<p> On September 26, 2014, forty-three teacher students from Ayotzinapa, an indigenous rural area in Guerrero, Mexico, disappeared at the hands of the government in an attempt to silence a civic protest. This crime, representing a legacy of political corruption and impunity, &ldquo;crossed the border&rdquo; and became present in the interest of Chicana activists in the United States who displayed their outrage through protests, community organizing, and information shared. The purpose of this thesis is to explore Chicana participation in the Ayotzinapa case to examine how activism directed towards social injustices across borders affects Chicana&rsquo;s construction of racial/ethnic identity and political consciousness. I argue that Chicanas who engage in activism on behalf of the Ayotzinapa victims represent what Anzald&uacute;a (2015) refers to as &ldquo;Nepantleras,&rdquo; using their subjective positions as oppressed women of color to communicate across differences of gender, ethnicity, and geopolitical territories to create social change. To support my claim, I describe responses and interpretations of the case using qualitative data from interviews with three self-identified Chicanas. In my analysis, I draw from Gloria Anzald&uacute;a&rsquo;s (2015) epistemological theory of &ldquo;spiritual activism&rdquo; and Chela Sandoval&rsquo;s (2000) &ldquo;differential consciousness&rdquo; as frameworks to investigate transnational activism between the U.S. and Mexico. The women in this study challenged borderlands across and within geographical territories. First, Chicanas transcended geopolitical territories by engaging in activism in the U.S. that called for a change in Mexico. Second, they unraveled limitations of the self by developing a Chicana consciousness that is more inclusive to the struggles of all oppressed people. Third, they crossed gendered borderlands by responding to a case centered around forty-three male victims. And, lastly, they reshaped intra-ethnic relationships by nurturing national and transnational alliances that fight for all social injustices. This study is an invitation for the reconceptualization of borderlands, where the U.S.-Mexico border territories are understood as transnational, alive, and dynamic spaces with an ample room for reexamining identities through solidarities. </p><p>

<p> This exploratory study utilizes a qualitative, ethnographic approach to locate and contextualize Latino/a Artist Educators (LAEs) in Miami, Florida. Foundational and cutting-edge, it brings together many distinct perspectives to illuminate the power and promise of a newly imagined yet group of individuals to build and sustain alternative democratic spaces. Building on critical educators Paolo Freire, bell hooks, Henry Giroux and Howard Zinn, as well as extending the framework of critical theorists Gloria Anzald&uacute;a, Cornel West and others, this research begins to sketch the influence of the LAEs interviewed in Miami from 2003-2013. As a sociocultural ethnographic study positioned at the crossroads of many fields, this research is hopefully the first step toward understanding the central value of LAEs&rsquo; work in Miami. </p><p> Through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, field notes, and archival data, the perspective of 52 individuals who self-identify as &ldquo;Latino/a,&rdquo; &ldquo;artist,&rdquo; and &ldquo;educator,&rdquo; are brought into view for analysis and discussion. Open-ended interview questions included queries ranging from motivation and inspiration, to identity, to perceptions of the Latino/a artist (LAE) community, to opinions on schooling and educational processes, to mentoring and how they sustain themselves. Sample questions included: &ldquo;How does your ethnicity, background and culture shape or impact your art/work/teaching?&rdquo; and &ldquo;What can the art world learn from the &lsquo;culture of education&rsquo; and vice-versa?&rdquo; </p><p> The demographic breakdown of the 52 individuals participating in the research study included 30% Cuban, 26% Puerto Rican&mdash;with the real story in the remaining 44% representing a panoply of many Latino nations. LAEs averaged 36 years old at the time of interviews, with males outnumbering females, 56% to 44%. The average LAE has lived in Miami for 20 years. Although the preponderance of LAEs are performing artists (rather than visual artists), nearly 40% claim to be &ldquo;multidisciplinary&rdquo; or &ldquo;interdisciplinary&rdquo; and practice multiple artistic pursuits. Paradoxically, what LAEs have most in common is their diversity and divergence. </p><p> However, not all analysis yielded a divergence of results. LAEs resonated with synchronicity and strength around the expression of four themes&mdash;necessity, urgency, fluidity and agency. All stated explicitly that their creative endeavors were an inextricable part of their identity, providing expression, connection, mental challenge, and healing. None of the LAEs interviewed saw their art (and to a lesser degree, their teaching) as &ldquo;optional.&rdquo; This necessity, this insatiable, non-negotiable need to create and educate was accompanied by a palpable sense of urgency. Each LAE expressed with enthusiasm and intensity their works-in-progress and the realization that the situation with our youth is both pivotal and critical. Perhaps the most exemplary quality of LAEs in Miami is their astounding flexibility or fluidity, the ability to shape-shift, integrating and capitalizing on the specific milieu as it changes over time and space. Finally, these three combined&mdash;necessity, urgency, and fluidity&mdash;result in a powerful sense of agency; LAEs believe that their creative and educational investments are powerful influences in affecting the health and vitality of our youth, our schools, our communities and our society. </p><p> Many additional findings illuminate the range of LAEs teaching styles, motivational sources, philosophical and political views, and their characterization and critique of the LAE communities where they live, work, and create. These findings could be applied in countless ways to continue this trajectory of research and discovery&mdash;better supporting and understanding LAEs, clarifying the conflicted yet active role of resistance that artists play in the gentrification process, and even understanding how schools and our society need to evolve in order to support, nurture and protect democracy at its core&mdash;creating spaces for diverse views, dissent, dialogue, debate and maintaining the deepest respect in the process. </p><p> Future research should include more detailed analysis of collective and individual efforts of the activities of artist/educators involving gender implications, other ethnicities, and the importance of place by including other big cities. Additionally, other variables might be considered more thoughtfully: the central role of music in the creative process, as well as the impact of audience members, venue owners and emcees/hosts in co-creating alternative democratic spaces. </p><p> LAEs&rsquo; creative and educational work has impacts beyond our scope of measurement; to this day, numerous LAEs continue to create the fabric of the artistic, edgy, latino/a/caribeno/a, bohemian aesthetic&mdash;the &ldquo;image&rdquo;&mdash;that is so alluring internationally, and forms the basis for tourism and wealth in Miami, and the prerequisite for imagining the development of Wynwood. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p><p>

