Latin American Studies Commons^™

Venezuela's And Mexico's Oil Industries: Policy Making Sets The Course, Camila Gimenez Valero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The puzzle of Venezuela's crisis is one that researchers often try to understand. How did one of the richest nations in the world become one of the poorest? Venezuela is nowadays seen as a country with political unrest, where people struggle to get by and with a corrupt government. However, this was not always the case. Throughout the 20th century Venezuela had remarkable economic stability. Having discovered the world's largest known oil reserves, the nation's economy quickly developed, and the country also became known for its long-standing democracy. After the election of Hugo Chavez in 1998, Venezuela began to decline …

Jóvenes Y Memoria: Conflict And Vitality In Education For Human Rights, Bryan Harriss Jones

Graduate Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations

In 2002, the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria (the Provincial Commission for Memory - CPM) of Argentina’s province of Buenos Aires (PBA) established Jóvenes y Memoria: Recordamos para el Futuro (Youth and Memory: We Remember for the Future – JyM), an elective program for secondary school students. JyM empowers students to create and communicate narratives about the history and current state of human rights based on investigations using primary sources. The goals of CPM include fostering historical memory and preventing the return of authoritarianism. JyM furthers these goals by building exemplary memory to inspire positive change in the present and …

U.S-Venezuelan Relations: Personality And Foreign Policy Decision Making, Isabella D. Alvarez Chacon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, the authoritarian socialist regime leaders in Venezuela, are known for their social programs and their stance against the U.S., but only Maduro cut off diplomatic relations with the U.S., one of the most significant FP decisions of his administration. This research examines the role that the personalities of these leaders may have played in explaining their distinct FP towards the U.S. Personality helps find traits that shift a leader’s behavior that then influence how they make decisions. Previous research has shown that personality is a helpful tool for understanding leaders' strategies, but it has not …

¿Qué Dijo El Médico?: Creating A Procedural Preparation Booklet For Spanish-Speaking Patients And Families In The Pediatric Hospital Setting, Caitlyn Bockbrader

Honors Projects

The purpose of my Honors Project is to demonstrate the need for and creation of a resource that supports Spanish-speaking children’s ability to cope through commonly stressful medical procedures. In developing this project, I conducted a literature review on the efficacy of preparation booklets in lessening pre-procedural anxiety, cultural considerations for the Hispanic community, and current barriers to equitable language access in healthcare settings. My final product was designed to answer the following question: How can the psychosocial outcomes of Spanish-speaking children in U.S. hospitals be improved through the use of Child Life procedural preparation materials? In answering this question, …

Perspectivas De Liderazgo En La Frontera: Un Anã¡Lisis De Las Experiencias De Los Presidentes Y Cónsules De El Paso Y Ciudad Juã¡Rez, Horacio Estavillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ciudad Juárez y El Paso son el reflejo de México y Estados Unidos a nivel municipal, sin embargo, esta unión de ciudades a nivel fronterizo abre las puertas a oportunidades únicas al igual que desafíos significativos, los cuales pueden ser el resultado de las relaciones macro de ambos países, pero también de ambas ciudades. Por lo tanto, las ciudades fronterizas son el ejemplo de una amalgama de representación local y binacional, ya que los líderes que se encuentran en estas ciudades; como cónsules generales, y presidentes municipales, reflejan no solo la personificación de la ciudad, sino también el símbolo e …

“Before, We Didn’T Eat Manioc Flour”: Historical And Social Transformations In Food Techniques Among Indigenous Peoples Of The Rio Negro Basin In The Brazilian Amazon, Lorena França

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

Manioc flour is currently considered one of the main foods consumed by Indigenous peoples in the Northwest Amazon. It is fundamental both to the traditional diet and to adding an "Indigenous flavor" to urban dishes. This article presents an analysis of historical sources that position manioc flour as an important trading commodity since the 19th century and shows how its internal consumption seems to have grown in recent decades. This significance contrasts with the role of manioc flour in mythic narratives about the origin of foods, where it is either not mentioned among the Tukano peoples or referred to as …

“We Will Fight For Them”: The Defense Of The ´Isolated´ Piriti People By The Waimiri Atroari, Amazonas And Roraima, Brazil, Silvia Melo Futada, Walter Nicanor Fontoura Blos, Antônio Carlos Andrade Do Nascimento, Marcelo De Sousa Cavalcante, Glenn H. Shepard Jr, Waimiri Atroari Community Association (Acwa)

