Latin American Languages and Societies Commons^™

The Legacy Of British Rule On Lgbt Rights In Jamaica And The Cayman Islands, Zachary Stewart

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between British colonial influence and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights in the Caribbean. Comparing the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, and Jamaica, an independent former colony of the United Kingdom, the situation for LGBT people is evaluated. While Jamaica has serious abuses and a concerning situation for the human rights of LGBT people, the Cayman Islands’ LGBT community’s position is far less concerning. Owing to its continued connection to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Cayman Islands’ LGBT rights situation is much less dire. Through British influence via …

The Smuggler Journals: Transgressing And Policing The Border In The Rio Grande Valley, Lupe Alberto Flores

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis summarizes recent human smuggling scholarship and provides ethnographic insights into migrant smuggling in a border zone that is my home. Through exploring my own experiences and observations of smuggling and militarized border policing, and those of other interlocutors in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, I advance nuanced understandings of the symbiotic processes of irregular migration and of the people who brokerage a great deal of these journeys across militarized borders. I analyze fieldnotes that highlight the quotidian realms in which gender and power play out when irregular migration takes place and argue that acts of border …

Performing (Female) Masculinity In The Early Modern Ibero-Atlantic World: An Analysis Of The Mujer Varonil In Gender And Genre, Nathaniel L. Redekopp

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

The following dissertation on the trope of the mujer varonil^[1] employs bibliographical research in literary criticism and historiography to identify and describe socio-historic attitudes about gender. In particular, this dissertation examines gender as communicated by texts that use the mujer varonil, or “masculine woman”, characterization to either praise or vilify exceptional female subjects in ways that highlight normative limits for masculine and feminine gender expression. Four texts are examined: a male author writes each and each represents a literary genre that was significant in early modern Spain and Spanish America. These genres are the hagiography, the relación, the …

Desire, Curiosity, And The Search For Truth In Proust, Moreno, And Bechdel, Santiago Parga Linares

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Marcel Proust’s influence on twentieth century literature is broad and has been well documented. This dissertation attempts a comparative reading of À la recherche du temps perdu that places it in contrast with Colombian writer Marvel Moreno’s 1987 novel, En diciembre llegaban las brisas, and Alison Bechdel’s 2006 comic memoir, Fun Home. Starting from a Deleuzian reading of the Recherche, this dissertation proposes the notion of the “proustian truth seeker”, a thematic and stylistic phenomenon which can be traced in all three writers. The characteristics of the truth seeker can be used to understand the ways in …

La Nación Está En Otra Parte: Cultura Y Neoliberalismo En México (1977-1996), Rafael Lemus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies a series of cultural products and practices that, between 1977 and 1996, either contributed to the formation and propagation of a neoliberal rationality in Mexico or opposed it. By analyzing objects as diverse as cultural magazines, art exhibitions, literary polemics and social movements, it addresses the reconfiguration of the Mexican cultural field triggered by the neoliberal turn in the 1980s as well as the construction of a new national narrative intended to displace the old revolutionary tale and to rationalize and facilitate the insertion of the country into the global economy.

The first chapter focuses on the …

Una Democracia Aterrorrizada: Justicia Y Afecto En Los Textos De La Transición Democrática Argentina, Mariana Graciano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the links between justice and affect in some of the most emblematic texts of the democratic transition in Argentina. Films, novels and photos are incorporated here as texts or complex utterances, as they constitute a framework of signs with a communicative intention that makes sense in a given context. In order to analyze these links, I consider terms from the field of transitional justice (reconciliation, forgiveness, restoration) and specific affects (terror, empathy, guilt, resentment, tenderness, happiness and cruelty).

The key questions guiding this thesis are: what links did visual arts and literature have in relation to the …

Drinking Our Stories:Food Sovereignty In Ecuador And Amazonian Runa Relations With Manioc And Guayusa, Jacqueline Michelle Kramer

Latin American Studies ETDs

Food sovereignty and the role of the state, international organizations, and social movements in its defense have been deeply researched. However, the role of small-scale farmers who continue traditional agricultural methods reflecting tenets of the food sovereignty movement, has been neglected in its relation to food sovereignty. This work aims to connect the plant-based ecological relationships with small-scale farmers using food sovereignty as an analytical discourse. Specifically, this thesis explores the relationship between Ecuadorian Amazonian Quichua people and two staple crops: manioc and guayusa. Through a gendered and epistemological analysis of food sovereignty, it argues that under the politics of …

