Latin American Studies Commons^™

Unaccompanied Children Migration, Ronald Alvarado

Nebraska College Preparatory Academy: Senior Capstone Projects

The way people view immigration has changed over the past few years. Children fleeing to the United States without their parents has been a huge issue lately. Unaccompanied children are kids younger than 18 who are sent alone, in this case to the United States. These kids migrate because of the extreme violence that occurs in their home countries.

Statistics prove that children in their home countries are exposed to much violence. Most are coming from the northern triangle of Central America. I believe they should have more rights here in the United States, and be treated just the same …

Corporate Complicity In Human Rights Violations Under International Criminal Law, Danielle Olson

International Human Rights Law Journal

This paper examines the main legal elements of corporate criminal responsibility for involvement in serious human rights violations, focusing specifically on the mens rea, or mental element requirement of a crime. It analyzes in detail what it means for a business to be complicit, the degree of knowledge corporations and their officials must have to be implicated in accomplice liability, and a case study demonstrating the consequences of such liability on corporations.

No Child Is An Island: The Predicament Of Statelessness For Children In The Caribbean, Catherine A. Tobin

International Human Rights Law Journal

In a region characterized by human mobility, many children in the Caribbean are born in a different country than their parents. In fact, the Caribbean is considered one of the regions with the highest percentage of people migrating. This article will analyze the root causes of statelessness for children in the Caribbean, focusing primarily on the dangerous interplay between ineffective birth registration systems and lack of safeguards for children who would be otherwise stateless. The article will also address recent shifts in migration and nationality policies in countries such as The Bahamas and the Dominican Republic that have exacerbated existing …

Swenson Center Report, Dr. Christopher Strunk

Swenson Center Faculty Research Stipend Reports

As a migration scholar, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to spend a week this summer conducting research in the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center. During my three years at Augustana, my students and I have explored urban development and recent patterns of immigrant and refugee settlement in the Quad Cities. In places like the Floreciente neighborhood of Moline, located about a mile from Augustana’s campus on the west side of the city, the Mexican and Mexican American community is transforming a landscape that had already been influenced by a much earlier wave of migration from Sweden.

Scale As A Key Factor For Sustainable Water Management In Northwest Honduras, E. Christian Wells, Karla L. Davis-Salazar, Jose E. Moreno-Cortes

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

In northwest Honduras, community-based interventions by outside development agencies seeking to assist communities with the treatment and delivery of potable water have been largely ineffective. This article examines the social, economic, ecological, and engineered contexts of gravity-fed water systems in the Palmarejo Valley of this region, identifying key barriers to long-term sustainability. Drawing from the results of our mixed-methods research in the valley incorporating ethnographic and spatial analyses along with water quality testing, we outline the limitations of community-based development approaches that ignore the broader social and political scales of resource inequalities. We find that water provisioning often requires coordination …

Have Dominicans Surpassed Puerto Ricans To Become New York City’S Largest Latino Nationality? An Analysis Of Latino Population Data From The 2013 American Community Survey For New York City And The Metropolitan Area, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines three data sets from the recently released American Community Survey (ACS) of 2013 to estimate the population sizes of the largest Latino national sub groups in New York City and in the City’s surrounding counties.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The data released by IPUMS in November 2014 from American Community Survey for 2013, and analyzed here, …

Toward A Biocommunicable Cartography Of Health Decision-Making In The Amazon Basin Of Ecuador, James Cartwright

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This paper comprises a critical, ethnographic study of health communication in a rural community of Amazonian Ecuador. By synthesizing approaches from anthropology, discourse studies, and public health, the study explores how conversations influence health decisions, how communities understand health systems, and how macrostructural discourse changes the political economy of healthcare in Ecuador. My work draws on the recent theoretical development of ‘biocommunicability’ in anthropology as well as earlier sociological research on knowledge construction. Most importantly, this paper offers a critique of current interventions by NGOs in the region.

Carbon Forestry: Pursuing Climate Change Mitigation And Poverty Alleviation Through Market-Based Forest Carbon Schemes In Chiapas, Mexico, Jonathan Otto

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Forest carbon projects seek to alleviate rural poverty and mitigate global climate change by facilitating the flow of capital from actors looking to offset CO2 emissions to land managers willing to engage in offset-oriented reforestation, afforestation, and forest preservation activities. In Mexico, forest carbon schemes have been pursued within the country’s national Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program, and through REDD+ pilot projects and separate voluntary initiatives. In this dissertation, I explore one voluntary project, Scolel’ Te, which is managed by the non-governmental organization (NGO), AMBIO. Focusing on the case of Scolel’ Te, I show how forest carbon projects undermine …

Buying A Colonial Dream: The Role Of Lifestyle Migrants In The Gentrification Of The Historic Center Of Granada, Nicaragua, Abigail Foulds

