Latina/o Studies Commons^™

Purgatorio, Rosie Pineda

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

Rodrigo Reyes’ provocative essay film re-imagines the Mexico/U.S. border as a mythical place comparable to Dante’s purgatory. Leaving politics aside, he takes a fresh look at the brutal beauty of the border and the people caught in its spell. By capturing a stunning mosaic of compelling characters and broken landscapes that live on the US/Mexico border, the filmmaker reflects on the flaws of human nature and the powerful absurdities of the modern world. An unusual border film, in the auteur tradition of camerastylo, Purgatorio ultimately becomes a fable of humanity, an epic and visceral experience with powerful and lingering images. …

Lupe Under The Sun, Rosie Pineda

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

Lupe Under the Sun is a neorealist film following an aging migrant worker living in California, who longs to return to Mexico before it is too late. Featuring a cast of nonprofessional actors, real farmworkers and authentic locations, Lupe Under the Sun tackles issues of depression, homesickness and the immigrant myth of the American Dream.

Long estranged from his family in Michoacán, migrant laborer Lupe finds relief from the backbreaking work of harvesting peaches in California’s Central Valley through camaraderie and a quiet love affair with fellow immigrant Gloria. Soon the stability of his daily routine begins to crack under …

Borderlands After Anzaldúa: Queer/Latinx Identity In Theory And Practice, Joshua Truett

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies (2015-2021)

The Latinx queer subjectivity complicates the racial and social discourses of the United States and Latin America, in both the academy and popular culture. The complex intersections of identity that marks the queer Latinx subject disrupts conventional narratives of race, ethnicity and culture, as well as gender and sexuality.

The Latinx identity breaks down the rigid construction of race as a biological “truth,” challenging the Black versus White racial binary that is the foundation of the United States racial mythology; the Latinx subject is constructed in the American racial imaginary as neither black nor white, but ¨brown.” This construction of …

Leslie García, Leslie García

Coming to the Plains Oral Histories/ Llenando las Llanuras Historias Orales

Leslie García is from Lexington, Nebraska. She is the youngest daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her parents were well respected in their hometown, but they immigrated to the United States to build a better life for their family. García’s life has been marked by the experience she had growing up with Hispanic heritage in Lexington. García has extended family in California, Kansas, and Mexico, allowing her to experience the different cultures of both the United States and Mexico. García plans to become a Spanish teacher after graduating from college. She has been both a participant in and an assistant on Coming …

La Discriminación Contra Latinos (Discrimination Against Latinos), Lauren Swan

Research in the Capitol

This study examines the types of discrimination Latin@ college students in Iowa face in day-to-day life. The study focuses on both covert discrimination (i.e. microaggressions) as well as direct discrimination. Based on the analysis of ethnographic interviews with 8 undergraduate students at UNI, Latin@s face discrimination in three primary ways. The first is due to people making assumptions about them. The second way is through exoticizing Latin@s. These types of discrimination are often not recognized as offensive or derogatory by the wrongdoer. Lastly, Latin@s are often the recipients of language-based discrimination. This form of discrimination has to do with the …

Access To Mental Health Care For Depression Among Latina Women In Adams County, Alison P. Lauro

Student Publications

This research project focused on what barriers prevent Latina women in Adams County from accessing mental health care. A survey was distributed to 52 women over several weeks. These participants, particularly immigrant and undocumented women, have lower rates of health insurance, low incomes, and limited transportation, and the county does not have accessible, Spanish speaking mental health professionals, which makes it nearly impossible for these women to access mental healthcare in the county.

“La Culpa Es De Los Tlaxcaltecas”: Gender, The Burden Of Blame, And A Re-Examination Of The Myth Of La Malinche, Erin M. Lanza

Student Publications

This paper explores Elena Garro’s short story “La culpa es de los tlaxcaltecas.” Supplementing close readings with analyses drawn from relevant authors and theorists, I highlight the key ideas regarding gender, identity, memory, and history that Garro weaves into her text, and I consider Garro’s emphasis on patriarchal control, the internalization of female culpability for the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, and women’s role in constructing and reconstructing historical discourses. By travelling into her own and Mexico’s past, Laura Aldama, one of the main female protagonists in the story, not only challenges gendered histories but also reveals how patriarchal thought continues …

How Do Native American Women Win Elections In Non-Native Districts?, Opalina Peralta

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In light of the recent tensions between Native American tribes and non-tribal elected leaders over such issues as environmental protection and treaty violations, caused in part by the United States' disproportionately Caucasian electoral representation, I aim to bring light the obstacles that Native Americans face in electoral politics. I analyze state legislative elections in which Native American candidates win. Using the data from the 2016 National Census and from University of North Dakota, Professor Mark Trahant. I hypothesize that the reason many Native American candidates win is because they are tied to non-native elements of the community. The two candidates …

Examining Latino Family Participation In Treatment For Childhood Adhd: The Role Of Cultural Factors And Perceptions, Theresa Lauer Kapke

Dissertations (1934 -)

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common mental health disorder in childhood, and efficacious treatments have been identified. Unfortunately, ethnic minority individuals, including Latino youth and their families, are at increased risk of failing to receive proper treatment and often exhibit poor treatment outcomes. Various factors likely contribute to these existing disparities. Thus, the current study aimed to improve current understanding of the way in which child characteristics and parental cultural factors and perceptions regarding treatment impact Latino family participation in a psychosocial intervention for childhood ADHD, including attendance, retention, engagement, and treatment response outcomes. Sixty-one Latino families participated in the …

Foreign Born Latina Earnings And Returns To Education And Experience In The United States, Trevor Mattos

Gastón Institute Publications

The determinants of immigrant earnings have long been a heavily researched topic, beginning with the contributions of Chiswick (1978) and Borjas (1985). The majority of this work focuses on male immigrants. Prior findings provide conflicting results with respect to determinants of native and foreign-born earnings in the U.S. This study, however, focuses on the earnings levels and differential returns to education and experience between native and foreign-born Latina workers in the U.S. using pooled American Community Survey microdata from 2014, 2015, and 2016. The analytical approach borrows from Chiswick’s 1978 paper that utilized cross-sectional regression methods and the human capital …

Exhibition Review: “Valeska Soares: Any Moment Now”, Amy Buono

Art Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Valeska Soares' exhibition titled "Any Moment Now" at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and later the Phoenix Art Museum in 2017 and 2018.

