Contemporary Spanish basal readers, published for use in elementary bilingual Spanish/English classrooms in the United States, reflect a technological view of curriculum, a behavioristic view of learning, and a part to whole view of reading. Although teacher's guides and promotional materials for the basal series make reference to recent reading theory and research, the basal materials themselves, when examined from a theoretical perspective, demonstrate little understanding of the reading process. Six basal reading programs, published since 1980, were studied: Addison Wesley's Hagamos Caminos; Scott Foresman's Focus: Leer para triunfar; Houghton Mifflin's Programa de lectura en espanol de Houghton Mifflin; Macmillan's Mil Maravillas; Economy's Economy Spanish Reading Program; and Santillana's Lectura en dos idiomas. Each series was surveyed using the Program Profile Continuum Survey and then analyzed in depth with the Spanish Program Profile Instrument. Both evaluation instruments focus on reading, language, learning, and teaching theory. The results of the study of the six series suggest the programs are more alike than different. These similarities can be summarized as follows: (1) Despite the fact that the series approach print differently, the ultimate goal of skill exercises in all the series is word identification. (2) Recent comprehension theory is discussed in the teacher's guides, but comprehension questions reflect the idea that comprehension is a product rather than a process. (3) Student text is carefully controlled and often repetitious because the assumption is that language is habit. (4) The language of the majority of the student text in all of the series is adapted. (5) The materials reflect the view that the teacher is a technician leading the passive learner. (6) The scope and sequence of the programs sets many students up for failure because each step is dependent upon mastery of the previous steps. The materials of the Spanish basal reading programs studied do not reflect the current state of knowledge about the reading process in Spanish. Alternate programs using a whole language approach to learning would allow Hispanic students to choose their own reading, write their own stories, and become literate in their first language.

Though the field of Spanish heritage language (SHL) studies has seen a boom in research, such research has not yet addressed the materials available for SHL classes. This dissertation fills a gap in previous research by addressing the representation of US Latinos and US varieties of Spanish in the SHL context. The current study involves a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the presentation of both culture and language in intermediate level university SHL textbooks, in order to show how such texts present US Spanish-speaking people’s culture and their language varieties. Previous research on both history and Spanish as a foreign language textbooks show that US Latino populations in such texts are frequently reduced to numbers, faceless statistics or stereotypes (Arizpe & Aguirre, 1987; Cruz, 1994; Elissondo, 2001; Ramírez and Hall, 1990; Rodríguez and Ruiz, 2005; and van Dijk, 2004a; 2004b). Additionally, previous analyses of the presentation of Spanish in Spanish foreign language (SFL) textbooks show SFL texts provide “…varying or misleading intuitions about dialects of Spanish” (Wieczorek 1992, p.34; see also Fonseca-Greber & Waugh, 2003). This dissertation corroborates these findings in the SHL context and presents suggestions for improving the quality of materials used in the SHL context. The results of the current study clearly parallel those found by van Dijk (2004b); though the texts present “factual” information, it is the selective presentation of this information that culminates in an overall negative representation of immigrant and minority cultures, which is rooted in a metonymical understanding of what it means to be immigrant. Additionally, all the texts continue to promote a pseudo-Castilian variety of Spanish, while delegating student varieties of the language to appropriate home contexts. This bidialectal treatment of US varieties of Spanish excludes critical based dialect awareness altogether. This dissertation addresses the need to both improve and develop “…pedagogically sound textbooks and new technology materials designed to meet the Hispanic bilingual student’s linguistic needs” (Roca, 1997, pp.37-43). It is only through critical discourse analysis that we can assure that textbooks are indeed presenting a positive image of US Latinos and their language to students enrolled in university SHL classes.

Through the investigation of the strategies and tactics the San Juan de Santa Cruz family used in local contexts, this study demonstrates how Spanish colonists were able to access the global economy. Beyond the construction of family and political networks, the brothers connected the peripheries of Manila- Acapulco, Veracruz, and Nueva Vizcaya in order to manage and expand their family business empire beyond the cores of Mexico City or the crown in Spain. Each chapter of the dissertation focuses on the local strategies employed by Francisco and Manuel in particular peripheries, and investigates the links created by the family between peripheral locations in an effort to access the global economy, avoiding core areas in the process. Relying on the conceptual language of Immanuel Wallerstein's world-system, but following a creative opening cracked by Andre Gunder Frank, this study posits a multi- polar world system in which there were multiple cores, namely Asia, Mexico, and Europe. Mexico is centered in this study as a core that controls aspects of Europe's access to the commanding Asian export economy. The role of peripheries within the Mexican core provides an opportunity to reevaluate the relationship of cores to peripheries, and illustrates the role of merchant- bureaucrats, located in the Americas, in the early modern world economy.

