Vowels occurring adjacently across word boundaries form what is known as hiatus. In orthographic pronunciation, hiatus is defined by the brief pause between the two vowels as in yo estoy and la economía, where - represents a pause. However, since speakers of Spanish (or any other natural language) do not always pronounce orthographically when engaging in colloquial speech, the hiatus undergoes a variety of changes in order to accommodate certain phonological constraints. These changes are referred to as hiatus resolution and include vowel weakening, glide formation and vowel elision. As reported by the numerous studies of Spanish dialectology throughout the world, each dialect displays specific preferences for specific types of hiatus resolution. However, many of these investigations do not analyze the issue from a sociolinguistic viewpoint. The aim of this study is to discover what types of hiatus resolution are present in Mexico City Spanish and what effect the variables of age and gender have on their usage. In order to engage in this process, the language of 18 participants from Mexico City was recorded and analyzed for hiatus resolution. The results were then quantified and organized into gender and age group.

New Orleans, Louisiana, is a city with a rich Hispanic history which is often overlooked. Likewise, the role the Catholic Church has played in assisting the immigrant groups that have settled in New Orleans in the building of their communities has also often been ignored. The first part of this work will seek to trace the different Hispanic groups that have come to the city, their often unacknowledged legacies, and examine what role the Catholic Church played in their communities and history. During Spanish rule of colonial Louisiana from 1762 to 1803, Spanish colonists and recruits from the Canary Islands - or the Isleños - were the first Hispanic settlers in New Orleans. Both were exclusively Catholic. Nearly two centuries later, Cubans came to the city fleeing Castro's regime and Hondurans came looking for more opportunities as economic and social conditions in their homeland declined. This work will examine how the Catholic Church responded to the needs of the new arrivals. Masses were offered in the Spanish language in the city's Honduran neighborhood. The Church operated a center dedicated to helping Cubans transition in the city. It also offered and continues to offer English and citizenship classes, among other services, to Hispanics in the city. In Post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, a new group of Hispanic immigrants has arrived in the metropolitan area. This group, however, is not as homogeneous as its predecessors; they are from different countries, speak different dialects of Spanish, and are more diverse in their religious affiliations. This means that the Catholic Church, although it does offer services for the new Hispanic immigrants, will not necessarily be the building block around which the new Hispanic community in New Orleans will be constructed. The second part of this work focuses on who these new Hispanic immigrants are and how they and Hispanics living in the city prior to Hurricane Katrina will "imagine" the new Hispanic community without shared national identities, languages and the central, and also without, necessarily, the constant element in the communities created by previous Hispanic immigrants and other immigrant groups in the city - the Catholic Church.

The last Argentine dictatorship, officially known as the Process of National Reorganization (PNR), lasted nearly eight years (1976-1983) but the change that it produced in the subjectivity of the citizenry did not disappear when the military dictatorship left power. The fear of being denounced by friends, neighbors, or even family members resulted in apathy and ultimately, in "ignorance" of the events and in the taboo of speaking of them in private settings. The novelists and filmmakers that have begun to name the unnamable of that horror have done more for the comprehension and "healing" of that citizenry than all of the political-social programs. The fictional memories and imagination of these novelists and filmmakers have conquered the taboo to a certain point. Although speaking directly of the events is not done, one can discuss the novels and films that recount the problematic issue of the terror and its consequences. Through this new way of explaining the Period of the PNR, the Argentine citizenry has begun to recover its memory. In 2001, when the Argentine economy was plunged into large scale chaos and the possibility of regressing to the days of State terrorism existed, the Argentine citizenry reached a mature and rapid resolution within the bounds of peaceful mobilization. By conquering that crisis without involving the armed forces and without the violence of its history, Argentina shows hope for the future. Although the PNR dramatically affected Argentine subjectivity, the manner in which the country has resolved its most recent crises demonstrates that the next thirty years will be much more productive, more worthy, more filled with future prospects than the thirty years since the PNR began.

