<p> Chronic illnesses, such as cancer, are considered sources of stress as they are associated with losses of physical, psychological, social, and financial resources. The consideration of cultural resources is particularly important among ethnic minorities, low acculturated individuals, and immigrants, populations usually associated with a lack of many resources. The connections between acculturation, the changes made when accessing a new cultural context, and health have been extensively studied from a quantitative perspective, usually concentrating on one acculturation domain and without reference to a specific theoretical background. A qualitative approach was utilized in this study involving a multidimensional concept of acculturation with an examination of potential theoretical connections within the theory of conservation of resources (COR). COR is a type of integrative stress theory in which the mobilization of resources and influence of culture, community, and self are emphasized within the stress process. Ten first generation low acculturated Hispanic women diagnosed and undergoing cancer treatment participated in this phenomenological study. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews that were voice-recorded, transcribed, translated, and analyzed following the protocol for interpretative phenomenological analysis. The participants identified the heritage culture resources of past experiences, family, motherhood, faith, social network, language, and cultural identification, which they accessed to manage stress during their cancer experience. Four superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of the heritage culture resources and emergent themes. The superordinate themes revealed the sources of reliance, support, strength to endure, and moving forward and giving back that these heritage culture resources represented during the cancer experience. Under COR theory, clarification was gained as how long-standing resource gain, represented by heritage culture resources, may counterbalance and aid in response to resource loss represented by chronic illness. Suggestions for future research are repeating the study with low acculturated Hispanic men, comparing access and use of heritage culture resources between low and high-acculturated individuals during chronic illness, and examining the impact of time of exposure to the mainstream culture on the different acculturation domains among low acculturated individuals. </p>

<p> The purpose of this research was to examine the link between obesity and stroke rates among African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos. Secondary data set was utilized to test the hypotheses of this study. Previous studies have indicated that the link between obesity and stroke is environment, poor nutrition, and socioeconomic status. Increasing health awareness about obesity and stroke prevention by having health fairs can promote a healthier lifestyle in the community. The study aimed to determine the causes of obesity and stroke among African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos in the underserved population. This research was intended to examine the risk factors that can lead to obesity and stroke among this population. The findings of this research concluded the acceptance of both hypotheses that in the underserved population, obesity and stroke rates are higher in the rural areas; and African American and Hispanic/Latino men have a higher risk of being obese and having higher risk of stroke. </p>

<p> In the United States the growing Latino population is often referred to as the "sleeping giant" of electoral politics due to the group's significant size. After the 2012 Presidential elections some argued that the 'sleeping giant' had finally awakened. This work analyzed the validity of this claim by looking at national Latino electoral participation from the 1990's to the present, concentrating on measures of electoral participation and influence of Latino voters. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the ANES Survey at the national level, this work then focused on two states, Arizona and Nevada, to assess the changing influence of Latinos and Latino voters on state elections. The findings of this work establish that the electoral power of Hispanics in presidential elections has been overstated and overestimated. It additionally shows that in the future the influence and political power of this ethnic group will register a significant growth, which might cause substantial electoral and political shifts favoring the Democratic Party if current trends continue. Although, at the same time this projected political growth is greatly dependant on an increase of Hispanic voter registration in the future.</p>

<p>What happens when the dominant binary categories used to describe American race relations--either "black and white," or "Anglo and Mexican"--are examined contemporaneously, not comparatively, but in relation to one another? How do the long African American and Chicano/a struggles for racial equality and economic opportunity look different? And what role did ordinary people play in shaping these movements? Using oral history interviews, the Texas Labor Archives, and the papers of dozens of black, brown, and white activists, this dissertation follows diverse labor, civil rights, and political organizers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s.</p><p>Tracing their movements revealed a startling story. Beginning in the mid-1930s, African American and ethnic Mexican working people across Texas quietly and tentatively approached one another as well as white laborers for support in their efforts to counter discrimination at work, in their unions, and in the cities in which they lived. Such efforts evolved in different ways due to the repression of the early Cold War, but most organizers simply redirected their activism into new channels. By the close of the 1950s, new forms of multiracial alliances were beginning to take hold. Mutual suspicion slowly gave way to mutual trust, especially in San Antonio. There, and increasingly statewide, black and brown activists separately developed robust civil rights movements that encompassed demands not only for integration but also equal economic opportunities and the quest for independent political power.</p><p>The distinct civil rights and labor movements overlapped, especially in the realm of electoral politics. By the mid-1960s, what began as inchoate collaboration at the local level had gradually expanded from its origins in the barrios, ghettos, union halls, and shop floors to become a broad-based, state-wide coalition in support of liberal politicians and an expansive civil rights agenda. At the same time, African American and ethnic Mexican activists were engaged in new waves of organizing for both political power and civil rights, but they encountered opposition from members of their own ethnic groups. Thus the activists' efforts to forge inter-ethnic coalitions coexisted with protracted intra-ethnic conflict. In many cases distinctions of class and political philosophy and tactics mattered at least as much as did ties of ethnicity. Activists learned this lesson experientially: in the trenches, through countless small conflicts over several decades, they slowly separated themselves from their more conservative counterparts and looked to multiracial coalitions as their primary strategy for outflanking their intra-ethnic opponents. Meanwhile, organized labor and white liberals had been searching for allies in their efforts to wrest control of the Democratic Party away from its conservative wing. In the early 1960s, they reached the conclusion that black and brown voters would prove key to their own success, so they gradually transitioned toward civil rights organizing in order to build a coalition with the black and brown civil rights movements.</p><p>After decades of fighting separately and dabbling in experimental partnerships, veteran ethnic Mexican, African American, and white labor and liberal activists finally came together into a powerful statewide Democratic Coalition. Between 1962 and 1964, their collaborative campaign for civil rights, economic opportunity, and political power reached a fever pitch, resulting in the state's largest ever direct action protests, massive door-to-door electoral initiatives, and an ever-deepening commitment by labor to putting boots on the ground for community organizing. In the late 1960s the statewide multiracial coalition reached its apex and began to lose steam. At the same time, local multiracial coalitions continued to thrive, underpinning both the African American and Chicano/a urban electoral mobilizations and the rising Black and Brown Power movements. At the local level and in the short term, black, brown, and white working-class civil rights activists won--they achieved a degree of economic and political democracy in Texas that was scarcely imaginable in the age of Jim Crow just a few decades earlier. But as they won local battles they also lost the larger war.</p><p>Working-class civil rights organizers thus failed in the end to democratize Texas and America. Their goals remain distant to this day. Yet they were themselves transformed by their experiences in the struggle. Most transitioned from near-complete political and economic exclusion to having a voice. Their collective story indicates that scholars have much to gain from studying organized labor, electoral politics, and the African American and ethnic Mexican civil rights movements simultaneously. Doing so not only adds to the emerging historical sub-field of black-brown relations but also makes each of the individual movements look different. It reconnects class to the black freedom struggle, militancy to the ethnic Mexican civil rights movement, organized labor to community activism, and all three movements to the creation of today's urban politics.</p> / Dissertation

