You are what you eat. The essence of being is our identity, so what we choose to eat has a large impact on who we are. By defining identity and applying these definitions in relation to food we can discover how we identify through the foods we eat, creating a food identity. For Mexican Americans, it is la comida que sí se come! I have classified the following as our most basic forms of identity: mental versus the physical or biological, and individual versus group. Within the group identity stem the facets of race, ethnicity, nationality, language and culture that all make up a Mexican American identity. By thoroughly exploring the four basic classifications of identity we are able to apply the methods of identity creation towards our interactions with food, from our first learned experiences as children, to later cooking for our own children, which all lead to the creation of our food identities. Once food identity is understood it can be applied specifically to the Mexican American experience, therefore exploring how the food choices that Mexican Americans make contribute towards a unique food identity. Just like the Mexican American self identity, Mexican American food identity is neither “Mexican” nor “American,” and yet it can be both. Like self identity, this food identity consists of a long historical background, embracing dual nationalities and combining life experiences with culture. It is also heavily influenced by family- familia- more so than a generic food identity. / text

This thesis is a critical evaluation of the methods of community engagement used by the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission during the creation and implementation of the West Tampa Economic Development Plan. Data for this research was conducted in West Tampa, a neighborhood in Tampa, Florida. In the spring of 2005, the Planning Commission began working with the residents, business and property owners in West Tampa to develop the neighborhood's economic development plan. Using the community engagement methods of surveys, mailed and posted community announcements, community meetings, focus groups and interviews, the Planning Commission created an economic development plan which reflected the needs and concerns of the residents, business and property owners and worked to limit their displacement from the redevelopment of the neighborhood. Although these methods were designed to create avenues of participation for all segments of West Tampa's population, the neighborhood's new immigrant, Spanish speaking residents and business owners were not involved in the Planning Commission's community engagement efforts. By focusing specifically in West Tampa's Latino business district, known as "Boliche Boulevard," a long-time nickname given to the area by Tampa's Cuban immigrants, data from this research identifies the reasons for this population's absence in the creation and implementation of West Tampa's economic development plan. The use of the traditional anthropological methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and archival research revealed the history of Boliche Blvd.'s relationship with West Tampa, the neighborhood's civic institutions and Tampa city government and how these relationships impacted the business owners' willingness and ability to participate in West Tampa's economic development plan. The Planning Commission's limited understanding of the social relationships which exist between Boliche Blvd., West Tampa and the larger City of Tampa impaired their ability to successfully reach this population with their existing community engagement methods. This research stresses the need for city-county planning agencies to critically evaluate their community engagement efforts when conducting economic development projects in diverse, multi-lingual urban neighborhoods. Community engagement must be tailored to target different language and culture groups in order to achieve successful participation from the entire neighborhood population.

This thesis focuses on the rhetorical formations of identities of people of color through news media coverage. Specifically, I investigate news media coverage of the Arizona immigration legislation, Senate Bill 1070. Major commercial media and Spanish-language media systems associate the immigrant identity to the U.S. Latina/o identity and position U.S. Latina/os as second-class citizens in American society. The language of the legislation, in addition to media coverage of it, works to reinforce race relations and the ideologies of meritocracy and cultural difference in the United States. Chapter one presents up-to-date demographic data, stressing the continuing growth of a diverse American people. Specifically, I use data on the U.S. Latina/o population as a way to establish this reality given that the data are recent. This chapter also presents the argument that current norms and standards in political opinions, such as those considered by policy makers, excludes opinions deriving from people with distinct cultural backgrounds. I present this argument in order to define and exemplify contemporary U.S. culture. The next chapter is a comparative close-textual analysis of news media coverage of Arizona SB 1070. Chapter two also outlines a theoretical framework in order to understand the functions of the media in society in relation to the rhetorical forms of reinforcing dominant ideological values. Chapter three utilizes survey data that speaks to the identity of U.S. Latina/o college students. As part of the questionnaire, I pose questions regarding language preference, generational status, media consumption and political knowledge. The results exemplify the prevailing bicultural component of U.S. Latinas/os and suggest that this ethnic group draws from different and contrasting ideologies. When comparing the identities presented by the media to the results of the questionnaire, discourse analysis suggests the notion that bicultural Americans are not acknowledged fully as citizens. / text

