From "The Man With the Hoe" to "Tobacco Road"| Class, Poverty and Religion and the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union

Since 1871, approximately 150,000 Syrians and Lebanese have immigrated to Brazil, struggling to preserve their Arabic culture and identity even as they have assimilated to Brazilian society. Previous scholars have acknowledged the role of a variety of community institutions in maintaining Syrian-Lebanese identity but have largely ignored the role of religious institutions in this process. My thesis addresses this substantial gap in scholarship by researching and analyzing the role religion plays in creating and maintaining ethnic self-identification in the Syrian-Lebanese colony. I focus on the Orthodox Church, Melkite and Maronite Catholic churches, and Muslims, examining the varied ways in which each group participates in this process today. I discuss the ways religious institutions have changed in response to Brazilian culture and the expectations of the Syrian-Lebanese colony, as well as the relationships between the various religious groups. In contrast to many previous scholars, who de-emphasized religious institutions in the community or argued that they have lost their relevance in contemporary Arab Brazilian culture, I argue that religious institutions, so important in the creation of identity in Syria and Lebanon, have also served as vital arenas in which Syrian-Lebanese in Brazil create, maintain, and contest self-identification. I further demonstrate that although the role of Syrian-Lebanese religious institutions has lessened somewhat in modern Brazilian society, religious groups, each in their own way, continue to reinforce Syrian-Lebanese identity and culture, struggling to maintain the Arab nature of their churches and mosques, even as they welcome Brazilian converts to their faith.

Cultural factors affecting food preference and tarwi consumption in three departments of the Peruvian Andes were evaluated. This study suggests that tarwi consumption in Peru is location specific. Moreover, the contact between lo capitalino and lo serrano affects peoples food preferences. Andahuaylas, which has the least amount of contact with the capital, was the place where tarwi was eaten openly and proudly. Cusco, even though further from Lima, has many new capitalino businesses because of the tourist industry, resulting in shame at the fact that they still eat tarwi. In Ayacucho, the consumption of tarwi has disappeared. Furthermore, Ayacucho suffered more from terrorism than any other department in Peru. Thus, even secondary factors like civil turmoil and tourism, which act indirectly, still modify food preference and dietary choices. Finally, there are cultural factors not always visible to the naked eye, such as whether a food is inherently cold or hot, male or female, or a food fit only for the poor or acceptable for the middle class.

This research explores the political thought of two Latin American intellectuals and party leaders of the 1930s, Pedro Albizu Campos from Puerto Rico and Plínio Salgado from Brazil. During a decade of economic depression and political turmoil, they elaborated nationalist and revolutionary ideologies, and headed two influential political movements, the Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico and the Ação Integralista Brasileira, respectively. The interpretation of these experiences benefited from some recent developments in the European field of fascist studies, and in particular from Roger Griffins ideal type of generic fascism as a palingenetic populist ultra-nationalism and Emilio Gentiles notion of political religion. Albizu and Salgado showed a common core of worldviews and values centered on the belief that they were witnessing the peak of a long-term process of moral and material decadence as a consequence of capitalism and liberalism. On this basis, they each proposed a project of spiritual rebirth (palingenesis) to be carried out through the rejection of the foreign, bourgeois model of development, and through the exaltation of what they considered genuine national traits, in particular, race and religion. The Catholic tradition also provided a repertoire of terms, symbols, and principles that they employed to shape their parties as sectarian and hierarchical organizations, subjected to an authoritarian leadership. The comparison of these two converging political discourses strengthens the call for a transnational study of the 1930s Latin American extreme right.

This thesis reinterprets the writings of the Brazilian Catholic intellectual Alceu Amoroso Lima, in particular, his work in the 1930s. A leading Catholic intellectual and one of the most important laymen in the country, Alceu Amoroso Lima became well known for his opposition to the Brazilian dictatorship from 1964-85. The 1930s are a critical era in the development of his beliefs about the Church and social justice; however, he is often characterized as a militant, intolerant conservative during this time. This thesis demonstrates that the 1930s were in fact a crucial moment in the development of the beliefs that would transform him into a famous liberal in the 1960s. His writings of the 1930s contain the genesis of his liberal ideas. These same ideas would become central to international Catholic thought in the development of liberation theology in the 1960s. In Alceus philosophical debates over the nature of humanity and society, the Church and politics, several constant themes emerge. First and foremost was his belief in the importance of liberty and justice, and peaceful change as the method to obtain them. Second, he argued for the need for Church intervention into social issues and he initiated a debate over ecclesiology, specifically to what extent the Church should involve itself in temporal affairs. Finally, he stressed the paramount role of education in shaping the laitys understanding of Church doctrine, believing that a better foundation in Church dogma would prepare them to the face challenges of the modern world.

