Latin American Studies Commons^™

La Voz Winter 2020, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Multi-Media Artist Begins Year-Long Residence at UConn
• Graciela Mochkofsky Presents the 2019 Mead Lecture
• La Comunidad Intelectual Learning Community Presents Research at Virginia Tech Conference
• Cost Rica Education: Why it's Worth the Trip?
• Music Professor Publishes Book on Global Mexicanidades
• La Colectiva Feminista Comes to UConn

Understanding Latinas' Responses To Coercive Control : Marianismo Beliefs, Relationship Satisfaction, And Commitment, Nicole Da Silva

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Although substantial evidence indicates that Latinas are at high risk for experiencing negative consequences from intimate partner violence (IPV; Alvarez & Fedock, 2016), few studies have tested the applicability of theories of IPV in this population. The present study, which was based on the investment model of IPV (Rusbult, 1995), was designed to investigate how specific gender role beliefs (i.e., marianismo) for Latinas contribute to their responses to coercive control (a core aspect of IPV; Dutton & Goodman, 2009) by their male partners.

The Influence Of Ethnic Identity Commitment, Discrimination, And Sexism On Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Latina College Students, Melissa M. Ertl

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

According to intersectionality theory, exposure to experiences of oppression predispose individuals from disadvantaged groups to experience disparities in health. Such disparities are evident in the sexual health outcomes among college student-age Latina women living in the US, who tend to report significantly worse sexual health outcomes than their peers. Guided by intersectionality frameworks, the present study examined Latina college students’ sexual risk behaviors in relation to ethnic identity and experiences of discrimination and sexism. Commitment to ethnic identity was expected to negatively relate with sexual risk, and experiences of discrimination and sexism were hypothesized to moderate the association between commitment …

What Does "Caliban's Woman" Sound Like? : A Study Of Indo-Guyanese Women's Emergent Voice In The Us, Caitlin Irene Janiszewski

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract

Real Men Don't Get Lipos : Gender, Political Economy, And Biomedicine In Colombia's Male Beauty Industry, Jose Alejandro Arango-Londono

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The last few years in Colombia have seen the rise and expansion of male beauty industry. Such growth seems to suggest a shift from entrenched gendered ideas as well as new markets and economic opportunities to pursue. This dissertation is the result of eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Cali, Colombia focusing on how the development of male beauty has emerged in a context that is profoundly shaped by the legacy of armed conflict and drug-trafficking. The expansion of male beauty industry flourishes in a political and economic moment in Colombia where neoliberal policies are prevalent in the state’s agenda.

Global And Regional Perspectives On Large-Landscape And Transboundary Conservation, Sanober R. Mirza

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

With the growing pressure of environmental degradation and exploitation to social and ecological landscapes around the world, conservationists are looking for new approaches to address the complex nature of transboundary issues. Large-landscape conservation supports conservation and management of ecosystems, wildlife, and resources in a more holistic approach that extends beyond protected area boundaries. Transboundary conservation, a distinct form of large-landscape conservation, operates across political and spatial scales by involving two or more countries cooperating to protect a border resource or ecosystem. Though the recognition of large-landscape and transboundary conservation is growing, there is limited understanding of trends across these types …

Territorial Inequality In Health Service Delivery: Lessons From Latin America’S Federations, Agustina Giraudy, Jennifer Pribble

Political Science Faculty Publications

Access to quality healthcare varies across the national territory inside Latin American countries, with some subnational units enjoying higher-quality care than others. Such territorial inequality is consequential, as residents of particular regions face shorter life spans and an increased risk of preventable disease. This article analyzes trajectories of territorial healthcare inequality across time in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. The data reveal a large decline in Brazil, a moderate decline in Mexico, and low levels of change followed by a moderate decline in Argentina. The article argues that two factors account for these distinct trajectories: the nature of the coalition that …

Living Through The Chilean Coup D’Etat: The Second-Generation’S Reflection On Their Sense Of Agency, Civic Engagement And Democracy, Denise Tala Diaz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation illuminates how the experience of growing up during the Chilean dictatorship (1973–1990) affected the individual's sense of self as citizen and the impact on their sense of democratic agency, civic-mindedness, and political engagement in their country's current democracy. To understand that impact, the researcher chose to study her own generation, the “Pinochet-era” generation (Cummings, 2015) and interviewed those who were part of the Chilean middle class, who despite not being explicit victims of perpetrators, were raised in dictatorship and surrounded by abuse of state power including repression, disappearance, and imprisonment. The theoretical frame of the Socio-Political Development Theory …

Representaciones De La Identidad Neoleonesa En Los Spots De Las Campañas A La Gubernatura De Nuevo León De 2015representations Of Nuevo León’S Identity Within The Campaign Spots For The 2015 State Election, Xavier Moyssén Álvarez