The United States is experiencing a socio-demographic shift in population and education. Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the population on the national level and in higher education. The Latino student population growth rate and Latino college completion rate are not reciprocal. While Latino students are the fastest growing demographic group in higher education, they continue to have the lowest persistence and retention rates. Latino students are more at risk for dropping out of college than any other ethnic group. Latinos decreasing persistence rates have caused an academic achievement gap in higher education (Long, 2011). Literature has correlated the gap with Latinos limited IL competency and low library usage (Long, 2011).This quasi-experimental research examined the effects of a targeted information literacy (IL) instructional method on Latino community college students IL skills and library usage. The study also introduced the idea of using a connectivism based targeted instruction to influence Latinos IL skills and library usage. The intent of the study was to investigate the development of information literacy instruction (ILI) which targets Latino students and uses the principles of connectivism. Connectivism posits that students' learn by connecting to information along their personal learning networks (Siemens, 2005). Connectivism helps position the library within Latino students' personal learning networks. This positioning may increase their library usage and by extension their IL skills. Specifically, this quantitative study assessed the effect of the instruction on IL skills and library usage behavior of Latino community college students. A pretest/posttest control group design was used for this study. A sample of 92 Latino male and female students completed the pretest and posttest. They were recruited from a diverse population of community college students who were registered for Introductory English classes. Data was collected through instrumentation that included an Information Literacy Rubric, an Information Literacy Skills Test, a Library Usage Survey/Demographic Identification Form, and a Citation Analysis Form. Though two of the hypotheses were not supported, the data collected allowed the researcher to accomplish two of the purposes of this study, to design and assess a targeted ILI that increases Latino students' IL skills and library usage, and to advance the research that grounds the emerging learning theory of connectivism. The more connections students made to information sources the higher their overall IL skill score were. This data suggests that as students make connections to information resources they are learning IL skills and the more sources they connect to, the more they learn. Though TI did not emerge as the more effective method, it is effective at increasing library usage and IL skills in Latino community college students'. The results of this study may lead to a better understanding of how students acquire IL skills. Instruction has become increasingly important in librarianship and recently has even eclipsed traditional reference service. (Grassian & Kaplowitz, xix, 2009). More and more academic libraries are being held accountable for their contribution to student learning. The findings of this study provide evidence that the instructional efforts of the library are influencing student learning outcomes.

This thesis examines the lives of Cuban refugees who entered Atlanta, Georgia between 1950 and 1980. It explores early trans-national ties between the two areas. and how Cuban refugees relied on this relationship when they left the island. It shows the process they went through from finding aid and shelter to becoming a strong active community. It explains the role religious institutions had in settling refugees and shows how the state had to work to become equipped to provide resources to a large influx of Spanish-speakers. Through this thesis one will learn of the beginnings of an important Latino community in Atlanta and how its formation prepared the city for larger immigrant groups that would arrive later.

In this study, I examine the factors that influence school districts’ commitment to implement ESL (English as a Second Language) education in compliance with the federal Bilingual Education Act of 1968. To explain variation in implementation effort, I focus on several features of the local implementation environment, including the role of Latino descriptive representation. Utilizing data on all public school districts in Texas, I employ a Heckman two-stage estimation procedure that accounts for factors that influence school districts’ decisions to implement bilingual education programs as well as factors that affect the amount of resources school districts are willing to allocate towards bilingual education. The results indicate that Latino school board and teacher representation play a positive and statistically significant role in determining: 1) whether school districts implement bilingual education programs; and 2) the level of expenditures and teacher positions allocated towards bilingual education. Thus, policy implementation outcomes translate into substantive representation.