This thesis examines the impact of the recent recognition of indigenous autonomy in Bolivia on democracy in that country. Over the past several decades, the Bolivian central government has attempted to improve the quality of democracy in the country through reforms aimed at political decentralization and the inclusion of indigenous citizens, the countrys largest, historically marginalized group. In that spirit, President Evo Morales ratified Bolivias newest constitution in 2009, which legalizes self-determination for indigenous communities, upholding their right to define their own local political, economic and judicial systems. Nevertheless, this reform has failed to deepen democracy in the country for two reasons. First, there are inherent tensions between indigenous political systems and liberal democracy. Second, indigenous autonomy has been implemented in a top-down fashion in Bolivia, a process from which indigenous peoples were largely excluded. <p>While I argue that indigenous political systems must undergo several modifications to make them more democratic, these changes should be born out of serious dialogue between the state and indigenous communities, instead of being imposed from above without heeding the observations of indigenous actors. However, in Bolivia, the latter was the case. Thus, I argue, indigenous autonomy has reinforced the marginalization of indigenous peoples in Bolivia, diminishing the quality of democracy.

This thesis evaluates the impact of the Brazilian Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program, Bolsa Família, on educational outcomes with special attention to student performance. In Brazil, CCTs in education first appeared in 1995 in the Federal District of Brasília and in the city of Campinas, São Paulo with the Bolsa Escola Program. In 2004, Bolsa Escola and other social programs were collapsed under the comprehensive poverty alleviation initiative, Bolsa Família. As of 2011 there were 12 million families participating in the Bolsa Família Program making it the largest CCT Program in the world. This thesis demonstrates that since the implementation of Bolsa Família, students in the lowest income quintiles, the target population of Bolsa Família, have shown improved performance on the national achievement test, the SAEB, also known as Prova Brasil. This thesis suggests the inclusion of an additional transfer contingent on improved performance on exams or improved final grades to further stimulate the desire for academic achievement among recipient children and their families. In conclusion, this thesis finds that Bolsa Família has improved the educational outcomes for students of low socioeconomic status while simultaneously stimulating a much-needed discussion about the equity and quality of public education in Brazil.

In 1822 Haiti annexed the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo through effective rhetorical persuasion. The petition of Dominican municipalities for Haitian tutelage in the early 1820s and Spains refusal to object to the Haitian presence on the Spanish side, confirms that Port-Au-Princes twenty-two year administration over Santo Domingo was not an outright occupation. Haiti and the municipalities developed a profitable economic partnership. The city of Santo Domingo chose to exclude itself from the relationship and thereby became a political outcast on the island. President Jean Pierre Boyers administration from 1818 to 1843 succeeded in engendering a local peasantry, abolishing slavery, and producing significant economic growth in the Cibao. But he was deposed for failing to eradicate state-sponsored racial discrimination and for implementing unpopular and ineffective economic policy. The subsequent union between the two communities failed in 1844 not because of linguistic and cultural differences but rather due to the eastern sides increasing political and economic marginalization and the increased racial tensions destabilizing the western side. Although most Dominicans at the time agreed that separation from Haiti should be realized in 1844, they disagreed on whether to assemble a sovereign republic or reinstitute a protectorate over Santo Domingo. Considering that the ruling party there favored a French protectorate, the Dominican Republic was born in 1844 because no world power would agree to protect it. At its core, Dominican nationalism was handicapped because the ruling class was not invested in its preservation.

This project analyzes the disparate images of women produced during the period of Getúlio Vargas Estado Nôvo from 1937-1945, discussing their significance in the state-driven process of identity formation during the period. Using a variety of popular media sources and state-produced propaganda materials, I illustrate the paradoxical and dynamic socio-political space that women occupied in the national imaginary, the extent to which this space expanded or limited the realm of political and social action within Brazilian patriarchy, and how these contrasting images of Brazilian femininity produced at home and abroad affected notions of brasilidade. I argue that the Brazilian state ultimately did not effectively integrate women into the nationalist project, including them in the national imaginary, yet denying them full political rights and mobility. Furthermore, the Vargas regimes definition of brasilidade contradicted the more progressive images and modes of behavior promoted in the public sphere through popular media, as epitomized by Carmen Miranda.

In 1968, a military coup surprised Panama, placing political power in the hands of populist leader General Omar Torrijos Herrera. Recuperation of the Panama Canal remained a high priority to the government, and Torrijos repeatedly articulated that the means to territorial sovereignty only existed through a unified Panamanian nation. Thus, the Torrijos government embarked on the task of incorporating the marginalized masses into the government, including the notoriously autonomous Kuna. As pluriethnicity became a crucial tenet of Panamanian national identity, the Kuna struggled to preserve their culture but simultaneously adopted governmental development programs and capitalized on opportunities for political participation. This project studies the relationship between the Kuna and the Torrijos government, which lasted from 1968-1981, focusing on issues of nationalism, ethnicity, and identity.