Social Justice Commons^™

The Chemistry Of Color: A Comparative Analysis Of Natural And Synthetic Dyes In Textile Application, Caitlyn Pinaga Cpht

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

The Chemistry of Color: A Comparative Analysis of Natural and Synthetic Dyes in Textile Application examines how color functions at the intersection of chemistry, culture, and environmental responsibility. This project traces the evolution of dyeing from ancient natural pigment traditions, rooted in ecological knowledge, agricultural practices, and cultural identity, to the industrial rise of synthetic dyes, whose laboratory precision enabled unprecedented consistency, brightness, and global textile expansion. Through experimental swatch analysis, the study compares the behavior of natural dyes derived from plants and food sources with modern fiber-reactive and synthetic dye classes on a range of fibers including cotton, bamboo …

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Robert Mueller, Qiuying Chen

COPS/Metro

The interview focuses on the demographic in COPS/Metro and its impact. In particular, he speaks to demographic change in San Antonio and COPS/metro over the years. Furthermore, Robert talks about COPS/Metro’s ideal future. It also contains Robert’s memorable moments in the organization and what he learned from it.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Maria Tijerina, Qiuying Chen

COPS/Metro

Maria gave her thoughts about how the COPS/Metro is evolving in its racial dynamics, and how it now includes more ethnic groups and organizations. She commented on how the racial climate and tension in San Antonio has always been hard for minority groups, particularly on the Westside. She gave an extreme and yet real example about redlining. Maria also shared her thoughts on the decision-making process and the future of the COPS/Metro.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Sister Gabriella Lohan, Gabriella Parra

COPS/Metro

Sister Gabriella Lohan discusses her background in education. She explains how she became involved with COPS and some initiatives she has worked on. She discusses what she has experienced in her time with COPS.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Lizzy Gore, Gabriella Parra

COPS/Metro

Lizzy Gore discusses her time with COPS and the extended network of social organizations as well as her background in education. She explores how her education has affected her role as an organizer and what she has learned through organizing. She also discusses her personal background and future hopes for COPS initiatives.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Sister Rita Nealon, Barbara Ortiz

COPS/Metro

Rita Nealon shares her experiences with COPS/Metro over her years in San Antonio. She talked about COPS success and the key role women played in challenging the status quo and advocating for the needs of their community. She talked about actively working within her community for affordable housing, gun control and voter turnout. She hopes the organization will continue to focus on local issues and empower marginalized communities.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Rose Araujo-Iracheta, Barbara Ortiz

COPS/Metro

Rose Araujo-Iracheta shared some of her experiences with COPS/Metro advocating for community needs, focusing on persistence, collaboration and resilience. She emphasized the role that social justice plays in her motivation to assist co-workers, neighbors, school districts and all communities of San Antonio.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Sister Gabriella Lohan, Kensley Dieckow

COPS/Metro

In the oral history interview of Sr. Gabriella Lohan, she discusses San Antonio’s social and political history, as well as the role COPS / Metro Alliance has played in reaching marginalized communities across the city. Over time, COPS / Metro has adapted to new issues like education and fair banking, reflecting changing community needs while staying true to its core mission of empowering citizens and promoting democracy. Throughout the interview, Sr. Lohan explored the role her faith has played throughout her life’s work in social justice.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Linda Davila, Kensley Dieckow

COPS/Metro

In the oral history interview of Linda Davila, she reflects on her involvement with COPS, starting from its early days in 1974 when the organization tackled issues like flooding, to her recent efforts, as a leader from St. Timothy Parish, in advocating for affordable housing. Linda discusses the importance of community listening sessions and the role personal stories played in her passion for social justice. Despite changes in community support and expansion of COPS / Metro's reach across San Antonio, the organization remains dedicated to listening to community needs and relationship building. Looking ahead, Linda sees COPS / Metro continuing …

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Sister Bernadette Barrett, Qiuying Chen

COPS/Metro

Sister Bernadette Barrett shared her thoughts about the racial shift and demographic change in COPS/Metro and San Antonio. Furthermore, she discusses how COPS/Metro uses diverse voices in its decision-making process and empowers young people and minority groups to come to the table with high-ranking city executives. Lastly, Sr. Bernadette reflects on her takeaways from her work in community organizing with COPS/Metro.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Rose Araujo-Iracheta, Gabriella Parra

