The U.S. intervention in El Salvador had a number of unintended consequences, some negative and some positive, that still have a great impact on the U.S., El Salvador, and the international community as a whole today. Although the focus of the mass media is on the negative unintended consequences, the positive really outweigh the negative. These so-called unintended consequences began with a massive increase in immigration to escape the violent human rights violations and political persecutions of El Salvador’s Civil War. This migration to the U.S. in the 1980s is referred to as the Salvadoran Diaspora, which led to an …

The Indirect Causes Of Haitian Migration Into The Dominican Republic During The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century, Porfirio A. Gonzowitz

Theses and Dissertations

The concession system used by the Dominican government in the late nineteenth century led to the introduction of foreign production and manufacturing methods to the country, to which Dominican business owners had no access. This lack of access encouraged Dominican growers and producers to find other means with which to meet the demands of production brought about by fierce competition with American and other foreign capitalists. This paper seeks to illuminate what motivated the Haitian migrations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and to offer other reasons that may have driven the Haitians into the Dominican Republic.

Film Review: The Impure: An Abolitionist Documentary Film Of The 19th Century Traffic In Jewish Women, Caroline Norma

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Becoming Legible: The Racial Making Of The Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole People In The Coahuila–Texas Borderland, Rocío Gil Martínez De Escobar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This historical ethnography analyzes the making of the Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole people as part of the production of the Coahuila-Texas borderland. In the quest to become legible to improve their living conditions and maintain a sense of dignity, Negros Mascogos/Black Seminoles use history and racialization as tools of negotiation between themselves and the two nation-states where they live: Mexico and the United States. I analyze the Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole people as a case of racialization that illustrates the ongoing mechanisms of settler colonialism (dispossession, exploitation, and elimination via genocide or assimilation), as they play out in specific socio-historical contexts.

The …

Just A Buncha Clowns: Comedic-Anarchy And Racialized Performance In Black Vaudeville, The Chop Suey Circuit, And Las Carpas, Michael Shane Breaux

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While the practice of white musical variety clowns embodying stereotypes of African, Chinese, and Mexican Americans has been widely documented and theorized in scholarship on US American popular performance, it has been done largely in segregated studies that maintain the idea that racial impersonations in musical variety is a privilege of white performers. For instance, no study exists that focuses on more than one stereotype at a time, and the performer’s body is always either white or of the same “color” as the type being played. In addition, very little has been written about the tours and circuits run by …

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 …

Pasión De Juventudes: La Reforma Universitaria Y La Emergencia De La Literatura Latinoamericana, Fernando Degiovanni

Publications and Research

Resumen: Este artículo analiza el rol que tuvo la Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA), y especialmente la actividad cultural de los exiliados apristas, en la emergencia de un latinoamericanismo literario inspirado en los ideales de la Reforma Universitaria. En particular, explora la incidencia del crítico peruano Luis Alberto Sánchez, responsable de la labor propagandística del APRA en el exterior y autor de la primera historia literaria latinoamericana publicada en castellano, en la articulación de la disciplina en la primera mitad del siglo XX. Su Historia de la literatura americana (1937) no solo cuestionará el proyecto latinoamericanista esbozado por Pedro Henríquez …