This dissertation examines the formation of the State of Chiapas from its creation as an intendancy within the Kingdom of Guatemala in the 1780s to after its incorporation into the Republic of Mexico. It focuses on municipal office and municipal administration, integral features of Bourbon reform on the provincial level and key components of state government after 1824. A hierarchy of municipalities provided the foundation for the Intendancy, with the intendant acting as the focal point for fiscal and political administration. The regionalization of Chiapas was facilitated by the revival of the ayuntamiento of Ciudad Real and the introduction of a provincial treasury. Intendancy reform was ambiguous since there was considerable jurisdictional overlap between venal and salaried offices. Instead of quashing the socio-political pretensions of the local merchant-hacendado elites of the ayuntamiento, the Bourbons enhanced their power by including them in provincial civil and ecclesiastical administration. The traditional attitudes towards hierarchy, status and legitimacy of elites from Ciudad Real explains why they opted to separate from Guatemala and join Mexico after Independence Traditional attitudes towards officeholding were maintained in rural Chiapas despite efforts to rationalize jurisdictions and municipal administration. Subdelegates viewed their offices as property and engaged in corrupt practices associated with pre-reform government. Rural Spanish officials and Native American magistrates appropriated traditional Habsburg political rituals to define their power, status, and legitimacy. After the abolition of republicas de indios in 1821, ladinos and Spaniards tried to gain control over municipal offices and the economic resources of rural communities The introduction of constitutional ayuntamientos following Independence acted as a challenge to the power of elites of the capital city who wished to assert control over the entire region. The motivation for holding office continued to be guided by self-interest and traditional attitudes towards hierarchy, status and legitimacy that were central to municipal and political rivalries in the 1820s. The self-perception and activities of local political bosses were similar to pre-Independence Spanish officials, and they were increasingly involved in the power struggles that plagued Chiapas, a process that led to civil war in Chiapas in the 1830s / acase@tulane.edu

Traditionally, historians have used a national perspective and a nondemocratic-democratic dichotomy to analyze Mexican political history. This tendency was especially evident in studies of the dictatorship of Porfirio D(')iaz (1876-1911). The nondemocratic-democratic framework led historians to overlook the basic authoritarian nature of Mexican politics and to incorrectly view the Porfirian regime as an aberration in Mexico's democratic development. The national perspective caused them to formulate interpretations based on gross averages which neglected the basically regional and local character of Porfirian national political and economic consolidation. In contrast, this study emphasized the continuity of Mexican political development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A very successful authoritarian regime rules Mexico today, and Porfrio D(')iaz laid the foundations of that regime. In addition, the study maintained that the regime's internal dynamics could best be understood by a close examination of the interplay between the national administration and a regional elite. Therefore, the thesis utilized a contemporary model of authoritarian government, the regional perspective, and a specialized methodology--prosopography or collective biography--to examine the Porfirian regime in the state of Coahuila from 1893 to 1911 This tripartite approach revealed a detailed picture of a regional elite, Porfirian administration, and local revolutionary impulses. Prosopography of 220 elite members demonstrated that the Coahuilan political elite was drawn from the dominant entrepreneurial and professional strata. A tightly knit group connected by kinship, personal and economic ties, this political elite occupied important positions in the political and economic spheres simultaneously. The authoritarian leader effectively manipulated and controlled the political elite in an intensely personalistic system. D(')iaz and his politicos strictly controlled and parceled out perquisites and privileges. The regime encouraged and manipulated intense political competition among the various elite fractions. D(')iaz tied factional leaders to the regime to prevent them from developing an independent political base. The local fractions' linkage to competing factions in the national administration accentuated the impartial pose which D(')iaz assumed and facilitated his divide and conquer strategy For thirty-four years, Mexicans acquiesced in Porfirian authoritarian rule in exchange for political stability and impressive economic growth. Porfirian modernization, ironically, brought about the regime's demise. Development created new groups which intensified political and economic competition. Economic crisis in 1907-1911 made increased political participation for both new and old groups imperative. Consequently, in those years, the Porfirian regime faced an increase in the scope of political mobilization. In Coahuila, two tendencies, radical and liberal, challenged the Porfirian regime. Magonismo, the radical tendency, representative of groups which had been isolated from political power, gravitated rapidly toward an attempted revolution, but failed. The liberal tendency, composed of the pro-Porfirian reyismo and the anti-Porfirian anti-reeleccionismo, attempted gradual political reform, but failed. Reyismo, controlled by an important and aggressive segment of the Coahuilan elite, constituted a powerful internal chanllenge to the Porfirian regime. In the past politically astute, D(')iaz, however, failed to recognize the significance of increased political mobilization. The regime not only refused to co-opt but also persecuted the reyistas, driving them into the anti-reeleccionista camp. This action antagonized an important regional elite at a time when increased politicization of the populace required unity. The result was revolution in 1910 / acase@tulane.edu

The global dynamics faced by the US imperialism are the following: 1.) Hegemonic crisis, 2.) Spatio-temporal fix, 3.) Peak oil, and 4.) New geopolitics. Neoliberalism destabilized US hegemony in Latin America. In response, the US has increasingly militarized Latin America's oil rich regions, particular the Western Amazon, the Gulf of Mexico, and a strategic corridor between them. This militarization and intervention poses a threat to independent, progressive development in Latin America. In addition, the US' militarized response to its hegemonic decline illustrates the continuing relevance of the concept of imperialism, at a time when post-modern and critical globalization scholars have claimed that the concept is "outdated."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0199. Adviser: Kathleen A. Myers. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 8, 2007)."