Identity Through Clothing: Argentinian Vs. American Women, Magali Farfan

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

According to Roach-Higgins, Eicher, and Johnson (1995), “individuals acquire identity through social, physical, and biological settings” (pg.12). When acquiring identity, culture plays a vital role. Because of numerous influences on identity, a conflict exists for those who identify with more than one culture. This study focuses specifically on the problems of women who identify both as Argentinian and American. The purpose of this creative project was to create an outfit that could be worn by an Argentinian/American woman in the presence of family and friends, regardless of culture, and not feel that she is disregarding societal norms of either culture. …

(Re)Defining Masculinity: Creando Conciencia Y Conocimiento Sobre La Educación Through Food, Jesus Aaron Sierra

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes how food, culture, and class have shaped how I have acculturated, negotiated and blended Mexican and American. It highlights various themes that have shaped my educational process, including, masculinity, family values, food production, service and consumption. The proximity of South Texas to the U.S.-Mexican border plays an important role in the gastronomy of the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). This is a region where people interact across race, ethnicity and culture to create different dishes and customs surrounding food. It also demonstrates how food brings people together. The methodology used in this thesis is from the autoethnographic perspective …

The Evolution Of La Mexicana In Corridos Popular In The South Texas Borderlands (1930-2016), Gabriela Cavazos

Theses and Dissertations

Corridos have been exhibiting history for almost two hundred years. Moreover, throughout the years, corridos have been demonstrating the cultural shifts of Mexico and the South Texas Borderlands. Corridos represent the spirit of the Mexican and Mexican American culture. They are ballads written to celebrate or to be critical of the life of the protagonists through their accomplishments and actions.

Masculinidades Peligrosas: Monstruosidad, Vampirismo, Canibalismo Y Homosexualidad En La Literatura Mexicana De Los Siglos Xx Y Xxi, Jorge Estrada

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This dissertation examines public and institutional perceptions of homosexuality in Mexico from the time of Porfirio Díaz’s dictatorship (c. 1880-1910) through the early twentieth-first century. In my introduction, I study diverse representations of the male homosexual as a monstrous figure in Western culture, taking as models gothic images that emerged in the late nineteenth-century as a response to the rise of scientism, industrialization, and urbanization. The models that I utilize include the literal and metaphorical cannibal, the anxiety-causing vampire, and the dehumanized depiction of those who transgress social boundaries of gender and race.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical …

Representation, Reflection, And Reconciliation: The Evolving Depiction Of Violence In The Committed Literature Of Manlio Argueta, Gladys E. Vasquez

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the life and works of the committed Salvadoran author Manlio Argueta. It traces pertinent themes in four of his novels, El valle de las hamacas (1969), Caperucita en la zona roja (1978), Milagro de La Paz (1994), and Siglo de O(g)ro (1997). This project traces how Argueta's representation of violence markedly transitions from a mimetic representation of violence that appeals to the senses and raises awareness of the exacerbating circumstances to a subdued and psychological representation of the consequences of the violence in the face of new violence and changing panoramas. It highlights three major moments …

Moving Against Clothespins:The Poli(Poe)Tics Of Embodiment In The Poetry Of Miriam Alves And Audre Lorde, Flávia Santos De Araújo

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines literary representations of the black female body in selected poetry by U.S. African American writer Audre Lorde and Afro-Brazilian writer Miriam Alves, focusing on how their literary projects construct and defy notions of black womanhood and black female sexualities in dialogue with national narratives and contexts. Within an historical, intersectional and transnational theoretical framework, this study analyses how the racial, gender and sexual politics of representation are articulated and negotiated within and outside the political and literary movements in the U.S. and Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. As a theoretical framework, this research elaborates and uses …

Closer Ties: The Dutch Caribbean And The Aftermath Of Empire, 1942-2012, Chelsea Schields

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the unique trajectory of decolonization in the Netherlands and its former Caribbean colonies and argues that sexual and reproductive politics have played a pivotal role in forging a postcolonial commonwealth state. Using sexual politics as a lens, “Closer Ties” explores how postcolonial ties between the Netherlands and its former Caribbean dependencies have strengthened rather than severed in the aftermath of colonial rule. This alternative ending of empire challenges the assumed trajectory of decolonization and locates the drama of imperial dissolution in debates over sexual and reproductive rights in Europe. Looking to the circuits of trans-Atlantic exchange across …

