Many Puerto Ricans living in the United States have underused mental health facilities. Addressing the problem requires knowledge of the clients' perspective, which has not been obtained. This writer studied clients' perspectives on mental health and their expectations of those who help them. Included in the study was a view of Espiritistas and Santeros, practitioners of traditional religions in Puerto Rico, the former religion of French, the latter of African origin. They have functioned as therapists among Puerto Ricans, so the reason for clients' choice of help was important to a study of the problem as a whole. A survey of 100 Puerto Rican subjects in Springfield and Holyoke, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut, showed that while many clients liked the opportunity to talk about their problems and be understood at a mental health facility, the folkloric practitioners' concentration on and promise of concrete results and delivery of those results, together with the social networking through those practitioners, were a powerful attraction to clients. Men and middle class respondents generally did not use mental health facilities, but did go to the folkloric practitioners.

This dissertation investigates the migration experience of Puerto Rican women, their connection to the native culture and their perceptions of the role of this connection in their intercultural marriages. Critical issues such as; the degree and quality of involvement that is maintained with one's culture and heritage, and the ways of responding to, and dealing with, a second culture emerge upon migration. Intercultural marriage (Rohrlich, 1988), the marriage where partners are of differing ethnic origins, has been associated with the process of second culture acquisition. It has been visualized as an indicator of minority assimilation and weakening of the cohesion of an ethnic group (Murguia, 1982). Marrying outside one's ethnic group could imply a loss of connection to the native culture, which encourages the person to move more rapidly toward the majority culture. Using a qualitative-descriptive design, data was gathered through in-depth interviews with five interculturally married migrant Puerto Rican women. Data from this study revealed that these women see themselves as competent, assertive, mature, and strong women who are culturally different from their North American counterparts. The women indicated that they constantly draw coping strategies and behaviors from two different cultural contexts (Puerto Rican/North American) and that they feel effective and competent within the majority culture because they have achieved a sense of internal balance where decision making and survival strategies are bicultural. Nevertheless, they feel restrained when they express some feelings and ideas in the presence of North Americans. They also sustain a sense of not belonging in the American culture. Women indicated that they need to feel connected in one way or another to their primary culture. Besides other aspects of connection to the Puerto Rican culture; e.g. the use of Spanish, perpetuation of familism, maintenance of friendships with compatriots, listening and dancing to Hispanic music, and cooking Puerto Rican food, some women reported a metaphysical dimension of connection. Suggested areas of disconnection from the primary culture were related to rebellion towards values that perpetuate parental and male preponderance. Findings indicated that women validate their opposition to these values (disconnection) within the context of their intercultural marriages. The use of some nonverbal behaviors, the relationship with the in-laws, different views in parenting, time and financial planning emerged as areas of marital conflict. Implications for research and practice were discussed.

This study examined how communicative practices create a cultural "voice": who has it, how is it affirmed or disconfirmed and reified or not. Towards this end, notions of personhood as communicated within a "Cultural Center" were explored. Ethnography of communication (Carbaugh, Hymes, Philipsen) formed the basic theoretical and methodological foundation for this study. Data were collected at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Springfield, Massachusetts through participant-observation. This study is based on two cultural scenes, monthly board meetings and the 1994 Annual Dinner. The central questions addressed in this study were: how is personhood symbolized and lived at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center? What are the culture-specific meanings given to these symbols? What is the relationship between communication and personhood? The main analytic framework consisted of these terms: key symbols, person reference, norms, voice, communication event and cultural code. The principal findings from this study were that Puerto Ricans speak with the valued symbol, "community." The symbol "community" orients their world view such that talk makes sense within a symbol system that privileges voices of the community over individual voices. Communicative enactments of this perspective are many and varied. For example, person referring devices are used to locate persons in relation to others in the community by designating particular roles that people play. In addition, the way that some conversations are constructed highlight the cultural importance of community as when individual persons weave their personal threads of talk into a social fabric of collaboratively produced utterances. Persons are valorized by their participation in these cultural sequences of talk by using the significant symbols of "community" in the "proper" ways. This demonstrates how valorized members speak from the voice of the communal, rather than through an autonomous, individual voice.