ix, 86 p. / Using interviews with refugee farmers and insights gained through participant-observation at farms and at farming events, this thesis explores how Somali Bantu refugees interact with the Global Gardens resettlement project in Boise, Idaho. Somali Bantu refugees' engagement with the agricultural integration program reveals that the United States refugee resettlement system often focuses on economic integration goals and measures to the exclusion of alternative development or integration options. Refugee farmers' common and differing experiences and evaluations of the farm project challenge the wisdom of a purely neoliberal, economics-focused approach to resettlement. This study suggests that refugee-farming participants were not uniformly and principally motivated to farm by potential financial gain: in addition to viewing the farms as an economic resource, participants valued the farms as important social, cultural, and civic resources. / Committee in charge: Stephen Wooten, Chairperson; Lynn Fujiwara, Member; Dennis Galvan, Member

<p> The main objective of this dissertation is to examine patterns of residential segregation, housing turnover, and neighborhood connection by race/ethnicity and family structure. Only two studies have examined residential outcomes by family structure, and both of these studies have focused on residential segregation and use cross-sectional data from the 2000 Decennial Census (Iceland et al. 2010; Marsh and Iceland 2010). In order to address these limitations, the current study asks two main research questions, (1) does family structure have a relationship with residential outcomes (residential segregation, housing turnover, and neighborhood connection) over and above race/ethnicity? And (2) does family structure have a relationship with residential outcomes (residential segregation, housing turnover, and neighborhood connection) in conjunction with race/ethnicity? </p><p> To address these questions, I perform three sets of analyses. The first uses the 1990, 2000, and 2010 Decennial Census data and 2006&ndash;2010 American Community Survey (ACS) data drawn from the Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB) and the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS) to examine residential segregation between white, black, and Hispanic married-couple and female-headed families conducting Theil&rsquo;s H and isolation index analyses. In addition to these aggregate-level segregation analyses, my dissertation examines segregation at the micro-level by exploring patterns of housing turnover for 12 family types, white, black, and Hispanic two-parent, female-headed, SALA, and extended family households using the 2007 to 2011 panels of the American Housing Survey (AHS). These analyses allow me to explore micro-level change that may take place even as aggregate-level segregation analyses remain consistent. Finally, my analyses consider the context in which families live by exploring neighborhood connection variation for families between white, black, and Hispanic married-couple, female-headed, SALA, cohabiting-couple, and extended-family households in the 2013 AHS. These analyses conceptualize neighborhood connection as collective efficacy (measures of social cohesion and social control). </p><p> Overall, I find race/ethnicity to be the most salient factor in predicting residential outcomes, but that family structure plays an important role and should be considered in future analyses. My results suggest white married-couple families are most advantaged in the housing market, and that they likely use this relative advantage to access the &ldquo;best&rdquo; neighborhoods and may be restricting the access of other white family types as well as minority families. This self- segregation by white married-couple families, in conjunction with an avoidance of black female- headed families, maintains residential segregation, constrains housing turnover to generally &ldquo;like&rdquo; households (those of the same race/ethnicity and family structure), and results in variation in neighborhood connection with white married-couple families having relatively greater social cohesion, and black female-headed families having the lowest social cohesion scores.</p><p>

