Latin American History Commons^™

"Cultura Gamer: Esteriotipos De América Latina"., Roberto Bolanos Pinela Mr.

Capstones

La intención de “Cultura Gamer: Estereotipos de América Latina”, es presentar dos diferentes aspectos de representación que se tiene la hora de hablar de América Latina; Por un lado, los videojuegos hechos en Estados Unidos, nos estereotipan como países llenos de conflictos armados, donde manda el desorden y el caos, como lo vemos en juegos de Far Cry 6, y Tom Clancy. Pero por otro lado, estamos viendo un aumento en desarrolladores de videojuegos en América Latina, que intentan acabar con estos estereotipos; y están creando juego con la intención de dar a conocer nuestra cultura, mitos e ideología, acabando …

Indigenous Movements In Colombia: Redefining Their Notion Of Citizenship Through Social Demonstrations, Representative Groups, And Constitutional And Legal Reforms, Catalina Betancur Velez

History & Classics Student Scholarship

Indigenous groups in Colombia have been victims of forced displacement and dispossession of territory. As they become more present in current social and political conversations, there have been partial improvements and advancements of promises made by the government. However, the Colombian government and ethnic majorities still fall short of the guarantees and the assurance of indigenous citizenship. This essay proposes that through the means of resilient social demonstrations, the establishment of representative groups, and the push for Constitutional and legal reforms, Indigenous people in Colombia have established a multi- dimensional definition of citizenship that explicitly identifies the social and political …

Vatican Ii, Liberation Theology, And Vernacular Masses For The Family Of God In Central America, Bernard J. Gordillo

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) instituted reforms in the Catholic Church that included changes in language and music employed in the liturgy, inspiring a proliferation of sung vernacular masses throughout Latin America. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research undertaken in Nicaragua and the United States, this article examines three Central American vernacular masses—Misa típica panameña de San Miguelito (1967), Misa popular nicaragüense (1969), and Misa campesina nicaragüense (1975). Each mass emanated from communities founded as part of the transnational Familia de Dios (Family of God) movement, which established programs of religious education, leadership training, and community building among impoverished …

La Voz Fall 2021, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Two New Colleagues Join El Instituto’s Core Faculty; Marysol Asencio Retires
• WFSB Profiles El Instituto during National Hispanic Heritage Month
• UConn and UPR Debut Online Event Series
• Learn About La Comunidad Intelectual
• Eyzaguirre Lecture Series Returns
• El Instituto Welcomes Activist-in-Residence MaryJoan Picone
• Meet El Instituto's New Graduate Students for AY 21-22

Covert Imperialism: The Eisenhower Administration And Cuba, Patrick R. Sullivan

Student Publications

This paper tracks the Eisenhower Administration’s shifting policy towards Cuba and its use of covert imperialism to obtain its objectives. The policy considerations of the United States centered around a convenience for American interests. The support for the Batista regime, despite its oppression, exacerbated anti-American sentiments in the Cuban Revolution and put it on a collision course with American interests. As engagement failed, Cuba nationalized, and tensions escalated, the Eisenhower Administration initiated a campaign of covert imperialism that sought a government more in line with its interests. The covert operations implemented included economic and political sabotage, assassination attempts, and the …

The Importance Of Letter Writing In The Letters Of Hernán Cortés, Gavin J. Maziarz

Student Publications

The various individual methods utilized by Hernán Cortés have been previously documented by multiple scholars. However, while the “tools” Cortés used—such as a reliance on legal precedent and religious allusions in the tradition of conquest rhetoric—to craft his narrative have been dissected, the use of those tools to create a narrative in letter format has not been discussed as much if at all by these scholars. While Cortés utilized previously established literary devices to prove his loyalty, his narrative was only as effective as it was because of his decision to place it in a literary format. This gave Cortés …