In June of 1997, when President Clinton introduced his “Initiative on Race”, his plan was to engage the people of the nation in an open, honest dialogue about the problems of prejudice and racial discrimination. Mayor Michael Albano of Springfield, MA answered his call to dialogue by creating the Springfield World Class City Commission (SWCCC), whose tasks it would be to assist the municipal government in eliminating racism and discrimination in the city and improving the living conditions for all citizens of Springfield. Within a year, the activities of the SWCCC that had started with high enthusiasm and hope had all but ended, falling well short of their intended goals. In this study, the dialogues of the SWCCC meetings are analyzed for the communicative accomplishments and difficulties within the meetings, themselves, and within, and as influenced by, the social, political, and cultural scene of Springfield at the time. The analysis, done from a social constructionist perspective (Berger and Luckmann, 1966), uses of the theory and methodology of the Coordinated Management of meaning (Pearce and Cronen, 1980). It provides a critical, case study interpretation of the ways in which the SWCCC's communicative action contributed to, changed, and sustained the sociocultural environment of Springfield; it also examines the use and usefulness of “dialogue” as a method of conflict resolution. The paradoxical story of Springfield was the story of the SWCCC, as they struggled to construct grammars of race, identity, and action that would lead to change and reconciliation between ethnic and racial groups in the city. Three repeating, reflexive loops were revealed in the SWCCC's communication when the talk turned to issues about race, the most effective way to talk about these issues, and the ongoing struggle between grassroots and administrative approaches to social change. The analysis of these three loops leads to suggestions about the paradox and promise of the dialogue on race, and opens a discussion about the dichotomy in the field of communication about methods for analyzing communication.

The goal of this study was to examine the Brazilian immigrant's memories of a childhood place (i.e., place lived between 6 to 15 years of age) and the influence of these memories on immigrant's sense of well-being in the USA, self-esteem, and the longing to return to homeland. The subjects were 100 Brazilian immigrants (50 men and 50 women) who were at least age of eighteen years or older when they immigrated to USA and who have lived and are living in this country for least two years but not more than fifteen years. Results showed no correlations between positive/negative feelings about childhood place and the immigrant's sense of well-being in the USA, nor was the immigrant's current self-esteem explained by memory about attachment to childhood place or current well-being. Participants who had positive/pleasant feelings about childhood place had a higher association with the longing to return to the homeland than those who had a negative memory of childhood place. Men had more positive/pleasant memories of childhood place and a greater desire to return to homeland than women. Immigrants' narrative describing experience with childhood place supported the hypothesis that men and women experience place differently, i.e., their feelings about childhood place depend on their opportunity for self-actualization and type of experiences they had in that place. The main topics remembered and described about childhood place focused on the "locus" of childhood place; childhood place was remembered as the arena for interpersonal relationships; childhood place was seen as the container for cultural values and the source for self-identity development; and memories of childhood place were described as a part of the self (i.e., ontological landscape) which had a great influence on immigrant's desire to return to homeland.

Trauma is multidimensional and affects people directly as well as those of future generations. There is a profound absence in the literature of the community traumas experienced by the Chamorro people of Guam. The Chamorros are the indigenous people of Guam and have endured a history of near annihilation and subjugation by the Spanish (1521-1898), subsequent colonization by the American government (1898-present) and invasion and occupation by the Japanese military during World War II. Additional trauma has been experienced as a result of the Vietnam War. The challenge for counselors and therapists is to provide effective and culturally responsive counseling to their Chamorro clients. This qualitative study explored the impact of historic events on the Chamorro people through in-depth interviews with nine participants who have had extensive experience working with Chamorro clients. It also explored culturally responsive treatment strategies that may be helpful for those unfamiliar with this population. The findings highlighted cultural strengths as well as cultural barriers to treatment. Therefore, services provided to this population may be facilitated by an understanding of the history, culture, values, and beliefs of the Chamorro people of Guam. The study identifies a paradox of cultural adaptability. On the one hand, the culture's richness and vitality has enabled many of the people not only to survive but to thrive, in spite of a long history of traumatic experiences. On the other hand, it also presents a population in need of mental health services due to the stressors of cultural adjustment (e.g. loss of land and way of life, loss of language, identity confusion and substance abuse) and some of the same institutions and traditions that also serve as a source of strength. This study has implications for the training, research, and practice in the helping field. It includes suggestions for the treatment of trauma, community trauma, and intergenerational transmission of community trauma as well as assessment issues.

This dissertation is an ethnographic exploration, and a cultural discourse analysis of the relationship between communication and culture. The study of cultural discourses as they are active in situated speech communities allows for the description and interpretation of the way members of a particular speech community come to make meaningful their symbolic worlds. The perspective adopted suggests that cultural identity and its enactment is locatable through rhetorical dimensions of communication (such as symbolic clusters and public forums for talk) and at the local level of particular speech communities (such as situated communicative acts) where participants, through communication, create and constitute what it means for them to be, act, and feel like a person. This study presents the symbols, forms and meanings of one particular cultural discourse and how this system constitutes culture in this scene. Specifically, the dissertation is organized to review the public discourse of the havurah movement; how one particular havurah (“our havurah”) constitutes a sense of what it means to be a member of this group; the appropriate ways for acting in that particular scene; the cultural premises of belief and value that are deeply meaningful throughout this havurah's communicative enactments; and the rules communicated throughout symbolic rituals. This study of cultural communication contributes to a growing body of literature that emphasizes the local, emic narrative that is active in a particular speech community and analyzes it through a systematic etic theory of cultural discourse.

