Latin American Studies Commons^™

The Political History Of Sugarcane-Based Ethanol In Brazil, Joshua Gagner

Political Science Theses and Capstones

With the Middle East putting an embargo on oil in 1973, oil prices ascended to levels that made importation of oil expensive. Brazil also faced another issue with sugar prices going down in 1973, putting much of their sugar supply on reserve. Brazil’s military government then made a decision to adopt the sugarcane-based ethanol program, Pro-Alcool. Pro-Alcool’s goal was to produce an alternative energy source to gasoline and take pressure off of oil importation. While initially intended to be a short-term fix, a second oil strike in 1979 pushed Pro-Alcool to higher levels. Oil industries were initially opposed to ethanol …

“Adelante, Con Todas Las Fuerzas De La Historia": An Exploration Of The Chilean Student Movement For Education Reform Within Its National And International Contexts, Maisha Fabliha Shahid

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In the past several decades, Chile has been regarded an “economic miracle” and praised for its transition from a brutal dictatorship that lasted nearly two decades to the current democracy. While the state has made much progress, it remains highly unequal in terms of opportunities and services available to the middle and lower classes. This structural inequality is most visible within education. Dictatorship-era policies and long-standing economic and political structures have commoditized education and established an educational system that essentially excludes large sections of the population from receiving quality education.

It is thus not surprising that a potent, influential student …

Craniometric Ancestry Proportions Among Groups Considered Hispanic: Genetic Biological Variation, Sex-Biased Asymmetry, And Forensic Applications, Meredith L. Tise

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Today, groups considered Hispanic in the United States consist of populations whose complex genetic structures reflect intermixed diverse groups of people who came in contact during Spanish colonization in Latin America. After coming in contact and wiping out most of the Native Americans who occupied North and Latin America, the Spanish also introduced West African individuals for labor to begin developing crops to be shipped back to Europe, resulting in the Trans-Atlantic African slave trade. These migration events and differential gene flow among males and females that occurred throughout Latin America have led to populations that have been genetically transformed …

“Kallawaya Siempre Soy” La Descolonización De Ajayu En La Cosmovisión Kallawaya, Rizky Rahadianto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Based on the lessons learned in this program about multiculturalism, globalization and social change in Bolivia, this project connects these themes through a character study of a kallawaya man named Ramón Quispe Lizárraga and examines the analogy between traditional ritual and social activism; between restoration of ajayu and decolonization. A village of kallawaya healers in the province of Bautista Saavedra has a long tradition of maintaining ancestral values and at the same time confronting modernism. I used the participant observation method to be able to immerse myself in this community and understand the Andean cosmovision internalized in people’s actions and …

“We’Ve Lost Sight Of The Blue And White, And We Need To Find It Again.” Youth, Divergence Of Memory, And Political Polarization In Post- Conflict Nicaragua, Cameron Kesinger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this essay, I analyze the results from 20 interviews I completed in Managua, Matagalpa, and San Ramon, selecting 8 to delve into in depth. I conducted the interviews in pairs, asking parents about their memories of the Nicaraguan Contra war in the 1980s and then asking their children about the histories their parents shared with them and their personal views of Nicaragua. Through these interviews, I sought to understand in a Nicaraguan context the presence of historical memory, the politicization of historical memory, the diversity of youth activism, and the way that youth view reconciliation within their countries. My …

La Reinserción Familiar Como Cumplimiento De Los Derechos Humanos Del Niño: Un Estudio En El Hogar De Niños Antonio Valdivieso En Cuenca, Ecuador, Rachel Keyser

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este informe explora la idea de la reinserción familiar desde un marco internacional y nacional de los derechos humanos del niño. Ecuador tiene un sistema formal para la protección del niño, el Sistema Nacional Descentralizado de Protección Integral de la Niñez y Adolescencia, que se ha fortalecido en la última década, por la elaboración de los marcos internacionales y nacionales de los derechos humanos. Esta refuerza el papel fundamental de los derechos humanos del niño y las familias, así como la obligación de los gobiernos para apoyar el cumplimiento de estos derechos. En la reinserción familiar interviene el gobierno para …

