Latin American Languages and Societies Commons^™

Recuerdos Efímeros, Karewith A. Casas

Theses and Dissertations

The following 12 poems were written in 2023 leading up to my MFA thesis exhibition at Hunter College. Each relate and were inspired by or inspired the visual works in the exhibition. My writing, the music I make, and the visual works I create are all intertwined and feed off of each other. The relationship between my works of art and poetry are not in the tradition of ekphrasis, but are instead extensions of each other. Each mark, material, color, or image are words, sounds, sentences, movements, and pauses. And vice versa as well. Moments on a picture plane or …

Desde La Fiesta, Hasta La Costa, Dashiell M B Allen

Capstones

Grupos de inmigrantes garífunas de Centroamérica se unen en la Ciudad de Nueva York para apoyar a sus pueblos mientras disfrutan de su cultura afro-indígena.

https://medium.com/@dashiell-allen1/desde-la-fiesta-hasta-la-costa-ce2f726852ca

Cuento De Todas Las Cosas, Mariana Romo-Carmona

Publications and Research

"Este cuento breve tal vez cae en el antiguo género de lo real maravilloso o, lo que se conoce en inglés como especulativo. Explora los efectos de la homofobia, el exilio, la enajenación, a través de personajes en un parque encantado, que puede ser el Parque Central en la ciudad de Nueva York." from the editor, Bilingual Review

This short story was translated into English and published in Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Vol. 57, No. 2, Dec. 2024, issue 109

Antología Vol. Iii Crónica, Cuento, Microrrelato, Poesía Y Relato, Jose Higuera Lopez, Dejanira Alvarez Cardenas

CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

Creada por iniciativa del Instituto de Estudios Mexicanos de CUNY,

la Feria Internacional del Libro de la Ciudad de Nueva York es el espacio

por antonomasia de la promoción del español en la ciudad más

vibrante y cosmopolita de los Estados Unidos. Un español que se

mantiene vivo y cambiante por las muchas migraciones que componen

el entramado de la metrópoli y cuya vitalidad se ve reflejada en

la expresión escrita de la lengua; no solo en el terreno de la literatura

sino también en los de la academia y el periodismo.

La literatura producida en español en la ciudad …

The Greatest Show On Earth: Is Trinidad’S Carnival Perpetuating A Society Of Elitism And Class Struggle?, Charisse A. Lewis

Student Theses and Dissertations

Trinidad's Carnival, often hailed as "The Greatest Show on Earth," embodies a vibrant celebration of culture, identity, and liberation. Over the last two decades Trinidad’s Carnival has become a popularized, global phenomenon. A highly anticipated event that remains a top-notch experience year in year out. The Carnival that was once known for its traditional characters, calypso, J’ouvert and “pretty mas” has now become a globalized event that not only represents the country’s attempt to increase its foreign revenue through tourism but also appears to perpetuate the class struggle that has existed throughout the history of Trinidad. Beneath its colorful surface …

Representaciones Ideológicas Del Lenguaje Entre La Población Mexicana En Nueva York, Maria Del Rocio Carranza Brito

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the linguistic ideologies that Mexican migrants bring when migrating and reproduce in their daily interactions with other Spanish and English speakers, as well as the representations of the language presented in their linguistic behaviors. This work presents an intersectional analysis where the factors of gender, migratory status, education, and work are determining factors in the adoption, maintenance, and reproduction of language ideologies, which affect the linguistic decisions of the speakers in their use of Spanish, learning of English and the support of bilingualism. Based on the stereotypical idea of Spanish as the …

Fantasmas Compartidos: Posmemoria, Herencia Y Reescritura De La Guerra Civil Española En México Y España, Mayte Lopez Sanchez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes contemporary novels and films about the traumatic legacies of the Spanish Civil War through the lens of postmemory, memory studies, and transatlantic studies. I examine how Mexican and Spanish writers and filmmakers from the postwar generations approach the memories of their ancestors—and their own—to reframe history through fiction, memory work, and personal agency. Studies about historical memory are typically constrained to national contexts, but I highlight how trauma transcends the nation not only in space but also in time. Moreover, I focus on how inherited memories acquire new meanings in contemporary representations and how those resignifications have …

Dulce Sueños De Tierra, Sweet Dreams Of Earth, Jordany Genao

Theses and Dissertations

Jordany's paper congregates their archival research into an art practice that examines the decolonial impulse to excavate the self and produce autonomy. Using ceramics to reference and re-animate Taino ritual objects found in museums, resulting in alternative museology, their work seeks to honor Caribbean ancestors by subverting colonial history.

