<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 study approaches Óscar Romero by attending to his intimate involvement in and concern for the problematic surrounding the reform of Salvadoran agriculture and the conflict over property and possession underlying it. In this study, I situate Romero in relation to the concentration of landholding and the production of landlessness in El Salvador over the course of the twentieth century, and I examine his participation in the longstanding societal and ecclesial debate about agrarian reform provoked by these realities. I try to show how close attention to agrarian reform and what was at stake in it can illumine not only the conflict that occasioned Romero’s martyrdom but the meaning of the martyrdom itself. </p><p>Understanding Romero’s involvement in the debate about agrarian reform requires sustained attention to how it takes its bearings from the line of thinking about property and possession for which Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum stands as a new beginning. The enclyclical tradition developing out of Leo’s pontificate is commonly referred to as Catholic social doctrine or Catholic social teaching. Romero’s and the Church’s participation in the debate about agrarian reform in El Salvador is unintelligible apart from it. </p><p>What Romero and the encyclical tradition share, I argue, is an understanding of creation as a common gift, from which follows a distinctive construal of property and the demands of justice with respect to possessing it. On this view, property does not name, as it is often taken to mean, the enclosure of what is common for the exclusive use of its possessors—something to be held by them over and against others. Rather, property and everything related to its holding derive from the claim that creation is a gift given to human creatures in common. The acknowledgement of creation as a common gift gives rise to what I describe in this study as a politics of common use, of which agrarian reform is one expression. </p><p>In Romero’s El Salvador, those who took the truth of creation as common gift seriously—those who spoke out against or opposed the ubiquity of the concentration of land and who clamored for agrarian reform so that the landless and land-poor could have access to land to cultivate for subsistence—suffered greatly as a consequence. I argue that, among other things, their suffering shows how, under the conditions of sin and violence, those who work to ensure that others have access to what is theirs in justice often risk laying down their lives in charity. In other words, they witness to the way that God’s work to restore creation has a cruciform shape. Therefore, while the advocacy for agrarian reform begins with the understanding of creation as common gift, the testimony to this truth in word and in deed points to the telos of the gift and the common life in the crucified and risen Lord in which it participates</p> / Dissertation

Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s overhaul of the national education system in the early 1990’s offers an example of how neoliberal governments have reworked education systems and curriculum to fit neoliberal economic models. Part of the goal of this overhaul was to reconstruct a national identity that would support the development of neoliberalism in Mexico, where the post-Revolutionary national values ran contrary to those of neoliberal capitalism. This thesis explores the reconstruction of national identity through the use of educational policy in Mexico to rewrite historical narratives to promote the government’s neoliberal agenda. It examines the changes implemented in educational policies to understand the fundamental shift in the government’s approach to education and in the neoliberal agenda directing that approach. Next, it analyzes the historical narratives presented in one state-sponsored primary history textbook to investigate how the historical narrative is revised. The findings suggest that the new educational policies apply a neoliberal framework to the public education system, and that reframed historical narratives are designed to highlight capitalist values, such as individualism, Western notions of modernity, and the maintenance of social order, while downplaying and criticizing revolutionary nationalism.

<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

<p>I study three contemporary Chilean works of visual culture that appropriate and re-assemble visual material, discourse, and atmosphere from the bureaucracy of the military state. I examine Diamela Eltit’s textual performance of legal discourse in Puño y letra (2005); Guillermo Núñez’s testimonial art Libertad Condicional (1979-1982) based on the documents pertaining to his imprisonment, parole and forced exile; and Pablo Larraín’s fictional film Post Mortem (2010) inspired by Salvador Allende’s autopsy report. I argue that they employ a framework that exposes both the functional and aesthetic modes of bureaucracy complicit in state terror that operate within the spectacular and the mundane. Furthermore, I trace bureaucracy’s origins from the founding of the nation to its current practices that enabled the societal conditions for dictatorship and continue to uphold dictatorial legacies into the present.</p><p>In my analysis, I engage theories from performance, legal and media studies to interpret how Eltit critiques the press coverage of human rights trials, Núñez informs institutionalized preservation of memory, and Larraín demonstrates the power of fiction in our documentary reconstruction of the past. I conclude by arguing that this examination of bureaucracy is imperative because state bureaucracy anchors vestiges of the dictatorship that persist into the present such as the dictatorship-era constitution and the newly revived preventative control of identity documentation law.</p> / Dissertation

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate which of the 7 motivational factors measured in the Student Motivations for Attending University-Revised (SMAU) survey developed by Phinney, Dennis, and Osorio (2006)&mdash;career/personal, humanitarian, prove worth, default, expectation, encouragement, and help family&mdash;if any, contribute to African-American male and Latino male community college completion/graduation at a 2-year community college in Southern California and transfer to 4-year universities. This study employed a survey design and the target population included MOC that were enrolled in a community college in Southern California. This study used a quantitative, correlational method to measure men of color (MOC) students&rsquo; perceptions of persistence, academic success, and motivational factors related to enrollment and persistence at a community college in Southern California. The participants were selected through non-probability sampling in a non-controlled setting utilizing the target population from a community college in the South Bay area of Southern California. The population of African-American and Latino males is steadily rising, thus increasing the prevalence of these 2 ethnic groups at 2-year community colleges. An extensive literature review demonstrated that both male African- American and Latino community college students are the most prominent groups by ethnicity and gender, yet both groups are the least likely to graduate and transfer to 4-year universities. After reviewing the literature regarding MOC in postsecondary education and considering the findings from this study, the foremost leading motivational factor for male African-American and Latino community college students to enroll and persist in college is their desire and priority to help improve the condition of their family&rsquo;s financial status. The second highest rated motivational factor for MOC to enroll and persist in community college is based on their career/personal goals and pursuits. The least motivational factor promoting academic success for these 2 male racial/ethnic groups included feeling pressured by friends and feelings that they had no other alternatives.</p>