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

The Pirititi are a little known ´isolated´ Indigenous group occupying a highly threatened territory on the border between Amazonas and Roraima states in Brazil who have rejected all previous attempts at contact and encounter. The Waimiri Atroari previously had conflicts with the Pirititi, who occupy a contiguous area, but over the past decade have taken it upon themselves to defend the Pirititi and their territory, relying mostly on their own resources. Given the slow pace of official Brazilian governmental responses to land invasions and other threats to the Pirititi, the Waimiri Atroari have become the main protagonists of protection and …

Revitalizing While Transmitting: Conversations Around “Natural Birth”Practices With Kichwa Midwives In Ecuador’S Napo Region, Laura Rival

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

Despite its relevance for analyzing many distinctive native imaginaries and societal values, childbirth remains a relatively neglected theme within Amazonianist scholarship. Yet, birthing can be shown to structure contemporary struggles around kinship, politics, economics, and the place of transformation in social life. This article proposes to examine a Kichwa organization (AMUPAKIN) through an experimental anthropological lens. By putting childbirth at the center of its political struggle, AMUPAKIN seeks to keep Kichwa knowledge/power alive. The goal of the organization is that each child born the Kichwa way will be able to live a good life in multicultural contexts. The article documents …

“Nós Vamos Lutar Por Eles”: A Defesa Do Povo “Isolado” Pirititi Pelos Waimiri Atroari, Amazonas E Roraima, Brasil, Silvia Melo Futada, Glenn H. Shepard Jr., Walter Nicanor Fontoura Blos, Antônio Carlos Andrade Do Nascimento, Marcelo De Sousa Cavalcante, Associação Comunitária Waimiri Atroari

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

Os Pirititi são um grupo indígena “isolado” pouco conhecido, que ocupa um território altamente ameaçado na divisa entre os estados do Amazonas e Roraima (Brasil), e tem majoritariamente rejeitado todo tipo de contato e encontro. Os Waimiri Atroari já tiveram conflitos com os Pirititi no passado, mas nas últimas décadas assumiram a responsabilidade de defender os Pirititi e seu território, em processos de reconhecimento oficial, elaborando estratégias, organizando atividades e investindo seu tempo e recursos da associação comunitária. Diante da lentidão das respostas do Estado brasileiro às invasões e outras ameaças aos Pirititi, os Waimiri Atroari tornaram-se os principais protagonistas …

(Un)Worlding With Karipuna’S Shadowy Alliances: The Mirangã And The Isolados, Hanmin Kin

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

This ethnographically inspired article investigates the ways in which the Karipuna Indigenous people in Rondônia defend their land in the Western Brazilian Amazon against forces of deforestation and dispossession. I focus on the Karipuna’s plurivalent and collective forest spirits called the mirangã, through life experience accounts of two survivors from the “pre-contact” era who embody the Karipuna-mirangã connection. Through an analysis of the onto-epistemological entanglements in which the mirangã and my interlocutors are situated, I articulate another front of the Karipuna’s multi-faceted resistance: the struggle of worlding vis-à-vis the non-indigenous world. This process also reveals the association (from …

La Escucha De Los Soplos: Chamanismo Y Proposiciones Ontológicas Sobre El Lenguaje En El Alto Río Negro, Amazonas, Danilo Paiva Ramos

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

La región del Alto Río Negro-AM es considerada una de las áreas con mayor intensidad de multilingüismo en Brasil e incluso en el mundo. Hay un total de 23 pueblos indígenas que hablan lenguas de las familias lingüísticas arawak, tukano y hup, yuhup, dâw y nadëb. El presente trabajo busca analizar, desde un enfoque comparado, cómo un sistema regional multilingüe y multiétnico se compone no sólo de exogamia lingüística, sino también de la articulación ontológica entre endoexogamia lingüística y dialogismo chamánico. Comienza con el estudio del antropólogo tukano João Rivelino Barreto sobre el arte del diálogo chamánico tukano para describir …

We Will Not Be Saved: A Memoir Of Hope And Resistance In The Amazon Rainforest, Theodor Borrmann

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

Review: We will not be saved: a memoir of hope and resistance in the Amazon rainforest, by Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson. London: Wildfire, 2024. 368 pp., plates.

