La literatura cubanoamericana a pesar de ser un fenomeno aparentemente muy reciente es uno de los mejores testimonios de este inmigrante en Norteamerica. Sin embargo, no ha sido posible hasta los anos noventa encontrar algunos de los exponentes literarios que mejor han sabido representar esa experiencia en la narrativa. Tomando en consideracion la hibridez contemporanea de "teoria cultural" y su manifestacion sociohistorica asi como los estudios de varios sociologos e historiadores de la experiencia sociocultural cubana, el proposito de este trabajo es examinar como la hipotesis cultural de Michael Ryan se manifiesta en la produccion de varios narradores cubanoamericanos que han intentado exponer la realidad cultural de este inmigrante en la literatura. Los escritores que consideraremos en este estudio son los novelistas Oscar Hijuelos, Cristina Garcia y Elias Miguel Munoz quienes mejor constancia han dejado de sus experiencias y han sabido reflejar el dilema de temas como la transculturacion del inmigrante cubano, la busqueda de la identidad de sus descendientes y la realidad del exilio y la revolucion que ha marcado la condicion ideologica de muchos cubanos en Norteamerica.

<p> There have been many pitfalls resultant from our current civilization&rsquo;s dependence on oil and gas, though none has been more ignored than the impacts of hydrocarbon production on our fellow human beings. This thesis has three primary aims: (1) to make clear the theoretical frameworks that have led these human impacts to be ignored, including Resource Curse Theory, and to propose Political Ecology as a new framework for understanding the challenges that resource extraction levies on individuals and communities; (2) to detail, document, and highlight the widespread, complex, and generative impacts that resource extraction itself produces in order to begin seeking real solutions; and (3) to bring to the fore the struggles of the Colombian people in relation to hydrocarbon production and resource extraction. As shall be seen, Colombia is a unique though entirely ignored case study of rapidly expanding hydrocarbon production. While thought to be a &lsquo;success&rsquo; in the eyes of many, this thesis shows the true nature of oil and gas production by focusing in on the deep structural changes that the southern community of Puerto Gaitan has endured since the arrival of Canadian oil company Pacific Rubiales, and explaining how these deeper problems are reproduced in other extractive areas across Latin America and the world.</p>

This first full length reading of the Peruvian Alfredo Bryce Echenique's 1970 novel Un mundo para Julius approached from a deconstructionist viewpoint shows how prior misreadings have led to its being interpreted primarily as a realist work with innovative passages. Through extended close reading, it is shown to be an early Latin American example of postmodern entropic comedy. Parody and the ludic aspects of the novelist's art in the work present a view of reality in which all metanarratives are negated. An analysis is included of deconstructionist theory/strategies showing deconstruction's contribution through non-belief in the primary text to recognition of the viability of translation studies as an academic discipline. The first translation into English of Bryce's novel accompanies the dissertation and is drawn upon extensively for interpretation of passages that have previously caused interpretative problems. The prominence of the comic in postmodern literature is discussed, along with the nature and provoking of laughter. Explanations are suggested for Bryce's highly comic novel not being read as such; rather, in prior criticism the tragic has been foregrounded at the expense of the comic elements. It is suggested that Bryce's and other Latin American novels of the 1960s and early 1970s be viewed as marking a transition from modernism to postmodernism, putting Latin American literature in line with the novelistic mainstream worldwide. The boom, far from being a new move in Latin American literature of the 1960s, is seen as belated critical recognition of a modernism which dates back at least to the 1920s, with sporadic manifestations of the postmodern spirit existing there from the same time. Since the nature of deconstruction is to affirm that no definite conclusions or final readings may be drawn, this dissertation is put forth in the spirit that it be conducive to refutation and to foster further readings of the work of Bryce and neglected modernist and postmodernist Latin American writers whose work should by now be seen as part of world literature and not as a local or exotic variant.

This dissertation analyzes the social function of native art in colonial New Spain through the examination of a genre of maps painted by Indian artists known as Land Grants or Mapas de Mercedes. Land Grant maps constitute the response of the native population to a Spanish land distribution practice implemented in the sixteenth century to allocate the territory among its dwellers in an orderly fashion and prevent the illegal occupation of the land. One remarkable feature this program adopted in New Spain was its strong visual component; the viceroy requested a painted map as part of each lawsuit's evidence. This is unique to the viceroyalty of New Spain and did not happen anywhere else in the Americas. It is reflective of the Indigenous deep-rooted tradition of thinking visually and dealing with everyday matters through the use of painted manuscripts. It was also stimulated by the Spaniard's belief in the truth-value of native pictorials. The result was a vast production of maps of which approximately 700 have survived. Since they were produced for the specific context of land grants and have their own distinctive characteristics, it is possible to say that this was also the birth of a new artistic genre. The present work examines how Indians in the colonial period created these artworks that enabled them to negotiate with the colonizers, defend their rights, and ultimately attain a more favorable position in society. This project demonstrates that the Indians took up this opportunity to design maps that were an essential component of their defense strategy. My research is based on a thorough examination of the originals at the National Archives in Mexico. I combined visual analysis with the transcription and paleography of the case’s files, and a review of primary and secondary historical sources. This interdisciplinary approach enabled me to demonstrate that native artists not only described the contested site in their maps but also translated their own ideas about this space into visual form. My research underscores Indian agency and illustrates how they used Spanish laws to their advantage in preserving their possessions, sometimes to the twenty-first century. / History of Art and Architecture