Publications and Research

This article parts from the sociological model of voting behavior, according to which social characteristics deter-mine political preferences. It is proposed that regional identity, because of its socialized nature, might’ve had effects on the voting behavior of the 2015 Nuevo León election. This work isn’t focused on the result of the election, it rather intends to verify, through content analysis, the presence of elements belonging to Nuevo Leon’s identity within the campaign spots for the main candidates:Felipe de Jesús Cantú (PAN), Ivonne Álvarez García (PRI), and Jaime Heliodoro Rodríguez Calderón (independ-ent). Furthermore, we propose a theoretical explanation of the possible …

At The Mercy Of The Mexican Supreme Court: The Implications Of Party Capability On Indigenous People's Cases, Alan Cardenas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Indigenous Peoples in Mexico have long struggled in securing their rights in colonizing states. Applying party capability theory, this paper seeks to empirically understand the Mexican Supreme Court's behavior in cases pertaining to Indigenous Peoples. This paper thus evaluates the degree to which the Mexican Supreme Court is indeed an impartial actor that produces "equal protection under the law" for everyone (Galanter, 1974). Specifically, this paper examines the questions: To what extent does the Mexican Supreme Court protect Indigenous Peoples' rights? Are Indigenous Peoples legally affected by the power disparity perpetuated by the inequality in the country? This paper thus …

Immigration And Crime Across Southern Us Border: The Effect Of Latino Immigration On Violent Crime, Matthew Hohman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In the United States, most lay citizens could voice an opinion on the effect of immigration in the United States. However, these opinions are generally only focused on Latino immigration entering the country across its Southern border from Mexico and Caribbean countries, such as Cuba and Haiti. Increased media coverage on this topic in recent decades has fueled this debate and made it a center stage topic in political agendas. This study aims to shed light on this issue by researching the true effect of Latino immigration, as well as total immigration, across the United States’s Southern Border. To account …

Beyond The Rainbow: Predicting Intra And Intergroup Political Attitudes Of Latinx And Black Americans And The Potential For Cooperation And Conflict, Randall Wyatt

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation uses social psychological theory and methods to better understand the political attitudes of whites, Blacks, Latinx Americans and Asian Americans in the contemporary United States. Using quantitative methodology and survey research, I estimate the potential for cooperation and conflict between racial minorities and the political implications that these measures may have. I show that perceptions of competition with immigrants are strongly associated with anti-immigration preferences even among racial minorities such as Blacks and Latinx Americans, of who have a long history of migration to the United States. However, I also show that there is potential for interracial cooperation …

Livestock-Wildlife Dynamics And Subsequent Human Responses In Marginalized Communities Within Mexico’S Nationally Protected Areas, Deanna Seil

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Entering the planet’s sixth mass-extinction, monitoring biodiversity and the factors which affect it is of the utmost importance. This study on the interaction of humans and their livestock with wildlife, and the impact of this interaction on wildlife conservation, took place in Santiago Coatepec, located within the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. Wildlife interactions with livestock may depend upon species, season, ecological characteristics of the area, and livestock management practices. Using camera traps, field data, and interview data, I quantified livestock impact on wildlife behavior and community beliefs. Over two years, camera traps at 18 stations recorded 709 wildlife videos …

Political Representation For Indigenous Peoples In The Andes, Jessica Yepez

Dissertations and Theses

For years, there has been a lack of representation for indigenous peoples in communities, and most importantly in parliament. This is a very common trait in the South American Andes, which houses the largest number of indigenous groups in the continent. This thesis focuses on Ecuador and Bolivia due to their indigenous population and their history, or lack thereof, with indigenous people in parliament. For my hypothesis, I argue that parliamentary representation of indigenous peoples, can help ensure that their rights are protected, and their unique interests are heard and translated into relevant policies, while at the same time preventing …

Marielle Franco, Rhaissa Sanches

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

Marielle Franco was a Black, Brazilian activist (1979-2018) who rose from the favelas (poor areas) of Rio de Janeiro to be elected as a councilwoman in Rio's election of 2016. Franco was known for exposing the violence waged in the favelas by Brazil's military and police under the "pretense of maintaining law and order," as well as how the militia wields power over those who live in the favelas. In addition to detailing Franco's life, activism and death, this paper also explains the history and development of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the negative attitudes held …

El Espacio Como Instrumento De Poder En Las Obras El Apando Y Los Días Y Los Años, Maria Griselda Stapleton

