Latin American History Commons^™

Death, Dreaming, And Diaspora: Achieving Orientation Through Afro-Spirituality, Liz Johnston, Jaime Elizabeth Johnston

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Enslavement, colonization, and the systems that uphold racial injustice were and still are a series of new, unfathomable, and challenging experiences that prompt individuals within the diaspora to seek orientation. How does a human cope with centuries of attempts at the systematic destruction of their humanity, culture, and identity? How can they reclaim that identity, especially when so much of it seems lost? I address these questions by utilizing texts from the expansive body of work regarding ethnographic-historical-religious studies on Afro-spiritual practices to better analyze instances in literature in the ongoing practice of diasporic orientation. In this project, I argue …

Mama’S Got A Brand New Degree: Education And Changing Perceptions Of Femininity During The Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), Eden E. Baize

The Cardinal Edge

Bloody struggles, tense political debates, and general unease characterized Mexico in the early twentieth century. Under former president Porfirio Díaz, tensions grew as the lower classes pleaded for labor and land reform, culminating in a violent period of revolution from 1910 to 1917. As with all conflicts of this scale, the Mexican Revolution prompted the challenging of many long standing social conventions, specifically as they pertained to the role of government and the organization of social classes. With the restructuring of society already underway, many activists capitalized on the uncertainty of the era to push against the subjugation of women. …

Archivo Y Memoria: Una Mirada A Tres Historias De Mujeres Esclavizadas En El Virreinato De La Nueva Granada De Finales Del Siglo Xviii, Luisa Carolina Julio Gomez

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Colonial documents preserve information that allows us to know the local Andean history of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. These manuscripts reveal forms of violence that shaped the subjectivities of the time and the resistance of oppressed women. This dissertation examines the effects of slavery and the response of three enslaved women to that colonial violence. This analysis seeks to better understand and make visible how the intersection between racism and patriarchy impacted the lives of three racialized women in the colonial context.

This dissertation focuses on the experiences, struggles, and resistance of three women present in the manuscripts consigned …

A Vision Without Borders: Magonismo And Mexican Women, Nallely Lozoya

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

Recent scholarship on the Magonista movement centers around the actions of the male leadership, without fully exploring their acceptance of women’s involvement. In fact, Mexican women, through this intelligentsia movement, were able to challenge social expectations and fully participate in political activism during the Mexican Revolution. As a result, Mexican women understood their political power, and were motivated to create radical movements of their own. In the end, Mexican women practiced a feminism that was concerned with multiple issues that impacted Mexican communities on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. In this work, I closely analyzed contemporary speeches, correspondence and …

The Impact Of Gender Roles, Political Environments, And Social Environments On Women Activists In Peru From The Mid-1800s To The Mid-1900s, Kathleen Johndrow

Graduate Review

Going back into the colonial era, and certainly post-independence, women in Peru were discussing their political and civil rights, and questioning not only their status, but the status of workers, indigenous people, and those in poverty. In fact, within the handful of names that have appeared as well-known Peruvian women activists, they all concentrated on class as well as gender, and incorporated race in terms of indigeneity as well. In doing so, the women involved in working for increased equality created or joined different organizations over time. What led women to join one group versus another, and were there groups …

Influence Of Jesuit Linguistic Manipulation On Guaraní Gender Norms In Colonial Paraguay, Anna Rumpz

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

Language was just one of the ways that colonizers and natives had to interact in unfamiliar ways post-Columbus. Histories of colonization often emphasize the physically brutal aspects, such as disease, slavery, or warfare, but colonization is a holistically violent process that adversely impacts societies on multiple levels. In particular, this thesis focuses on the link between culture and language, with respect to Jesuit Spanish-Guaraní lexicons, as a framework to understand changes to gender roles and sexuality within the Jesuit missions of the early seventeenth century.

