The Porfirian press in Mexico City (1876-1911) presents an ideal case study for late nineteenth-century Mexican society. This particular epoch in Mexican history represented a time of fundamental change as the country emerged from nearly a half century of chaos and internecine strife into a modern, prosperous and orderly county. For the historian of this important and transforming era, newspapers serve as cultural mirrors, providing images that allow us to see, interpret and understand this society. In this role as cultural actors, the Porfirian press served five defining roles: it was a power resource with the potential to influence, shape and control society; it was the arena where the social, economic and political events of society were publicly acted out; it was the source of the definitions and images that comprised the shared reality; it designated fame and celebrity status to individuals in that society; and it set the parameters of what was normal and abnormal in that society. This study of Porfirian newspapers in Mexico City reveals three fundamental aspects: capital society was highly diverse and contentious, Mexico City residents faced divergent social and political problems and these newspapers mirrored a changing and modernizing nation--they not only chronicled this transformation, they were directly part of it.

In Sinaloa, Mexico, the enforcement of the 1857 liberal constitution from 1867 to 1877 advanced political, economic and cultural successes, spawned conflict and provided the basis for the Porfiriato. This study provides explanations pertaining to crucial issues dealing with power, production and culture. In terms of politics, this work explains the empowerment of the republican state, the alienation of popular sectors, the rise of Porfirismo and political centralization; in economics, it describes the productive structure, emphasizing the mining export economy, and the informal financial market; and in the cultural arena, it discusses the building of the Sinaloan identity and the beginnings of a scientific and technological culture. The strengthening of the relationship between Sinaloa and the United States is also discussed. At the end of the French Intervention, the Sinaloan liberals launched initiatives to empower the state, stimulate the economy and extend education, but they met the resistance of the military, the import merchants and the central government. In spite of chronic conflict, production and trade grew, a regional identity was encouraged and the Sinaloans' secular culture was elevated. Furthermore, the increasing federal intervention in local political affairs alienated local liberal politicians, swelled the ranks of the Porfiristas, facilitated the triumph of the Tuxtepecan rebellion and weakened local interest in fighting for state sovereignty. Finally, during the Restored Republic, Sinaloa was the theater of a new relationship between Mexico and the United States, with the United States testing a new policy of economic expansionism which would subsequently flourish during the Porfiriato.

Agustin de Iturbide's countrymen proclaimed him the "Hero of Iguala" for securing Mexico's independence in 1821. By 1824, he lay in a humble tomb, executed as a traitor. In October 1838, the government consummated the re-acceptance of Iturbide into the pantheon of heroes with an elaborate public reburial in the National Cathedral of Mexico City. Iturbide's reburial was less about forgiving past indiscretions than about bringing legitimacy to the current political party in power. In the mid-1830s, conservative forces regained control of the government from liberals led by Valentin Gomez Farias. Conservatives faced internal political and financial chaos, and the external threat of war in 1838. Through the ceremony, secular, ecclesiastic and military conservatives strengthened their political power and legitimacy, while reaffirming conservative national values and traditional social hierarchy. By incorporating religious and sociopolitical aspects, ceremony organizers hoped to bring order and stability to Mexico once again.

