This dissertation analyzes the wills left behind by African-born ex-slaves in nineteenth-century Salvador in order to shed light on the lives that they led in the Bahian capital upon their arrival as slaves from Africa, and upon the re-acquisition of their freedom through the alforria system. The material assets and the slave ownership of libertos are studied in depth, as well as their religiosity, and the larger world and networks within which they operated in their Brazilian lives, with a specific eye towards African agency and processes of community formation. The qualitative and in-depth study of post-mortem testaments and inventories as meaningful texts in their own right provides the opportunity to decipher the individual voices of freed Africans, as well as to acquire insight into their Bahian worlds. The relationships, affective ties, and kinship networks of libertos, as well as their efforts to exercise agency and deliberation over their own lives, and the lives of others to whom they were connected, also become evident in the process. The testaments also make it possible to acquire a deeper understanding of African cosmologies in Brazil, through the ways in which libertos understood the passage from the worldly life to the afterlife, the meanings they gave to death, to funerals and other last rites. Understandings of justice, legality, and honor also come to the forefront, while the complex context of nineteenth century Bahia (and Brazil in general) constitutes the constant backdrop against which all these discussions acquire meaning. Understanding the lives, belief systems, and connections of African libertos also has important repercussions for understanding the experiences of Africans and their descendants in slave societies all over the Atlantic World. Insights deriving from the in-depth analysis of libertos’ wills have important implications for furthering our knowledge with regards to the Atlantic slave trade, slave ownership, and enslavement, as well as processes of identity and community formation, retention, adaptation, and resistance in the African Diaspora as a whole. / acase@tulane.edu

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This study focuses on the Brazilian immigrant network to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: How it was established, how it developed from 2006 to the present, and how Brazilians 'performed' their presence in New Orleans during the foundational years immediately following Hurricane Katrina. Brazilian immigration to New Orleans provides a unique context for studying the formation of an enclave community because, on the one hand, it was mostly a secondary economic migration bringing immigrants from established enclave communities in other parts of the country drawn by the usual economic lures of job opportunities. But on the other hand, these everyday activities of enclave formation (finding jobs, making friends, learning to navigate the new city) happened in the surreal post-Katrina environment, an environment that necessarily influenced access to resources, labor options, and social and gender interactions between Brazilians and the devastated local community and among Brazilians themselves in unusual ways In this dissertation I outline various ways in which the Brazilian community in New Orleans has created its sense of place within the city. I study the migratory routes between New Orleans and Brazil. I analyze the particular post-Katrina work environment and the cultural and racial landscape of New Orleans that suggests so many affinities with aspects of Brazilian identity. In doing so, I illustrate how the formation of Brazilian enclave spaces (stores, restaurants, churches, etc.) are inextricably linked to their local contexts in New Orleans. Finally, using participant observation, I examine how Brazilian national identity is performed in New Orleanian space by concentrating specifically on the local samba school, Casa Samba, and on Brazilian immigrants' interactions with local Mardi Gras culture and spectacle. This dissertation contextualizes Brazilian imaginings of their place in New Orleans within theoretical debates about transnationality, hybridity, and performances of the everyday. My study concludes that Brazilians are both recreating an enclave in New Orleans and finding ways to create hybrid Brazilian-New Orleanian cultural expressions / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation examines death and approaches to death among the Nahuas of colonial Puebla's Upper Atoyac Basin. Beginning in 1519, violent campaigns of conquest and recurring widespread epidemic disease introduced by Spanish explorers contributed to indigenous mortality. Understandings of unrelenting death differed among Spanish conquerors and friars and among Nahuas of various Puebla communities, as indicated by the histories that they produced. Although generalized indigenous death facilitated the establishment of the colony of New Spain in some ways, it also slowed the development of infrastructure and the extraction of wealth and resources from the region. Religious authorities, who desired eternal salvation for dying Nahuas, attempted to impose Catholicism by force in the 1520s, sentencing idolaters and backsliders to death. When extirpation failed to produce desired results, the regular orders reevaluated their policy and became advocates on behalf of the beleaguered indigenous population, writing to the crown regarding indigenous death and teaching Nahuas how to die as Catholics and achieve spiritual salvation. Friars introduced the European-style testament to indigenous communities and taught about Catholic approaches to death through architecture, doctrinal manuals, and other materials Nahuas quickly accepted the testament and trained notaries from Huexotzinco and San Andres Cholula in the Upper Atoyac Basin produced them in Nahuatl at the behest of dying individuals by 1573 and continuing into the 1770s. The most prevalent of Nahuatl documents, testaments bridged this world and the hereafter and allowed the dying to express final wishes regarding spiritual and material affairs before perishing. As such, testaments reflect Nahua priorities at the time of death. In addition to recording last desires in them, Nahuas called upon family members, members of their traditional households, religious and secular authorities, and social institutions to aid them in fulfilling those final desires. Upper Atoyac Basin Nahuas were not content to die alone, nor were they willing to be forgotten after death. Futhermore, they died as Catholics, but their wills reflect their indigenousness, regional considerations, and personal choice. In short, Upper Atoyac Basin Nahuas died and lived with death in ways that complex ways that reflected multifaceted identities / acase@tulane.edu