<p> <i>We Support Our Troops</i> is a series of three mural sized prints in panoramic format. The images can be described as Rochester urban landscapes in which the commercial images of the billboards were replaced with images of Latin American resistance movements. The title is an appropriation of the United States pro-war slogan twisted into the support context of these movements. The prints are made in the contemporary and non-toxic printmaking technique <i>4 Color Inversion Intaglio-Type</i>, developed by Master Printmaker Keith Howard. The Intaglio-Type techniques are the ones in which the photopolymer film ImagOn^&reg; is used. </p><p> A technical and historical approach is used in this written document. Included is a detailed explanation of the process with descriptions of the photographic equipment and software used for the image capture and creation of the landscapes. A step-by-step description of the <i>4 Color Intaglio-Type </i> technique follows, from making the plates physically to the printing process. This technical walkthrough illustrates why this Intaglio-Type technique is the optimum fusion of the digital imagery with traditional printmaking techniques. Also, the description highlights the large format printing difficulties overcome in this research, with new possibilities yet to discover with the Akua Colors^&reg; inks.</p><p> The Latin American resistance movements referenced in this work are: The <i>EZLN</i> (National Zapatista Liberation Army) from Chiapas, Mexico; the <i>APPO</i> (Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca), from Oaxaca, Mexico; the <i>EPB</i> (Popular Boricua Army) or <i> Macheteros</i> from Puerto Rico; and the <i>Piqueteros</i> from Argentina. A historical overview of each of these movements is included. </p><p> Through this thesis I intend to shed light on the economic disparity between the United States and Latin American countries caused by their political relationship. To identify myself with a political movement, rather than to educate or criticize the status quo. In order to effectively make this statement, the images were carefully worked in terms of composition, color and content. These elements included in the large panoramic format are strong enough to entice the viewers to stop, look, enjoy and ultimately reflect on the meaning behind the images.</p>

Pos/modernidad y (multi)forma en la obra de dos poetas mexicanos contemporaneos: Alberto Blanco y Coral Bracho studies the effects of modernity in Contemporary Mexican poetry. According to literary critics such as Evodio Escalante and Christopher Dominguez, Blanco and Bracho in their radical experimentation of poetic language create a multiform that concedes diverse possibilities of expression. This dissertation is theoretically backed by the works of Nestor Garcia Canclini and Edward O. Wilson, which allow me to underscore the importance and influence of politics, economics, and culture in these Mexican poets. Chapter Two analyzes twenty-two poetic anthologies with the intention of demonstrating the effects of posmodernity in poetic production and diffusion as well as to create a historiographic approach to the generation of poets from the 50s. Chapters Three and Four observe the poetic multiform in the works of Blanco and Bracho respectively. This analysis in grounded in the theoretical insights of Edward O. Wilson that explain how Consilience is the unity of knowledge through science and humanities. Consequently, Blanco explores the various theories of Physics, specifically the fractals and the hologram, while Bracho follows the discourse of Deleuze and Guattari about Rhizomes.

This dissertation identifies and analyzes the characteristics of postmodern literary discourses written by Argentinean writer Manuel Puig. As part of this analysis, I identify and correlate the sociohistorical circumstances which shaped and influenced Puig's writings and the postmodern subject embedded in his progressive narratives. As part of the objectives of this research, I have included a critical theoretical perspective of the development of modern Eurocentric subject and its effects on Latin American societies. Four literary texts are analyzed to specifically identify and point out how Manuel Puig created a complex postmodern narrative, in which the author problematized issues of gender, power, authority and sexual orientation: La traicion de Rita Hayworth, Pubis Angelical, Sangre de amor correspondido and El beso de la mujer arana. In chapter one, the critical foundation of the European modern subject is layed out in order to understand the effects of Descartes' Cogito, ergo sum upon the establishment and legitimation of the rational subject. The diffusion, incorporation and imposition of Cartesian rationalism in Latin American societies are also analyzed to further understand how Latin America's elite looked towards European and the United States of America in an effort to emulate and import new advances in technology, science and education. This chapter also includes an analysis of the failures of eurocentric postulations, methods and philosophies in Latin American societies during the second half of the twentieth century as the metropolitan centers faced the first manifestation of postmodernity. Chapter two focuses on the "transgressive" elements of Puig's first novel, as the author offers a dystopian view of an Argentinean family and its community. The author departs from traditional narrative models and creates an innovative literary text, in which the characters speak and narrate directly, their experiences and events in their lives. In this postmodern literary text, the author disrupts the hegemonic central order to reconfigure a new hierarchy, these disruptive themes will continue in his other works, as the postmodern subject reconfigures his/her strategic place in a new social hierarchy. The third chapter concentrates on Puig's feminist discourse: the application of feminist theoretical postulations provides an understanding of how this type of Latin American feminist discourse incorporate the experiences of an Argentinean woman as she struggles in a patriarchal system that in the past silenced her both as a woman and as a subject. In chapter four, a deconstructive theoretical framework proves useful during this analysis of El beso de la mujer arana, in this text Manuel Puig addresses issues of sexual orientation, concepts of masculinity and issues of power, control and authority in Latin America. Additionally, this chapter incorporates a critical view of the contestatory voices during the postmodern era, specifically when the diverse of Latin American subaltern voices, previously silenced, come forward to affirm their presence in Argentinean and other Latin American societies, as well as in the official literary cannon.