Teaching Abortion As A Historical Construct: The Case Of Early Twentieth-Century Brazil And Beyond, Cassia Roth

Feminist Pedagogy

Using open-access primary sources available online, this activity teaches abortion as an unstable category through a specific case study, early twentieth-century Brazil. The one-week module, although specific to one geographic region and chronological period, can serve as a lesson plan for undergraduate history courses, for disciplines that use genealogy methods, and for interdisciplinary courses. The lesson plan helps undergraduates think critically about what we think we know about abortion, and how our current understandings are not fixed but rather contingent on the society in which we live and on who is practicing abortion. Changing understandings of what constitutes an abortion …

Malintzin: La Mujer Americana, Alma D. Elías Nájera

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Malintzin was a controversial Indigenous woman whose contributions to the Aztec conquest raised questions about what it meant to be a traitor with a limited agency. This essay recontextualizes Malintzin’s demonized identity and challenges masculinist sociocultural curations of gender, history, and knowledge production by infusing feminist theory into the cultural imaginaries of gender and racial stratification. By reintroducing Malintzin as a feminist emblematic figure trying to regain selfhood within an exploitative White cisheteropatriarchal society, her existence gives voice to those silenced by the violence of colonization, Manhood, and gender oppression. To do this, the author takes up the work of …

Childhood: The Hidden Side, Arcelia Gómez

MA Projects

Childhood has been typically perceived as the sweet, candid, innocent, harmless, naïve phase of the human existence. However, is it possible that behind this kind façade there are hidden the cruelest, most frightening and most devastating monsters of humankind? The current state of humanity, as a species, is constructed on constant movement, continually changing, perpetually evolving. This is a natural behavior, dating back to the very origins of civilization, in its earliest days. This characteristic detail is stored in the ability of the human brain to collect information and learn from situations experienced by the individual. In other words, the …

Doris Stevens: A "Fascist" Feminist? Stevens, The Inter-American Commission Of Women, And The Unión Argentina De Mujeres, 1936-1939, Jeannette Hunker

Scripps Senior Theses

Doris Stevens (1888-1963) was a U.S. feminist, suffragist, and member of the National Women’s Party. After the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920, Stevens, among other U.S. feminists, involved herself in Latin American politics, working to pass women’s suffrage legislation in multiple countries. Stevens was chair of the Inter-American Commission of Women (IACW) from 1928 to 1939. Eventually, a number of Latin American feminists, as well as members of the Roosevelt administration, sought to remove her from the IACW when her political tendencies posed a threat to both. Accused of being a “fascist,” Stevens was voted …

La Cultura Que No Cambia, Karina Arreola-Gutierrez

MFA in Visual Art

In the text of La Cultura Que No Cambia, I mention how my work has been influenced by becoming more aware of generations of altar making that occur in my family. By collecting stories and photographs of altars, I can observe and create work based on how the legacies can change through generations or stay the same. The memory of my ancestors and family traditions is strengthened. Growing up seeing discrimination towards others has influenced me to highlight my Mexican heritage of traditions, culture, and language through several different methods. Using these elements, I can create work informing audiences about …

Postcards From Paradise: How Cuba’S Tourism Industry Enabled The Hyper-Sexualization Of Black Women And Erasure Of Female Afro-Cuban Identity, Christina Darko

Of Life and History

When tourists vacation in Cuba, they might take walks on its warm beaches, take pictures of its colorful architecture, or enjoy rich Afro-Cuban culture. Parallel to these scenes is the people who work in Cuba’s tourism industry, supplying entertainment to tourists to consume during their stays in paradise. This paper discusses Cuba’s tourism industry during its “Special Period,”: a time in the 1990s when Cuba reintroduced the dollar into its economy and reopened its tourism industry. The reintroduction of the dollar created increased racial inequality, especially among Afro-Cuban women. This research examines the increase in racial inequality during the Special …

“She Too ‘Omanish’”: Young Black Women’S Sexuality And Reproductive Justice In Bluefields, Nicaragua, Ishan Elizabeth Gordon-Ugarte

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Most never-married young “Creole” (Afro-Caribbean) women in Bluefields, Nicaragua are raised in fundamentalist Protestant families and institutions that emphasize sexual abstinence before marriage. In this context, abstinence is required to maintain social standing and “respectability.” Nevertheless, women in Bluefields, the administrative center of Caribbean Nicaragua, exhibit what Creoles themselves understand to be high rates of sexuality and pregnancy among post-menarche unmarried teenaged women (USAID, 2012; Mitchell et al. 2015). Such young women’s pregnancies occur at an important developmental stage of their lives and have long been associated by social scientists with adverse social, emotional, and health situations. These scholars have …

Colonial Markets, Consumers, And Trade: A Comparative Analysis Of Historic Ceramics From The Bluefields Bay Area, Westmoreland, Jamaica, Lacy Risner