Indigenous Conceptions Of Community Organization And Autonomy In Oaxaca’S Sierra Norte: Answers And Resistance To State-Sponsored Practices Of Internal Colonialism, Carter Minnick

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the past century, the Mexican government has continued to reproduce dominant, colonial relationships with its indigenous populations. Within the last few decades, clashes between harmful neoliberal visions of national development and continued demands for indigenous autonomy have only intensified. In the context of such events, this present work seeks to explore a specific conception of community identity, coined as la comunalidad, in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca. After the breakdown of its most fundamental tenets, I will attempt to both underscore its position as a framework of resistance in combatting historical and ongoing state-organized aggressions against these communities, …

How Democratic Is Democracy? A History Of Political Corruption In Peru, Kaitlyn Selzler

Great Plains Graduate Review

With the emergence of revisionist scholarship beginning in the 1960’s and 1970’s, scholars have taken terms which had absolute definitions, such as totalitarianism or democracy, and introduced different perspectives and methods which questioned the absolute authority of historical terminology. As a case study into these new historical methodologies, this essay seeks to answer the question: How democratic is Peru’s democracy? To answer this question, this research explores the deep seeded corruption in Latin America, specifically Peru, beginning in 1985 with the election of Alan Garcia, continuing through the presidency of Alberto Fujimori, and eventually ending with the current state of …

Election Campaigns, Counterinsurgency, And Privatization In Fujimori's Peru: Examples Of Regional, Public, And Control Historiographies, Andrew Beman-Cavallaro

Great Plains Graduate Review

No abstract provided.

The Tale Of Two Countrysides: The Shaping Of Landscapes In Hispania And Spanish Latin America, Andrew R. Abrams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The way that culture expands and transforms in a colonial context has often been viewed in a top-down approach. This thesis focuses on the spread of culture in the Roman conquest of Spain and the Spanish conquest of Latin America. By framing the argument with a discussion on Romanization, this paper shows the presence of the ideas surrounding Romanization in a new context. By investigating what material culture shows, this thesis looks to the countryside to find examples of cultural change. It argues that the villa landscape should be seen as the indicator of the Romanization of Hispania. The structure …

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 …

Afterlives Of Discovery: Speculative Geographies In The Colombian Political Landscape, Heidi A. Rhodes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation considers how the temporal remains of the Age of Discovery and its doctrine persist in a racial-geographical ranking of human and non-human, terrestrial and planetary life and worth. Across this work, I interpret a series of historical moments and their objects of speculative geographic cultural production: a state mapping program, a painting, a biomedical project, a de-monumenting protest action. As repositories of codified belief and repertoires of Discovery’s political and affective modes of racialized domination, I read these materials from the Colombian archives of coloniality and liberalism to illuminate their implications for Colombia’s national becoming as a liberal …

The U.S.–Mexican War: Visualizing Contested Spaces From Parlor To Battlefield, Erika Pazian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The U.S.-Mexican War[1] (1846-1848) was a watershed event that transformed the North American continent politically, socially, and ideologically. With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico lost approximately half of its national territory in the north, and the United States acquired the modern states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and portions of Colorado and Wyoming. Both nations were plagued by internal conflicts after the war, and each was plunged into civil war within fifteen years of its conclusion.

During this time of turmoil, Mexican and U.S. artists created and recreated myriad images …

The Topes De Collantes Sanatorium: A Look At The Global Sanatorium Movement, The Climate Cure Theory, And How Tuberculosis Influenced Modern Architecture, Alex Del Dago

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

The Topes de Collantes Sanatorium in Cuba was constructed during a time in medical history when it was commonly believed that a specific climate played a strong role in tuberculosis treatment. My research paper addresses how the so-called “Climate Cure” theory spread throughout the Western hemisphere and influenced the construction of sleek, modern tuberculosis sanatoriums. Previous research and scholarship have looked at major TB sanatoriums in Europe and the United States in depth, however, little has been looked at TB sanatoriums in smaller countries such as Cuba. I seek to fill in this gap of tuberculosis’ history by taking a …