Traditionally, there has been a lack of emphasis placed on proper second language (L2) pronunciation in recent theoretical perspectives on foreign language pedagogy. Pronunciation is important because it is indicative of a learners level of phonemic awareness, an important component of second language acquisition. Inaccurate pronunciation (and therefore poor phonemic awareness) is often the result of a lack of training in this area due to the focus on grammar and syntax in many language classrooms. One often-neglected method of training students in L2 pronunciation discussed in some theoretical literature is the use of authentic materials in the form of musical recordings. This thesis reports on the results of a lengthy longitudinal study in which the researcher measures the effects of musical training in the foreign language classroom on the acquisition of a series of phonemes in Spanish. Pretest and posttest scores for all participants in both the control and experimental groups were judged by native speakers of Spanish and assessed on a 5-point scale. The range of increase for the experimental groups scores ranged from 5% to 53%, with 33.4% as the mean percent of increase. The results of this study indeed suggest that musical training is an effective manner of increasing learners pronunciation accuracy through developing phonemic awareness in the L2 classroom.

Ignacio Manuel Altamiranos novelística is of insurmountable importance for any study of the development of Nineteenth century Mexican literary culture and the Mexican liberal national narrative. Nevertheless, the ample criticism which treats Altamiranos novels has to date failed to grasp anything more than a tenuous unity latent in those works. This investigation provides a new framework for a unified interpretation of Altamiranos three most widely read and commented novels, Clemencia, La navidad en las montañas, and El Zarco. By way of an examination of historiographic-political narratives contemporaneous with the period informing the writing of those novels, in conjunction with an appeal to the understanding of the function of the novelistic form following the theory of M.M. Bakhtin and others, Altamiranos still controversial final novel will be shown to yield a new interpretation whose unitary function is dependent on all three of the novels examined herein. This unitary function will be shown to be constructed by way of the deployment of an innovatory instructive discourse which embraces all three of the novels examined and fundamentally determines their structure and content. As such, this investigation provides a new understanding of the works of this canonical author and propounds a more profound understanding of the interdependencies both literary and extraliterary that shape this part of the maestros work and the innovatory instructive discourse upon which it is founded.

This thesis examines sociolinguistic characteristics of the Latino population in the Baton Rouge metro area and has a manifold purpose. The main purpose of the study is to determine whether Latinos consider that the way they speak their native language Spanish has changed as a consequence of their living in Baton Rouge, i.e., the United States. A questionnaire was applied to 106 Latinos in Baton Rouge, 58 male and 48 female, between the ages of 18 and 71 years old, from several socioeconomic backgrounds (white collar workers, blue collar workers, etc.). They represent 14 Latin American countries. I tested a total of 48 factor groups using Goldvarb as my statistical tool to determine their statistical significance. The factor groups examined include influence of the English language, diglossic environments, linguistic insecurity, and subject personal pronoun expression. Eight significant variables were found, with respect of to the main research question. The results showed that Latinos think their native Spanish has changed, essentially because of the influence of other Latinos with whom they have constant contact, but also because of the influence of the English language. Moreover, it was determined that the number of years in the United States is a factor that favors the occurrence of the dependant variable; the longer Latinos live here, they are more likely to report changes in their Spanish. Besides, it was found that the informants have constant contact with the Spanish spoken in their home country, but this factor has not stopped the change they perceived in their language. Latinos also have a high degree of bilingualism at work, meanwhile Spanish is the main language spoken at home. In addition, informants showed a positive attitude towards their native dialect, although some traces of linguistic insecurity were found among Salvadorans, Hondurans and Puerto Ricans. Finally, some particularities in the use of second person pronouns were found, such as the rare use of the pronoun vos among speakers who come from countries were this pronoun is highly used.