Troubles In Paradise: The United States’ Biggest Challenge In The Carribean, Juan Clar

Ex-Patt Magazine

As many Caribbean economies grow, and the threat of Cuban communism fades, the challenge in the Caribbean for the US comes from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

La Voz Spring 2014, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Alturas Duo
• Dominican Citizenship
• Magdalena Gomez
• Roberto Tejada

La Voz Spring 2014, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Elizabeth Mahan Fund for Graduate Studies
• Patrick "Pato" Hebert Art Installation
• Eyzaguirre Lecture: Diana Taylor
• Generation Sex: Teatro Luna

The Patriarchy’S Role In Gender Inequality In The Caribbean, Erin C. O'Connor

Student Publications

While gender equality in the Caribbean is improving, with women’s growing social, economic, and political participation, literacy rates comparable to those in Europe, and greater female participation in higher education, deeply rooted inequalities are still present and are demonstrated in the types of jobs women are in and the limited number of women in decision-making positions. Sexism, racism, and classism are systemic inequalities being perpetuated in schools, through the types of education offered for individuals and the content in textbooks. Ironically, the patriarchy is coexisting within a system of matrifocal and matrilocal families, with a long tradition of female economic …

Vodou Value In Haitian Life, Brandi E. Lauer

Student Publications

Ever since the night of August 14, 1791 at Bwa Kayman, where Boukman Dutty declared war on the French during a Vodou ritual, Vodou has shown its dominance in the Haitian culture (Dominique 103). Along with being a religion practiced across the class boundaries of over six million Haitians, Vodou is a philosophy as well; a way of life for the majority of Haiti. Vodou “brings coherence where there might otherwise be chaos” (Michel 282-283). Used as a common ground for the intermixed Africans in the New World, Vodou has played a key role in the daily life of the …

Human Trafficking From Southern Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, And Guatemala: Why These Victims Are Trafficked Into Modern Day Florida, Timothy Adam Golob

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Florida is ranked as one of the United States' top three destination states for human trafficking; many of those victims originate from Mesoamerica--Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Human trafficking is a growing problem which hinders universal human rights for hundreds of new victims in Florida every year. Mesoamericans have a high risk of becoming victims due to the situations in their home countries. The issue of human trafficking has only recently gained the national and state attention of law makers and law enforcement officers.

This study uses several human trafficking cases to educate and exemplify why Mesoamerican victims …

El Salvador Gripped By Tension After Close Election, Lauren Carasik

Media Presence

No abstract provided.

Cardiovascular Health Among Us And Argentine University Students: A Comparative Study Of Behaviors And Risk Factors, Gina Fitzgerald, Gabriella Smith

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Cardiovascular disease for some time has been the leading cause of death in the Western world. Primary prevention is the only way to halt the onset of cardiovascular disease, yet there is little information on the prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease in young adults. This study seeks to evaluate students from the Catholic University of Argentina and Pepperdine University of America for the prevalence of CVD risk factors, as well as knowledge of CVD and daily habits that contribute to heart health. Thus we compared two cultures with very different lifestyles and prevalence of risk factors. We hypothesized …

Ressentiment, Violence, And Colonialism, Jose A. Haro

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project attempts a joint reading of the work of Friedrich Nietzsche and Frantz Fanon. This task, however, is problematic because this body of work is in tension or contradictory. These problems are so acute that a careful reading method is necessary to successfully carry out this reading. In order to facilitate this reading I elaborate and apply a particular philosophical methodology, Mestizaje. The methodology is intended to address works that are contradictory by attempting to read the texts as they are presented while at the same time balancing their positions. The goal is to honestly reflect the thought of …

The Latin-American Laboratory For Assessment Of The Quality Of Education: Measuring And Comparing Educational Quality In Latin America (Superseded Version), Australian Council For Educational Research

