acase@tulane.edu / 1 / Joseph E Hiller

The New Argentine Film Movement, a loose conglomeration of filmmakers that have altered conceptions of what it means to make national and political cinema in Argentina since the 1990's, has often located itself on the margins in terms of both geography and ideology. It is telling that in the four films analyzed in this study---La Cienaga and La Nina Santa by Lucrecia Martel, and Bolivia and Un Oso Rojo by Adrian Caetano---the downtown Buenos Aires is never shown. While the plaza de mayo and the casa rosada are the political and social centerpieces of Argentina, and the obelisco the prominent symbol of modern progress and nationalism, the structural analyses of these films reveals the formation of new national ideologies surging from the fringes of both the capital and the country. I argue that Martel and Caetano present this 'new' Argentina, imbued not with an uncontested 'European' heritage and stable middle class, but instead with multiple identities and intimately connected to the chaotic overhaul of the 2001 economic crisis which left many searching for new meanings, new jobs, and new residences. Specifically, I consider Bolivian influences in the films---in many ways 'Bolivians,' as discussed by scholars such as Alejandro Grimson and Cristina Garcia Vazquez, has come to designate the 'Other' in Argentine society. I find that both Martel and Caetano consistently investigate the 'Other' in their films, and while 'Bolivia' and 'Bolivians' are specifically referenced and prominent in their first feature-length works, their second films (completed after the crisis) generally take slightly different approaches / acase@tulane.edu

Indigenous education in Guatemala is currently undergoing a massive overhaul in the depth and breadth of its reach in Maya areas. Although much can be said about the re-evaluation and incorporation of indigenous culture, language and worldview into the schools' curricula, it is still failing to reach the country's adult population. As a result of this oversight, indigenous adults in rural Guatemala still lack the resources that they need to achieve viable, sustainable education The objective of this study is to determine the influence that a group of Mayan cooperatives are having on adult education, development and employment training in San Juan la Laguna, Solola, Guatemala The study was carried out in Guatemala over the summers of 2007 and 2008. Research was performed by analyzing primary and secondary data, including performing semi-structured interviews with seventy-four (74) cooperative members from seven (7) selected San Juan cooperatives The findings show that the cooperatives are providing their members with more access to education and job skills training which then has a positive trickle-down effect on their children's education. Survey findings show that members and their children have obtained more education and job skills since joining the cooperatives, but membership has not increased higher or formal educational opportunities. On the subject of linguistic and cultural preservation, the survey results demonstrate that members do feel that their affiliation with the cooperatives has increased their opportunity and desire to speak their Mayan language and preserve their indigenous culture, but has not offered them the chance to become literate in their native language Primary and secondary document analysis and field research show that the cooperatives' success is determined by a wide range of factors dating back to the Tz'utujil Maya's historical tendency to favor personal survival and cultural preservation over larger, institutional designs toward assimilation and integration This study fills an important gap in Guatemalan community education literature by providing information about one indigenous community's effort at sustainability, cultural preservation and self-determination. The significant result of this study is that it can be used as a handbook to help other communities create their own community-based education system / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation seeks to understand patterns of systemic corruption that undermine the quality of democracy It presents a theoretical framework to explain the limits of executive accountability in weakly institutionalized presidential democracies, and explores the emergence, organization and transmission of corrupt practices under weak institutions. / Building upon a case study of Argentina, but also introducing the comparative dimension, this research examines how weak formal institutions and informal rules and practices may hinder executive accountability. The study also addresses how, under these conditions, actors sharing illicit goals are able to agree on informal mechanisms of corrupt exchange to circumvent formal norms, and aims to explain the institutionalization of political corruption. / The strength of checks on the executive is explained by focusing on legislators' willingness to defend their prerogatives against encroachment---a function of the actual workings of institutions. Legislators with low levels of institutional commitment do not effectively perform their oversight responsibilities nor invest in strengthening the legislature's capabilities. However, they use oversight mechanisms to informally bargain with the executive for particularistic benefits in exchange for not enforcing sanctions. The executive relies on both formal and informal resources to assert its authority and shrink accountability, neutralizing specialized oversight agencies and paying off legislators. While specialized oversight bodies may produce relevant information, this is hardly consequential if the linkages between different accountability agents do not work properly and legislators do not hold the executive accountable. / This research identifies the informal institutions that uphold the development of corrupt elite cartel networks, and the mechanisms that facilitate their reproduction by ensuring the impunity of corrupt officials. Actors that share illicit goals craft informal mechanisms that provide critical resources (such as iteration and reputation) to overcome the credible-commitment problems that weak institutions produce. The root causes of impunity arise from the enforcement of an informal rule that allows corruption, which shapes incentives facing accountability agents in charge of punishing corrupt practices through criminal sanctions. Among other means, corrupt practices are transmitted through episodes of rule-breaking and informal sanction. By punishing those who attempt to enforce the law, while protecting those who act within the informal rule, actors indicate the costs of noncompliance and discourage others from taking these actions. Building on this analysis, the dissertation advances recommendations for anticorruption policy reform in new democracies.