Legislators who do not expect to be permanently reelected are not necessarily non-ambitious politicians. Whenever current legislators have different office goals in mind, it is likely that they try to use their available resources to further those aims. Thus, it can be expected that they bias the content of the bills they draft towards their prospective constituents. Through the analysis of 180,000 bills and an original database of candidacies in Argentina, I demonstrate that legislators who have subnational executive ambitions tend to submit more municipality-based legislation. This finding is substantive for the literature on electoral systems, political careers and representation in federal regimes; as well as the keystone towards the creation of a general theory of legislative performance in multilevel systems.

For women in the Lower Mixtec region of Oaxaca, Mexico, the post partum period is traditionally a vulnerable time, when, for forty days, women feel that their bodies are "open" to coldness entering and causing immediate or future illness. Women take protective measures to remove coldness from their "raw" bodies and restore heat by following special diets, dressing warmly, and "cooking the body"---taking hot herbal water baths (banos de cocimiento) or steam baths (banos de temazcal). Based on the narrated experiences of eighteen women in the Mixteca, this thesis explores how several generations of women experience shifts in post partum practices and ideas as their society changes. Women believed that post partum vulnerability varied from woman to woman, depending on where she lived, her habits and customs, and her generation.

The modernization decade of the 1990's marked the beginnings of irreversible political and economic changes that shifted away from the revolutionary legacy, for a liberal market-base system. New laws and constitutional amendments were designed to alleviate the country's economic stagnation. Decentralization programs hoped to relieve the financial burdens endured for years. Although, these plans were supposed to be inclusive, the most vulnerable populations were often left out or limited in their participation. In the case of irrigation district transfers, the changes were immediate and successful except for five indigenous irrigation districts. After a decade in limbo, Colonias Yaquis is still a zone of contention where land, water and autonomy demands confront historical legacies in the midst of modernization. The district exemplifies a revolutionary promise that is yet to be achieved. It is then the purpose of this study to evaluate historical, social and political factors that hinder the transfer process.

Puerto Rican people and culture are the result of the often violent contact between the colonizing forces of Spain, the African people they later enslaved and the indigenous population of the island. Over time, the blending of these three diverse peoples, each with their own unique culture and traditions, resulted in a new population currently known as Puerto Rican. Little information is available, however, regarding Taino culture and society prior to European contact, and even less is known about their ongoing contributions to Puerto Rican culture. This thesis brings together accurate information about the indigenous people of Boriquen. It attempts to correct distortions and untruths about Taino culture, providing alternative interpretations and giving recognition to the Taino legacy which remains a part of Puerto Rican culture today.

This dissertation examines the spatial and public health dimensions of class relationships, social control, and state power in Mexico City during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It focuses specifically on the process of urban planning and public works that the Bourbon state undertook during the late colonial period, and considers the variety of reasons and justifications given for the projects themselves. City leaders pointed to the environmental and health benefits that would go along with improved sanitation, new drainage systems and paving of city streets, the expansion of the public water supply, the renovation of city markets, and new bathhouse regulations. Elites, however, viewed these improvements as a way to gain leverage over the plebeian classes. Elites viewed the urban poor as the root of many of the environmental problems the viceregal capital faced, and considered common practices among the popular classes, such as the indiscriminate dumping of garbage and waste, defecating and urinating in public, loitering, washing clothes and other personal items in public fountains, and public nudity as a threat to civic order and safety. Elites feared that this type of activity would also transgress into other types of disorder, namely criminal activity. These behaviors also represented to elites the uncivilized nature of the urban masses, challenging the cultural norms upon which elites based their social superiority. This "polluting" behavior also reflected badly on the state, illustrating their lack of political control over city residents, and undermining its legitimacy. In the end, the programs instituted did little to alleviate many of the environmental problems of Mexico City: the scope of programs was limited, focusing on the city center at the expense of the surrounding poorer barrios where improvements were most needed; enforcement of legislation passed to change many plebeian habits was lackluster at best; and funding for the projects was clearly insufficient.

This dissertation charts historical changes in the ceremonial institution that the Cora people of the town of Santa Teresa refer to as their costumbre, and links these changes to recent violence in that town. This cultural history begins with a description of the ceremonies through which cognatic descent is reproduced in Santa Teresa today. The performance of these mitote ceremonies positions core ceremonial participants both spatially, in relation to a meaningful territory, and temporally, in relation to sets of still-active deceased ancestors and ancestral deities, as members of distinct "maize-bundle groups". During the Lozada Rebellion of the 19th century, after a relatively brief mission period, Catholic-derived ceremonialism was integrated with this mitote ceremonialism by the ancestors of today's living Coras. This integrated costumbre expanded and reoriented the symbolic connotations produced in maize-bundle group ceremonies, creating a sense of hierarchical and synecdochical inclusiveness between particular descent groups and the "higher" courthouse officials of the community as a whole. After the fall of Manuel Lozada's military confederacy, these community-level ceremonial traditions became a battleground within a long-term factional struggle between intruding non-indigenous people (and their Tereseno supporters) and the other Teresenos who opposed the policies of these outsiders. This relatively clear-cut political factionalism splintered after the Instituto Nacional Indigenista entered into this factional conflict during the 1960s. This federal agency pushed through a series of political initiatives and development projects with little or no input from Teresenos, and so also eroded the willingness of local people to put out the effort required to properly continue their ceremonial traditions. In recent years Teresenos have responded to this community-level political vacuum, and the drunken violence that has come with it, by retreating from the "dirty" community-level ceremonial festivals to the more private and orderly mitote ceremonies celebrated by their own maize-bundle groups. In this way, the costumbre has acted as a fault-line dividing and fracturing the community; the ancestral ceremonial traditions that once established an inclusive territory and ancestry linking all Teresenos are now helping to produce a series of cleavages that are driving the splintered Tereseno community ever more apart.