Assessment GEMS

The Laboratorio Latinoamericano de Evaluación de la Calidad de la Educación (Latin-American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education or LLECE) is the network of national systems for the assessment of education quality in Latin America, created in 1994, and coordinated by UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC). LLECE’s purpose is to produce data and knowledge that inform educational policy in the region, contribute to capacity building, and serve as a forum for reflection, exchange and generation of new ideas and good practices in education evaluation. LLECE assessments aim to provide information about …

On The Fence, Emily G. Hauck

SURGE

Over a hundred years ago, my great-great grandmother fled Germany by herself to come to the United States to escape the abuse of her father. She had no connections in this country and nowhere to go. That same century my ancestors from Ireland crossed the Atlantic to make a better life in America. They were discriminated against for their religion and for their nationality.

Ana* and her husband, two hardworking Mexicans, paid a coyote to help them cross the Rio Grande into the United States ten years ago. They saw no future for their two young girls in Mexico and …

Cadê O Mico? Where Is The Tamarin?: Locating Monkeys In The Politics Of Land And Conservation In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Analía Villagra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The golden lion tamarin is a small, endangered monkey found in only a few municipalities in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This dissertation explores the project to conserve this rare primate, a project that links together agrarian reform, forest restoration, agroforestry, and conservation biology. Informed by Brazil's social and political history, and drawing from 12 months of fieldwork conducted in 2008 and 2010, this dissertation argues that by looking carefully at and for the tamarin, we discover the interrelated political, social, and animal relationships that weave together to produce conservation in southeastern Brazil.

Leaders, Ideas, National Interests, And Economic Strategies: Explaining The Regional Integration Decisions Of Mexico And Brazil, Roberto Genoves

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Regional integration agreements (RIAs) facilitate economic integration by allowing member countries access to each other's markets and by removing or reducing trade and investment barriers. Their increasing influence on international patterns of trade and investment flows has stimulated substantial academic work. Yet, scholars note that we lack an adequate comprehension of the factors that cause governments to seek RIAs, and why they prefer a particular type of integration arrangement. These are important questions because they speak to the forces that shape cooperation among states, a vital issue in international relations with implications for global governance.

Using an eclectic analytical approach, …

El Oficio De La Escritura Y La Estetica En La Obra De Roberto Bolano, Ainoa Inigo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims at attaining a general understanding of the aesthetics and philosophy on the practice of writing of Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003), the Chilean poet and writer, through interpretive devices developed by him and by extrinsic means. Bolaño claimed that his works stemmed from a pre-extant poetic universe, so that each work is interrelated thematically with the rest of the oeuvre and individually representative of the totality.

Throughout the works analyzed, our two primary questions--the aesthetical and ethical--intercept while we examine his understanding of the role of the writer and literature itself. Estrella distante (1996), Los detectives salvajes (1998) and …

Roundup Ready Nation: The Political Ecology Of Genetically Modified Soy In Argentina, Amalia Leguizamon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is a case study of agrarian transformation in an agro-export society, Argentina. I study the process of adoption of the technological package of genetically modified (GM) soy in the Argentine countryside, its socio-ecological consequences, and Argentines' responses to it. In particular, this research addresses Argentina's unique situation of being a developing country that has positively embraced the biotechnology of GM seeds as a key accumulation strategy without the emergence of major contestation against GM soy monocropping. In order to answer the puzzle of quiescence, I look at how power relations structure access to social and environmental goods and …

"A New Way Of Doing Politics": The Movement Against Cafta In Costa Rica, Jeremy Rayner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In October of 2007, Costa Ricans voted in a referendum to ratify a Free Trade Agreement with the United States (DR-CAFTA, or CAFTA). The first referendum in their nation's history--and the first referendum ever held on a Free Trade Agreement--marked the culmination of a cycle of contention over liberalization that transformed practices and expectations of politics in a country often considered an exemplar of representative democracy. In this dissertation I provide an account of the opposition to CAFTA (the NO), based on two years of ethnographic research with the Patriotic Committees (Comites Patrioticos), the decentralized, grassroots network at the heart …

