Latina/o Studies Commons^™

La Tragedia Latinoamericana: Una Investigación Cualitativa Sobre Cómo La Cultura, Los Medios De Comunicación Y Los Roles De Género Conducen Al Feminicidio, Vanessa Gonzalez

Honors College Theses

Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar cómo los valores culturales latinoamericanos y los medios de comunicación populares perpetúan estereotipos de género perjudiciales que posteriormente pueden contribuir a las crecientes tasas de feminicidio que se producen en toda la región. Aunque la violencia contra las mujeres es un problema global, el feminicidio en América Latina se caracteriza por factores culturales, sistémicos y políticos que no sólo permiten que prospere, sino que lo hacen único en un contexto global en relación con el debate sobre la violencia contra las mujeres. La adhesión a la cultura del honor, los estereotipos basados en el …

Decolonizing Female Archetypes: Creating An Oppositional Consciousness In Contemporary Chicana And Iraqi Women’S Fiction, Semah Salih Hussein

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In dominant imperialist discourses, women, such as Iraqi women and Chicanas, have been marginalized in political, social and economic structures and have been manipulated to maintain imperialist exploitation and processes. They have been frozen within certain archetypal configurations. Iraqi women have been misrepresented as victims of their culture and traditions, and Chicanas have been represented in derogatory terms or excluded from mainstream hierarchies of representation. This study examines some counternarratives and oppositional subjectivities/ consciousnesses provided by Iraqi and Chicana women writers through their utilization of the legacy of a number of fictional and historical female figures. The primary texts analyzed …

Coming Out As A Queer Latinx, Giselle Barajas

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper explores the feminist theories post-colonialism and gender theory to better understand the coming out experience for the queer latinx community. The latinx community face unique hurdles when coming out including battling cultural values, colonialism, language barriers, and identity. In order to better understand the coming out journey of queer latinxs and create safe queer spaces I propose that we reimagine familismo to emphasize love and acceptance over colonial ideas of machismo and marianismo. We can also decolonize both feminist theory and language.

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 …

Latinx On The Rise Mentoring Program’S Impact On Graduating Student’S Professional Integration Past Undergraduate Studies, Lucero Martinez-Salas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring programs are implemented to create a space for skill and information transmission between a mentor and mentee. Mentoring programs are typically implemented in an academic setting with professors or peers acting as a mentor and students as mentees. Based on the under-representation of Latinx students in higher education and further career paths, mentoring with this population could be positively impactful to their student experience. This thesis focuses on the Latinx on the Rise mentoring program and the experience of the mentees with a focus on the Latinx student experience. Implications for implementation of such programs and their impact will …

Benefits Of Co-Constructing Latinx Consciousness Within Schools, Elizabeth Cruz Reyes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Within the Latinx community, there are arguments about identity labels, who can speak better Spanish, who is a better Latinx, and how Latinx culture should be maintained. Latinx consciousness originates from Gloria Anzaldúa’s (1987) concept of mestiza consciousness and the respective work that Gloria Anzaldúa has inspired. Latinx consciousness involves the complex: spiritual, personal, social, political, economic, and historic factors that influence the lives of Latinx students. This senior capstone defines Latinx consciousness and examines the benefits of co-constructing Latinx consciousness. The benefits are framed within the context of education, Latinx attitudes, language use, language loss, and cultural longevity. The …

Barriers To The Use Of Palliative And Hospice Care Among The Latino Population, Diana Ramirez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Patients suffering from irreversible and terminal illnesses may benefit from the services provided by Palliative and Hospice Care to control any symptom burden and assist in navigating complex medical decisions. Many patients may express hesitation in accepting and enrolling to this service due to misconceptions. Language barriers may add an additional layer of complexity. This study explored the challenges Palliative Care providers encounter when introducing concept of hospice to Spanish-speaking patients their families for the first time. This study implemented qualitative research methods by using semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Ten members of an In-patient Palliative Care Team at a University Hospital …

