Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature Commons^™

Our Heritage Vol Ii 2026, Ana Iraheta, Jake R. Turcotte, Siobhan Lahiff

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

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Ana C. Iraheta and Jake R. Turcotte (Editors)

Siobhan Lahiff (Illustrator) "

Más Que Saltos: Patinar Me Hace Feliz/More Than Jumps: Skating Makes Me Happy, Amelia Costa

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Skater changes her goals, works hard, and finds new joy.

Por Siempre En Mi Corazón/Forever In My Heart, Valeria Barrón

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

A young woman honors her late friend with love and tradition.

Los Abuelos Viven Para Siempre/Grandparents Live Forever, Mariana Padilla

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

A young woman misses her grandpa, remembers his love, and applies his lessons every single day.

Una Historia Sobre Cultura, Familia Y Sueños/A Story About Culture, Family, And Dreams, Roseline Tavarez Cepeda

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Young immigrant celebrates culture, overcomes fear, and shares her story.

La Pequeña Defensora/The Little Advocate, Krystal Cuello Samper

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Krystal faces challenges, uses bilingualism to help others and grow.

Mi Loca Mundaza A Connecticut/My Crazy Move To Connecticut, Luciana Ybarra

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Moving from Hawaii to Connecticut taught values, adaptation, and cultural respect.

Cuando No Entendía El Por Qué/When I Didn't Understand Why, Nancy Nuñez

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Nancy moved to a new country, learned English with effort, and discovered how valuable education is.

Camino Al Corazón/A Choice From The Heart, Daniela Montoya

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Daniela felt unsure about her future, but chose to care for others and found her calling.

Carta Para Mi Tierra/Letter To My Country, Britnnie Minaya

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Britnnie misses her country, values her culture and her memories.

Barreras Rotas/Broken Barriers, Rachel Barrón

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

María faces change, grows through challenges, and honors her parents’ sacrifices.

Aprendí A Querer Mi Nombre/I Learned To Love My Name, Cici Martinez Osorio

Our Heritage: Short Stories of Bilingual Youth in the Northeastern United States

Citlally learns to love her name and value her culture.

Hindu Poetry And The Project Of An Inter-Spiritual Catholic Theology, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article engages the work of the Indian south Indian Tamil-language Vaiṣṇava poet saints known as the Alvārs. The article specifically focuses the First HundredHoly Linked verses of Poykai Ālvār to argue for inter-spiritual learning between Catholics and Hindus. The article concludes with personal reflections on this encounter within the context of the global Catholic Church

Contra La Guerra Contra Las Madres: Una Revisión Feminista De La Figura De La Madre En Las Obras De Gabriela Wiener, Marta Dillon Y Las “Madres De Soacha”, Fatima Velez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation critically examines how the figure of the mother appears across a set of contemporary Latin American cultural productions. Through the analysis of the work of Peruvian writer and performer Gabriela Wiener; the literary, journalistic, and cinematic production of Argentine writer and activist Marta Dillon; and the collective work of the Colombian human rights group known as the Mothers of Soacha—particularly the participation of three of its members in the play Antígonas, tribunal de mujeres—this study proposes the concept of a “war against mothers.” In dialogue with the term coined by Rita Segato (2016), “war against women,” this …

A Constructional Approach To Multimodal Linguistic Analysis, Fredy A. Mendieta Rodriguez

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This dissertation investigates the systematic organization of co‑speech gestures in referential communication, using data from Spanish‑speaking monolinguals and Spanish–English bilinguals. While traditional gesture research treats pointing as a universal phenomenon, the current analyses show that gestural productions display internal phonological patterning and context‑conditioned variability that parallels spoken constructions. Quantitative results demonstrate how referential distance and communicative context (find‑it versus misunderstanding situations) shape the selection of embodied phonological features—handshape, orientation, movement, and beats—revealing consistent associations between form and interactional demands. Qualitative analyses trace how gestural realizations reduce across discourse as shared understanding emerges. A new complexity metric, based on token frequency …

Al-Manfiyun Exiliados: Voices Of The Lebanese Diaspora In Mexican Literature, Mia Del Rosario

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This thesis explores two key works of Mexican literature published in the late 20^th century in terms of their cultural relevance in the Mexican literary sphere. The novels En el verano, la tierra by Carlos Martínez Assad and Las hojas muertas by Bárbara Jacobs center around the infrequently-explored identities of Lebanese immigrants to Mexico and their Mexican-born descendants through a sociocultural lens, discussing their identity negotiation in the context of 20^th-century Mexico, which was in the process of redefining its national identity after the Mexican Revolution. During this time, people of ethnicities that did not fall into …