Making And Taking: Evaluating The Ethnographic Gaze In Graciela Iturbide’S Los Que Viven En La Arena, Lauren Gonzales

Theses and Dissertations

Graciela Iturbide’s career-defining engagement with indigenous subjects began with a commission by the Mexican government's Instituto Nacional Indigenista (INI) to document the Seri people. This thesis contextualizes the resulting photobook, Los que viven en la arena (1981), within the history of indigenous representation in Mexico and the controversial policies of the INI.

Giving Voice To The Body: Slam Poetry In The Poet X, Stefanny Leung Yu

Student Theses

When the world silences her, can slam poetry become her voice? Elizabeth Acevedo, an author and poet, uses her beautiful piece of slam poetry to explore how language can empower marginalized voices, speaking on behalf of those who are usually silenced. The Poet X is a verse novel that narrates the powerful story of a young Afro-Latina girl, Xiomara Batista, who navigates the intersecting pressures of school bullies, family issues, religious conservatism, patriarchal rules, and racialized body politics in her Harlem community. This research engages with Acevedo’s work to focus on how slam poetry serves as a powerful outlet and …

The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, And The Politics Of Knowledge In Puerto Rico [Book Review], Mariel Acosta Matos

Publications and Research

En su más reciente libro The Lettered Barriada: Workers and the Politics of Knowledge (La barriada letrada: los obreros y las políticas del conocimiento), Jorell Meléndez-Badillo (University of Wisconsin-Madison) nos presenta una historia de la producción subalterna de conocimiento obrero en Puerto Rico, desde los primeros años de colonialismo estadounidense en el archipiélago, a finales de siglo XIX, hasta la primera mitad del siglo XX. Los protagonistas de la misma fueron un grupo de obreros que creó redes de aprendizaje, conocimiento y transmisión de información de manera autogestionada y a los márgenes de las elites ilustradas. Tomando como referente conceptual …

Toporadio: Mapping Research On Spanish-Languageradio In The United States, Eric Silberberg

Publications and Research

This article analyzes the construction of TopoRadio (toporadio.org), an interactive map that showcases publications and archives about Spanish-language radio in the U.S. The map aims to promote a more inclusive and comprehensive representation of U.S. radio history by improving the visibility of contributions from Latinx broadcasters. The article addresses how map-making historically suppressed Spanish-language radio programs and proposes using critical cartography as a framework for mapping back this history. The technical elements of TopoRadio, including publication selection criteria, metadata design, geocoding process, and the appraisal of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, are described to provide scholars with a reproducible method …

The Nawat Language Revitalization In El Salvador And How Its Digital Activism Transcends Borders, Sergio J. Mendoza Gallardo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this research project I seek to show how digital activism for Nawat revitalization can transcend beyond the Salvadoran borders. The goal is to show how the revitalization of Nawat can have a better chance to be successful thanks to technology. Nawat is the last indigenous language in El Salvador, and its position within Salvadoran society has been uncertain for many years. Thus, I aim to show how technological efforts can help revitalize Nawat language with the efforts that are already being done. Although El Salvador has had a dark ethnic history regarding indigenous people, there are actions being taken …

Hands. Words. Mirrors. A Letter To My Mother., Iliana Emilia García

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My capstone project is a memoir of my mother in a letter format, where I tell my mother the story she forgot, who she was, where we were, and where we’re headed. After my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2013, my focus on telling my family history shifted from research of the family to recovery. The loss of my mother's insight and recollections prompted a shift in the narrative. She, one of the main characters in my story, became my most important audience. In a photo album approach, I aim to rebuild what seems lost. I am keeping the …

Trans* Bambalinas: Del Freak Show Al Videoarte En El Documental Disidente Chileno, Ignacio A. Pastén López

Publications and Research

Este ensayo reseña los siguientes documentales:

El viaje de Monalisa. Dir. Nicole Costa. Prod. Gregory Costa y Daniela Camino. Nueva York, 2019, 93 min. https://ondamedia.cl/show/el-viaje-de-monalisa-1626213821621.

Casa Roshell. Dir. Camila José Donoso. Prod. Garbiñe Ortega, Juan Pablo Bastarrachea, Maximiliano Cruz y Sandra Gómez. Chile, 2017, 71 min. https://ondamedia.cl/show/casa-roshell.

Naomi Campbel. Dir. Camila José Donoso y Nicolás Videla. Prod. Catalina Donoso y Rocío Romero. Chile, 2013, 83 minutos. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=236699154110418.

En tránsito. Dir. Constanza Gallardo. Prod. Constanza Gallardo y Felipe Garrido González. Chile, 2017, 65 min. https://www.cclm.cl/cineteca-online/en-transito/.