Tsirik - Fold The Leaves So That Others May Be Guided: A Study Of How The Bribri Women Are Preserving Their Culture To Ensure A Sustainable Future For Their Community, Emily R. Blau

Capstone Collection

Bananas are one of Costa Rica’s largest exports, along with coffee, palm oil, and cocoa. The banana plantations are large-scale, are most often run by multinational companies, and are considered to be run as enclave economies (Equal Exchange, 2016). This monoculture crop production has been globally accused of human rights abuses said to include, but not be limited to, violating the rights of indigenous people and loss in culture and tradition. For this paper, I studied the effects that large-scale agricultural corporations have on the BriBri, a matriarchal and indigenous group who live on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. …

Diversas De Sí, Entre El Hoy Y El Ayer: Rememoria De Tres Íconos Femeninos Espirituales, La Condesa De Malibrán, Sor Juana Inés De La Cruz Y La Falsa Teresa De Jesús, Ana Gabriela Hernandez Gonzalez 5059749397

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This dissertation traces the cultural memory of three magical/religious women of the colonial period: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, La Condesa de Malibrán and La Falsa Teresa de Jesús. It studies these icons specifically in three different discourses that construct cultural identities in Mexico: colonial discourse (XVI-XVII Centuries), the discourse of national consolidation (XIX-XX centuries) and postcolonial discourse (XX-XIX Centuries). First I describe how the narratives of the colonial period and of national consolidation employ an official lens to place magical/religious women within traditional gender roles. Then I delineate how historical novels in the 21st century employ a postcolonial …

The Glocal Creation Of Space: Paru Paru’S Youth Casting Their Own Futures, Teresa M. Drenten

Architecture and Planning ETDs

This thesis illustrates the active participation of Indigenous children in the creation of space intersecting across multiple scales. I engaged with critical decolonial theories to create a community based participatory process with eleven bilingual Quechua-Spanish children in Paru Paru, Peru. My methodology focuses on the desires of the community, concentrating on their lived experiences and honoring the community’s challenges and resiliency. This research and knowledge belong to the community. Through small group and observation methods, these young participants demonstrated two desires; First, they want to remain connected to their lands and cosmology; next, they wish to receive the benefits from …

Colombian Peace Process Likely To Succeed, Kayla D. Graves

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On 2 October 2016, Colombians voted on a referendum to “end the conflict and establish stable and enduring peace” between Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC, and Colombia’s democratic government. The referendum was rejected by a narrow margin―49.8% of voters in favor of the peace deal and 50.2% opposed. Following the referendum several terms were revised and the peace accord was approved by Colombian Congress on 30 November 2016. Now, the transition to peace begins.

Structured Analytic Techniques including Analysis of Competing Hypotheses, Scenario Generation, and Red Team Analysis support the conclusion that the Colombian peace process will likely …

The Dialectics Of The Community: Mexican Production Of Death, Blanca Judith Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work attempts to provide a discussion of the current waves of violence present in the northern border of Mexico. The country became a neoliberal state during the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The external debt and the historical corruption of the Mexican government placed Mexico in a vulnerable stage leaving its sovereignty with a fissure before the eyes of international circles of power. The adoption of a neoliberal economic system has impacted all the social tissue. The euphoric discourse of advancement and opportunity was spread by ideological apparatus, and people in constant need accepted positively the system. The …

Creating A Multiracial Lesson Plan, Clayton Davis

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The purpose of this project is to teach students about multiracial identity issues. Multiracial populations in the U.S. continue to grow and it’s important for educators to address the needs of these students. A 5-E multiracial literature lesson plan was created for second grade that incorporates KWL and Text-to-World teaching strategies. A second grade class were read two children’s picture books, each featuring a biracial protagonist, and were asked to discuss and evaluate the content and commonalities of these stories. Students recorded what they learned in this lesson in their KWL’s. The results reveal that some students understood the problems …

How Disassociating The Past Reassociates The Present: Distilling The Magic Out Of Magic Realism In Susan Power’S The Grass Dancer, Abby N. Lewis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

American Indian author Susan Power’s novel The Grass Dancer is often categorized as magical realism, yet Power has stated the novel is a representation of her reality and that it is not a magical realist text. The term magical realism was first applied to the work of Latin American authors such as Gabriel García Márquez whose writing depicts magical events in a matter-of-fact narrative tone. It has since expanded to include other cultures. The question is whether it is a term that can readily be applied to the literary work of all cultures. The closest Wendy B. Faris, one of …