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Esta tesis examina como en la novela El apando de José Revueltas y el testimonio Los días y los años de Luis González de Alba, el espacio es representado, organizado, y manipulado para funcionar como una herramienta del estado mexicano para ejercer su poder. Este poder era ejecutado a través de la ocupación de los espacios materiales y simbólicos con el propósito de deshacer el movimiento estudiantil del 68 durante los años de la Guerra Sucia en México. La ocupación del estado se llevó a cabo tanto en el interior como en el exterior del penal de Lecumberri, donde fueron …

Beyond Extractivism And Governmentality: The Postneoliberal State, Development, And The Circulation Of Oil Rents Among Indigenous Peoples In The Ecuadorian Amazon, Karla Monserrath Encalada-Falconí

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This dissertation explores the experiences of an indigenous community from the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon during the implementation of extractivism, development, and redistributive projects. Drawing on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork in the community of Playas del Cuyabeno and in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, I question the common assumption that indigenous peoples radically reject extractivism and state-imposed modernizing agendas. In contrast, this study shows how indigenous peoples negotiate resource extraction in their territories and navigate the partial failures of postneoliberal redistribution and the contradictory agendas of economic development projects—specifically the aim of the postneoliberal Ecuadorian government’s project to redistribute rents …

Fanm Pa Chita: Mobilities, Intimate Labour, And Political Subjectivities Among Haitian Women On The Move, Masaya Llavaneras Blanco

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation asks: how does intimate labour interact with the mobility and political subjectivities of Haitian migrant women and women of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic (DR)? It answers this question in three specific ways. First, it explains the relationship between intimate labour and the spatial trajectories of women of Haitian ancestry who work as domestic workers. Second, it examines how the interaction between intimate labour and human mobility plays out in the Dominican border regime. Third, it explains how these subaltern women act politically in the midst of the intersections between borders, mobilities, and intimacy.

The dissertation proposes …

Reflections On Critical Pedagogy In America Latina: La Lucha Continua, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"When I speak in Mexico, I support efforts there to create a revolutionary critical pedagogy—one that has not been domesticated and depotentiated by neoliberal dogma. This means the inclusion of a decolonial pedagogy which challenges the “coloniality of power” (patron de poder colonial) that still resides at the heart of post-colonial societies. I would advise as a central, overarching goal of critical pedagogy the struggle for a socialist alternative to the “value form of labor” that exists in capitalist societies throughout North and South America, and that such efforts must be transnational in scope since capitalism is now transnational in …

Learning From High Risk Feminism: Emergent Lessons About Women’S Agency In Conflict Contexts, Julia Margaret Zulver

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

While scholars increasingly focus on the gendered elements of genocide, these are not often holistically discussed in the prevention literature. There is a tendency to fall into a gendered binary, whereby prevention is a masculine activity, while peacebuilding is represented as more maternal and feminine. However, women do not always exclusively mobilise for others, nor do they fit neatly within circumscribed categories of victims or peacebuilders. Rather, they have the ability to develop and refine a contextually relevant style of feminist agency that allows them to navigate and make sense of the everyday violences to which they are exposed. This …

José Martí: The World's Most Popular Poetry, And A Vision For The Americas, Anne O. Fountain

Faculty Publications

This chapter begins with a capsule biographical sketch that situates José Martí as an agent of decolonization. It discusses Martí's place in literature, especially Spanish American letters, his transcultural importance, his work in translation, his role in the history of Cuban–US relations, and his vision for US relations with Latin America. It demonstrates the extraordinary international reach of his most popular writing by giving close attention to how two works, a book of poetry, Simple Verses (Versos Sencillos) and an essay, “Our America” (“Nuestra América”) have come to represent him to an increasingly broad audience.

Patrimony, Publishing, And Politics: Books As Ritual Objects In Northwest Amazonia, Stephen P. Hugh-Jones

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

With particular reference to works by Tukano and Desana authors, this paper examines some of the cultural and historical factors that underlie the unique propensity of indigenous peoples of Northwest Amazonia to publish their narrative histories in books. Jointly written by a knowledgeable elder and a younger literate amanuensis, each book in Coleção Narradores Indígenas do Alto Rio Negro series contains the origin narratives, myths, and recent history of a particular group, told from the point of view of one of its clans. Writing down and thus rescuing oral traditions under threat from the pressures of education, urbanization and other …

Grandes Interrogações Sobre O Futuro Dos Povos Indígenas Isolados, Conselho Indigenista Missionário

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

O presente artigo, de autoria coletiva da equipe do Conselho Indigenista Missionário (Cimi), pretende traçar um quadro geral da situação de vulnerabilidade dos povos indígenas em isolamento e contato inicial no Brasil, tendo como referência temporal o ano de 2016. É preocupante o avanço da exploração dos recursos naturais em territórios ocupados por esses povos, principalmente com a mineração e a exploração de madeira, seja dentro de terras indígenas destinadas aos povos em isolamento, em terras indígenas partilhadas por outros povos, ou em territórios onde a proteção ou o reconhecimento pelo Estado não se faz presente.

