Using a transformative mixed methods approach, I explored the ways in which genres and racial projects are constitutive of each other and contribute to the racialization of Latinx students in higher education and result in disparate outcomes for Latinx students. Latinx research participants revealed the myriad ways in which they are racialized throughout the education system and the numerous ways they encounter whiteness on a daily basis. I focused on two genres in particular: the federally mandated race and ethnicity categories and their intersections with Big Data/Predictive Analytics (BDPA) projects at the university. Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS) and Racial Formation Theory (RFT) guided my work and through synthesis of these theories, I proposed a theory of Generic-Racial Interactions (GRIs). I proposed that GRIs, as the sites where genres are racialized, are concrete levers that structure and institutionalize racialized outcomes at the university. Further, GRIs interact with BDPAs and reify racialized outcomes that project historical disparities into the future. I argued that identifying disparate racialized outcomes at any level of the university will reveal the GRIs that maintain and reproduce the outcomes. Critical examination of GRIs by social-justice-minded agents of the university should lead to transformation of GRIs. Transformation of GRIs at various levels and scales within the university have the potential to transform the university. Through the synthesis of RGS and RFT, this project presents a novel approach to the study of racialized disparities in higher education for Latinx students. Further, it reveals concrete structures through which to enact transformative change.

This thesis does not adhere to “traditional” academic criteria which I feel tends to be rigid, constrained ways of regurgitating knowledge. It is not easily digestible, nor is it something that offers concrete answers. Rather it is a critical understanding of many of my experiences in the last four years of education, with a specific focus on the most recent events that have unfolded in my personal and academic life. This thesis is a journey. It is by witnessing communities in New York City, Bolivia, Tlaxcala, Mexico City, Chiapas and Southern California that continue to struggle and hope in the face of neoliberal, power-hungry nation-states, that propels me forward and brings me hope and a renewed sense of consciousness as to where I want to go.

This study focused on the perceptions of 16 Latina students regarding their cultural school climate as well as the thoughts of two administrators and six teachers at an all-female Catholic high school. Students revealed that, while they felt very supported by the school’s faculty and administration, they revealed that their culture was not fully embraced and/or represented in their educational curriculum and school’s practices. Students also alluded to deliberately choosing and valuing to spend their free time with their family over their classmates. Further, they felt disconnected from their school’s mission, which emphasized sisterhood among students. Furthermore, bicultural students provided a unique perspective often not fitting the Latina and/or dominant culture at the school.

Meztiso is an exploration of the artist’s identity as an individual born and raised in Guatemala; which is a country rich in natural resources where the majority of the population is native Maya yet the ruling class is majority white and poverty is widespread. The artist takes on this stunning contradiction using her own influences and views which were shaped by the political and economic upheaval and instability of her youth in Guatemala. The artist comments on her own identity as a person of mixed ancestry, a Meztiso, and because of her own family’s involvement in the capitalist government that has marginalized the Maya indigenous to this day.

Hispanic Migrant Labor in Oregon, 1940-1990, describes the history and conditions of Hispanic farmworkers migrating from the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Latin America after the 1940s. This paper uncovers the history and contribution of a people easily forgotten, but essential to the well-being of the economy and the cultural diversity o f Oregon. Though much has been lost in the comings and the goings o f these people, bits and pieces have been recovered from old newspaper clippings, occasional documents recording the concerns and responses of the federal and state governments, rare articles tucked away in little known periodicals, and interviews.

This paper is an exploration of the meaning of mixed racial identity and the representation of such experience by multiracial artists. By analyzing the art of Amalia Mesa Bains, Richard Alexander Lou, and Samantha Wall, I examine how such self identified artists address the concept of the mixed race and in-between experience noting whether they take a celebratory approach or more resistive approach. I then expand on why I chose this topic and why I used specific methods to create and depict my own personal multiracial experience.

In Mexico, as in other parts of the world, human rights violations have deep historical roots. In the forty years before this study, these violations had been increasing, especially with respect to excluded populations and vulnerable groups, such as women, indigenous peoples, migrants, and victims of repression (Center Prodh, 2013). To reverse or at least decrease these conditions, disenfranchised people needed to become aware of their rights within civil society. Toward that end, diverse non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had taken on the task of providing education and strategic practices to disenfranchised people and communities. The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) had contributed to this work. The defense of human rights was a fundamental task in any country that sought democracy. Recognized by international law, academics, and civil society, the growing field of human rights combined the ideas of liberal democracy with other traditions. This case study utilized a critical analysis to examine the outcome of the work of one NGO dedicated to the defense and promotion of human rights in Mexico: the Center of Human Rights Miguel Agustin Prodh Juarez (Center Prodh). Center Prodh was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1988 and has maintained a political presence within the field of human rights organizations in the region. The study utilized the characteristics of the social apostolate of the Society of Jesus and provided a critical conceptual framework for cultural democracy formulated by Darder (2003) to investigate the importance of a Jesuit social institution in theory and practice within the field of human rights. Apart from this critical process of analysis, an important objective of the study was to develop greater understanding of the Jesuit orientation to social action work in Mexico. A key aspect of this study was to examine the successes and limitations of the human rights approach utilized by Center Prodh in assisting individuals and communities to consolidate their collective agency toward a more just and participatory political process of social change.

This thesis is an analytical case study of three music videos, "Pa'l Norte" by Calle 13, "Sueño Americano" by Los Rakas, and "Ice El Hielo" by La Santa Cecilia. It explores the visual and lyric narratives of these works and their role in critiquing anti-immigration rhetoric towards Latino immigrants in the United States in a post-9/11 context. Through critical analysis, this thesis argues that their work is vital in dismantling the dehumanizing and criminalizing language prevalent in legal and popular discourse, as well as challenging the manifestations of everyday "illegality."

To challenge the dominant Mexican narrative of racial democracy that traditionally invisibilizes and delegitimizes those who have been affected by racism, it is imperative to deconstruct the discourse on mestizaje as a central component of Mexican national identity. The notion of México as a racial democracy is accepted throughout México, and is most evident in the nation’s culture and politics. To acknowledge that racism exists in México is essential, since it is impossible to work with a claim that people do not see, dismiss, or do not believe exists. Mestizaje has long been the promise of racial equality, but this uncritical and unexamined positioning of mestizaje ignores or trivializes the colonial and present day baggage that accompanies the term. The uncritical celebration of mestizaje needs to be supplanted with a reexamination of colonialism and capitalism, both of which influenced ideological theories and racial formation from the late sixteenth century through the twentieth century in the Americas.

In an attempt to narrow a perceived gap between two literary fields, this thesis provides a comparative analysis of Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Humminbird’s Daughter, and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead. I explore and critique the ways in which Luis Alberto Urrea mobilizes mestizaje and Chicana/o nationalist rhetoric. I argue that mestizaje stems from colonial representations that inscribe indigenous people into a narrative of erasure. Furthermore, I address Leslie Marmon Silko’s critique of mestizaje within Almanac of the Dead. / text