The academic interest of this study is to establish the relevance and pertinence of Juan Rulfo's novel, Pedro Paramo, in the literary canon of western tradition. To accomplish our goal we will consider Rulfo's text in light of Carl Gustav Jung's analytical psychology, in particular the concepts of the archetypes and the collective unconscious, to demonstrate that the types and world presented in Rulfo's novel adhere to classical literary types of western tradition. We will use Jung's theory of the collective unconscious to show that what has been considered purely Mexican represents an extension of the themes and topics of interest in western tradition. To prove our point we will consider texts that are part of the literary canon of western tradition, such as: La epica de Gilgamesh; John Keats poem, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"; Rainer Maria Rilke's poems, "Sonnets to Orpheus" and "Orpheus, Euridice, Hermes"; Ovidio's, La metamorfosis ; and Virgilio's Georgicas; as well as biblical selections in comparison and contrast to Rulfo's text. This study will establish that Juan Rulfo's work is an expression of the communal experience that concerns western literary tradition.

In Chile during the first twenty years of the XX century, multiple dynamics of social, political, and economical nature affect the various subjects' cultural products, and their relationship to the concept of nation. I discuss three collections of stories published by Wilfrida Buxton (Viditas, 1911), Clarisa Polanco de Hoffman (Hojas al viento, 1917), and Ines Echeverria de Larrain (La hora de Queda , 1918). These were women whose different politics of representation demonstrate an appropriation of the written word as a means for gender representation, and increasing awareness of class and gender power relations. I adopt a cultural studies approach to pose a re-reading of this historical juncture as one of contact zones. Here the female subjects are forced to re-position themselves in relation to modernity, and the fragmentary effect it has on previously fixed-gender and class constructions. I expand the concept of contact zones by highlighting that these encompass a process of integration which can be delineated by the nature of the texts produced within these spaces. I study each text in light of the authors' politics of representation and its placement in the process of integration. Wilfrida Buxton's stories belong in the first sub-zone. The text represents a group of subjects marginalized due to a prediscursive notion of an individual's valid contribution to the construction of nation. Polanco de Hoffman's, on the other hand, demonstrates a lack of class consciousness coupled with an acute awareness of women's unequal representation under the law. Her pro-divorce argument places her in the second sub-zone, where texts may propose alternatives to deficient social structures. EcheverrIa de Certain's text straddles the second and third sub-zone by displacing the traditional notion of "woman". Her representation of multiple female subjectivities underline this writer's sensitivity to class and gender relations. Her text re-defines gender relations, as well as provides an alternative female subject who is free of the tensions of gender relations. With the study of these texts and the process of integration, I aim to contribute to the understanding of women's participation in the relationship between text, subject and nation.

Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship from 1976-1983, and underwent a period of intense political repression. This dissertation examines how three Argentine women writers--Edna Pozzi, Martha Gavensky, and Matilde Sanchez--approach the problem of reconstructing history in the aftermath of the military dictatorship from both a feminine and feminist perspective. Three novels published after the return to democratic rule are analyzed: El lento rostro de la inocencia (1983) by Edna Pozzi, Martin o el Juego de la Oca (1986) by Martha Gavensky, and El Dock (1993) by Matilde Sanchez. The purpose of this research is to show how these works, framed as investigative narratives constructed around female absence, constitute gendered histories of the Proceso de Reorganizacion Nacional (Proceso) and the "Dirty War". The conspicuous absence of the central female subject in these novels evokes multiple levels of silence and absenting of the feminine in patriarchal society and the authoritarian state. It is suggested that these endeavor to reinscribe a multiplicity of female experiences into national history, writing against the masculinist historical tradition that has systematically "disappeared" the feminine.