<p> Racial and ethnic health disparities are highest in communities of color; providing culturally competent care could address these disparities. Culturally competent communication between the healthcare provider and the patient is an essential behavior that may improve health in racially and ethnically diverse women. A quality improvement project was completed with guidance from the 5 constructs of the Campinha-Bacote model as the conceptual framework, and the method used was the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. The perspective of 20 Mexican American and 20 African American women in El Paso, Texas between ages 45 and 72 with menopausal symptoms was surveyed to determine if culture had an impact on the presence or absence of communication with their healthcare providers. Results showed women&rsquo;s perceptions of positive and negative communication behaviors with their healthcare providers was inconclusive; however, results showed that provider communication about health promotions, use of alternative medicine, and shared-decision making regarding health management needs improvement to promote adherence to medical regimen and feelings of mutual respect. Integrating cultural competence into existing evidence-based care can positively impact the delivery of services and help improve the quality of care. Healthcare providers can impact positive social change through the lessening of burdens associated with the lack of diversity in the workforce by including cultural competence training into the curriculum of nursing and medical schools.</p><p>

<p> The achievement gap between Students of Color and their Euro American counterparts has persisted for decades. Too many Students of Color are becoming disinterested in high school curricula and are being pushed out prior to graduation. This mixed-methods study identified the perspectives of California high school board members toward Ethnic Studies (ES) curricula and the extent to which these perspectives informed public policy. This study was completed in two phases. In Phase I, a link to a survey was sent to all California high school board members, which elicited quantitative data. In Phase II, semistandardized interviews that generated qualitative data were completed with a stratified sample of participants who indicated interest in being interviewed in Phase I. With the use of inductive coding, themes were identified that more deeply explored some of the results of the survey. </p><p> The findings revealed that most school board members were supportive of ES as an elective, but less supportive of ES as a graduation requirement. School board members supportive of ES in this survey were primarily Euro American, fourth generation or higher, had taken ES before, and identified as Democrat. Fourth generation or higher respondents&rsquo; higher level of support than second-generation respondents were a difference that had statistical significance. Findings also showed board member perspectives can be understood on a continuum. Board members identified as change agents on this spectrum had already taken steps to establish ES and were working to alter district culture to further advance ES in their districts.</p><p>

<p> This study examined the prospects, challenges, and practicalities of an ethnic and demographic and subgroup in the attainment and exercise of leadership, specifically Iranian-American women based in the Greater Los Angeles area of California. A qualitative phenomenological study was designed in which 15 participants, selected through purposive sampling, were engaged in a semi-structured interview format, with a focus on eliciting answers pertinent to 4 research questions germane to the topic of interest. These 4 questions concerned the success strategies of Iranian-American women leaders, their specific challenges, the metrics of their success, and their lessons for aspiring leaders. Eleven specific interview questions were conceived to address these issues, with the responses recorded, transcribed, and coded to uncover common themes and categories among the answers. The findings indicated a common agreement on the importance of education, mentorship, motivation, a sense of self-belief and purpose, optimism, considerations of culture, and integrity as core elements of attaining success. Broadly speaking, participants&rsquo; responses independently converged on the central importance of a leadership character best identified with what has become known as transformation leadership. This style is associated with leading by example and motivating a team to act independently yet in alignment with broader goals, in contrast to the traditional <i>command-and-obey </i> structure of transactional leadership. As indicated by a substantial body of literature, the transformational style is more commonly associated with women leaders and with the empathy-related component of emotional intelligence. Moreover, research has indicated that it is an especially effective style. Together, the results of this research and the associated literature lend themselves to a number of specific recommendations for aspiring Iranian women leaders, while also providing encouragement for them in their attainment and practice of such leadership.</p><p>

