<p> Osvaldo Golijov wrote the unaccompanied cello piece, <i>Omaramor </i> as an homage to the famous Argentinian tango singer, Carlos Gardel. In this project report, <i>Omaramor</i> will be examined through a historical and cultural lens, including a reflection on past performances. This project will examine recordings and programming to learn more about the historical and cultural significance of this piece in order to benefit future cellists&rsquo; interpretation of the piece.</p>

The importance of an adequate description of the general population from which a researcher is sampling is a central premise of all epidemiological and public health research. Racial and ethnic categories are a critical part of that characterization, since health disparities often emerge along those dividing lines. Mexico, however, is a country that for centuries attempted to create a national narrative of mestizaje, or mixing, effectively arguing that Mexicans were all one cosmic race. This thesis draws on two peer-reviewed Mexican public health journals, the Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, published by the Pan American Health Organization from 1997 to the present, and Salud Pública de México, published by the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública from 1959 to the present, to explore the racial and ethnic categories used in the Mexican public health literature on nutrition over the past 50 years. I argue in this paper that the ideology of mestizaje extends to the public health and epidemiological literature on nutrition and obesity published in Mexico about Mexicansâthat the racial and ethnic categories that are so central to health disparities research are elided and subsumed by this national ideology, with potential ramifications not only for public health research and policy, but for the health of Mexicans in general.

The history and significance of the black population in Argentina has only begun to be researched in earnest in the last four decades. This work will focus on mestizaje and blackness in Argentina, analyzing the experiences of Afro-Argentines in the nation-building process between 1870 and 1910. Particular focus will be given to how Afro-Argentines grappled with the âdisappearanceâ of their community in this same time period. Rather than unambiguous physical âdisappearanceâ of the Afro-Argentine caused by death in wars or epidemics, this work will explore the idea that the Afro-Argentine was also rapidly and thoroughly incorporated into a larger âArgentine race.â Using predominantly primary sources, this work will provide a more nuanced look at this aspect of the Afro-Argentine âdisappearance,â as well as the how ideas of blackness have filtered into contemporary Argentine culture.

Nawal Jaâ is a small town in Guatemala where a popular mode of water distribution is the community-based water organization (CBWO). This thesis will argue that a discourse of well-being rooted in the CBWO model as citizens of Nawal Jaâ participate in them propagates logic that evades any prior epidemiological or hydrological discourses, while neither settling into any other purely anthropological, biographical, or mythological discourses. Nine interviews were completed with twelve respondents taking part, which will be analyzed to show how competing discourses of global health and development and Kâicheâ Maya ways of being can both describe and yet fall short of the details these events of research present. Awareness of a new cultural logic model on well-being and its features will inform future endeavorsâ understandings of Nawal Jaâ as a site for itself a synthetic whole, without any prior global or local discourses or logics winning over others.

On January 19, 1972, the first cadre of the Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP) â a political-military organization that used guerrilla warfare to combat violent state repression during Guatemalaâs civil war â entered the Ixcán jungle in the mountains of El Quiché province. At the groupâs outset, it counted few women among its ranks; but by the end of its first ten years in operation, female membership had increased vastly. My thesis explores these guerrillerasâ lives and experiences from a gendered perspective. I argue that because their society was deeply patriarchal, facing sexist prejudices was a part of their daily existence; however, most did not join the EGP for specifically gendered reasons. Furthermore, during their armed activism, they continued to face sexism at times from their comrades and the communities with which they worked. However, they also attempted to change certain misogynistic attitudes and practices, as well as defied traditional gender roles through the revolutionary tasks they fulfilled. Overall, my thesis not only contributes to the existing scholarship on female insurgentsâ experiences, but it also serves as a building block for future comparative studies on the ways Latin American uprisings have been affected by, and have affected, womenâs oppression and rights.

<p> Latin America is a region that has gone through and is still going through a lot of violent conflict. Both Mexico and Colombia have several similarities that stem from grand corruption. The vast systemic grand corruption is evidenced by the use of state violence, including massacres, other human rights violations, structural violence, the repression of the media, the repression of minorities, controversial land acquisitions, and the collusion of organized crime and the state, leading to state capture. The high levels of impunity, weak structures, and weak judicial systems have contributed to the continuation of systemic corruption and state violence. The research below explores the causal link between grand corruption, state capture, and state terror. It also explores the role of weak institutions, structural violence, and other factors that play an important role in 4 diverse case studies of state capture and state terror both in Mexico and Colombia.</p>