Popular music is a vital part of the cultural and social life in the Hispanic Caribbean. Undoubtedly, musical contributions from Cuba and Puerto Rico to the rest of the world and especially to the rest of Latin America are of exceptional value. For instance, Cuba has created and exported the bolero, and Puerto Rican musical rhythms are at the core of salsa music. Caribbean literature has not been indifferent to the tremendous importance of music in the lives of Caribbean people; therefore, many literary texts have included the popular music in their narratives in many ways. For example, some of them have adapted its rhythm to shape the structure of theirs texts; others have included popular songs in their narratives as a central part of the text or as backdrop. An example of the connection between the literary discourse and the musical discourse are the texts analyzed in this thesis, Ella cantaba boleros by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, La guaracha del macho Camacho y La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos by Luis Rafael Sánchez. In this thesis I do not understand popular music as a neutral expression beyond conflicts of power. I define popular music in political terms, that is to say, as an arena of struggle among various groups that try to decide and define what music of value is and what music should represent the nation. So, in this thesis I explore how popular music is treated in Caribbean literature, specifically from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Specifically I consider if the writers from the Hispanic Caribbean show in their texts that popular music is an arena of constant negotiation, where several groups are always trying to attribute to it its own meanings so that their own particular vision of the world would be considered the most valid. Or if on the contrary they include popular music in their texts assuming that music is a symbol of national unity that dilutes inequalities and differences.

Traditionally, pragmatic aspects of the Spanish language are overlooked in the communicative classroom. Pragmatic competence is important because it may ultimately determine whether a successful communicative interaction takes place. Successful communication in language learning must not only address linguistic forms but also acknowledge language as a reflection of the socio-cultural norms of the L2 community. The research questions of this thesis explore the aspects of experience and instruction and their degree of influence as they relate to the development of pragmatic competence. This thesis reports on the results of a pedagogically-based, empirical study in which the researcher investigated the extent to which course level, study abroad, and pedagogical intervention facilitate the development of pragmatic competence of L2 learners when making a request in Spanish. Two main aspects of politeness, pronominal address forms and verbal forms, were examined to measure the learners level of pragmatic competence. Whether responses were pragmatically-appropriate were based on the responses of native speakers of Spanish. The results of this study reveal that learners who have more experience or exposure to the language, or explicit classroom instruction do not necessarily possess a higher degree of pragmatic competence than those who have not. These findings suggest that perhaps grammatical competence and pragmatic competence may develop separately and at differing rates. Further research and attention to the various factors surrounding pragmatic competence is necessary in the language educators goal to aid the student towards acquisition of overall communicative competence.

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala finished his chronicle, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, in 1615 for King Felipe III as a handbook for improving the Spanish colonial system, although it was not published until 1936 when it was rediscovered in Copenhagen. Despite the fact that the king did not publish it, the manuscript serves as an important part of colonial-period indigenous literature. In his chronicle, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala effectively creates an image of himself as an acculturated Andean who defends the civil authority of the king of Spain and the religious authority of the Catholic Church. However, deeper analysis reveals that this image of the chronicler is but one of many techniques which he used to disguise his true goals: the subversion of the total civil and religious power of the Spanish colonial administration and the creation of a semiautonomous Andean state. The author reveals these goals through his use of various literary and artistic techniques, including the nearly 400 drawings he incorporated into his chronicle and his manipulation of many of the most widespread arguments of the colonial period.

Traditionally, women have been relegated to the margins of society, history, and culture in male-dominated environments. Patriarchal systems have long denied women to play an appropriate role in nation building and to enter the public sphere, as is the case in Mexico. The female participation during one of the countrys most critical periods, the Mexican Revolution, has largely been ignored. Through situating their narratives into the context of the Revolution and describing the obstacles and limiting conditions that women experience, Mexican writers such as Elena Poniatowska and Laura Esquivel criticize the status quo of social and gender politics in Mexico and attempt to re-inscribe the female experience into the nations history. In this thesis, I use Alison Stones approach of feminist genealogy to examine womens resistance in Hasta no verte Jesús mío by Elena Poniatowska and Como agua para chocolate by Laura Esquivel. For this purpose, I examine the specific representations of feminine identity and analyze the similarities and differences between the women writers and protagonists modes of resistance both on intra- and extra-textual levels while taking into account the different contexts and settings in which female resistance against patriarchal oppression occurs. The investigation reveals the various overlaps of the resistance strategies that the women apply regardless of time and place. Furthermore, understanding their resistance in a genealogical context allows them to establish connections with each other in order to provide mutual support in a patriarchal environment. The analysis also shows that the feminist genealogical approach is useful for women in Mexico and Latin America in general as it helps them to perceive themselves as a coalitional group despite any social, cultural, and political differences and is therefore a constructive way of putting forth the womens movement in the region.