Contextualizing The 2019 “Chile Despertó” Movement: The Impact Of Historical Relational Processes On Mobilization And Repression, Tanya Leon

International Studies (MA) Theses

To expand our theoretical and empirical understanding of mobilization and repression in Latin America, this thesis asks three critical questions. Are economic indicators sufficient predictors of social movement emergence in Latin America? What other factors contribute to large-scale mobilization in Latin America? How do government’s respond to large-scale Latin American social movements? Specifically, when, and why do democratic governments choose to employ repression against social movements? Accordingly, I construct a quantitative model to test the correlation between rise in protest and worsened economic conditions. I apply it to a comprehensive dataset of political events in multiple South American countries throughout …

¡Avancemos Ya!: Persistent Economic Challenges And Opportunities Facing Latinos In Massachusetts, Trevor Mattos, Phillip Granberry, Vishakha Agarwal

Gastón Institute Publications

Massachusetts is among the wealthiest states in the country, yet Latino communities here have struggled economically relative to Latinos nationwide. There have been some bright spots—poverty rates have decreased and Latinos now have higher rates of entrepreneurship, education and labor force participation than in years past. Still, a disproportionate share of the more than 800,000 Latinos in Massachusetts today contend with food insecurity and have low rates of intergenerational economic mobility.

The Latin American Tragedy: A Qualitative Research Of How Culture, Media, And Gender Roles Lead To Femicide, Vanessa Gonzalez

Honors College Theses

This study aims to analyze how Latin American cultural values and popular media perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes that can subsequently contribute to the growing femicide rates happening across the region. Although violence against women is a global issue, Latin American femicide is characterized by cultural, systemic, and political factors that not only allow it to thrive but make it unique in a global context as it relates to the discussion around violence against women. Adherence to honor culture, gender-based stereotypes like that of machismo and marianismo, along with the overt sexualization of Latin women in popular media, create a domino …

Por Una Vida Mejor: Educational Attainment For Latinos In The Nuevo South In The Pursuit Of A Better Life, Maria Ana Sandoval

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Por una Vida Mejor, a sentiment that is shared amongst the Latino community. How this sentiment fares in the pursuit of higher education has been largely understudied. I analyze how Latino college students navigate the sociopolitical environment in Arkansas in their pursuit of middle-class certification to help their family and fulfill the American dream. In this thesis I offer an analysis to understand Latinos in the Nuevo South. I use data from the 2021 Latino College Students Navigating the Sociopolitical Environment in Arkansas survey through the lens of Funds of Knowledge (Velez-Ibanez and Greenberg 1992). I conduct a quantitative analysis …

The Forgotten Wayuu People, Laura Hoya Noel

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

This article focuses on the history of the Wayuu tribe and its relationship with the Spanish conquistadors and later the Colombian government. It reviews the history to understand why the tribe is ignored and disregarded by the Colombian government. The article tries to find a solution to the gap between non-Wayuu Colombians and the Wayuu community through the contact theory. It aims to connect these two groups to more interactions which would cause for tolerance to develop according to the contact theory.

Northern Illinois University Student Government Association: How Currently Involved Undergraduate Latino Students Engage, Understand, And Interact With The Student Government Association, Jacob Burg

Nonprofit and NGO Studies Student Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore the varying experiences of involved Northern Illinois University Undergraduate Latino students and their engagement with their Student Government Association. This study attempts to analyze the research question, to what extent are involved undergraduate Latino students aware of the Student Government Association (SGA), and what is their past and current level of engagement with the organization? The goal is to analyze the current levels of understanding and engagement, understand breakthroughs in marketing, determine areas of opportunities and threats to involvement, and to determine the best course of action for future administrations to provide …

Nationless States And Stateless Beings: The Politics Of Identity And Citizenship In Claudio Mir’S Mondongo Scam And Cheech Marin’S Born In East L.A., Rebecca A. Barnes