This dissertation examines why, how and with what impact people living in conflict areas organize collectively to assert human rights. The focus is the emergence in the 1980s of a human rights movement in the oil enclave of Barrancabermeja. The Barrancabermeja-based Regional Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CREDHOS) was created in 1987 in the context of dirty war fought on multiple fronts between state security forces and their paramilitary allies, on the one hand, and Marxist insurgent groups, on the other. In exploring the history of a human rights movement in one of Colombia's most chronically war-affected regions, this dissertation expands our understanding of how frontline activists interpret human rights principles from the bottom-up. Human rights movements cannot be viewed as axiomatic or simple humanitarian responses to political violence. The term “human rights” refers to contingent norms and practices that are derived from lived experiences of authoritarianism, war, poverty and social exclusion. In this dissertation I argue that social activists in the war-torn Colombian oil town of Barrancabermeja undertook human rights activism both as a strategy of self-preservation and as a transformative praxis. In Barrancabermeja, the struggle for human rights did not displace or supplant longstanding local struggles for social justice and political change. Rather, human rights was considered to be a form of social protest consistent with previously existing traditions of popular radicalism for which Barrancabermeja has become celebrated. / Cette thèse de doctorat examine l'action collective en faveur des droits humains organisée par des personnes vivant en zone de conflit, analysant les raisons qui ont motivé cette démarche, la façon par laquelle elle fut mise en œuvre et ses impacts concrets. L'analyse cible particulièrement l'apparition d'un mouvement des droits humains dans l'enclave pétrolière de Barrancabermeja. Le Comité régional pour la défense des droits humains (CREDHOS) fut établi en 1987 alors que sévissait sur plusieurs fronts une guerre sale opposant l'État colombien et ses alliés paramilitaires aux insurgés marxistes. En ciblant la création d'un mouvement des droits humains dans une des régions de la Colombie les plus affligées par la guerre, cette thèse révèle comment les principes des droits humains peuvent être interprétés de façon singulière par les activistes en zone de combat. L'émergence de mouvements des droits humains ne peut être réduite à un réflexe humanitaire pour contrer la violence politique. Le concept même de droits humains fait référence à des pratiques et normes contingentes qui ont été modelées par l'expérience des régimes autoritaires, de la guerre, de la pauvreté et de l'exclusion sociale. Les gens qui militaient en faveur des droits humains dans l'enclave pétrolière de Barrancabermeja ont mis en œuvre leur activisme en poursuivant deux buts : d'une part, celui-ci constituait une stratégie d'autodéfense contre la violence politique; d'autre part, il représentait une pratique sociale réformatrice. Les luttes en faveur d'une plus grande justice sociale qui animaient déjà Barrancabermeja depuis des décennies n'ont pas été supplantées par ce nouvel activisme pour les droits humains. Au contraire, le militantisme entourant la promotion des droits humains était compatible avec cette tradition de radicalisme populaire qui avait fait la renommée de Barrancabermeja.

Between 1899 and 1930 the United Fruit Company emerged as the world's largest exporter of bananas. Initially dependent on the purchase of bananas through contracts with small-scale Native growers, the Company sought greater control over the quality and supply of its product. Transitioning itself into the production process and focusing on the establishment of its own sources of fruit, the Company began the construction of large-scale, export-driven, and industrialized plantations by 1910. In this process it embarked upon a new relationship with the tropical environments of the Caribbean Basin, which in turn presented environmental obstacles resistant to ecological change. Dedicated to creating wealth out of what it deemed as 'waste spots,' the United Fruit Company approached the task of plantation construction utilizing a cultural and conceptual framework that was a product of both historical influences, and eventually, by its own encounters with the environment. Drawing on under-utilized Company publications, this study explores the ways in which United Fruit developed a distinctly American cultural understanding of frontier environments. Perceiving Caribbean landscapes as 'uncivilized' and supposedly in need of improvement, the Company transposed American historical understandings of the environment in order to justify the creation of a productive and essentially Americanized version of Nature. / Entre 1899 et 1930 Le United Fruit Company a émergé comme le plus grand exportateur mondials de bananes. Initialement dépendante de l'achat de bananes par des contrats avec les cultivateurs indigènes à petite échelle, le Company a voulu plus de contrôle sur la qualité et le réserve de son produit. S'immergeant dans le processus de fabrication et en se concentrant sur la création de ses propres sources de fruits, le Company a commencé la construction de plantations industrielles à grande échelle dans lequel le point de focalisation était l'exportation par 1910. Pendant ce processus il s'est engagé dans une nouvelle relation avec les milieux tropicaux du bassin des Caraïbes, qui a ensuite présenté d'obstacles environnementaux résistants aux changements écologiques. Dévoué à créer la richesse sur ce qui était jugé comme «les tâches de déchets», Le United Fruit Company a adressé la tâche de construction de plantation par utilisant un cadre culturel et conceptuel qui était un produit des influences historiques et à la longue, par ses rencontres avec l'environnement. En s'appuyant sur les publications sous-utilisées du Company, cette étude explore les façons dont United Fruit a développé une compréhension culturelle typiquement américain des environnements frontalières. Percevant des paysages Caraïbes comme «non civilisés» et soi-disant besoin d'amélioration, le Company a modifiés l'interprétation historiques américaine de l'environnement pour justifier la création d'une version de la nature productive et essentiellement américanisée.