This dissertation examined the relationship between educational environments and academic achievement of Chinese-American college students—a conspicuous ethnic group with above-average academic records. A two-step sequential interview and survey questionnaire were employed as the primary methods for data collection. In-depth interview was applied to 12 Chinese-American college students with GPA equal to or above 3.5, 10 equal to or under 3.0, and two between 3.0 and 3.5. The analysis of the empirical data indicates that: (1) The participants had higher than average GPA and SAT scores and their selected majors concentrated on sciences and engineering. With an overwhelming majority being first and second generation, the participants had typical bicultural characteristics. Their parents were relatively well educated and had higher than average family income. (2) Familial emphasis on education and the tendency to maximize educational resources contribute to the high academic achievement of Chinese-American college students. (3) Derived from the reciprocal obligations between generations, stable family relations, secure family environment, and consistent parental concern and involvement erect a psychological safety island for Chinese-American college students and encourage high achievement. (4) High educational level and handsome income of the parents, and mindfully rehashed degree sagas, influence and motivate Chinese-American college students and materialize their educational goals. (5) Their determination to realize their goals along an often predetermined educational course drives Chinese-American students to work hard maximizing their capabilities and even stretching beyond their limitations. The goal is so definite or tangible that they seldom digress into other concerns such as racial discrimination or social status as a minority. In conclusion, although there may be many factors that have direct or indirect impact on educational achievement, two are prominent: traditional cultural values and economic status or goal. These two factors interact to promote educational achievement of Chinese-American college students. Traditional cultural values, economic goal, and education, as both means and ends, form a dynamic circle in motion.

The Chinese face practices lie at the heart of Chinese culture. These practices constitute a systematic grammar of action and a unique way of life which are proving to be incapable of facing the challenges of the modern life of instrumental rationality unless they get transformed. How can such a system of cultural practices get transformed so that the living Chinese tradition and the modern Western culture get creatively and selectively merged? How can Chinese culture emerge as a new and rejuvenated, open and flexible culture both sustainable and adaptable? This dissertation is a search for the answers. This dissertation presents a social constructionist account for the Chinese face practices. It covers their various dimensions such as historical, emotional and consequential. It also offers a social constructionist critique of the generalist theories of face and ethnocultural studies of Chinese face practices. Using a social constructionist tool called Circular Questioning (CQ) together with the case study method, the study generates a tentative model of creative engagement with and grounded transformation of the Chinese face-centered social practices on the basis of the social constructionist critique of the revolutionary and individualistic models of transformation of the Chinese face practices. The study concludes that social constructionists in the Chinese contexts have a dual research agenda. On one hand, they have to curtail the excess of communalism which undermines the individual agency due to the face practices; on the other hand, they need to prevent the onslaught of unrestrained individual agency over community due to the complete abandonment of the face practices in the rush for the individual interests by means of capital, law and technology. It also examines the affordances and constraints of CQ in the Chinese contexts and identifies what the author thinks are the major similarities and differences between the Chinese version of social constructionism and the Western communication version of social construction ism. The examination, comparison and contrast reveal that the Western social constructionism, a constructive modification of the modern Western culture, is one big step closer to Chinese culture than the modern Western culture. The two cultures also have a lot to learn from each other. The study theoretically implies a promising future of intercultural relations between the East and the West which both social constructionists with a research agenda in the East and those in the West can jointly construct.

This is a study about how lesbian, gay and bisexual undergraduate students from both minority and dominant cultural/racial/ethnic groups use language for social action. It is an ethnographic study of the Speaker's Bureau (an educational outreach program of a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender resource center) and includes two case studies of student speakers from the Bureau. The aim of this study is to explore the literacy practices that may help student speakers to interrupt heterosexist discourse inside and outside the classroom. The ethnographer uses critical discourse analysis to examine two phenomena: First, the ways student speakers use Speaker's Bureau literacy practices to attempt to change heterosexist attitudes on campus; and second, the ways individual student speakers use individual literacy practices to address their private need to construct a viable self and their public aim to help create a more just community for that self. This study illustrates the ways in which the telling of personal stories on Bureau panel presentations serve to build bridges of understanding between the speakers and the audience by humanizing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their struggles. The dialogues that follow the personal stories show how the genre of the panel presentation positions speakers as educators and experts on sexuality, identity, and social justice. This study also details the various speaking and writing opportunities that assist speakers in developing a positive sense of a “gay” self and how they use these opportunities to create a safe place for that self to exist.