Guatemala's record on implementation of education reforms does not encourage optimism. After more than a century of being proclaimed an urgent priority, something approaching universal access to primary school has only been achieved within the past decade. Universal access to secondary school remains a distant goal, while reforms mandated by the 1985 Constitution and 1996 Peace Accords have not resulted in necessary increases in budget allocations, decentralization, or implementation of linguistically and culturally appropriate pedagogical materials and methods This study explores barriers to implementation of education reforms in Guatemala. Following presentation of secondary data to describe the gravity of Guatemala's 'education problem,' legal underpinnings of important reform initiatives of recent decades are analyzed. Qualitative primary data explores barriers to effective administration and reform implementation in the large rural municipality of Chichicastenango. The intent of this case study is to reveal how participants in municipal-level school administration -- parents, teachers, and district supervisory staff -- collectively perceive each other, and how their perceptions affect education delivery. The study notes several ways that underfunding limits effective administration and reform A central conclusion is that all parties involved in local level school administration are most favorably inclined to aspects of the educational system over which they exercise the most control. For parents who prioritize education, this usually includes passive support and acceptance of educators, curricula, and pedagogical methods used at the school their children attend, but a negative view of teachers in general; for teachers, it means reluctance to change civil service rules that protect employment security but impede effective education, and may also include a desire not to subject themselves to greater supervisory control by local communities; frustrated district supervisors take a rather fatalistic and nonchalant attitude toward reform policies, while routinely cutting administrative corners to avoid conflicts with teachers and directors over whom they have only weak protocols for control. In general, the three sectors have diverse agendas that are sometimes incompatible, and provide little or no incentive to collectively embrace the most recent underfunded education policies, few of which have much chance of surviving beyond each new presidential administration / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation explores representations of race and gender embodied by Clementina de Jesus (1901-1987), samba singer, and Carolina de Jesus (1915-1977), author of the autobiographical memoir Quarto de Despejo (1960). Both women were "discovered" by middle class intellectual men from outside of their communities. Once they achieved renown, they were promoted as symbols of Brazil's social reality by cultural mediators of a different class and race, representing the commonly gendered and racialized archetypes of the mãe preta and the discriminated favelada. Through analysis of literary, musical, journalistic, and photographic portrayals of both women, I explore the role of cultural mediation in the construction of Brazilian identity in the 1960s and 70s, a time of intense social debate over race, poverty, and national identity. Both women achieved recognition shortly before the military coup d'etat and subsequent dictatorship (1964-1985), a time when the Brazilian middle class was engaged in a constant search for the "roots" of national identity within popular cultural forms. The cultural mediators examined in this project formed bridges between creators and audiences from radically different backgrounds, smoothing the transition between groups and framing the cultural production of others in specific ways. By eventually acting as cultural mediators themselves, Carolina and Clementina prove that the process of cultural mediation is dynamic instead of static, shifting over time and relationships of power. This study demonstrates that both the process of cultural mediation and the quest for authenticity were inherently linked to relations of class, race, and gender, affirming instead of transcending the social divisions between groups in twentieth century Brazil. / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation addresses the theorization of immigration policymaking from a perspective that encompasses all possible roles held in migration management. It discusses how simultaneous roles as a sending, receiving and transit country in the migration phenomenon can become intertwined and inherently affect policymaking on all fronts. Using Mexico as a case study, this dissertation finds that the most compelling variables in the construction of immigration policy are: consideration of the state’s relationship with its emigrant population; grievances expressed by civil society; and complaints of regional partners. Mexico combined emigration and immigration policy in order to produce an optimal situation for all aspects of migration management, which was done through the strategy of soft reciprocity. By utilizing international human rights norms in the construction of its new Migration Law, Mexico was able to secure legitimacy and moral authority to broaden emigration policy and enhance protection of Mexicans abroad. / acase@tulane.edu