With the rise of electoral competition in Mexico, the country's state legislatures have gained greater legal and political relevance. Drawing from theories of legislative organization originally developed to explain the U.S. Congress, this project contributes to the comparative study of legislative institutions by providing the first large-scale analysis of Mexico's emerging assemblies. It adopts both qualitative (e.g., elite interviews, procedural details, etc.) and quantitative (e.g., multi-level modeling, Bayesian estimation of legislative preferences, etc.) approaches to explore the rules guiding legislative processes and study their impact. The goal is to not only improve scholarly understanding of Mexico's evolving democracy but also demonstrate the generalizability of established political theory.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Mexico City's punk scene has a notorious reputation, based on the supposedly angry, rude, and destructive behavior of its integrants. Certainly, participants in the punk scene value intense affects, aesthetics, and interpersonal exchange, but see them as means to amplify their political consciousness, their attempts to create alternative social networks. In this dissertation thesis, based on an extended period of ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico City's punk scene, I investigate the co-constitution of the aesthetic and political for participants of the punk scene and ask what "the political" might entail for the city's marginalized punk youth. In pursuing a local punk aesthetics that is both righteous and profane, to borrow descriptive terminology from Dick Hebdige, I argue for close formal analysis of musical, artistic, and other social performance. I employ formal analysis to evaluate the flourishing of punk in the context of "el DeFectuoso"--as residents name the hard-scrabble, global South metropolis of Mexico City--decades after punk's initial arrival in Mexico. Deluezian network theory and social movement theory more broadly help me argue for a politically constituted music "scene," created largely through U.S.-Mexico cross-border relations, without fixing its boundaries or stultifying its politics. Additionally, I explore the affective dimensions of punk performance, the role of music in subjectivization, and the importance of the body trained intersubjectively for both listening and performing. It is at the points of convergence of these three approaches that I locate a punk aesthetics as at once a punk ethics, animated by an ideal of "direct action." Within chapters organized through broad themes like networks, violence, labor, and solidarity, I address topics from the harsh, hard-working vocal performances punks employ to the various anarchist currents that shape an always-tenuous, specifically Mexican punk solidarity, constituted through practices like street sing-alongs, the creation of alternative DIY networks of exchange, and fanzine writing and design. Within these routes of investigation, I elucidate the ways in which participants in Mexico City's punk scene use profanity and outrage in the performance of a righteous ethic that informs their struggles to maintain solidarity and make a difference, through an explicitly political social network that is nevertheless grounded in aesthetic experience.</p> / Dissertation

The following thesis outlines the current social and political situation surrounding organized crime violence in Mexico. Using Samuel P. Huntington’s Political Order in Changing Societies and regression analysis, the purpose is to highlight the lack of subnational data within Mexico. Political science and economic theories guide the reader to better understanding what types of policy change or reform may need to occur in Mexico’s future years.

Over two billion people are currently living in poverty (less than $2 a day) around the world. 15 percent of this group is of indigenous backgrounds. Similar to the overall composition of the world, 10 percent of Latin America’s population is indigenous, yet one quarter is living on less than $2 a day. Approximately forty years ago the modern day microfinance movement began in Bangladesh and has since spread throughout the world. Microfinance strives to provide financial services to those who do not have access to the traditional financial sector. Making capital available helps alleviate poverty by providing the poor with credit and other financial services that can help generate income through smart investments. Bolivia and Peru currently have the most advanced microfinance sectors, which is in large part attributed to the financial reforms of the 1990s. However, regardless of the quality of the microfinance sectors in Bolivia and Peru, the indigenous people remain untouched by their services. Specifically, the Quechua and the Aymara, who live in the highlands of the Andes and around Lake Titicaca, are among the poorest people in both countries. The Quechua and the Aymara would greatly benefit from access to microfinance by utilizing their traditional cultures to make income-generating businesses.

The following thesis is an investigation of the actors, the forces and the conditions contributing to the phenomenon of forced labor in the Brazilian countryside. The paper begins by providing a relevant historical background to the problem of coercive labor, starting with the colonial legacy of slavery, dating back to the 16th century and leading up to the present. The aim is to explore the role of local actors, in particular landowners, gatos and the ‘enslaved’ (or workers coerced into forced labor) in constituting and re-constituting this phenomenon. At the same time the influence of local actors is contextualized in light of broader transnational processes, such as the spread of capitalism and neo-liberal globalization.