This article, written collectively …

Territorialidad De Los Grupos Familiares De Pueblos Indígenas En Aislamiento (Pia) En La Región Del Yasuní, Amazonía Ecuatoriana, Roberto Esteban Narváez Collaguazo

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

El artículo presenta información etnográfica y una interpretación etnológica sobre los Tagaeiri y Taromenane como parte de los grupos familiares en aislamiento que habitan en el Yasuní, su forma de vida tradicional y su territorio, en un contexto de actores externos que inciden en la generación de violencia y de amenaza a su supervivencia. Sobre los pueblos en aislamiento en Ecuador existe información referenciada en datos indirectos que han dado indicios de presencia a partir de registros de rastros e imágenes satelitales y algunos datos directos, como avistamientos, encuentros en la selva, fotografías aéreas y, el principal, encuentros que generaron …

Thinking Through Tubes: Flowing H/Air And Synaesthesia, Stephen P. Hugh-Jones

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

The tube, as both object and concept, has cropped up from time to time in the ethnography of lowland South America, most notably in Rivière and Lévi-Strauss’s discussions of blowpipes, hair tubes and pottery and in Hill and Wright's writings on Yuruparí flutes and trumpets. Using data from Northwest Amazonia, this paper first seeks to provide a more rigorous definition of the tube as a concept, exploring its various manifestations and relating these to the body as an image of totalization and detotalization. With reference to myths about creation and Yuruparí, the paper then argues that flows from tubes provide …

Good Reasons Or Bad Conscience? Or Why Some Indian Peoples Of Amazonia Are Ambivalent About Eating Meat, Stephen P. Hugh-Jones

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Originally written for a conference on meat attended by farmers, anthropologists, people involved in cultural affairs, and other members of the public, and seeking to avoid emphasis on cultural difference, this paper explores common ground between Euro-American and Amerindian ambivalence about meat consumption. Meat-eating raises two shared concerns: an intuitive recognition of the resemblances between humans and animals and an uncomfortable awareness that human life often depends on the death and destruction of other living beings. I suggest that, behind some obvious cultural differences, Amazonian shamanic and ritual procedures aimed at the de-subjectification of meat share points in common with …

The "Uncontacted" As Third Infamy, George Mentore

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper principally addresses the "problem" of anthropological thinking, that is, on how and why it remains with us and not with the peoples who do not subscribe to our contested regimes of truth. From my research on the topic, it appears we have not achieved any substantial moral progress on the question of exposure to indigenous otherness since the first European "contact." This failure is primarily due to our hardheaded rationalist refusal to accept our inability to access the felt reality of the Other directly. Or, better still, of the failure of our language to obtain the shared reality …

Christianity + Schooling On Nature Versus Culture In Amazonia, Aparecida M. N. Vilaça

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Based on the analysis of Evangelical Biblical translations, as well as on the school writing of Wari' (Southwestern Amazonia) students, produced in indigenous secondary school classrooms and at the intercultural university, this article aims to show how, in both church and school, a nature separate from humans is invented with which they should relate in a utilitarian and also contemplative way. Simultaneously nature’s opposite is invented–a culture that excludes animals and subjects them.

Rexistência Nas Fronteiras Do Capitalismo/Colonialismo: A Ecologia Política Do Isolamento E Da Soberania, Felipe Milanez

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Ofereço a perspectiva da ecologia política para rever e atualizar a política de “isolamento” e “não-contato” com base nos conceitos de soberania e necropolítica, sugerindo uma nova proposta de prática política para situações de conflitos em territórios ocupados por povos indígenas que resistem à conquista pela guerra e distanciamento. Da perspectiva do estudo dos conflitos ambientais, a ecologia política questiona a noção de isolamento ao inseri-la como parte do sistema mundo capitalista/colonial. Diante do quadro crescente de fascistização social e violência do Estado, cuja pressão sobre os territórios tornou-se ainda mais intenso, é a morte e a vida destes coletivos …

Tubes And Androgyny: Comment On "Thinking Through Tubes", Françoise Barbira Freedman

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In this comment on Stephen Hugh-Jones’s "Thinking Through Tubes" Françoise Barbira Freedman offers a feminist meditation on the semiotics of androgyny in Northwest Amazonian shamanism, ritual life and mythology. By focusing on processes of detotalization and retotalization that move beings from an androgynous state to a single-sex identity and back again, Barbira Freedman reveals a dynamic "one sex, two genders model of androgyny" that could not be further from a concept of androgyny as blurred gender. These movements in and out of a one sex state are largely the preserve of men so that androgynous features of the cosmos are …