Through an historical analysis, an in-depth examination of Mexican legislation, and an evaluation of scholarly work, this thesis explores the relationship between the government of Mexico and the media, specifically television. The central hypothesis is that Mexican government regulations have been used to uphold the constitutional mandate requiring television media to serve the public interest. The analysis shows that the Mexican government has consistently favored commercial broadcasters over public interests. This is evident not only in written documents and in the manner in which the regulations have been implemented, but in the favoritism shown in the granting of government television concessions. The conclusion is that the Mexican government has been unsuccessful in promoting a television industry that safeguards the public interest. Instead, government actions have promoted private monopolies in the television industry which have rendered public broadcasting inefficient.

This research investigated the causes and effects of corruption in Puerto Rico. First, it examined incidences of corruption in Puerto Rico in an effort to create a linkage between the historical and contemporary causes of corruption in the island. It used both an agency and a structural approach to further explain the country's contemporary causes of corruption. Its basic finding was that the causes of corruption in Puerto Rico are the blurred boundaries between the private and public sectors, lack of elite competition, lack of elite accountability, weak mass participation, and the mismanagement of material resources. This thesis also examined empirical evidence that demonstrates the effects of corruption. The analysis revealed that corruption in Puerto Rico during the last decade has decreased Puerto Rican socio-economic outputs and investment sources. The study concluded that while anti-corruption measures have improved in the island, they have not adequately focused on the social measures to effectively combat corruption. On that score, the study highlighted the role played by public officials in perpetuating corruption in the island.

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Abstract not available.

<p> The purpose of this study is to examine the Latina Millennial experience while completing an advanced degree, and to identify the parental/familial supports that help them persist and succeed. Through the collection of the participants&rsquo; <i>testimonios</i>, interviews were designed to capture their lived experiences as well as, their perceptions of why they succeed. The study was conducted using narrative methods, specifically <i> testimonios</i> to recount the lived experiences of the participants. The conceptual framework includes Chicana Feminist Epistemology (Delgado Bernal, 1998) and resilience theory (Connor and Davidson, 2003; Masten, 2011; Richardson et al., 1990). The collected <i>testimonios</i> emphasize the factors that positively influenced Latinas to successfully pursue and complete an advanced degree. The <i>testimonios</i> also highlight how parents and family and support systems developed as they pursued an advanced degree.</p>

This study explored the educational journeys of 17 academically achieving, low income and first generation college attending Latinas at three different selective institutions. While many studies have been dedicated to the reasons for the low graduation rates of Hispanics, this strength-based study focused on resiliency and on the relationships and strategies Latinas used to achieve success in the most unlikely of environments. The interviews considered: the ways in which Latina students persist and whether their pathways were consistent with Tinto’s traditional model of persistence; how students developed the scholastic capital required for persistence; and the ways in which culture and campus affected their persistence. The central themes fell into two broad categories: family and capital. Cultural context was found to be an essential component for academic success for these students, and family involvement was central to this context. Families wanted their daughters to become not just well-educated, but bien educadas, a term that includes formal education as well as cultural norms, values, and protocols. The study also revealed that the educational pathways of these women had been made possible thanks to teachers, friends or programs that helped expand the family’s social capital. However, the expansion of a student’s capital and her growing development of scholastic capital were experienced as hollow unless she was able to integrate these experiences into her cultural world in a meaningful way. Family, teachers, mentors, and micro communities all played an essential role in the integration of this capital and in helping students develop bi-cultural identities. Finally, the findings suggested that there may be some advantages for Latina students who attend a women’s college or are at least a strong women’s studies program. Because the Hispanic culture tends to be male dominated and perhaps because in the U.S. Hispanic populations tend toward higher rates of domestic violence, sexual assault, teen pregnancy, etc. all associated with poverty and lack of education, the students in this study gravitated toward education about women’s issues, women’s health, birth control, and women’s rights. The findings from this study offer guidance for ways institutions of higher education might betters support Hispanic persistence.

"Spirited Enterprises: Venezuela, the United States, and the Independence of Spanish America, 1789-1823," argues that economic interests caused merchants and politicians in the United States to withhold diplomatic recognition from Spanish America's struggling revolutionary governments after 1810. It demonstrates how traditional interpretations of early U.S.-Latin American relations---based on ideological and diplomatic sources---fail to account for a highly important and influential decade of trans-Atlantic trade between the United States and the Spanish Empire during the tumultuous Age of Revolution.;This dissertation focuses on a case study of the multi-lateral trade and commercial networks that flourished between the United States and the Spanish colonial provinces of Venezuela, especially during and immediately after the crucial era of comercio neutral (neutral trade) between 1797 and 1808. It argues that trade between late-colonial Venezuela. and the United States was a forge of transcultural relations, and explores how commercial networks of traders, government officials, and diplomats influenced the decisions of policymakers in both regions.;U.S. merchants and traders helped sustain Spanish imperial commercial networks in Venezuela and the Spanish Caribbean. Shipping foodstuffs, arms, re-exported European manufactures, and slaves to the Spanish colonies were profitable enterprises for neutral U.S. traders. Through private negotiations and even Spanish-government contracts, partnerships between Venezuelan and U.S. merchants provided the shipping tonnage and merchandise that Spanish officials and colonial elites needed most to maintain their rule and to fend off the challenges of economic and environmental crises, slave conspiracies, and revolutionary plots before 1810.;Using period newspapers and books, mercantile correspondence, Spanish imperial archives, and the colonial records of the Caracas City Council, Consulado, and Venezuelan Intendancy, this dissertation highlights the enterprises of those who profited from sustaining the Spanish Empire in its frail and debilitated state. Whether they had prospered from or merely survived the commercial revolutions that shook the Atlantic World after 1789, all merchants and traders calculated the economic consequences of South American independence and encouraged their contemporaries to do so too.

No description available.

The Osa Peninsula is one of Costa Rica's most biodiverse areas with more large mammals than anywhere else in the country. During the last two decades, however, mammal species have been subject to illegal hunting pressure of unknown amounts. The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the knowledge and attitudes of villagers and local leaders of Osa Peninsula regarding large mammals and their use, and to compare various estimates of wildlife abundance to assess potential effects of human activities during recent years. From surveys, 58% the 359 interviewees from 15 communities believe that in 1993 there were more wild animals than 2008. Paca is the most poached species, and second in importance is the white-lipped peccary. The main motivation for poaching is for local consumption, but 62% of interviewees strongly disagreed with the notion of poaching being a legitimate activity. Interviews with local leaders indicated that 63% strongly agreed that wildlife persistence is important for the development of the area. They believe that deforestation, poaching, and gold mining are the main activities negatively affecting wildlife species on the Osa Peninsula. During 2001 and 2002 I estimated Relative Abundance Indices (RAI) of nine species of vertebrates from tracks in three sectors differing in human activity: gold mining, farming, and indigenous people's activities. I found that jaguar, puma, white-lipped peccary, tapir, and great curassow had lower RAIs in the mining sector. Other species such as collared peccary, red brocket deer, agouti, and paca were just as common outside the Park as inside. I set up camera trap stations in the core and toward the edge of the CNP during 2003 and in the core of the park in 2008. There were few significant differences in the RAIs of the nine species near vs. far from the park, but abundance some species differed between years, likely a result of an increase in amount of patrolling by park rangers during that time. The results of this study provide insights into perceptions and behaviors of local residents, and into wildlife population changes, that can be used in the conservation of the mammals species in the Osa Peninsula.

No description available.