Care Connectors In Knox County, Tennessee, Beatriz E Satizabal

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Frida's Daughter, Myrta Vida

Theses

The purpose of my creative writing is to highlight a group of U.S. citizens still woefully underrepresented in literature proper: the Latinx middle class. I’m keenly interested in exploring Puerto Rican and first- and second-generation Latinx immigrant stories. Even though some of the experiences from these groups have been elegantly visited by writers such as Giannina Braschi, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Julia Alvarez, and others, there are nuances to the Latinx middle class experience that are yet to be uncovered. Being stuck in the cultural, linguistic, socio-economic, and political middles in a country that has recently taken a largely nationalist …

Culturas Emocionales: Narrativa Escrita Por Mujeres Cubanas Durante El Periodo Especial (1992–2005), Laura Sandez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies the emotional repertories employed in the presentation of the female literary subject in the Cuban special period, a period of rapid ideological shift. It deals with the presentation of the self in a series of fictional autobiographic works whose portraits of history and society allow for the observation of diverse emotional repertories, looking for social and ethical value attributed to emotions such as happiness or nostalgia. The dissertation has two modes, a written one and a visual one I produce using digital media. The written part features a close textual analysis of emotional repertories found in literary …

Subversion And Transcendence In The Latin American Modern Travel Novel (1928-1976), Andrea Babsky

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The focus of this dissertation is the role that travel plays in Latin American novels that stem from 1928 to 1976, specifically, Macunaíma, Los pasos perdidos, El reino de este mundo, and Mascaró, el cazador americano. Departing from the fact that this period of time in history was marked by political and cultural change and upheaval, different aspects and interpretations of travel as manifested in the novels of the corpus are explored as a means of subversion and transcendence to hegemonic discourses. Travel is viewed as a means of disruption, particularly of limits and borders, be they geographical, …

Doing Good In Guatemala: Perceptions Of Voluntourism In San Juan Comalapa, Samantha Grace Hagan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of host community perceptions of volunteer tourism in the context of a small community in the highlands of Guatemala called San Juan Comalapa. Voluntourism acts as a bridge between development aid and traditional tourism and therefore voluntourism organizations should act as both roles in the community. In this research I found that voluntourism organizations, particularly one organization called Long Way Home, can lean more towards one role than another in the eyes of members of the host community. Based on these findings I recommend that these organizations embrace these dual roles and engage the community …

Aztec Human Sacrifice As Entertainment? The Physio-Psycho-Social Rewards Of Aztec Sacrificial Celebrations, Linda Jane Hansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human sacrifice in the sixteenth-century Aztec Empire, as recorded by Spanish chroniclers, was conducted on a large scale and was usually the climactic ritual act culminating elaborate multi-day festivals. Scholars have advanced a wide range of theories explaining the underlying motivations and purposes of these abundant and regulated ritual massacres. Recent scholarship on human sacrifice in ancient Mexico has observed far more complexity, nuance, and fluidity in the nature of these rituals than earlier mono-causal explanations. Several recent examinations have concentrated their analysis on the use of sacred space, architecture, movement, and embodiment in these festivals. As an extension of …

Questioning Authority: An Exploration Of Montaigne And Borges, Keith Warren Roscoe

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Modernidades Contra-Natura: Crítica Ilustrada, Prensa Periódica Y Cultura Manuscrita En El Siglo Xviii Americano, Kevin R. Sedeño-Guillén

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

This dissertation studies the emergence of literary history and criticism in the Americas during the eighteenth century. It focuses upon the study of 1.) Natural history as a matrix of literary history and criticism; 2.) The geopolitical functions of literary history and criticism in the periodical press; and 3.) The recovery of manuscripts as a residual product of modernity. Texts associated with a hegemonic Enlightenment, such as “Disertación sobre el derecho público universal” by Francisco Javier de Uriortúa, are analyzed. Next, we study modern historical-critical thought as emphasized in the periodical press of Bogotá and Quito. Finally, the circulation of …

Simulacrum And Post-Dictatorship Representation Of Violence In Argentina: Translation And Critical Reading Of Eduardo Pavlovsky’S Paso De Dos, Liliya Alexandrovna Galenkova-Riggs

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.