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.

This dissertation studies selected works of the Guatemalan writer Augusto Monterroso and documents related to a cultural event known as the Huelga de Dolores, which takes place annually in Guatemala City during the days preceding Holy Week. These texts are analyzed from the perspective of humor, understanding humor not simply as one element among others but--more fundamentally--as an oblique way to approach and apprehend reality. In this way, humor constitutes an organizing principle of the writings of Monterroso and the documents published by the huelgueros. Chapter one reviews several theoretical interpretations of humor. Here, special attention is given to the theory of incongruity. It is argued that most theories of humor are rooted in a Cartesian epistemology and that a different approach should be considered, one that is more in line with the modern episteme. Chapter two is a biographical profile of Augusto Monterroso, which offers insight into his artistic sensibility. This chapter also includes a discussion of the history and evolution of the Huelga. The event began as an informal and spontaneous student celebration, and it has evolved into a social institution whose agenda includes a carnivalesque attack on different aspects of Guatemala's contemporary economic, political and social situation. Chapter three begins with a characterization of the extant literary criticism of Monterroso's works, from the 60s to the present. This chapter also examines the author's distinctive trait of obliqueness, which is evident not only in his use of irony, satire, and parody, but also in his pessimism, skepticism, relativism, and displacement of literary genres. Chapter four compares the notions of obliqueness and dialogism, and it offers the conclusion that they refer to the same essential characteristic of humor. Additionally, this chapter addresses the dialogical nature of humor and how such nature is related to several characteristics of medieval carnivals. The fourth chapter also establishes connections between the carnival and the Huelga de Dolores and it analyzes the oblique modes of the huelgueros' discourse.

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 thesis asserts that the problem of gang violence is not solved through the deportations of criminal immigrants. There are several reasons deported Salvadoran gang members return to Los Angeles, including identification with the city of Los Angeles, lack of identification with El Salvador and fear of persecution in El Salvador. The history of El Salvador provides a base on which the current issue of deportations can be analyzed. Since the majority of gang activity in the United States is based in the Los Angeles area, the impact of growing up as an immigrant in Los Angeles is important to understand. Finally, immigration attorneys present asylum arguments based on the documented persecution of gang members by agencies the government of El Salvador cannot or will not control. My data, including interviews, newspaper articles and a transcription of a case for gang-based asylum, show a clear pattern of persecution by the Salvadoran national police.

In order to meet the demands of a European roaster interested in coffee produced by women, a Colombian coffee cooperative developed a female growers' program in 2000. Today this program has grown into an association of 390 women. This thesis evaluates how marketing strategies have impacted women's lives, gender roles, experiences of leadership, and expectations of improving profits as well as individual and communities living standards. In addition, it examines how women have taken advantage of gender equity, female leadership, and empowerment discourses as a marketing strategy. The lessons learned from the successes and challenges that these women have experienced is documented. This research examines how new circumstances and struggles have increased women's participation in coffee production and how these transformations have opened new opportunities for women in the market. The study is based on interviews with members of the Asociación de Mujeres Caficultoras Cauca, in the summer 2007.