El gran circo pobre de Timoteo. Dir. Lorena Giachino Torréns. Prod. Paola …

Estás En La Sintonía De La Gozadera: En Vivo Desde Cumbiayork, El Movimiento Sonidero Del Futuro, Vita Dadoo

Capstones

For 30 years, New York's sonideros have been making noise on the central avenues of the city's Mexican and Latino ecosystems. The movement, made up of the sonidero (translated literally as "soundman"), his assistants, promoters, fans and dancers, has created a subculture that for a long time defined the relationship between the migrant and his native home in Mexico. Thirty years later, I explore how the movement has evolved, the traits that have distinguished it from the Mexican sonidero movement, and how it continues to flourish under a new generation of deejays.

Review Of "The American 'Amigo' Nelson Rockefeller And Brazil" By Antonio Pedro Tota, Lorena B. Ellis

Publications and Research

Book review of "The American 'Amigo', Nelson Rockefeller and Brazil" by Antonio Pedro Tota, translated from Portuguese into English with a brief summary of all chapters and reviewers' comments. It is a great source for students of U.S. relations with Brazil, during and after World War II. Starting in 1945, Nelson Rockefeller used private and public efforts to stimulate Brazilian economic, promote political, and social change, always with idealism, love of art, and humanitarian concerns, especially preventing any Brazilian pursuits of Communism.

Span 290 - Survey Of Spanish-American Literature Ii, Mariana C. Zinni

Open Educational Resources

This course is designed for any student interested in Spanish American literature. No previous knowledge of it is needed. However, a good command of written and oral Spanish is indispensable. We will examine several literary periods, topics, artifacts and works from 20th and 21st centuries. We will watch a series of movies and documentaries related to specific topics and events.

Del Ornitorrinco A La Radio Ambulante: La Nueva Crónica Latinoamericana En La Era Neoliberal, Ulises Gonzales

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the presence of neoliberal hegemonic imaginaries in narrative journalism written in Latin America between 1995 and 2021.

There are strong connections between a period of decline in the readership of some of the authors of the so-called “Latin American Boom,” the penetration of neoliberal economic policies in the region (with the privatization of State companies and the expansion of the telecommunications industry), and the renewed interest in non-fiction writing published by a number of print publications in the region during the last decade of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st Century, as in magazines …

Destination Icaic: Cosmopolitan Intellectuals, Documentary Film And The Image Of The Cuban 1960s, Gabriel Arce-Riocabo Rollins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study analyzes the interaction between foreign intellectuals and ICAIC (Instituto cubano de artes e industrias cinematográficas) in shaping the image of Cuba in the 1960s. I make the case that the idea of Revolution was a product of cosmopolitan intellectual engagement and that in this process documentary film was a privileged medium. By tracing the development of normative stories of commitment, cosmopolitanism, and aesthetic experimentation embodied both in written texts and travel essay films, I argue that such circulation destabilizes fixed ideas of Cuban, Revolutionary or Intellectual. The archive of Danish filmmaker and ICAIC collaborator Theodor Christensen as well …

Analog Matters: Labels, Cassettes, And Alternative Economies In Argentina’S Independent Music Scenes, Maria Agustina Checa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a multi-sited ethnographic study of current cassette production and circulation in Argentina. It analyzes the work of independent labels that record music available online onto cassette tapes, incorporating a variety of music styles. I examine practices of production, circulation, and exchange, and the alternative economies performed around cassettes, with particular attention to the materialities constituting these processes. Through cassettes, I conceptualize and trace "relational value," a notion to understand objects with different kinds of social agencies valued for their abilities to generate connections. Relational value is a theoretical construct that emerges from the ground-up approach to studying …

La Literatura Al Gobierno: José De La Riva-Agüero Y Luis Alberto Sánchez En La Modernización Civilista (1905–1928), Alexis V. Iparraguirre Castro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation examines Jose de la Riva-Aguero and Luis Alberto Sanchez’s studies on Peruvian literature at the turn of the 20th century. Their texts not only established the characteristics of Peruvian literature and the methods required for their study but also argued that teaching it at the university level had practical implications for national life. This is why Riva-Agüero’s El carácter de la literatura en el Perú independiente (1905) and Sanchez’s La literatura peruana (1928-1929) sought to establish a social psychology that would be able to offer a diagnostic of the nation. In the case of Riva-Agüero, this was geared …

A Queens Community Teacher Storytelling Project: A Qualitative Research Study Of Five Local Afro-Caribbean And Latina Public School Teachers And Community Teachers In New York City, José Alfredo Menjivar Ortéz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation thesis examines the lived experiences, life stories, and storytelling of five Afro-Caribbean and Latina people, who are all local from the borough of Queens, alumni of New York City’s public schools, and since then, became their local public school teachers, classroom practitioners, and local community teachers. We refer to this specific and unique population of teachers as alumni-community teachers and to these and other similar stories as teacher life stories.