"En Papel,” Not In Practice: Indigenous Autonomy And The Structural Barriers To Land And Resource Control In Bolivia, Andrew F. Purcell

Honors Theses

This thesis examines why Bolivia’s 2009 plurinational constitution—despite its strong recognition of Indigenous autonomy, collective territory, and prior consultation—often produces rights that remain “en papel” rather than in practice. Based on one month of fieldwork in Tumupasa, Chojasivi, La Paz, El Alto, and Santa Cruz, the study draws on interviews, participant observation, and NGO documents to analyze the structural barriers that prevent constitutional guarantees from becoming enforceable governance tools. This gap between recognition and implementation structures the central research question: why do Bolivia’s constitutional and legal protections for indigenous land and resource rights function as symbolic guarantees rather than enforceable …

Invisible Shipwrecks And Neurological Endangerment: The Trade-Off In Seeking Asylum - Reframing The Neurobiological Cost Of Forced Migration, Eisha Giran

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

Forced migration along the Spain–Morocco route represents one of the most visible humanitarian crises of the twenty-first century, yet its neurological dimensions remain insufficiently examined. This paper investigates how prolonged displacement and trauma reshape neural systems involved in stress regulation, memory, and emotional processing. It introduces the concept of neurological endangerment, defined as a condition of prolonged and inescapable threat exposure during forced migration in which stress-response systems remain chronically activated, opportunities for recovery are structurally constrained, and cumulative neurobiological risk persists beyond the period of immediate danger.

To address the gap between biological measurement and lived experience, this paper …

La Lengua No Miente, Pero Guarda Secretos: Rigoberta Menchú Y Lecciones De La Memoria Colectiva Desde La Perspectiva Del Feminismo Transnacional, Mildred Ciprian

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Este ensayo explora las lecciones del poder de la memoria colectiva, el poder del testimonio, y el poder de la lengua y los secretos en el testimonio de Rigoberta Menchú, Me llamó Rigoberta Menchú, y así me nació la conciencia (1992). Menchú es una mujer indígena maya que vivió en Guatemala durante el genocidio contra la población indígena. Al estudiar Menchú, uno llega a cuestionar cómo se producen el conocimiento y la verdad, especialmente en el occidente frente al resto del mundo. Las experiencias que cuenta Menchú vienen de memorias colectivas que comparte y cría su comunidad. Este concepto de …

Humanist Abstractions: Zilia Sánchez’S Forms Of Symbolism And The Reframing Of The Picture Plane, Sydney Srnka

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the culturally specific visual language within the work of Zilia Sánchez through an analysis of her biography and semiotic strategies, arguing that meaning in her work emerges through the materiality of form, rather than through conventional stylistic categorization. It reconsiders how art-historical movements are used to organize artists, proposing a framework better suited to Sánchez’s practice. The issues of reception and legibility have shaped Sánchez’s career as an exile whose experience of displacement informed her shaped canvases. These works articulated a simultaneously unique and universal sense of experience. In researching Sánchez’s history, an alternative story for the …

Course Syllabus. Spn 415 Transatlantic Cinema, Álvaro Baquero-Pecino

Open Educational Resources

Course syllabus. SPN 415-Transatlantic Cinema.

This seminar explores the relationship between film, culture, and society in Spain and Latin America through a discussion of representative texts and films, and their historical and political contexts. The course provides an interdisciplinary survey of cinema as an art form, a component of the entertainment industry, and a medium of communication via screenings, lectures, and readings on modern and contemporary Latin American, Spanish, and U.S. Latino cinema. This class will be taught in Spanish

Funded in part by the CUNY OER Initiative.

Codenames For Language Courses, Jeffrey Nolan Mcculley, Chloe Bennett

UTA Libraries Staff Publications - Archive

In this lesson, students deepen their proficiency in the target language by designing and implementing a foreign-language edition of the game Codenames. Drawing on their understanding of vocabulary, semantics, and cultural nuance, students adapt game components and rules to account for language-specific challenges such as word ambiguity, cognates, homophones, and idiomatic meaning. Through collaborative gameplay, students actively apply linguistic knowledge in a communicative, problem-solving context that emphasizes precision and strategic language use. The lesson promotes critical thinking, intercultural competence, and authentic language practice while reinforcing vocabulary acquisition and comprehension in an engaging, student-centered format.