<p> This doctoral dissertation examines the intersection between body and nation in the context of Spanish American naturalist short stories from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The many forms of naturalism are useful for exploring national and societal concerns, yet most existing scholarship focuses exclusively on the naturalist novel. By combining the theories of Michel Foucault, Benedict Anderson, and Cesare Lombroso, among others, this dissertation considers the treatment of characters' bodies in their historical contexts and the larger national concerns they portray. Collections by three authors from the Southern Cone are studied: <i>Sub terra,</i> Baldomero Lillo (Chile, 1904); <i>Cuentos de la Pampa,</i> Manuel Ugarte (Argentina, 1903); and <i>Campo,</i> Javier de Viana (Uruguay, 1896). </p><p> The prologue introduces the theoretical framework that supports the analyses in subsequent chapters and describes the cultural context of the literary movement. It argues that the short story is a particularly useful tool for exploring this topic because, due to its brevity, characters' bodies must often relay vital information. Chapter one analyzes <i>Sub terra</i> and the Chilean miners it presents, studying its connection to the Chilean national body's exploitation at the hands of foreign capitalists who are solely interested in extracting its wealth of natural resources. Chapter two moves to Argentina and examines <i>Cuentos de la Pampa,</i> exploring those characters who reside in limbo between past and present, civilization and barbarism. Chapter three is dedicated to the study of <i> Campo</i> and the ways in which Javier de Viana uses the degraded gaucho body to represent the societal decay plaguing the Uruguayan countryside. </p><p> For all of these authors, naturalist short stories prove an effective means of exploring national concerns. Within the genre of short fiction, every word is of vital importance and, thus, the body frequently serves as a vessel to communicate ideas such as moral and physical decay, weakness, abuse, and excess. Characters' bodies are a microcosm of the national body as a whole, whose maladies these three authors explore in a variety of ways.</p>

This paper creates a contextualized narrative of the history of Amazonian development projects. This project will examine understandings and representations of nature and the Amazon, and how these representations, and their assumptions, have influenced the trajectory of development projects by the Brazilian state. The first chapter reviews how humans theoretically and philosophically understand and construct the human nature relationship, in theory and practice. The second chapter examines how the dominant views of the human-nature relationship were formalized and operationalized under the military dictatorship's Operação Amazônia and fostered economic and social incorporation of the region through the Polonoroeste and Carájas programs. Finally, the third chapter will use the Brazilian states hydroelectric plan and the Belo Monte case study to examine the contested nature of the narrative of Amazonian nature by examining competing visions for the Amazons future advanced by the Brazilian state and international environmental contingent. Throughout these different chapter topics the same themes of modernity, progress, economic growth, conceptualization of nature and definitions of appropriate human-nature relationships are examined.

During the past ten years, Mexico has witnessed incredible progress in the fight for rights of its gay and lesbian citizens. In 2009, Mexico City became the first city in Latin America to legally permit same-sex marriage. Several years later, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that marriages performed in the capital must be recognized in all 31 of the countrys states. This is dramatic social change in a nation where nearly 80 percent of the population self identifies as Catholic. So how did a predominantly Catholic country, with a reputation for a dualistic approach to gender become one of the Latin American leaders in same-sex rights? Using data from the Latin American Popular Opinion Project (LAPOP), this paper examines levels of support for same-sex marriage in Mexico, changes in that support between 2010 and 2012, and the factors that explain these shifts.

I investigated the stereotypes of Brazilians identified as black using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodsunobtrusive observation, 12 informal interviews, and a content analysis of 33 newspaper issues and 26 magazine issues. The results of my analyses indicate that skin color is more important than racial classification in relation to stereotypes. Certain stereotypes are more applicable to darker skinned Brazilians, while others are only applicable to race. The Brazilian media oscillated between presenting a more egalitarian view of Brazilians of all colors in prominent positions and replicating stereotypes. In general, darker skinned Brazilian males were likely to experience negative consequences of stereotypes due to their gender, skin color and socioeconomic status.

Guerra en el Paraiso tiene como su tema la guerrilla de Lucio Cabanas durante los anos 1969-1974 en el estado de Guerrero, Mexico. Se estudian los recursos narrativos utilizados para mostrar las semejanzas tanto con su precursor, la novela de la Revolucion Mexicana, como con el testimonio. La proliferacion de voces autenticas, de juegos espacio-temporales y de percepciones de la realidad permiten un cuestionamiento de la version oficial de los acontecimientos que ocurrieron en Guerrero. Se estudia y se compara el corpus de testimonios publicados al que Montemayor pudo haber tenido acceso para mostrar su influencia en la novela. Aparecen muchos de los mismos actores, dialogos y eventos en Guerra en el Paraiso y en estos testimonios, demostrando su fiel representacion de la experiencia guerrerense. Aunque no es exclusivamente testimonial, la novela puede considerarse una contribucion a dicho genero por su estilo innovador.