Fearless: Emily Hauck, Emily G. Hauck

SURGE

Beginning with an interest in Spanish language that led her to Argentina and Spain, Emily decided to use the language skills she acquired during her gap year after high school and time spent studying abroad to get herself connected to the Latino community in Adams County. Volunteering with different organizations and programs like the LIU #12 Migrant Education Programs, Casa de la Cultura, and El Centro, Emily started seeing the big picture—making connections between the immigration stories, people she was meeting, and the greater national dialogue on immigration issues. [excerpt]

I'Ve Seen The Promised Land: A Letter To Amelia Boynton Robinson, Mauricio E. Novoa

SURGE

You asked if I had any thoughts or comments at the end of our visit, and I stood and said nothing. I opened my mouth, but instead of giving you words my throat was sealed by a dam of speechlessness while my eyes wept out all the emotions and heartache that I wanted to share with you. The others in my group were able to express their admiration, so I wanted to do the same. [excerpt]

Unintended Consequences: Reverberations Of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Lauren Heidbrink

Faculty Publications

This paper details the socio-legal factors that shape the relationship between the child, the family, and the state, and the ways unaccompanied migrant children’s lives have come to be defined and contested. The legal identity of migrant children is socially situated within a history that intertwines social movements of helping professionals, legal jurisdictions characterized by increasingly intolerant approaches to juveniles, and shifts in the treatment of unauthorized migrant youth under immigration law over time. In a globalized world, this triangular relationship between children, families, and the state becomes increasingly complex and dynamic. Social policies and legal norms often lag far …

Meaningful International Service Learning Experiences: Looking At The Reciprocal Nature Of Reflection And Group Connection, Emily M. Neer

VA Engage Journal

International service learning trips can provide meaningful and deep experiences where students are impacted and challenged by these experiences. In order to maximize the experience, one must understand the reciprocal relationship between reflection and group connection. In this critical reflection I will explore the ways in which reflection and group connection reciprocate each other in an international service-learning context. I discuss three concepts that I believe play crucial roles in this reciprocal relationship and their roles in three different contexts of the service immersion experience. These three concepts are reflection, stability, and vulnerability. They are explained within the contexts of …

El Salvador At A Crossroads: Salvadorans Speak Out About The War, Repatriation, And Their Hopes For The Future, Ralph L. Corrigan

Sacred Heart University Press Books

Day-by-day account of a faculty mission from Sacred Heart University (Fairfield, CT) to El Salvador in 1992 after the signing of the peace accords that ended the civil war. Provides a well-documented glimpse of a moment in time when the Salvadorans began to reclaim their lives, rebuild their communities, and look to the future --Amazon.com.

Subjugated Bodies, Normalized Subjects: Representations Of Power In The Panamanian Literature Of Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia And Mauro Zúñiga Araúz, Sara Escobar-Wiercinski

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines the dissemination of power represented in the works of Panamanian writers Roberto Díaz Herrera, Rose Marie Tapia and Mauro Zúñiga Araúz. My work focuses on two important periods in Panama's history: the repressive dictatorial era of Manuel Noriega and the post-dictatorial era during which subjugation and power operate in subtle ways, through institutions, mechanisms of civil society, and globalization. The primary sources are Díaz Herrera's testimony, and the novels of Tapia and Zúñiga Araúz. In my analysis, I draw upon the notions of power, subjugation and normalization developed by the French philosoher Michel Foucault. I also draw …

The Belizean Environment, Lauren Marie Bach

Service-Learning

Lauren Bach's 2014 service-learning presentation on the environment in Belize.

A Paradox In Development: Exploring The Obesity Pandemic In Latin America, Laila G. Heid

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explain the obesity pandemic in Latin America and identify the factors of development contributing to the pandemic. The paper uses the framework of the nutrition transition as presented by Barry Popkin to trace consumption patterns and changes in dietary habits in the region. The paper looks at three case studies: Mexico and Chile, two countries with high obesity rates, and Peru, the country with the lowest obesity rate in South America. This comparative framework is intended to determine which conditions are necessary for obesity, which conditions are sufficient for obesity, and any conditions …