Demographic transition theorists posit that, beginning in the 1960s, biomedical contraceptive technologies and foreign countries, the United States in particular, have been primarily responsible for changes in medical fertility control ideas and practices in Peru. This dissertation argues that biomedical technologies and transnational political actors have played a role, but not always in the ways that demographic transition theorists indicate. The mass distribution of contraceptives such as the pill and the intra-uterine device, for example, depended on the existence of US-funded birth control organizations. However, these birth control organizations did not justify their existence in Peru only in terms of the promotion of development, but also by making appeals to the integrity of the family, values that many local physicians cherished. In addition, biomedical knowledge concerning the control of fertility began to be applied long before the 1960s, and not all of it originated in the United States nor was it all oriented towards the limitation of birth rates. Moreover, demographic transition theory's assumption that financial calculations were the primary reason for the prevention or spacing of births overlooks other factors, such as marital strife, that also affected the desire for offspring. Through archival material and oral histories in Peru and the United States, this dissertation raises questions about the ideologies and practices of medical experts, and their interactions with state agencies, foreign governments, the Catholic Church, and people who had abortions. / La théorie de la transition demographique suggere une transformation telle que, depuis les années 1960, les technologies biomédicales et les pays étrangers, espécialement les États-Unis, fut principalement responsables pour les changements des idées et pratiques en matière du contrôle medical de la fertilité au Pérou. Cette thèse argumente que les technologies biomédicales aussi que les acteurs politiques transnationaux en effet jouèrent un rôle, mais pas toujours dans la façon prévue par les théoristes de la transition demographique. La distribution massive des méthodes contraceptifs, tel que la pillule et le dispositif intra-uterin, par example, dépendit de l'existence des organismes de contrôle de la natalité financiés par les États-Unis. Cependent, cettes organismes ne justifièrent leur présence au Pérou seulement par la promotion du developement. Ils attachaient aussi de l'importance à l'integrité de la famille, un valeur que beaucoup des médecins entretinrent. D'ailleurs, des connaissances biomédicales sur le contrôle de la fertilité commencèrent à être appliquées avant les années 1960, et une partie importante d'entre elles ne provinrent pas des États-Unis. De plus, la supposition que la théorie de la transition demographique fasse sur la prevention ou l'espacement des naissances comme simples resultats des calculs economiques néglige autres facteurs, tel que les querelles des couples, lesquelles affectaient aussi le désir d'avoir des enfants. A travers des materiaux d'archives et des intervues au Pérou et aux États-Unis, cette thèse nous emmene a considerer les ideologies et les pratiques des experts médicaux, aussi que les interactions entre eux et des agences gouvernamentales, des gouvernements étrangers, l'église Catholique, et des gens qui avortaient.

Agnes Laut (Ontario, 1871 – New York, 1936) was a Canadian journalist, novelist, financial advisor, and a farmer who became closely involved with United States-Mexico relations during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1921). This research analyses Agnes Laut's editorial work, travels, and publications about Mexico and its social strife. Furthermore, it explores her role as coordinator among US civic and religious associations aiming to relieve Mexico's social troubles through humanitarian aide. This thesis is a first approach to the study of the impact of foreign civic society and philanthropic organizations in revolutionary Mexico. / Agnes Laut (Ontario, 1871 – New York, 1936) était une journaliste canadienne, romancière, conseillère financière et une fermière qui était étroitement engagé dans les relations entre les États-Unis et le Mexique pendant la Révolution mexicaine (1910-1921). Cette investigation analyse les travaux éditoriaux, les voyages et les articles publiés d'Agnes Laut sur la problématique de Mexique. En plus, cette recherche étudie son rôle comme liaison entre les organisations civiques et religieuses des États-Unis et son but de améliorer la situation troublé de la population au Mexique à travers de la philanthropie. Cette thèse est un premier effort pour étudier l'effet des organisations civiques étrangères dans le Mexique révolutionnaire au début du XXème siècle.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 23, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4468. Adviser: Arlene Diaz.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4466. Adviser: Cynthia Radding. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 265-282) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 15, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4819. Adviser: Jeffrey L. Gould.