The objective of this study has been to establish the level of significance that Gustavo Gutierrez and Juan Luis Segundo attribute to politics in their contributions to liberation theology and to extract the relevant consequences for political theory. A systematic analysis of the theory of history in the works of these two authors indicates a higher level of integration between Christianity and politics that is usual in Christian political thought. Liberation is equated with salvation and political liberation is seen as one of its components. This brings politics to a position of privilege. When at the service of justice it occupies, for our authors, a high rank among Christian concerns and when devoted to oppression it requires diligent response from every Christian. This understanding of politics is valuable in that it accentuates the political aspect of the Christian theory of history, an element frequently underestimated. Certain tensions remain, however, in the theory as a result of this emphasis: between the moral improvement expected from the involvement in political activities conducive to justice and the moral ambiguity of political structures emerging from such activity; and between the use of the concept of class struggle and notions of conversion and reconciliation. Finally, there is the danger of reducing the critical ability of Christians regarding a particular political project by identifying it with the concept of eschatology.

Both critics and defenders of socialism often regard socialism as the full negation of all capitalist social structures. However, a careful analysis of socialist practices in the Third World reveals that the construction of socialism depends not only on the pre-revolutionary structure, but also on the specific dynamics of the domestic and international opposition. A realistic understanding of socialism requires an examination of the interactions between domestic and international political forces and the socio-economic factors constraining this relationship. This comparative analysis of the transitionary processes in Cuba and north Korea during the period of 1959 to 1970 and 1945 to 1961, respectively, confirms the importance of these interactions in shaping socialist societies. Among the conditions favorable to the socialist transformations of both Cuba and north Korea were the large number of wage workers and landless peasants, the discrediting of the bourgeoisie for their collaboration with neo-colonial or colonial forces, the strong leftist sentiment among the masses, and the decision by anti-socialist forces to flee their country rather than remaining to fight. These factors enabled both regimes to avoid the repressive use of force and to develop a more humane socialism, despite the severe technical and financial losses inflicted by the exodus of the bourgeoisie. The legitimacy of the north Korean and Cuban regimes is based upon the role of Kim Il-Sung and Fidel Castro, respectively, in each revolutionary struggle. Their background in guerrilla movements contributed to the widening of their perspectives beyond narrow class-biased communism. In each country, power was then centralized to maintain unity against "imperialist" aggressions and to secure the power of the hegemonic leader and group. Both Cuba and north Korea experienced U.S. intervention, blockades, and a sudden isolation from the world capitalist system during their transitionary period. Although aid from socialist allies was received, Cuba was forced to reduce its revolutionary internationalism to secure Soviet aid, whereas north Korea succeeded in resisting Soviet interference through successful industrialization. Thus, a fair understanding of Third World socialism requires much more than a static conception of socialism. Instead, a study of the effect of historical constraints on the evolving vision of socialism is necessary in any study of Third World socialism.

By 1992, due to the Fifth Centennial of the Conquest, an increase in the publication of historic novels were taking place. As a consequence this editorial phenomenon caused the incorporation of new voices to a new tradition of genre already broaden established in Spanish America own to a long tradition of writers. Just at that moment Doña Inés contra el olvido, written by the Venezuelan writer Ana Teresa Torres, came up as an alternative version of telling the history from a woman perspective. Doña Inés, the responsible voice of the story, struck up a monologue in order to recount the Venezuelan history asking to absent speakers already dead. As a main topic the novel explains the dispute on the Curiepe lands, so it poses the conflicts to get the power between two groups or castes to gain the territory control along the three centuries. This research has three specific aims: to put this novel into context within the wide tradition of this particular subgenre, the historical novel; in second place to introduce it in the renovation fulfilled by master pieces of female authorship; and as a last commitment, to describe and analyze the construction of the natioñs account. In fact, Curiepe is turned into a metaphorical territory to ascertain the power in dispute. Here the authoritarian discourse is questioned as well as the significance the minority resistance groups has had when they confront the power ones. Though Doña Inés lets see it is possible to imagine the future when the past is imagined, the final historical pact between these two groups turned irony because it reflects a society which emerges as a result of an established violence from the power. At the same time, in this act of give in and reconcile, the historical sense is lost in the minority group struggle, led by a free slave. That is the reason why the novel also shows a pessimistic view of the history because this conflict persists as a narrative continuity in the Continent history.