This qualitative research and study were conducted through a series of writing workshops and semi-structured interviews. The study’s main examination is preoccupied to understand how local teachers make …

Antología Volumen Ii: Cuento, Poesía, Relato, Microrrelato Y Testimonio, Jose Higuera Lopez, Carlos Aguasaco

CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

La Feria Internacional del Libro de la Ciudad de Nueva York es un espacio donde se promueve la riqueza expresiva de la literatura en español en Estados Unidos. Las obras inéditas que se compilan en este volumen expresan la gran diversidad de texturas y acentos que dan cuenta de la infinitud de nuestra lengua.

La Antología de la FIL Ciudad de Nueva York es uno de los proyectos fundamentales dentro de las iniciativas de nuestra Feria, y su objetivo es proveer un espacio de visibilidad y desarrollo para las voces emergentes, así como un punto de encuentro para escritores y …

The Beehive, The Favela, The Castle, And The Ministry: Race And Modern Architecture In Rio De Janeiro, 1811–1945, Luisa Valle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation deploys a multidisciplinary and decolonial framework to investigate the architecture of cortiços, the Favela Hill, the Castelo Hill, and the Ministry of Education and Public Health (MES) building as constitutive of the history of modernization and modernity in the Centro (city center) of Rio de Janeiro, 1811-1945. The first three chapters investigate the distinct geographies, formal and material qualities, and populations of cortiços, the Favela Hill, and the Castelo Hill, as well as their racialization and essentialization by the “unsanitary” and “degenerate” labels bestowed upon these landscapes by the state. Traditional narratives and practices of modern architecture and …

Colonial Education: Puerto Ricans And The Carlisle Indian School, Progenitors Of The Mythic Identity, Melissa Swinea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

‘GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES’ reads a subheading of The Red Man –a historic periodical memorializing the tune of 19th century Americana with references to Godliness and its connection to Indianness and ostentatious capitalism in a canon of school newspapers. The Red Man was the staple periodical of the Carlisle Indian Industrial Institute published monthly and declared “in the interest of Indian education and civilization” for the annual price of 50 cents[1] The subject and recipients of The Red Man would also include 193 Puerto Rican students sent to Carlisle through the U.S.’s campaign to Americanize the Caribbean …

España Rarita: Performances Festivas En Tiempos Queer (2008–2020), Daniel Valtueña Martínez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies performing arts practices that reimagine Spanishness after the 2008 financial crisis from a theoretical framework based in queer temporalities. I argue how the recession not only allowed Spanish citizens to claim their rights through the organization of social movements such as the 15M or through cultural objects mimetically representing the crisis through a variety of artistic expressions, but that the 2008 financial crisis also enabled a wide range of creators to reimagine how the Spanish State has been traditionally represented. The contemporary performers I study in my dissertation originally propose new visions of the commons by calling …

Building For A New National Body: The Architecture Of Manuel Amábilis And Neomaya Modernity, Emily A. Cocco

Theses and Dissertations

In the history of architecture following the Mexican revolution, Yucatecan architect Manuel Amábilis (1889-1966) has often been passed over in favor of discussions of architects working in the nation’s cultural and political center, Mexico City, many of whom engaged in neocolonial and functionalist modern style to envision a modern Mexico transformed by the revolution. This omission is short-sighted, since Amábilis’s Maya revivalist architecture provides an iteration of postrevolutionary Mexican architecture that visually and ideologically manifests the socialist and proindingenous aims of the revolution while imagining a paradigm of modern nationalism that was not rooted in Western ideals. Amábilis’ neomaya architecture, …

I Still Love You, Despite Everything, Amy Bravo

Theses and Dissertations

My practice seeks to reconcile the family—be it a found, queer family, or blood relatives. Addressing ancestral conflict, the complications of US/Cuba relations and my physical and cultural distance from the island I hail from, my work offers another world for communing with those you cannot physically reach.

Formations Of The Mayan Diaspora In Guatemala And The Us: Land, Migration, And Linguistic Ideologies As The Markers Of Diasporic Separation., Daniel Antipov

Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the phenomenon of diaspora formation among the indigenous Guatemalan population as a major identity marker in the new Guatemalan immigrants in the US. This work provides: definition of diaspora, its historical frames, juxtaposition of the self and the Other, and separation and differentiation of the indigenous languages