Racism And The Latino Identity In America, 1910-1970, Cooper J. Smith

2018 Symposium

Beginning in the early 1900s and continuing today, there has been mass immigration by Mexicans and other Latin-Americans to the United States, and this has caused a great deal of strife between local Americans and these immigrants. There has been much discrimination on the part of Anglo Americans towards Latinos, claiming the loss of jobs and opportunity, and the increase in a threatening community. The identity of these immigrants has changed significantly over the course of the past century, largely due to the racism they have encountered. This research paper uses peer reviewed journals and scholarly articles to analyze how …

Chicanos: An Equal Opportunity For Higher Education, Cecilia Zamora

2018 Symposium

Latinos are the most rapidly growing population group in the Unites States and now account for the Nation’s largest minority group. This creates a significant opportunity to move forward and grow into more than a typical stereotype. This paper will explore ways to ensure that Latinos can advance and work for the jobs that will lead the U.S. into the 21st century. The U.S. Census Bureau states that 17.8% of Latinos in 2016 graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher compared to Whites at 61.3%. The percentage of Latino students graduating from college of higher education is surprisingly low. Latinos …

Latinos In The United States Military: World War Ii, Brianna R. Lasso

2018 Symposium

The reason for writing this research paper is to inform the audience and present them with a new understanding of Latinos in the United States military, during World War II. This research project brings to light the positive and negative experiences for Latinos who served their country during this period in history. It also recognizes the achievements and heroic acts of several Latinos during World War II, and explores the various roles that they played, and contributions that they made for the war effort. The method of research used for this study primarily consists of scholarly journals, books, and documentaries. …

Challenges And Motivations Experienced By 1st Generation Latina/O Students In Higher Education, Ereisa G. Morales

2018 Symposium

As of 2014, Latinx have accounted for more than half of the United States population. Additionally, the number of Latinx students pursuing higher education is increasing across the country, yet these students have also shown to be the highest in not completing their degrees. Currently, there is much research on the challenges that Latinx first-generation students face in pursuing higher education but limited on the motivation to pursue and stay in college. This work explores what keeps Latinx driven to continue their education despite the challenges experienced. Factors such as college knowledge and adjustment to college will be addressed in …

The Effect Of Chicanx Studies In High School Graduation Rates, Angelica Garcia-Macias

2018 Symposium

Chicanx students have a relatively lower high school graduation rate in the United States than other ethnic groups. This study assesses Arizona’s civic curriculum to determine the inclusivity of Latinx social movements that have influenced high school graduation rates. Additionally, Arizona has had ethnic studies within the Tucson school district for various years, since the 1990s. The study will compare graduation rates among Latinx student, through resources provided by ethnic studies. The Latinx Critical Race Theory is used to explain the findings and the works of ethnic studies on the Latinx population. The method of analysis for this study includes …

Dropout Rate Among Chicano And Latino Immigrant High School Students, Emma Smith

2018 Symposium

This paper will discuss the dropout rate among Chicanx immigrant high school students in the U.S. This study will exhibit a much higher percentage of Latinx dropouts compared to any other ethnic group in America from 2003 to 2015. There will be specific factors identified as to why this is true, among them, language barriers, the age at which the child first immigrated, and their prior schooling. Additionally, this work explores what can be done to reduce the dropout rates. With the help of scholarly articles, reviews and data analysis, this paper will demonstrate the problems that foreign born Latinx …

Deconstructing Colonization In The Classroom, Claire Israel

2018 Symposium

Many argue that the neocolonial culture that permeates the American public-school system directly leads to the disengagement of Latina/o students. In my research, I aim to unpack each element of this assertion. Though there is still a lot of work to do, many school districts and state public education authorities have introduced various innovative ethnic studies programs into their curriculums in attempts to diversify the content and reengage the Latina/o students in the public education system today. In the last 18 years, the national dropout rate of Latina/o students has dropped by almost half. By way of interviews and critical …

Latino-Owned Business’S: The Future Of The Us Economy, Jeffrey R. Styborski

2018 Symposium

In recent years the United States has witnessed an unprecedented rate of growth in the number of Latino-Owned Business’s, LOB’s, which has dramatically boosted the US Economy. However, while the number of LOB’s has increased, the sizes of these individual businesses hasn’t, growing at a rate that’s half the national average and leaving trillions of dollars and countless jobs out of reach. In search for a solution, this research bases its information in a variety of sources including government agencies and partnerships between higher education and the LOB community, among them Stanford University and the Latino Business Action Network. Through …

A Failing System, Tyler Gedney

2018 Symposium

The purpose of this research is to discover the underlying issues that Chicano children have in the American education system. The idea is to emphasis the importance of a good educational backing for all students, giving an equal opportunity to students of all ethnicity. The research will look at the work of Barbara Schhneider, Sylvia Martinez, and Ann Ownes and the idea of economic and social resource disadvantages that Mexican Americans have. This paper will also look at how the home language of immigrant parents affects the learning of adolescence in the American school system. In addition, the research will …