Based on ethnographic field research conducted in the summer of 2014, this thesis explores how Bolivian migrants garner rights and recognition in São Paulo, Brazil. By performing a Bolivian ethnonational identity in São Paulo public space, migrants reflect municipal government priorities of social inclusion and multiculturalism to emerge as meritorious citizens. Alongside cultural displays, migrants leverage new institutional channels of political participation to negotiate their relationship with São Paulo municipal and Bolivian state representatives. Chapter One explores the two dominant spaces associated with Bolivian migration in São Paulo – the garment workshop and the weekly ethnic market of Praça Kantuta. Chapter Two analyzes the intersection between Bolivian cultural celebrations and migrant political agendas. Through the ethnic market and cultural celebrations, Bolivian migrant elites emerge as representatives of a Bolivian collectivity, paper over intra-community class dynamics, and divert attention from exploitative labor practices in the garment industry. Chapter Three analyzes emigrant claims-making of Bolivian state representatives following the extension of emigrant voting rights in the 2009 Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. / acase@tulane.edu

Armed, illegal non-state actors control small but important sectors of both Brazil and Colombia. In these two countries, traffickers and large gangs concentrated in urban (and, in Colombia's case, also rural) areas clash heavily with state security forces, dominate significant numbers of the urban poor, and play a large, threatening role in the public's imagination. Some vital research has been done on the political and sociological dynamics within the zones controlled by these actors, but there is less in the literature that deals with the specific activities of community media and their relations with the ruling gangs and with local residents. This dissertation focuses on two community media groups, one in Bogotá, and one in Rio de Janeiro, both of which operate in informal urban slums controlled by gangs. It argues that in both cases these groups provide some checks to manifestations of authoritarian aggression, the infliction of arbitrary violence on residents and the climate of fear promulgated by the armed actors in these communities. These community media groups are able to do this by capitalizing on community resistance, by building informal relations and networks with gang membership, and by mobilizing notions of political legitimacy. / acase@tulane.edu

Armed, illegal non-state actors control small but important sectors of both Brazil and Colombia. In these two countries, traffickers and large gangs concentrated in urban (and, in Colombia’s case, also rural) areas clash heavily with state security forces, dominate significant numbers of the urban poor, and play a large, threatening role in the public’s imagination. Some vital research has been done on the political and sociological dynamics within the zones controlled by these actors, but there is less in the literature that deals with the specific activities of community media and their relations with the ruling gangs and with local residents. This dissertation focuses on two community media groups, one in Bogotá, and one in Rio de Janeiro, both of which operate in informal urban slums controlled by gangs. It argues that in both cases these groups provide some checks to manifestations of authoritarian aggression, the infliction of arbitrary violence on residents and the climate of fear promulgated by the armed actors in these communities. These community media groups are able to do this by capitalizing on community resistance, by building informal relations and networks with gang membership, and by mobilizing notions of political legitimacy. / acase@tulane.edu