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The ceramic assemblages from a British colonial settlement in Bluefields Bay, Jamaica, provide a unique window into the market availability, exchange routes, and consumption patterns of the eighteenth century. This study compares the historic ceramics collected from two sites in Bluefields Bay to one another and to other intra-island (Jamaica), intraregional (Lesser Antilles), and international (North America) colonial and postcolonial sites to reveal patterns of individual and global ceramic consumption and distribution in the emergent capitalist networks and markets of the colonial era. Integrating small British colonial sites into the networks of other more extensive studies focusing primarily on plantations …

The Immigrant Nannies Of New York City: An Examination Of The Friendships Between Nannies And Mother-Employers, Esmeralda Paula

Senior Projects Spring 2022

This ethnography focuses on the emotions of the women of color who elaborated on their experiences working for wealthy, white families in ethnographic interviews. This project is interested in the connections formed between nannies and mother-employers with the goal of better understanding the positionalities of female domestic workers of color. Immigrant populations are frequently depicted by news outlets as overworked, underpaid, and poor. When interacting with nannies, I realized that these women did not consider themselves impoverished despite working in a role that is identifiable with servanthood. The labor that nannies perform calls back to a long tradition of women …

Desde El Fuego Que En Mí Arde: Performance, Literatura Y Cine Afro-Latinoamericano Producidos Por Mujeres Afrodescendientes En Perú, Cuba Y Brasil (1960–2000), Elena Ekatherina Chavez Goycochea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines different films, literary, and performance art pieces created by contemporary afro-descendant women from Peru, Cuba, and Brazil after the sixties with emphasis on the most relevant works of Conceição Evaristo, Sara Gómez, Victoria Santa Cruz, and Lucía Charún-Illescas. I focus my research on the crucial role these artists played in the cultural identity formation of Latin America when inserting ‘race’ as a category of socio-political analysis and cultural production. How did their films, performances, and texts challenge national narratives and imaginaries after 1960? Although in the sixties, women improved their civil rights in different countries, the ‘mujer …

La Operación: Coerced Sterilization Of Puerto Rican Women In The 20th Century, Alexandra Lazar

Honors Theses

This project examines the ways that Puerto Rican women’s fertility was discussed over time in the United States, and the ways in which these discussions influenced decisions regarding reproductive choices. Looking at articles from popular American publications reveals the way that Americans felt about Puerto Rican sterilization, which can be compared to publications from activist newsletters at the same time. Personal testimonies from Puerto Rican women who chose sterilization reveal that the way others spoke about sterilization was different from how the women themselves viewed it. Their stories also show how the circumstances women were forced to live in influenced …

De La Esclavitud A La Libertad: La Historia De Una Esclava Afromexicana, Margaree G. Jackson

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Resumen: “De la esclavitud a la libertad: La historia de una esclava afromexicana,” es una colección de poemas descolonizados contados desde la perspectiva de una mujer afromexicana ficticia del siglo XVII. La protagonista, Maricela Rivas, es una esclava que nació en la plantación azucarera Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, una plantación verdadera ubicada en Veracruz, México. Su historia se basa en las pocas historias que existen sobre la vida de la mujer afromexicana que formaba parte esencial de la sociedad y cultura mexicana pero que le falta representación y una voz. Estos poemas le dan una voz y perspectiva al …

The Nomad Selves: The American Women Of The Spanish Civil War And Exile, Maria Labbato

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As witnesses to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and its ensuing streams of exile Americans Muriel Rukeyser and Janet Riesenfeld understood the conflict as symptomatic of larger European and antifascist struggle. Weaving biography, intellectual history, and cultural studies this dissertation reveals how the art and activism of these two North American women in the Spanish Civil War can expose an overlooked element in the antifascist movement and its fate with the rise of Cold War anti-Communism. Their experiences—one a writer and poet, and the other a dancer and screenwriter—with the Spanish conflict and exile informed their lives and creative works. …

Beyond "Viuda De": Practical Approaches To Promoting Mexican Books Printed At Women-Owned Businesses, Taylor Leigh, Colleen Barrett

Library Presentations

Women print shop owners have existed for much longer than most people realize; the first examples in Mexico date to the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, these texts are not always clearly described in a way that is findable beyond searching “viuda de.” Though many title-pages describe their businesses in terms of being a widow of their husband, these business owners deserve credit for their entrepreneurial efforts and should be findable in their own right. This poster would highlight the strategies and steps taken by a Hispanic Studies Librarian and a Rare Books Librarian to better promote these types of works held …