Originaire de la République dominicaine, Junot Díaz est un écrivain dominico-américain, qui a émigré aux États-Unis à l’âge de 7 ans avec sa mère et son frère aîné, venus rejoindre le père qui les avait précédés cinq ans auparavant. Fort du succès de son roman, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, qui lui a mérité le prix Pulitzer en 2008, et de ses deux recueils, Drown (1996) et This How You Loose Her (2012), l’auteur occupe une place importante dans la sphère littéraire américaine, comme le montre la thèse. Deux de ses nouvelles, "The Sun, the Stars, the Moon" et "Wildwood" sont analysées et traduites dans la présente thèse, de même que leur traduction en français est commentée. La thèse montre en outre comment la nouvelle est un genre littéraire qui sert bien le texte diazien, sa poétique et son esthétique. "The Sun, the Moon, the Stars" et "Wildwood" sont de bons exemples du style inimitable de l’auteur, dont les principales caractéristiques sont le rythme syncopé de sa phrase et l’usage du spanglish. Le persillage textuel qui résulte de la présence de l’espagnol dans des textes rédigés en anglais perturbe et interrompt le lien narratif. Il représente aussi pour l’auteur une stratégie linguistique au service de son projet politique, qui est d’affirmer sa dominicanité et de s’adresser directement à ses compatriotes dominicano-américains afin d’avoir un dialogue avec eux, mais aussi avec son lectorat blanc pour lui rappeler que l’anglais et l’espagnol s’influencent mutuellement aux États-Unis. La langue de Diaz est sonore, imagée, son ton est oral et informel, le registre est tantôt populaire, voire grossier, tantôt relevé. Vecteur d’identité et de culture, les expressions grossières ou vulgaires ponctuent les propos de Yunior, le narrateur de "The Sun, the Moon the Stars", comme s’il s’agissait d’un tic langagier. Dans "Wildwood", la formule juratoire se retrouve davantage dans la bouche de la mère colérique de Lola, la narratrice, que chez la jeune fille en quête d’une autre vie loin de sa mère, du New Jersey, de Paterson, de l’espagnol. Traduire en français la langue de Diaz qui mêle l’anglais à une sorte d’argot dominicano-américain relève d’une gageure, d’autant plus que le traducteur canadien doit choisir entre une variété de français trop hexagonale et une variété de français trop québécoise. Dominican-born writer Junot Díaz emigrated to the United States at age 7, with his mother and older brother, to join his father, who had emigrated five years earlier. The success of Díaz’s 2008 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and two short story collections, Drown (1996) and This Is How You Lose Her (2012), has made him an important figure in the U.S. literary world, as will be shown in this thesis. This thesis includes an analysis and commented French translation of two of his short stories, namely “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars” and “Wildwood.” It also discusses the ways in which the short story is a literary genre that suits Díaz’s text, poetics and aesthetics. “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars” and “Wildwood” are good examples of the author’s inimitable style, which is characterized by syncopated sentence rhythms and the use of Spanglish. English sentences are peppered with Spanish, which interferes with and breaks up the narration. Díaz uses Spanglish also as a language strategy that serves his political agenda, namely to affirm his Dominican roots and engage his fellow Dominican-Americans in a direct dialogue, and to remind white readers that English and Spanish influence each other in the U.S. Díaz’s language is musical and vivid, his tone, informal and conversational, and his register, sometimes colloquial—or even vulgar—and sometimes literary. Coarse and vulgar expressions are conveyors of identity and culture that punctuate the statements of Yunior, the narrator in “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars,” like a verbal tic. In “Wildwood” the cursing and swearing come more from the mouth of the furious mother of Lola, the narrator, than from the young woman herself, who seeks a life far from her mother, her home town Paterson, New Jersey, and Spanish. Translating Díaz’s language, a combination of English and a kind of Dominican-American slang, into French is challenging, especially since translators in Canada are faced with choosing between varieties of French that are either too Parisian or too Québécois.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-07-30Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:55:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_js_me_assis.pdf: 3207780 bytes, checksum: ce62467640711b8877ac0bf853de7613 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A partir da década de 80 do século XX, como se sabe, os textos escritos por mulheres começam a receber merecida atenção da crítica literária latino-americana. São discutidas, portanto, as formas pelas quais são lidas e criticadas as obras de autoria feminina. Deste modo, este trabalho pretende mostrar a importância do ensaio Expressão feminina da poesia na América, da poetisa Cecília Meireles, em relação aos estudos feministas na América Latina, destacando o diálogo que se estabelece entre a autora brasileira e as poetisas hispano-americanas, em especial, as uruguaias. Cabe destacar que o referido ensaio corresponde a uma conferência proferida no ano de 1956, na Universidade do Brasil, e apresenta um panorama da expressão lírica feminina na América hispânica. São comentados aspectos significativos da poesia de grandes representantes, desde a barroca Sóror Juana Inés de la Cruz até a contemporânea de Cecília, a chilena Gabriela Mistral. Observase que as poetisas mencionadas pela autora de Viagem desempenham um importante papel no cenário da produção poética de seus respectivos países. É de se estranhar, portanto, que grande parte delas não integre a historiografia tradicional canônica, injustiça que o ensaio ceciliano corrige. Ao considerar que a crítica feminista atual preocupa-se em resgatar os textos de autoria feminina esquecidos pela crítica tradicional, como também questionar as leituras e métodos sustentados por essa crítica canônica, pode-se afirmar que, através da referida conferência, Cecília demonstra seu caráter precursor diante da crítica literária feminista na América Latina, trazendo à luz uma produção duplamente... / A partir de la década de 1980, como se sabe, los textos escritos por mujeres empiezan a recibir merecida atención ante la crítica literaria latinoamericana. Son discutidas, así pues, las formas por las cuales son leídas y criticadas las obras de autoría femenina. De este modo, este trabajo pretiende mostrar la importancia del ensayo Expressão feminina da poesia na América, de la poetisa brasileña Cecília Meireles, en relación con los estudios literarios feministas en Latinoamérica, señalando el diálogo que se establece entre la autora brasileña y las poetisas hispanoamericanas, en especial, las uruguayas. Cabe destacar que el referido ensayo corresponde a una conferencia dictada en el año de 1956, en la Universidad de Brasil que presenta un panorama de la expresión lírica femenina en la América hispánica. Son comentados rasgos significativos de la poesía de grandes representantes, desde la barroca Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz hasta la contemporánea de Cecília Meireles, la chilena Gabriela Mistral. Se observa que las poetisas nombradas por la autora de Viagem desempeñan un importante papel en el contexto de la producción poética de sus respectivos países. Es extrãno entonces que gran parte de ellas no integre la historiografía tradicional canónica, injusticia la cual el ensayo ceciliano corrige. Al considerar que la crítica feminista actual se preocupa en rescatar los textos de autoría femenina olvidados por la crítica tradicional, así como cuestionar las lecturas y métodos sostenidos por esa crítica canónica, se puede afirmar que, a través de la mencionada conferencia, Cecília demuestra su cuño precursor frente a la crítica literaria feminista en Latinoamérica, alumbrando una... (Resumen completo clicar acceso eletronico abajo)

Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéresserons à l’évolution du système migratoire entre l’Amérique latine et l’Espagne depuis la fin du XIXè siècle jusqu’à la crise économique qui a débuté en 2008. Notre hypothèse de départ est que cette dernière remet en cause la théorie de la « proximité culturelle » selon laquelle la communauté de langue, de culture et de religion avec les Espagnols faciliterait l’intégration des Latino-Américains en Espagne par rapport aux autres communautés d’immigrés. Après le boom migratoire des années 2000, les chiffres de la crise semblent indiquer un changement de cycle migratoire et une recomposition des flux, basée sur un processus de « délatino-américanisation » en cours. Qu’en est-il réellement ? Ce processus est-il réversible ? Nous répondrons à ces questions en étudiant la façon dont les Latino-Américains sont affectés par la crise dans deux Communautés Autonomes aux traditions migratoires différentes, l’Aragon et la Catalogne / Throughout this thesis, our interest will be drawn to the evolution of the migration system between Latin America and Spain from the end of the 19th century until the economic crisis that took place in 2008. Our starting hypothesis is that the latter makes us reconsider the theory of the « cultural proximity » according to which the language, cultural and religious communities with the Spanish, would make the integration of the Latin-Americans easier than the other migrant communities. After the migration boom in the 2000’s, the crisis figures seem to reveal a change of migration cycle as well as a recomposition of the migratory flows on the basis of an ongoing « Dis-Latin-Americanization» process. What about the real facts ? Is that process irreversible ? We are going to answer these questions by studying the way Latin-Americans are affected by that crisis in two Autonomous Communities, the migratory traditions of which are different : Aragon and Catalonia.

abstract: Due to federal mandates, Title I schools now are being asked to implement parent involvement programs that meaningfully involve parents in the schools to increase academic gains. This action research study was based on three different concepts from the literature: a) critical pedagogy theory from Paulo Freire, b) parent involvement from diverse scholars including Epstein, Olivos, Mapp, Henderson, and Gonzalez-DeHass, and c) Wenger's communities of practice approach. The study was designed to determine whether a community of practice approach could provide the necessary conditions to meaningfully involve Latino Spanish-speaking parents in school. This innovation took place for 14-weeks, during which the community of practice approach was developed and utilized during meetings. Data were collected during each community of practice meeting at two schools. The data sources were surveys, audio video transcriptions of the meetings, journal, field notes, leadership meetings, and analytic memos. To add reliability and validity, mixed methods were applied to triangulate the data sources. Results indicated that through a community of practice approach Latino Spanish-speaking parents could become meaningfully involved in their children's schools. Parent participants reported that the community of practice allowed them to dialogue, contribute, learn, reflect, and become self-aware of their role in the schools. Data also showed that parent participants applied the community of practice approach to contribute to the solution of problems at their school. After participating in the study, parent participants realized their potential to impact in their children's school. Additionally, they started purposefully becoming more interested in participating and planning activities with the parent liaison. Based on the results, further cycles of action research are suggested. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2012