COPS/Metro

Rose Araujo-Iracheta shared some of her experiences with COPS/Metro advocating for community needs, focusing on persistence, collaboration and resilience. She emphasized the role that social justice plays in her motivation to assist co-workers, neighbors, school districts and all communities of San Antonio.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Christina Castro, Theresa Pohl

COPS/Metro

Christina Castro spoke about the impact that COPS has had on the city of San Antonio and the surrounding neighborhood. The topics included; housing, corporate meetings, flood control, community impact, and more.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Christina Castro, Sarah Neal

COPS/Metro

Christina talks about a man who died in a house fire because he had no city services (water, electricity, etc.) She mentioned how sewers would back up into people's kitchens during major rain events. Christina talks about how COPS mentored one woman, Julia Sanchez, in particular so that she could present at City Hall. This lady told her story which helped pass a bond to get the flooding and sewers fixed. Christina also talked about the need for Senior Housing and the building of “market rate” apartments which did not help the seniors because they could not afford the market …

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Linda Davila, Theresa Pohl

COPS/Metro

Linda Davila spoke about the impact that COPS has had on the city of San Antonio and the surrounding neighborhood. The topics included storytelling, involvement, disagreements, community impact, and more.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Christina Castro, Barbara Ortiz

COPS/Metro

Christina Castro shared some of her experiences with COPS/Metro advocating for resources and addressing substandard living conditions. She discussed her involvement in various social justice initiatives, including advocating for affordable housing, school tax abatements, and accessible neighborhood libraries. She spoke of the importance faith has in driving her activism. Christina also shared some memorable moments of empowerment, delivering community wins for educational partnerships scholarships, after-school programs, and economic development projects.

From Medic To Legal Maven: Military Veteran Turns Legal Interest Into Second Career, Samantha Mendoza

Black History at St. Mary's University - 2025 Collection

Starting a new career can be daunting; however, alum David Louis proves that it is never too late to do so. Louis served 20 years as a combat medic in the United States Army, and after doing so, received a J.D. degree from the St. Mary’s University School of Law in 2020. With his knowledge in Law and his experience in the military, Louis has found his new career as a clerk for the Supreme Court of Texas. While pursuing a degree is beneficial for many reasons, Louis found it especially beneficial for himself and his family due to the …

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Willie Mae Clay, Gabriella Parra

COPS/Metro

Willie Mae Clay discusses her educational background and how she applied this in her work. She explains how her passion drew her to COPS/Metro Alliance.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Rose Araujo-Iracheta, Sarah Neal

COPS/Metro

In this interview, Rose Araujo-Iracheta discusses her involvement with COPS/METRO and the environmental and community improvements in the southwest side of San Antonio, particularly focusing on drainage, flooding, and infrastructure.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Steve Mendonza, Qiuying Chen

COPS/Metro

In his interview, Steve Mendoza reflected on the history of redlining and resource inequality in San Antonio and the impact it’s had on the neighborhoods COPS/Metro serves. He also discusses demographic changes within the COPS/Metro organization. He prides himself on the success of COPS/Metro’s Project Quest education program that has benefited the people living on the Westside. Looking to the future, Steve hopes COPS/Metro develops more programs for the changing needs and demographics of San Antonio.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Robert Mueller, Theresa Pohl

COPS/Metro

Robert Mueller spoke about the impact that COPS has had on the city of San Antonio and the surrounding neighborhood. The topics included; gun control, corporate meetings, community impact, how COPS works, and more.

Cops/Metro Alliance-Stmu Oral Histories With Steve Mendoza, Theresa Pohl

COPS/Metro

Steve Mendoza spoke about the impact that COPS has had on the city of San Antonio and the surrounding neighborhood. The topics included; Project QUEST, youth involvement, disagreements, community impact, and more.

Cops/Metro Alliance- Stmu Oral Histories With Lizzy Gore, Kensley Dieckow

COPS/Metro

In the oral history interview of Lizzie Gore, she shares her motivations behind pursuing a career in social justice and personal journey joining the COPS organization. She reflects on the challenges she faced going to community organizing from an education background. Lizzy shares a proudest moment involving the Cassiano Homes Project, where a struggling community, with COPS' support, successfully advocated for city funding to improve housing conditions. Looking to the future, Lizzy sees COPS evolving to meet the changing institutional landscape in San Antonio.