Making Their Voices Heard- The Nahua Fight To Secure Agency 1575-1820, Micaela Wiehe

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis examines the evolution of the Spanish colonial legal system from 1525-1820 and analyzes the way that the indigenous Nahua people influenced, manipulated, and commanded a powerful conversation with their distant King through interactions with and within the law. By analyzing the extant Spanish colonial legal documents including court records, indigenous codices, land titles, and more, this thesis will attempt to support the theory that the indigenous people in New Spain maneuvered within the many facets of the Spanish legal system to establish themselves as powerful legal actors regaining a significant portion of the freedom taken from them during …

A Comparative Review: Obeah, Race And Racism: Caribbean Witchcraft In The English Imagination And Experiments With Power: Obeah And The Remaking Of Religion In Trinidad, Brittany Mondragon

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

History Of The Dominican Republic, Lissette Acosta Corniel

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Environmental Perception In Colombia's Páramo Protected Areas, Juliana Delgado

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the gap between farmers' environmental perceptions in Téquita, a small village in Colombia, and the definition of protected areas has led to a conflict for the use of natural resources. I examine if the protected area's policies have dealt with the social and ecological issues in the páramos and recognized the social construction of the landscape, farmers' identities, and their interpretations about work and land. The case study focuses on Güina High Mountain in the Guantiva-La Rusia páramo complex, which recently the Colombian government declared as a protected area. In light of anthropologist Tim Ingold's meaning of …

Forgotten Crime And Cultural Boom: New York And Brazil's Coffee Trading Relationship In The Early Twentieth Century, Collin Green

The Forum: Journal of History

In the United States of America, coffee and its ever-evolving culture has become a focal point of everyday life. However, we did not just stumble upon this phenomenon; the popularity of coffee was carefully calculated by leaders of the wealthiest coffee companies of the early 20th century in America’s biggest city, New York. In this paper, the history of the powerful coffee trading relationship between Brazil and New York is analyzed on two different levels. Firstly, I examine how New York's big coffee companies successfully participated in criminal activity on an international and national level. Secondly, my focus shifts to …

Introductory Note, Alan Lebaron

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

A note from the editor, Alan LeBaron, reviewing the contents and structure of Maya America Vol. 3 Iss. 2.

Indigenous Youth Storywork: A Spiritual Awakening Of A Maya Adoptee Living In Kkkanada, Ana Celeste Macleod

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Indigenous adoptee scholars understand their identity through community connection, culture, education and practice. In this Storywork, through engagement with current literature and ten research questions, I explored what it meant to be an adoptee in West Coast (KKKanadian) Indigenous communities. An Indigenous Youth Storywork methodology was applied to bring meaning to relationships I have with diverse Indigenous Old Ones, mentors and Knowledge Keepers and their influence on my journey as a Maya adoptee returning to my culture. My personal story was developed and analyzed using an Indigenous decolonial framework and Indigenous Arts-based methods. The intention of this Youth Storywork research …

A Maya Migrant: A Journey Of No Return, Gaspar Pedro González

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

After years of listening to Maya migrants in the United states and listening to migrants forced back to Guatemala, the novella’s author Gaspar Pedro González created the story of Palas and Malkal, man and wife. The story begins with a discussion of the causes behind migration, and then proceeds to Palas while he arranges his trip with the coyote, makes his goodbyes to his family and community, makes the overland passage through Mexico, and when finally in the United States finds some hopes and plans unobtainable. Palas, and his family left behind in Guatemala, will encounter challenges to their cultural …

Ancient Pottery Making At Cerro San Isidro, Nepeña Valley, Peru, Kaitlyn M. Lowrance