Las Filipinas: The Persistence Of Spain In Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters, Blake Seana Locklin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This essay argues for the significance of the legacy of Spain in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters. Critical analyses have explored many aspects of the novel's portrayal of relations between the Philippines and the United States, a more recent colonizer whose influence on politics and culture is prominent in Dogeaters. The effects of Spanish colonization are more subtle in the novel, but pervade its representation of characters, language, and society. While highlighting the fragmentation of individual and national identities, Dogeaters depicts a Philippines in which many social and political problems have roots in the Spanish colonial era. Building on the …

Entry Nr. 487 Kossola, Aaron Spencer Fogleman, Robert Hanserd

500 African Voices

No abstract provided.

Entry Nr. 134 Isaac Anderson, Aaron Spencer Fogleman, Robert Hanserd

500 African Voices

No abstract provided.

From Voice To Noise: Accented Speech, Constructed Languages, And Subtitling Practices As Markers Of Difference, Alice Alonso Limongi

Course Work

This monograph explores three main strategies of vocal exotification in Anglophone film: representations of accented speech, inclusion of constructed languages, and non-subtitling of snippets of other languages. Using Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding framework, I approach these practices as rhetorical devices that both construct and are constructed by the complexity of our social landscapes. Portrayals of accented speech, constructed languages, and subtitling practices form a gradient of abstraction, where the denotative meaning of words gradually loses importance to the sonic characteristics of the voice. Combining broader cultural scholarship from Edward Said, sound studies writings on power and language from Nina Sun Eidsheim …

Visual Semiotics And Cultural Hybridity In Orión, El Atlante: Negotiating Global Comic Codes And Mexican Identity, Jaime Cruz-Ortiz

The Coastal Review

This article examines the 1980s Mexican comic series Orión, el Atlante through the lens of visual semiotics and cultural hybridity, drawing on Roland Barthes’s theory of polysemy and Néstor García Canclini’s concept of hybridization. While Mexican historietas have long been understudied, Orión offers a compelling case for understanding how Latin American comics negotiate global superhero tropes and local cultural imaginaries. The analysis foregrounds the historieta’s layered visual codes and narrative strategies, revealing how its retrofuturistic Atlantis blends Greco-Roman aesthetics, advanced technology, and indigenous symbolism to construct a mythic space that evokes both precolonial grandeur and modern aspiration. Orión’s characterization—rooted …

Voces En Contacto: El Español En La Amazonía Peruana, Margarita Jara, Andrés Napurí

Department of World Languages Faculty Research

Este dossier reúne investigaciones dedicadas al estudio del español amazónico peruano, un conjunto de variedades moldeadas por el contacto con lenguas indígenas y por profundas transformaciones sociopolíticas. Los trabajos aquí compilados abordan fenómenos fonéticos, fonológicos, morfosintácticos y discursivos, así como actitudes e ideologías lingüísticas, con el objetivo de caracterizar la complejidad estructural y social de estas hablas regionales. A través de metodologías que combinan análisis acústico, corpus de habla espontánea, entrevistas sociolingüísticas, herramientas variacionistas y análisis crítico del discurso multimodal, los estudios documentan innovaciones gramaticales y procesos de nivelación típicos del bilingüismo, así como prácticas de resistencia identitaria frente a …

Ya Vuelta En El Español Peruano Amazónico: De Marcador Discursivo A Emblema Subversivo, Alonso Vásquez-Aguilar, Pilar Valenzuela Bismarck, Margarita Jara Yupanqui

Department of World Languages Faculty Research

Este estudio analiza la expresión ya vuelta en el español peruano amazónico (EPA), proponiendo que ha trascendido su función como marcador discursivo mirativo para convertirse en un emblema de identidad regional y un recurso discursivo de resistencia. A partir de un corpus recopilado exclusivamente de interacciones en redes sociales —incluyendo X (antes Twitter), Facebook, Instagram y YouTube— se examinan los usos prototípicos de ya vuelta como marcador de miratividad y sus funciones innovadoras vinculadas a la reafirmación identitaria, la subversión de jerarquías lingüísticas y la autenticidad en contextos comerciales. El análisis muestra que los hablantes del EPA emplean ya vuelta …

A Content Analysis Of Spanish Language Curriculum In Texas, Sarah Moore, Jessica Sanchez, Sarah Herrera

Journal of Global Awareness

The shortage of Spanish-speaking social workers is significant in the United States, especially in border states such as Texas. Experts are calling for Spanish language training in social work education. However, it is unclear whether social work programs are incorporating Spanish into their curriculum at a pace needed to keep up with demand. Using conceptual content analysis, this article examines the frequency of Spanish language courses relevant to social work education across Texas.