For Latina's in the United States, navigating the spectrum of racial and ethnic identities can be complicated. This same complication has the potential to affect one of the largest groups of Latina's in the nation: Mexican-Americans living in Texas or Tejanos. Through qualitative analyses of interviews and surveys and the use of an ecological framework on identity development theories for Latina's, Native Americans, Multiracial peoples and those in the Mexican diaspora, this study examines various factors that influences the ethnoracial identity choice of Tejano college students. Findings revealed that there were several common themes across all the participants, even those who did not identify as Tejano. Geographical origin of parents and family and community influence emerged as a noticeable reason as to why students identified as Tejano. A connection to generations of family in the United States and Mexico also impacted how strongly students identified ethnoracially as Tejano. In addition, experiences of "not being enough" galvanized some students to a stronger Tejano identity. Other themes included the impact of physical appearance, growing up with Spanish in their household, and Tejano representation in media. Recommendations are targeted to staff and faculty who work with Latina students, especially Mexican-Americans in Texas, to provide opportunities to explore and support a more complex ethnoracial identity including connection with their cultural traditions, education on Latina history, an examination on the impact of language on identity, and consideration of ethnoracial affinity group work.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Robert K. Schaeffer / In a 2005 op-ed piece, Wall St. Journal columnist Peggy Noonan queried, "What does it mean that your first act on entering a country is breaking its laws?" Unauthorized noncitizen populations have increased rapidly, from 3 million in 1990 to over 11 million in 2009. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Minuteman Project and the Tea Party generated renewed interest in restrictionist social movements (RSMs). Sociological social movement theories focused primarily on oppressed populations rather than privileged groups, leaving significant gaps in our understanding of right-wing movements. This dissertation‘s main question is: how did contemporary restrictionists frame their anti-immigrant principles, practices, and policies in the post-9/11 period? In turn, what comprise the social and political consequences of such strategies? This study argues that the "new" restrictionists successfully framed issues relating to unauthorized noncitizens concerning the cultural, economic, and security risks they posed to the United States. Fifty members from a diverse set of voluntary organizations were interviewed, including the Minuteman Project, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), and the American GI Forum (AGIF). Grounded theory methodology was used to create initial codes, which were then connected with themes derived from the literature. This study finds that grassroots, right-wing RSMs brought attention to contentious noncitizen issues that spurred debate and action within both Democratic and Republicans parties, public discourse, and social policy from after 9/11 to 2012. The success of the 2005 Minuteman Project border patrol demonstrated that the federal government lacked the political will to control the U.S.–Mexico border. This dissertation adds to the social movement literature demonstrating that both classical and solidarity theories of social movements help explain how restrictionists framed unauthorized noncitizen issues. Ultimately, this study finds RSMs represent a right-wing mobilization (rather than conservative) because of their singling out of Mexican unauthorized noncitizens, extra-institutional action on the border, the use of inflammatory rhetoric, and anti-Catholic sentiment, which contributed in pushing the Republican Party further to the right.

This dissertation is a literary analysis of the popular culture phenomenon of a component of Uruguayan Carnival – the murga. Murga is a musical theater form whose members sing and act on tablados – neighborhood makeshift stages – and is the most politically subversive component of Carnival. My study traces the origins of murga and analyzes historically significant shows as well as contemporary performances. This project also includes an anthology of transcribed and annotated murga repertoires and interviews, which fills a gap in the study of Uruguayan popular culture as such research has never before been conducted. Chapter 1 examines the origins of Uruguayan Carnival and murga in particular, both in concrete history as well as in its “mythical origin,” a term used by Uruguayan historian Milita Alfaro to describe the collective idea of popular culture phenomena. In the 20th century, murgas became a crucial form of resistance during the military dictatorship as murguistas could subvert censorship and voice criticism of the regime. The chapter concludes with a discussion of present-day murga and its evolution into a Carnival institution, considering how the function of murga has changed in today’s society. Chapter 2 presents a close reading and literary analysis of two historically important murga performances, Falta y Resto in 1992 and Agarrate Catalina in 2011. These two years are significant because of their political context; in 1992, Uruguay was in a moment of post-dictatorship transition, and 2011 was the “honeymoon” period of the leftist Broad Front Coalition. In particular, I examine the intellectual, meta-literary nature of murga lyrics and their ever-present social commentary. Chapter 3 is a comprehensive study of three shows from 2017 and is based on research conducted in Montevideo, and also includes interviews with historically important murga figures including Milita Alfaro, creator of Falta y Resto Raúl Castro, and Edu “El Pitufo” Lombardo, one of the most recognized murga performers. The full transcriptions of the performances are collected and annotated in chapter 4. This final chapter, as well as the included appendices, represent the foundation of a murga archive and the construction of new primary texts as a base for future research.

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