This study reviews the literature on training and community development, and examines conceptions of success and contextual factors affecting it in the case of the Training Center for Social Promoters (CAPS) in Guatemala. It gives primary attention to views of the voluntary community promoters themselves in order to help remedy a prevailing neglect of participant perspectives on training or the development process in the literature. The case study is based on some program documents, observation of training, visits in 1989 to twenty-six rural villages in four regions of Guatemala and in-depth interviews with forty four volunteer community promoters on location. There also were supplementary interviews on the same issues with five extension workers and two core trainers of CAPS. The author presents findings in the form of descriptive narratives, quotations from interviews and comparative tables. It is seen, for instance, that promoters' views of success follow a pattern that reflects their position in society, their indigenous or non-indigenous background, and powerful economic, political and religious factors. Non-indigenous ladino promoters view success largely in terms of individual achievement and economic improvement, while indigenous promoters see it more as a process toward communal advancement, cultural survival and self-determination. There are also contrasts between promoter, extension worker and trainer perceptions of what success is, and what influences it. In conclusion the author draws out implications of this study for trainers, community developers and researchers, and makes recommendations for each. There are also specific recommendations for CAPS, a twenty-four year old non-governmental training and rural development organization that is facing internal changes and external challenges posed by hundreds of new NGOs in Guatemala.

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This thesis argues that the Maoist guerrilla movement headed by members of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) chose Araguaia as the stage for its insurrection based on perceived ideological and physical advantages. It examines the founding of the PCdoB as it split from the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) over the issue of armed resistance in 1962. While the PCB did not promote the use of violence against the military dictatorship, the PCdoB sought an environment in which they could foster revolutionary fervor. Though the war’s longevity demonstrates that the PCdoB accurately assessed some camponeses’ willingness to help the guerrilheiros, their inability to foster loyalty within their ranks hindered the party’s mission. The movement’s leaders policed the bodies of pregnant guerrilla members and this lack of reproductive freedom led two members to abandon the revolutionary cause. Pedro Albuquerque Neto and his wife Tereza Cristina successfully abandoned detachment C in favor of keeping their child. Pedro was imprisoned in Fortaleza leading to the discovery of the guerrilla camps in Araguaia and the end to a revolution that never truly got off the ground. Thus, this thesis proposes that while the PCdoB’s choice in Araguaia was thought to garner the best possible opportunity for a rural revolution, their mission to radicalize the camponeses was cut short by the Brazilian Armed Forces in April of 1972.

After the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821) ending Spanish rule, Mexico formed a republic. By the 1880s there was ‘reformation’ in the Mexican church and the growth of ‘modernization’ in a caste based society governed by dictators. Amid all these changes, there was a growth of a nationalist ideology which sought to break free of Spanish roots in search of a new “Mexican” identity. As nationalism unfolded, there was a resurgence of some histories that became legends. I’ve noted a trend among legends with female protagonists, legends tend to portray women in a negative way. Two legends that have caught my attention emerge from the lives of two women from colonial Mexico. One is based on the life of Malinalli (Malintzin), a Nahuatl woman from sixteenth-century Mexico who at a young age was sold into slavery, but eventually became a talented interpreter, advisor and negotiator for Hernán Cortés during conquest. The other legend is about María Magdalena Dávalos y Orosco, a widowed woman from eighteenth-century Mexico who was able to gain control of her husband’s estate and manage many of his properties. More often than not, I’ve found that the legends that transpired from the retelling of an account of past events women’s lives, exclude their accomplishments and emphasize their “deviant” tendencies. Through the use of oral histories, scholarly articles and texts relevant to Malintzin and María Magdalena’s circumstances, I will explore their legends to argue that they have a lot of valuable information to offer.

<p>This dissertation explores the history of industrial fisheries in the Humboldt Current marine ecosystem where workers, scientists, and entrepreneurs transformed Peru and Chile into two of the top five fishing nations after World War II. As fishmeal industrialists raided the oceans for proteins to nourish chickens, hogs, and farmed fish, the global "race for fish" was marked by the clash of humanitarian goals and business interests over whether the fish should be used to ameliorate malnutrition in the developing world or extracted and their nutrients exported as mass commodities, at greater profit, as a building block for the food chain in the global North. The epicenter of the fishmeal industry in the 1960s was the port city of Chimbote, Peru, where its cultural, social, and ecological impacts were wrenching. After overfishing and a catastrophic El Niño changed the course of Peruvian fisheries in 1972, Chile came to dominate world markets by the early 1980s due to shifting marine ecologies along its coast that shaped the trajectory of the ports of Iquique and Talcahuano. As Peruvian anchoveta stocks recovered in the 1990s, new environmentalist voices--from local residents to international scientists--emerged to contest unsustainable fisheries practices. This study demonstrates how global, transnational, and translocal connections shaped Humboldt Current fisheries as people struggled to understand the complex correlation between fish populations, extractive activity, and oceanic oscillations within a changing geopolitical context.</p> / Dissertation