En La retórica del placer: Cuerpo, magia, deseo y subjetividad en cinco novelas de Gioconda Belli analizo el papel que desempeña el cuerpo de la mujer en el discurso de Belli y las transgresiones que éste produce. Argumento que en la narrativa de Belli existe una retórica del placer y en ésta, las protagonistas transgreden la construcción del rol de género y de sexo que se ha fijado para la mujer en la cultura de las sociedades latinoamericanas a través de diferentes mecanismos de resistencia que realizan por medio de su cuerpo. En este sentido, las protagonistas emplean por lo menos una de las siguientes estrategias: 1) afirman y revalorizan lo femenino; por un lado, maquillándose y vistiéndose de manera muy atractiva y sensual--lo cual puede interpretarse como una contradicción--; sin embargo, emplean estas "armas milenarias de la feminidad" (La mujer 16), no para convertirse en objetos de placer para los hombres, sino para ellas mismas; y por otro, manifestando orgullosamente su intuición, su sensibilidad y su conexión con la naturaleza; 2) desempeñan otros roles de género saliéndose de los patrones que tan estrictamente han sido establecidos para la mujer; y por último, 3) gozan abiertamente de su erotismo para redefinir su sexualidad y otorgarse poder.El apoyo teórico que empleo para analizar las novelas antes señaladas se compone primeramente de las premisas críticas sobre la sexualidad de Lucía Guerra-Cunningham, Amy K. Kaminsky y Diane E. Marting. Además, las teorizaciones de Barbara Loach y Michel Foucault, principalmente, son utilizadas para explicar el concepto de poder y su relación con el cuerpo. Asimismo recurro a los conceptos teóricos sobre erotismo de Georges Bataille, a las conceptualizaciones del realismo mágico de Wendy B. Faris y de "lo real maravilloso" de Alejo Carpentier, y a las perspectivas teóricas del carácter ficticio de los discursos históricos de Hayden White.

En este trabajo se analiza la elección de lengua de encuentros de servicio (inglés y español). Las herramientas metodológicas empleadas son tres: una observación de carácter etnográfico, una tarea controlada y un experimento de percepción visual en línea. La hipótesis central es que el fenotipo étnico juega un papel importante en la elección de lengua en encuentros de servicio que se llevan a cabo por primera vez. El lugar en donde se realizó la investigación es un panadería ubicada en el centro este de la ciudad de Tucson, Arizona.En el primer componente metodológico es la observación etnográfica, donde se analizaron las interacciones de las trabajadoras con los distintos clientes que frecuentaron el lugar. El análisis se centró en cuatro aspectos: (i) la expresión de identidad y membresía de grupo mediante el uso de los pronombres nosotros y nuestro, (ii) el traslado de roles domésticos en las dinámicas de interacción de las parejas latinas, (iii) la existencia de una co-membresía expresada a través de la realización de las pequeñas charlas y (iv) el valor simbólico del español en este establecimiento.Seguidamente, se realizó un experimento de percepción visual, cuyo objetivo fue decidir sobre la etnicidad de los 21 clientes que acudieron a la panadería y las trabajadoras del lugar. Dentro de los resultados se obtuvo un juicio de etnicidad para cada participante. De la misma forma, se observa que el grupo de los jueces bilingües sobresale dado que es el único grupo que presentan un 100% de acuerdo en cuanto a la asignación de etnicidad de una imagen dada. Por otra parte, los jueces bilingües y los monolingües (con una tendencia menos fuerte), conforme más tiempo vivan en la comunidad, mayor será el tiempo de respuesta. Los resultados anteriores ilustran el hecho de que vivir en la comunidad y convivir cotidianamente con ambos tipos de fenotipo hace a los hablantes más conscientes de las sutilezas que deben ser consideradas al momento de evaluar fenotipicamente a un interlocutor.Finalmente se analiza la tarea controlada, en la cual se reclutaron a 21 participantes para que acudieran a la panadería y actuaran como clientes. El análisis consiste en la correlación de distintos aspectos de la interacción tales como aspectos sociodemográficos. Dentro de los resultados destaca que el fenotipo étnico no es un factor de importancia cuando las trabajadoras abren el encuentro de servicio; éste no tiene gran influencia en su elección de lengua, ellas siempre abren el encuentro mercantil en español sin importar la etnicidad del interlocutor. No obstante, cuando los clientes abren el intercambio comunicativo ellos tienen la opción de hacerlo en inglés o en español y para aquellos que pueden hacerlo en español la elección de lengua es por defecto el español. Asimismo, se destaca que la influencia del contexto en el que sucede la elección de lengua es un espacio ideológico que brinda un valor simbólico al español.