LSU Master's Theses

Located in the Nepeña Valley of north-central Peru, Cerro San Isidro was first documented in the 1930s when the valley was initially surveyed. While numerous sites along the valley, particularly those located in the lower valley, have been extensively researched since this initial survey, members of the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Cerro San Isidro (PIACSI) conducted the first formal excavations in 2019. My thesis project analyzes the ceramic artifacts – in particular pottery fragments – from that field season in order to evaluate continuity and change in morphological and technical styles from the Early Horizon through the Late Intermediate Periods …

Seeing Through The Illusion: A Critical Look At The Iran-Contra Scandal, Andrew James Mitchell

History

This senior project examines the entanglement of the 1980s Drug War with the Cold War. The project looks at the media manipulation which occurred as part of the Drug War as well as breaks down the Iran-Contra Senate Hearings report. This project's goal is to further the research on the Iran-Contra scandal and the history of CIA interventionism.

Los Zetas, Neoliberalism, And Popular Opposition: A Study In Linkages, Gina R. Lyle

Master's Theses

Los Zetas are considered by security analysts to be a transformative force within transnational criminal organizations (TCO), exporting their unique model throughout Mexico. Los Zetas’ idiosyncratic interventions include their diversification of criminal operations, professionalization of TCO security, sophisticated use of media and technology, extreme forms of violent coercion, and decentralized command structure. This project aims to complicate the narrative that Los Zetas emerged because of top leaders’ sadistic tendencies or due to an inherently violent culture in Mexico by reframing the group’s evolution within historical processes. Moving beyond Los Zetas, this project examines how persons affected by Los Zetas’ indiscriminate …

Monumentality, Fortification, And Movement: Preclassic Maya Developments As Seen At Muralla De León, Petén, Guatemala, Justin D. Bracken

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Analysis of settlement patterning in relation to natural and constructed defensive elements expands understanding of the impact of warfare well beyond the relatively brief period of active battle. Advance preparation in advance of conflict, including reshaping the landscape for defensibility and conscription of labor toward that end, alters patterns of movement, social interaction, and physical settlement, effects that can extend for generations beyond the cessation of hostilities. This project investigates the role played by warfare in shaping the physical and social landscape of the Maya of the central Petén during the Late Preclassic period (400 B.C. – A.D. 150), as …

Enhancing The Role Of Civil Society Organizations In A Post-Conflict Setting: A Review Of Central American Conflicts In The 1990s, Leticia Guadalupe Murillo

Senior Theses

The 1990s marked an opportunity for change for three Central American countries facing the end of their civil wars: Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Efforts to contribute to democratization and the reconstruction of war-torn societies grew with the increasing presence of United Nations missions and international organizations and donors, but the primary organizations overlooked in these efforts were local civil society organizations (CSOs). Based on the role of CSOs in the post-conflict phases, I intend to answer the following question: How can the role and image of CSOs be enhanced in a post-conflict setting? Improving the role and image of …

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 …

From Parsley And Sugarcane, Jennifer Celeste

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The Dominican Republic is the most travelled-to island in the Caribbean, attracting over 6.6 million travelers per year. However, according to renowned scholar and writer Frank Moya Pons, author of The Dominican Republic: A National History, The Dominican Republic is also “one of the least studied countries in Latin America and the Caribbean despite the fact that it is the longest European-inhabited territory in the hemisphere” (Moya Pons 9). To me, this says two things: first, that there is a hunger to explore the Dominican Republic, its culture, and its landscape, and second, that, despite the acknowledgment of all its …

Pero...Maybe, Adrian Gonzalez

Graduate School of Art Theses

Through collage, assemblage, and object making, I fit unlikely fragments that I call manchitas—stains—together. In my paintings and mixed media assemblages I incorporate references to Spanglish as un acto of making. To me, it’s like the visual work that I make: thinking in one language and speaking another, words start with English but end in Spanish. They sound like English but are Spanish or vice versa. The words look misspelled but are used in everyday conversation. Spanglish is idiosyncratic and is what I build my practice on. I collect materials around me, some I find and some I make. …