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

In the colloquial sense of the term, the word citizen refers to an individual who belongs to a nation, either by birthright or by naturalization. Therefore, citizenship denotes a political and a social belonging, an ideological home, and, in most cases, a strong foundation for the development of one’s personal identity. However, since nations are inherently artificial structures, made only tangible in the present day by a few centuries of recorded history, a philosophical approach to the term citizen complicates this definition. Based off critics including Hannah Arendt, Homi Bhabha, Fernando Ortiz, and Jacques Derrida, this essay seeks to explore …

"Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" Ethnic Mexicans, Urbanism, Culture, And Politics In Emerging Silicon Valley, 1940-1980, Alexandro J. Jara

History ETDs

My dissertation explores the Latino experience in Santa Clara County, especially in San Jose. The area, located in Northern California’s Bay Area, is nestled just south of the more popular cities of Oakland and San Francisco, nearly five hundred miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. My examination of the social, cultural, and political activities of Latinos in San Jose provides insight into the community development of ethnic Mexicans away from traditional sites of study in places like Tucson, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. I argue that beginning at mid-century, Latinos moved into the downtown area and helped prevent nearby neighborhoods from …

Las Voces Desde La Liminalidad Sino-Peruana: –Una Lectura Comparativa De Mongolia Y La Vida No Es Una Tómbola–, Jing Tan

LSU Master's Theses

Chinese immigrants first arrived in Peru in the mid-19th Century. Since then, the Sino-Peruvian community has lived through myriad vicissitudes. Today, despite its indisputable influence in Peru’s history, it is still largely invisible in society, just as the concept of an Asian Latin American identity remains elusive in the national consciousness. In the literary and academic world, the scarcity of a voice highlighting Chinese legacies in Peruvian literature is echoed by the dearth of such a voice in the criticism regarding works by Sino-Peruvian writers about Sino-Peruvian experiences.

This comparative analysis engages with two novels that evince deep parallelism with …

Life Beyond Bars: Nine Prisoners And Their Families, And Faith-Based Efforts To Recognize And Avoid-Cross-Generational Criminal Habits., Alfreda Reese

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

The aim of this study is to examine prisoners’ firsthand experiences and their underlying family issues to bring awareness and delete current cross-generational criminal habits. Through analyzing a series of individual experiences and exploring underlying family issues, the study intends to bring awareness and exposure to the implications of the criminal justice system on prisoners and their families. This study will analyze personal stories of prisoners and their families to identify, interact, and intervene in best practices to avoid criminal habits. The research gathered aims to empower prisoners and their families in suggested ways to delete repeated criminal patterns and …

La Voz Spring 2022, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Professor Advises National Museum of the American Latino
• Associate Director Named ECE Instructor of the Year
• Painting the U.S./Mexico Border Event
• Ivelisse Rodriguez Visits UConn
• Latine Faculty Members Depart UConn
• Three MA Students Present Thesis Papers

Cuteness And Curanderismo, Mylan T. Nguyen

Art Theses and Dissertations

Abstract:

In this paper I analyze the trajectory of concepts and explorations in my art practice during my graduate studies from 2019-2022. I examine how an interest in magic, healing and interconnectedness has led me to create illustration, ceramic, and risograph art that interprets the stories and practices I have encountered around Curanderismo, and Nahuales. I examine how these stories are shaped and also celebrate the wealth of healing knowledge they can provide.

The Rise Of An Eco-Spiritual Imaginary: Ecology And Spirituality As Decolonial Protest In Contemporary Multi-Ethnic American Literature, Andrew Michael Spencer

English Theses and Dissertations

The Rise of an Eco-Spiritual Imaginary reveals a shared ecological aesthetic among contemporary U.S. ethnic writers whose novels communicate a decolonial spiritual reverence for the earth. This shared narrative focus challenges white settler colonial mythologies of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism to instantiate new ways of imagining community across socially constructed boundaries of time, space, nation, race, and species. The eco-spiritual imaginary—by which I mean a shared reverence for the ecological interconnection between all living beings—articulates a common biological origin and sacredness of all life that transcends racial difference while remaining grounded in local ethnicities and bioregions. The novelists representing …