O objetivo dessa dissertação foi analisar as representações corporais presentes nas obras literárias das escritoras Ana Vásquez e Cintia Moscovich e nas artísticas de Clara Pechansky, Liza Schnaiderman, Lucía Waiser e Raquel Partnoy cotejando-as e comparando-as situando-as no contexto econômico, político e social da América Latina.A princípio foram dados conceitos e definições sobre a história da imigração judaica para a América Latina, sobre o corpo e os temas mais relevantes sobre ele. Em seguida, foram analisados os dois romances, Duas Iguais (2004) e Mi amiga, Chantal (1991). Depois fez-se uma análise das obras de pintoras e escultoras e a visão do corpo da mulher com suas (de)formidades. Por fim, analisa-se o folheto da exposição A Lição de pintura (2003) o qual resume em si o diálogo entre as artes visuais e a literatura, já que, no referido folheto, os quadros da artista Pechansky são apresentados pelos textos da escritora Moscovich.Com esta pesquisa, conclui-se que as representações corporais presentes na literatura e nas artes visuais dessas artistas, questionam o processo repressivo ao qual está submetida a mulher desde os tempos bíblicos. Essas obras propõem novas formas identitárias (de)formadas resultantes de questionamentos, descobertas e inquietações surgidas ao longo da história.

The investigator evaluated a commercially available Spanish word recognition ability test. The material consists of four lists of fifty bisyllabic tetraphonemic Spanish words available from Auditec of St. Louis as: "Spanish speech discrimination lists 1-4". Interlist equivalence, word difficulty, speaker's intelligibility, and P/I functions' slopes were investigated. Taped lists were presented to 16 normal hearing native Spanish speaking adults at four presentation levels. Statistical analysis indicated that the intelligibility of list three is significantly different than the other lists at the.05 level. At the low presentation levels, subjects of Mexican origin obtained better scores than subjects of other nationalities. The P/I functions' slope (4.3%) was comparable to that obtained by investigators of English tests. Most frequently missed words have as common denominators: presence of the /s/ sound, and are words that retain their meaning even after deletion of final /s/. Talker's speech intelligibility was judged to be very clear.

No description available.

The “I” speaks in each of the poems presented; but whose I? The collection explores the use of personae, and gives voice to “the other” I’s/las otras, women who came before us and those who walk among us. Sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish, sometimes the voices cross between languages. Written primarily in free verse, the poems are ordered to allow the mingling of languages from the speakers on the page. Through other eyes, some of the characters revive the past, speak from the grave. They provide a glimpse into what lies beyond the “I.” We hear the women, their advice, their reflections, their stories. In taking on the different personae, the poet relinquishes her voice. However, some I’s leave us guessing as to who is speaking, and how much has the poet intertwined of her own voice.

This thesis is the first book-length study of the three autos sacramentales by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Sor Juana’s religious drama has received little attention, despite her status as one of the greatest figures of Mexican literature. She was also writing during a particularly significant period in Hispanic literary history: at the end of the Spanish Golden Age, and at the rise of a new class of intellectual élites in the New World, the criollos. I contend that Sor Juana’s autos sacramentales are crucial to understanding how she contributed to the formation of a criollo identity. In doing so, she engaged with the mentalities of two continents and two historical periods: Europe and the Americas, and the Baroque and the Enlightenment. To demonstrate this, I provide a study of each of Sor Juana’s sacramental plays, alongside the loa which was written to accompany them. My method combines close-text reading with a historical approach, and I pay particular attention to the theological function of the plays. In each chapter, I focus on the concurrent strands of thought in her works. I consider how the plays demonstrate the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, and how they engage with the aesthetic and theological mindset of the Spanish Baroque. I study how they incorporate indigenous Nahuatl theatrical traditions, and ask how they engage with the scientific developments of the Enlightenment. I conclude that in her autos sacramentales Sor Juana expresses a mindset that is both geographically and historically “between two worlds.” The influence of Nahuatl theatre on Sor Juana’s dramaturgy has never before been studied. The influence of Enlightenment thought on her works has been noted by a few scholars, but never considered in relation to her religious works. The demonstration of the interaction of Enlightenment and Catholic ideas challenges our notion of the Enlightenment as a secularising movement, and has potential implications for scholars of the period beyond the sphere of Sor Juana studies.