A Devised Ethnodrama: Conscious Voices, Sonia Pasqual

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Using techniques of storytelling, dance, poems, and monologues in the process of re-enacting life stories, the ensemble display issues that may be impeding society’s growth—discrimination against body image, blackness, females, and LGBTQ individuals. In addition, engagement in storytelling and performance can help the audience increase their cognitive skills, empathy, and ability to live a communal life. This evidence-based practice can transform lives and society. It has the potential of continuing to other faculties and with other departments, such as film, musical, and additional narratives. This specific work could be extended out beyond art and education into populations of any communities …

Tools Of Rescue: A Review Of Silencio Para Rescatar: Documental Sonoro, Sonia Robles

RadioDoc Review

In this audio documentary, Mexican cultural promoter and sound artist Abraham Chavelas recounts rescue activities in which he took part after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake rattled Mexico on 19 September 2017. Answering a call for help, Chavelas was assigned to a collapsed factory where an unknown number of undocumented Asian and Central American women working as seamstresses were trapped under the rubble. For two days, he aided rescue efforts by using a high-tech microphone to help determine whether or not there was life under piles of concrete, glass and debris. Chavelas used the audio he gathered before the Mexican Marines …

Treating The Revolution: Health Care And Solidarity In El Salvador And Nicaragua In The 1980s, Brittany Mcwilliams

Masters Theses

Health care played an important role in the revolutions of El Salvador and Nicaragua. Both the Sandinistas and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) prioritized popular health throughout the 1980s. Clinics and hospitals served as sites of revolution that drew healthcare solidarity activists from the United States. These health internationalists worked to build community-level networks that relied upon trained medical volunteers. In both El Salvador and Nicaragua, women comprised a bulk of the community health workers. These women chose to interact with revolution by building on radical promises of universal healthcare access. Healthcare solidarity activists trained community volunteers and …

Dolores Huerta: A Groundbreaking Activist Of Today, Olivia Patania

History | Senior Theses

This paper examines the development and transformation of human rights activism and labor relations that can be attributed to the efforts of several groups and individuals in society through the United Farm Workers Union. Understanding the strategies employed by the groundbreaking activism of Dolores Huerta is critical to comprehending the effectiveness and development of union action and labor relations in addressing the problem of labor exploitation in American society. This paper examines three major texts that have been critical in evaluating the efforts of different individuals and their contribution to the labor and human rights movement of the 1950s, 1960s, …

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.

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.

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

Trading Spaces: An Analysis Of Gendered Spaces Before, During, And After The French Revolution Of 1789 And The Mexican Revolution Of 1910, Kevin Kilroy

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the affects of the French Revolution of 1789 and the Mexican Revolution of 1910 on gender roles in their respective societies. Women that contributed to political discourse challenged separations of public and private spheres, which dictated order in the late and postrevolutionary periods of France and Mexico. Given the deliberate acts by both postrevolutionary governments to send women to the periphery of their respective societies, it is vital to revisit the examples of female influence that shaped the early French and Mexican Revolutions. The understanding that comes from a detailed analysis of the parameters of gendered spaces …

Teresa Carreño’S Early Years In Caracas: Cultural Intersections Of Piano Virtuosity, Gender, And Nation-Building In The Nineteenth Century, Laura Pita

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation studies the musical activities of the Venezuelan pianist and composer Teresa Carreño (1853-1917) during her formative years in Caracas. It examines the sources that pertain to her musical environment, early piano training, and first compositions in the context of the growth in Caracas of the practices of recreational sociability, the increasing influence of virtuosic music, and the tradition of private concert-making sponsored by devoted music amateurs. This study argues that Teresa Carreño’s musical upbringing occurred in a social and cultural context in which Enlightenment-framed ideologies of civilization and social progress, shaped in fundamental ways the perceptions of the …

The Inclusion Of Women’S Issues In Peace Negotiation Agreements: Guatemala, El Salvador, And Colombia, Natalia F. Meneses

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Armed conflict and its consequences do not discriminate according to gender. It affects all people. During an armed conflict, women are the majority of civilian victims: they are forcibly displaced, their family members are killed, and they suffer sexual abuse and torture. However, most peace processes have been exclusively controlled and led by men, while women and women’s issues are usually not included in peace negotiations or resulting agreements. In the last 30 years, there have been 35 comprehensive peace accords signed across the world of which only eight included women’s issues in their agreements. It is crucial that women’s …