<p> Community college trustees are critical to the success of the organization and the students they serve because they provide the voice of local needs in alignment with the college mission. Community college trusteeship in California is vital given the changing student demographic, the growing number of Latinos enrolled, and their need for responsive institutions. The diversity of the board is therefore critical to ensuring that the diverse needs are being met. However, little is known about the lives of California's community college trustees and how they transform educational settings. </p><p> The purpose of this qualitative study is to shed light on the personal, educational, professional, and trusteeship journey of five Chicana/Latina trailblazers, the first Chicana/Latinas to be elected to their district. Using testimonio methodology to give voice to this group of women, this study is set in the Chicana Feminist Epistemological stance, which put these participants in the center of this study, providing the participants an opportunity to co-create knowledge, and allowed the researcher to apply the use of Chicana intuition, to guide the study design. The theoretical framework, Latino Critical Theory (LatCrit) was used as the analytical lens exposing raced, classed, and gendered experiences in the school setting. Through the use of a LatCrit lens, this study exposed the participant's experiential knowledge, critical to their successful navigation oftheir trusteeship, creating more responsive institutions. </p><p> The findings reveal that these participants, as a collective, felt the trauma of the race, class and gendered experiences in the educational setting. These experiences shaped their worldview. Nonetheless the women developed aspirations to become educators and these aspirations led them to college where they were able to move beyond internal oppression by developing a social consciousness and develop a Chicana identity. These experiences led them to social activism, which served as the path to community college trusteeship. They became the first Chicana/Latina community college trustees in their district, taking a seat at the dais and it is there that these trailblazers created a legacy of inclusion and transformed the educational setting.</p>

<p> The number of children in the United States for whom English is not the language spoken at home is increasing. The National Center for Education Statistics (as cited in Hammer, Scarpino, &amp; Davison, 2011) reported that, in 2007, 10.8 million school-age children in the U.S. spoke a native language other than English, an 11% increase in just 25 years. Of these English language learners (ELLs), Latinos represent almost 80% (Jerome, 2009). Numerous studies have shown the importance to both students and schools of meaningfully engaging families in the school environment. This comparative case study focuses on the practices of two elementary schools that successfully promote the engagement of families of Latino ELL students and is intended to increase understanding of the necessary relational components, or the ways that individuals are connected, that promote family engagement in school environments with populations of primarily Latino students and a majority of English language learners (ELLs).</p>

<p> Adult Hispanic ESL students in rural San Luis, Arizona, face a challenging situation. Since San Luis lies on the southwestern tip of Arizona and borders with Mexico, Spanish is the predominant language. English, on the other hand, is mostly heard in classrooms. This can be a predicament for adult Hispanics who need to be proficient in English in order to excel at college or university. What can be done to assist these students? The literature states that one becomes a better reader by reading extensively (Krashen, 1999; Grabe, 2009). How does one get ESL students to read extensively if they are stymied by their limited vocabulary? A solution is graded readers. These are books written specifically for second/foreign language learners and consist of seven to eight levels. According to the literature, as individuals read through the different levels, their vocabulary and reading comprehension will increase (Nation and Wang, 1999; The Extensive Reading Foundation, 2011). Eventually, they will be able to comprehend text written specifically for native English speakers (Waring, 1997). </p><p> A mixed-methods study was conducted to assess the effect that graded readers vis-&aacute;-vis Scaffolded Silent Reading (ScSR) had on adult Hispanic ESL students at a community college on the U.S.-Mexico border. The areas examined were vocabulary growth, reading comprehension, and reading attitude. The findings were promising and showed some growth in vocabulary and reading comprehension for both the treatment and control groups. Furthermore, participants of the treatment group had a positive attitude towards reading graded readers through Scaffolded Silent Reading. </p><p> There is the need for further studies of a longer duration with adult Hispanic ESL students who live on or near the U.S.-Mexico border. The findings could build on this preliminary study. Furthermore, they contribute to the literature on extensive reading in general and graded readers through Scaffolded Silent Reading, specifically. .</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-04, Section: A, page: 1684. Adviser: Robert Newcomer.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2008. / Adviser: Tina Q. Richardson.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1682. Adviser: Steven G. Anderson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-140) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.