In 1970 Casa de las Americas announced the addition of testimonial literature to the list of categories for which a writer could receive the Premio Literario. Since that time, critics have attempted to establish a clear definition of that genre as well as a means of classifying works within it. John Beverley and Elsbieta Sklodowska provide the most complete attempts; each, for different reasons, however, tends to exclude works which are exemplary of this genre. / In Chapter One an inclusive definition and method of classification for the testimonial narrative is provided. Based on the genesis of the written text, three "narrative modes" have been established: narrative written by the witness; oral history, gathered, transcribed, and edited by another; and the testimonial novel. / In Chapter Two La montana es algo mas que una inmensa estepa verde by Nicaraguan Omar Cabezas is analyzed as an example of the first narrative mode. / I, Rigoberta Menchu by Guatemalan Indian Rigoberta Menchu and Venezuelan ethnologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray is studied as an example of the second in Chapter Three. / In Chapter Four Tejas verdes by Chilean Hernan Valdes is analyzed as an example of the testimonial novel. The differentiating factors between the testimonial novel and "pure" testimonial narrative are examined. / In Chapter Five testimonial narrative is related to Levi-Strauss's concept of bricolage. This "new" genre has been created in order to reflect the Latin American realities which are different from those found in countries which dominate both culturally and economically. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-08, Section: A, page: 2415. / Major Professor: Ardis L. Nelson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This dissertation is a feminist literary study concentrating on silence and dream as textual strategies in selected works of three Latin American women writers. The analyses include the historical and social circumstance determining women's position in the society of the texts and their authors. The specific texts studied are the two poems "Hombre necios ... " and "Primero sueno" and the letter "Respuesta de la poetisa a la muy ilustre Sor Filotea de la Cruz" by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz; "El arbol" and La ultima niebla by Maria Luisa Bombal; and Arrancame la vida and Mujeres de ojos grandes by Angeles Mastretta. / The methodology encompasses a discussion of the functioning of ideology in patriarchal society and its complicity of ideology of gender, employing ideas from de Lauretis and bell hooks, among others. The constructs of gender marginalize groups or individuals who may appropriate elements of hegemony in cultural institutions in order to counter, resist, or change the ideology. / Latin American women writers who oppose the constraints of the cultural constructs of masculine and feminine cannot abandon the language of patriarchy despite the inability of that language to allow women full expression. The writer must create textual strategies which allow them movement back and forth, from center to margin, in order to deconstruct and reconstruct gender as a means of resistance. / Since silence is the designated mode for women's expression in patriarchies, women's experience is interiorized. What is unsayable in the "reality" of the text may be concretized within the unconscious in dreams. The act of reading the text, the interior experience also exteriorizes it, thus, carrying the private into the public realm of culture. The reader's response demonstrates the symbiotic relationship of ideology and culture and the possibility to effect individuals. By employing silence and dream as textual strategies the writer transforms women's allotted position into a means of transgression. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2851. / Major Professor: Ardis L. Nelson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The purpose of this study is to analyze Adalberto Ortiz' Juyungo and Jorge Icaza's Huasipungo in order to determine specific narrative devices used by the authors. These novels embody the fundamental themes of the human predicament in Ecuador: social injustice, class consciousness, and social morality. Several artistic techniques are analyzed, including: interior monologue, simile, anaphora, reiteration, rhyme, rhythm, and language, among others. / This dissertation contributes to the body of research on the study of the native American and the African in Ecuador's multiracial society. The first chapter provides a brief biographical background which establishes the bond that exists between each novelist and his novel. Chapter II concentrates on narrative techniques and themes. Chapter III studies form and structure. The fourth embraces a synopsis and analysis of each novel's major characters. The final chapter summarizes the similarities and differences of the novels being studied. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-09, Section: A, page: 2781. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

La investigacion estudia como tema central la imagen femenina segun la ve Enrique A. Laguerre a traves de sus novelas. Antes de la exposicion del tema, se ha resumido brevemente la biografia del autor y se ha tratado de presentar el trasfondo historico tanto de la mujer puertorriquena, como de la literatura que antecede a estas obras. / En un breve resumen de cada novela se ubica a la mujer en su trayectoria historica correspondiente al siglo de historia puertorriquena descrita por el autor. Se le presenta en su recorrido del campo al arrabal y del arrabal a Neuva York, siempre tratando de superar la miseria, el abandono, la nostalgia, la discriminacion y el fenomeno del "machismo". / Se ha enumerado una serie de personajes femeninos de la caracterizacion mejor lograda. Se percibe, sin embargo, un concepto de mujer tradicional, donde la figura de la mujer-madre ocupa el lugar mas destacado. Se destaca, tambien, aspectos de la mujer que el autor quiere exaltar o satirizar: sus rasgos f(')isicos, su renuencia a envejecer, su aparente religiosidad, la supersticion y el espiritismo, la idea del noviciado unida a la falta de libertad. . . y la forma en que la publicidad convierte a la mujer en un objeto sexual o la hace v(')ictima de la urbanizacion y de la sociedad de consumo. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 3057. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.