<p> When discussing Asian Indian population in the U.S. their economic success and scholastic achievement dominates the discourse. Despite their perceived economic and scholastic success and their status as a &ldquo;model minority&rdquo;, Asian Indians experience discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization from mainstream American society. These experiences of discrimination and perceived discrimination are causing second generation Asian Indians to give up on total assimilation and re-ethnicize. They are using different pathways of re-ethnicization to re-claim and to create an ethnic identity. This thesis provides evidence, through secondary sources, that Asian Indians in the U.S. do experience discrimination or perceived discrimination, and it is historic, cultural, and systemic. This thesis also uses secondary sources to explain several pathways of re-ethnicization utilized by second generation Asian Indians who have given up on complete assimilation. The process of re-ethnicization provides second generation Asian Indians agency, positionality, and placement in American society. Asian Indians through re-ethnicization occupy and embrace the margins that separate mainstream American society and the Asian Indians community in the U.S. It allows them to act as &ldquo;go &ndash;betweens&rdquo;.</p><p>

This study is a social history of the rural mulattoes/ladinos of the District of Mita in eastern Guatemala who rebelled against the Liberal government headed by Mariano Gálvez in Guatemala City in June of 1837. Known as the Carrera movement or the War of the Mountain, this popular uprising began with scattered revolts precipitated by an outbreak of cholera, but soon became a full-scale rebellion that articulated a set of demands and eventually spread across the state of Guatemala and beyond. While the importance of this rebellion in the political history of Central America is widely recognized, this is the first attempt to focus on the ethnicity and social position of the protagonists, to relate rural social structure and the patron-client system to the rebellion, and to link the everyday concerns of this rural population with their political actions. The methodology combines anthropological techniques with chronological history. The early chapters provide a structural analysis of the geography of the area, settlement patterns, households, the economy, and affective life to create a picture of a society that differed in important ways from that of the urban Liberals. The last chapter shows how liberal policies designed to create a new polity based on Enlightenment principles and a free-trade economy antagonized the local population and exacerbated long-standing differences between the urban power structure and rural groups. The Liberals' decision to end banditry on the Camino Real and the methods they pursued to accomplish this goal emerge as the definitive step in the polarization process. The rebels' first engagement with government troops took place in Santa Rosa and was led by local cattle ranchers Teodoro and Benito Mexia. This study finds that a peasant elite, typified by the “mulatto” Teodoro Mexia, played the critical role in catalyzing the rebellion by forging alienated sectors of the local population into a strong regional alliance and by drawing on their substantial resources to fund the war.

This dissertation focuses on the living arrangements of multi-generational households among ten biggest immigrant groups in the United States. Specifically, it examines whether the husband’s or the wife’s older parents were more likely to be present. Co-residence patterns were taken as a proxy that reflected relative decision-making power in the family. A number of factors hypothesized to be associated with the outcome were examined to explore the effect of immigration on gender role ideology and gender relations in the post-1965 immigrant family. More than 102,000 multi-generational households from the 2000 U.S. Census were included in the analyses. Results suggested that while there were positive signs for women’s increasing status and relative decision-making power, the influence of original sending culture where immigrants have come from proved to be strong and persistent. Those from more patriarchal sending cultures, represented by India, Korea, and China, were more likely to have the husband’s parents co-residing; while those from less patriarchal sending cultures, represented by Jamaica, Cuba, and El Salvador, were more likely to have the wife’s parents present in the household. These findings illustrate the complex nature of gender relations in the immigrant family whereby the effect of assimilation is found in some domains, while the influence of sending culture is enduring or even reinforced in other domains. Results of this research contribute to the better understanding of the diversity of changes in gender relations that accompany immigration.