Ratting On The Coca Spirit Or Mastering Exchange? Andoque Negotiations Of Power And Commodification Between Forest And Market, Eliran Arazi

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

Asserting the importance of analyzing Indigenous involvement in the extraction and trade of nonhuman entities against the backdrop of Amazonian perceptions of personhood, this article investigates the risks and opportunities that coca commercialization by the Andoque of Northwest Amazonia, Colombia, holds for the Andoque’s relationships with the coca spirit, other nonhuman entities, and non-Indigenous agents. Considering the triangular relational dynamics between coca producers, urban consumers, and nonhumans as an inflection of Amazonian mastery dynamics within the context of market economic exchange, I analyze the Andoque’s statements and practices relating to this activity through the etic distinction between gifts and commodities …

Bahsé Ahpose: O Adocicamento Das Águas E Dos Peixes Como Regeneração Da Vida No Alto Vaupés, Noroeste Amazônico, José Carlos Almeida Cruz, Justino Sarmento Rezende, Thiago Mota Cardoso

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

Nas paisagens etnográficas do Noroeste Amazônico brasileiro se encontra o Rio Vaupés, na Terra Indígena do Alto Rio Negro, no Município de São Gabriel da Cachoeira. Nessas paisagens, os povos do Vaupés fazem o Bahsé Ahpose, o adocicamento das águas e dos peixes na prática do tinguijamento. O conhecimento desse ritual e sua prática resulta do encontro de conhecimentos cosmológicos e cosmopolíticos na vida dos povos do Vaupés. Esse rito se realiza pelos diálogos dos kumuã (xamãs), para quem o adocicamento faz parte da fórmula presente na taxonomia de todas as “rezas” benéficas e está sempre presente nelas. Realiza-se o …

Jean Langdon: Transformations And Perspectives From Half A Century Of Research About Shamanism, Isabel Santana De Rose

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

This text reviews some of Jean Langdon’s most important classical and contemporary writings about shamanism, highlighting her key contributions to the area, as well as her relevance to the anthropology of health and Indigenous health policies. The paper also reflects on Langdon’s influence in the discussions surrounding gender and female agency in ethnographies of lowland South America. Jean Langdon was one of the pioneers in the revival of the research on shamanism in the 1980s. During a period when male anthropologists largely dominated studies on this topic, she highlighted the complexity and diversity of Indigenous shamanisms, proposing that they should …

Euphemism In Ai Discourse As Colonial Harm & Effect: Learnings From Subaltern Puerto Rico, Jacqueline Oquendo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Through three integrated studies, this dissertation explores complex human-AI interactions by comparing the perceptions of two groups of U.S. citizens: subaltern Puerto Ricans and stateside Americans’ interactions with ChatGPT. This corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis or CLCDA, triangulated with 1:1 semi-structured interviews, validates scholars’ concerns about the biases inherent in generative AI. Contributing to those concerns, this dissertation reveals that ChatGPT deploys discourse strategies that, when executed, facilitate digital colonialism. Euphemistic language is prominent among its discourse strategies, replacing controversial words, phrases, and topics with more palatable ones. When prompted on events of historical significance, I find that ChatGPT’s discourse obscures …

Racing Latinidad, Renee Hudson

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This chapter argues that the terms “Latinx” and “latinidad” are messy signifiers that allow us to contend with Latinx’s complicated racial history. While the term Latinx continues to be controversial, and scholars such as Tatiana Flores have examined the case for cancelling latinidad, “Racing Latinidad” points to how latinidad can signify particular political commitments and affinities. Through readings of Manuel Muñoz’s What You See in the Dark (2011) and Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s Daughters of the Stone (2009), this chapter illuminates how excavating racial histories outside the logic of the state is a way to summon a politics to imagine a people. …

La Voz Fall 2024, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue: 

• Welcome New Faculty
• A Profile of the Puerto Rican Studies Initiative
• In Memoriam, Willie Matos
• Seed Grant Lecture Series
• New Perspectives in Latin American and Latine studies Conference
• Spotlight:  Mark Overmyer‑Velázquez, in “Construyendo la ciudad disciplinada: Oaxaca de Juárez durante el Porfiriato” (2024)

Notes From The Field - A Militarização Do Espaço Urbano Do Rio De Janeiro: Grupos Armados, Forças De Segurança E Forças Armadas E A Disputa Por Território, Thiago Sardinha

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

The Militarization of the Urban Space of Rio de Janeiro is the synthesis of different historical processes: The state through massive incarceration of black and racialized people, and the systematic elimination of black poor people from favelas through urban policing operations by security and armed forces, traffic patrols, and paramilitary/vigilante groups. Together, they result in the production of different actors that exert violent territorial domination for economic exploitation and social control.

El Único Pecado De Chepita Rodriguez, Maria G. Vielma

Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal

Cuento.