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Sister Rita Nealon, Sarah Neal

COPS/Metro

Sister Rita talks about the horrible conditions of the roads on the Westside of San Antonio back in the 1970 and how they were much better when she came back to San Antonio in the1990. Sister Rita tells a story of two girls who were very poor and had to walk home in 18 inches of water because of flooding and how their house door was made of particle board. Sister Rita also talked about how proud she was of the kids who became teachers and nurses despite their poor living conditions and parents being immigrants or not speaking english. …

Cops/Metro Alliance - Stmu Oral Histories With Maria Tijerina, Barbara Ortiz

COPS/Metro

Maria Tijerina shared some of her experiences with COPS/Metro emphasizing the importance of volunteering and community involvement. She discussed how COPS helped her become more active in her community, advocating for higher city wages and improving public housing. She also discussed challenges her parish faced through COVID pandemic and enduring high leadership turnover rates.

Disposable Immigrants: The Reality Of Sexual Assault In Immigration Detention Centers, Valerie Gisel Zarate

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

America: The World’S Police—How The Defund The Police Movement Frames An Analysis For Defunding The Military, Anya Kreider

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

In this article, the author examines the tenets of the Defund the Police movement and applies them to the American military to make the argument that not only should the police be defunded, but so should the American military. The purpose of this piece is to push the conversation regarding policing beyond American borders to examine American influence internationally. The article incorporates various Critical Race Theories to explore the intersection of policing and the military. The Defund the Police Movement also provides a framework for critiquing the American military because the American police and military are inextricably connected. Part I …

Barriers To Public Health In Latino American Indigenous Communities, Wilzave Quiles Guzman

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

This paper focuses on barriers to public health in Latino American Indigenous communities. Indigenous people throughout the world are at a public health disadvantage due to a lack of clearly defined practices within the decision-making processes to plan, evaluate, and control finances from governmental and non-governmental entities in charge of managing health services. I argue that political, social, and institutional changes are still needed to achieve health equity in Indigenous communities and that these changes should go beyond implementing a universal health care program. I must recognize improvements made by many Latino American countries like Brazil, which prepared a plan …

Identity Documents For Transgender Texans: A Proposal For A Uniform System For Correcting Gender Markers In Texas, Lydia R. Harris

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Texas’s lack of a codified gender correction process is unjust, illegal, and against public policy. This comment highlights the injustice faced by transgender Texans without gender concordant identity documents. These injustices include discrimination based on gender stereotypes, violation of the transgender individual’s right to privacy, and violations of public policy. This comment explores possible solutions to the injustices faced by transgender Texans due to the lack of a codified uniform way to correct gender markers in Texas modeled on other jurisdictions’ approaches to this problem.

First, this comment traces the history of the recognition of transgender people and transgender rights …

The Mother Of Exiles Is Abandoning Her Children: The Systemic Failure To Protect Unaccompanied Minors Arriving At Our Borders, Rosa M. Peterson

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Unaccompanied minors arrive at the United States border every day. Many brought by the hope of finding a life lived without fear, a luxury many United States citizens take for granted. Their truths become the barriers and shackles which keep them in detention centers and unaccompanied minor facilities throughout the United States; children find their very words wielded as weapons against them in immigration court. Words often spoken to therapists in perceived confidence, during counseling sessions. This practice is a systemic failure to protect unaccompanied minors arriving at our borders who are seeking protection and help. The United States …

Protecting A Woman’S Right To Abortion During A Public Health Crisis, San Juanita Gonzalez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

As COVID-19 infected our nation, states were quick to issue executive orders restricting various aspects of daily life under the pretense of public safety. It was clear at the outset that certain civil liberties were going to be tested. Among them, the constitutional right to an abortion.

This comment explores Texas’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the limitations it imposed on abortion access. It will attempt to address the legitimacy of the “public health concerns” listed in executive orders issued throughout numerous states and will discuss the pertinent legal framework and judicial scrutiny to apply.

According to the Fifth …