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation aims to expand our understanding of how lifestyle migrants from the Global North impact the urban space of a Global South city, particularly the built environment. In order to situate the questions posed in this dissertation, I focus on how lifestyle migrants from the Global North and their foreign capital transform the city of Granada, Nicaragua through processes of gentrification, and how the social and economic climate of the city and its residents are impacted. This research allows for empirically informed theoretical critiques to be made about the economic and social implications of the globalization of gentrification resulting …

Economic Autonomy Of The Miskitu Women Of The North Atlantic Autonomous Region, Nicaragua: Do Current Development Polices Apply To Matrifocal Societies?, Ariana M. Toth

Masters Theses

This thesis provides an ethnographic investigation into the economic autonomy of Miskitu women in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. The purpose of this study is to determine whether dominant development models created by patriarchal Western powers are suited to alleviating gendered poverty disparity among the matrifocal Miskitu Indians. Surveys of Miskitu women obtained during field research, with support from relevant literature, comprise the main source of information considered. It is concluded that while dominant development models are not best suited to alleviating gendered poverty in this region, it is the overarching indigenous nature of Miskitu culture and not …

Demographic, Economic And Social Transformations In Bronx Community District 4: High Bridge, Concourse And Mount Eden, 1990 - 2008, Astrid S. Rodríguez

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report analyzes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics among the five largest Latino nationality groups during 1990-2008 in the NYC Community District 4 of the borough of the Bronx, which comprises the neighborhoods of High Bridge, Concourse and Mount Eden.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Dominicans are the largest Latino subgroup in the Bronx’s Community District 4, accounting for over 30% …

Brazilians In The United States, 1980—2007, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning Brazilians in the United States between 1980 and 2007.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The wave of migration from Brazil which began in the 1990s in all likelihood will continue into the future, economic fluctuations in the U.S. notwithstanding. In part this is due to the relatively high rates of educational attainment …

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

Migration, Food And Cultural Production Across Changing Afro-Ecuadorian Geographies, Amelia J. Swinton

Honors Theses

The human geography of Ecuador is changing. Urban Afro-Ecuadorians now outnumber those living in the two rural regions that have been the ancestral homelands of the population. This physical transformation assaults Ecuador's historically racialized geography, which conflated cities, modernity and white-mestizo identity. Though Afro-Ecuadorians living in the rural north had previously been physically and figuratively located outside of the national project, Ecuador’s new constitution has sought to reverse this institutionalized exclusion. National belonging has been reframed through the concept of interculturality, which recognizes diversity and equality at the same time. I conducted two periods of fieldwork in the north-central Chota …

Breaking The Chains: A Dissection Of The Caribbean's Tourism Mirage, Megan Nellis

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Stress, Status, And Sociability: Exploring Residential Satisfaction In The Rural Midwest Following Rapid Immigration, James Potter, Rodrigo Cantarero, Amy E. Boren

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This investigation examined predictors of residential satisfaction among newly arrived residents (NAR) and long-term residents (LTR) of a rural community following a rapid influx of immigrants into the community. The physical environment, social/cultural aspects of life, and resources and public services were hypothesized to affect perceptions of residential satisfaction. Both LTR and NAR were pleased with environmental attributes, sociocultural attributes, and public services. An inverse relationship was revealed between stress and residential satisfaction. The primary sources of stress for LTR related to economics and social status issues, whereas the primary sources of stress among NAR involved issues concerning family and …

Washington Heights/Inwood Demographic, Economic, And Social Transformations 1990 – 2005 With A Special Focus On The Dominican Population, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning New York City based Latinos in Washington Heights and Inwood – particularly Dominicans.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Since the 1980s the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights/Inwood has been transformed by the immigration of a large Latino population of whom Dominicans have been the most prominent national group. Latinos made up …

Demographic, Economic, And Social Transformations In The South Bronx: Changes In The Nyc Community Districts Comprising Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, Longwood, And Hunts Point, 1990 - 2005, Astrid S. Rodríguez

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report analyzes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics among the five largest Latino nationality groups during 1990-2005 in South Bronx, specifically the neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, Longwood, and Hunts Point.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Puerto Ricans are the largest Latino subgroup in the South Bronx, accounting for over half of the total population by 2005 although their …

El Pueblo Guaymí Y Su Futuro, Milton R.A. Machuca-Gálvez, Daniel Holness Carrasco Sr.

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Esta publicación contiene las ponencias y documentos que se presentaron en el FORO SOBRE EL PUEBLO GUAYMÍ SU FUTURO, celebrado en la ciudad de Panamá del 23 al 27 de marzo de 1981. El material está dividido en cinco secciones: una introducción seguida de 1. La historia de los guaymíes; 2. Situación actual del pueblo guaymí; 3 Las luchas guaymíes; 4. Los grandes proyectos de desarrollo: ¿bendición o maldición?; y, 5. "Se hace el camino al andar": pasos en la lucha. Las secciones “guardan una estrecha relación temática con un eje central que aparece a lo largo de la publicación: …