<p>This dissertation examines Mexico City’s material politics of print—the central actors engaged in making print, their activities and relationships, and the legal, business, and social dimensions of production—across the nineteenth century. Inside urban printshops, a socially diverse group of men ranging from manual laborers to educated editors collaborated to make the printed items that fueled political debates and partisan struggles in the new republic. By investigating how print was produced, regulated, and consumed, this dissertation argues that printers shaped some of the most pressing conflicts that marked Mexico’s first formative century: over freedom of expression, the role of religion in government, and the emergence of liberalism. Printers shaped debates not only because they issued texts that fueled elite politics but precisely because they operated at the nexus where new liberal guarantees like freedom of the press and intellectual property intersected with politics and patronage, the regulatory efforts of the emerging state, and the harsh realities of a post-colonial economy.</p><p>Historians of Mexico have typically approached print as a vehicle for texts written by elites, which they argue contributed to the development of a national public sphere or print culture in spite of low literacy levels. By shifting the focus to print’s production, my work instead reveals that a range of urban residents—from prominent printshop owners to government ministers to street vendors—produced, engaged, and deployed printed items in contests unfolding in the urban environment. As print increasingly functioned as a political weapon in the decades after independence, print production itself became an arena in struggles over the emerging contours of politics and state formation, even as printing technologies remained relatively unchanged over time.</p><p>This work examines previously unexplored archival documents, including official correspondence, legal cases, business transactions, and printshop labor records, to shed new light on Mexico City printers’ interactions with the emerging national government, and reveal the degree to which heated ideological debates emerged intertwined with the most basic concerns over the tangible practices of print. By delving into the rich social and cultural world of printing—described by intellectuals and workers alike in memoirs, fiction, caricatures and periodicals— it also considers how printers’ particular status straddling elite and working worlds led them to challenge boundaries drawn by elites that separated manual and intellectual labors. Finally, this study engages the full range of printed documents made in Mexico City printshops not just as texts but also as objects with particular visual and material qualities whose uses and meanings were shaped not only by emergent republicanism but also by powerful colonial legacies that generated ambivalent attitudes towards print’s transformative power.</p> / Dissertation

<p>This dissertation examines the role that scandals and print media played in Mexican politics between 1960 and 1988. It argues that, while political corruption was commonplace, journalists determined which transgressions would become flashpoints for public protest. By creating scandals, print journalists shaped political decision-making and debates about Mexico's democracy during the decades commonly associated with the country's political opening. As scandals circulated through Mexico City media, they catalyzed critical reassessments of legitimacy and gave public opinion greater weight in shaping processes of political decision-making. By forging new linkages between reading publics and ruling elites, reporters created an increasingly mediated form of Mexican citizenship. This dissertation also reveals that scandals not only reflected elite dissent, but also sharpened internal party divisions that eventually led to organized opposition in 1988 against the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the political party that held the Mexican presidency and most public offices for seventy-one years. </p><p>A history of print journalists sheds new light on how Mexico's one-party regime consolidated and retained power. Scholars increasingly emphasize the coercive aspects of the PRI's rule. However, this research indicates that the regime was divided, responsive to public opinion, and even contributed to the opening of Mexico's public sphere. This work also intervenes in the literature on Mexico's political transition. Scholars identify economic crisis as the catalyst for popular mobilizations and elite defection. This dissertation argues, however, that economic hardship was not new and would have failed to assume a larger political meaning without journalists' contributions. It was they who elevated quotidian episodes of political corruption by assigning them the significance of a rupture. Finally, this research highlights the blurred boundaries between civil society and the state. Journalists acted as intermediaries between ordinary Mexicans and political elites. At different moments reporters were civic protesters, while at others they acted as arms of the state. This history of journalists, then, offers new ways of imagining Latin American politics and the everyday practices of governance.</p><p>This study makes use of materials from Mexican journalists' private archives. New sources, such as leaked documents, correspondence, and newsroom memoranda and meeting minutes, challenge the pervasive image of a reactive and supine press. Congressional records, official meeting minutes, printed public relations ephemera, and domestic intelligence reports illustrate the ways in which ruling elites reacted to scandalous press articles. Political scandals sparked intense debate and sharpened internal party rivalries. These sources reveal that print journalism represented a key site of dissent, debate, and division during Mexico's political opening.</p> / Dissertation