The current study investigated vowel quality in Miami Cuban Spanish, looking specifically at the influence of English on the Spanish vowel system. The vowel production of eleven Miami Cubans from three generations is investigated. Subjects include six males and five females. Three different elicitation instruments were used. The first was a brief sociolinguistic interview, the second was a story that the participants were asked to read aloud. Carrier words were embedded into the story in order to obtain multiple samples of both stressed and unstressed vowels. For the third instrument, subjects were asked to read a list of words with careful attention to their pronunciation. The reading list contained the same words that were embedded in the story of the first task. These three instruments were repeated in both Spanish and in English in order to investigate possible English influence in the Spanish vowel system of these bilinguals.

En la vasta cuentística latinoamericana, es la del mexicano Bruno Estañol una de las pocas que presenta el fenómeno de lo extraño, la caracterización femenina y el tratamiento del cuerpo humano no sólo con un enfoque particular, sino como elementos recurrentes y de gran importancia para el desarrollo y evolución de las tramas y también de los personajes que participan en ellas. Su escritura invita a reflexionar en la manera tan particular en la que los personajes femeninos se comportan, afectando contundentemente el devenir de los acontecimientos en cada uno de los cuentos. Igualmente, el tratamiento que le da el autor a los cinco sentidos del cuerpo humano y su protagonismo en La esposa de Martin Butchell me ha invitado a llevar a cabo este análisis basado en la interrelación que identifico con lo extraño. ¿Es entonces el cuerpo un medio, un instrumento para el desarrollo emocional de los personajes de cada historia, o será más bien un ente que sirve más bien para extraerlos de su realidad y llevarlos a un lugar familiar que no logran reconocer del todo? Mujer, cuerpo y extrañeza; escritura, ciencia y arte, son algunos de los mundos que se fusionan en la vida y obra del escritor de La esposa de Martin Butchell. Este trabajo se concentra entonces en estudiar siete de los cuentos de la mencionada colección: "La esposa de Martin Butchell", "Cundeamor", "Ver de lejos", "Visita a la tumba de Edgar Allan Poe", "Rosalía", "El sacrificio de Ilse" y "La fascinadora de los ojos bicolor". Busco analizar algunos de sus personajes femeninos principales y también identificar la forma en que el tema del cuerpo humano toma una relevancia especial y cómo se incluye un toque de lo siniestro o lo uncanny de maneras muy distintivas en cada uno de esos elementos temáticos.

Second language acquisition (SLA) research is rich in possibilities for examining language-specific phonetics and phonology in the cross-linguistic context of acquisition. However, much of the existing English-Spanish research focuses on the acquisition of voice onset time (VOT) of /p, t, k, b, d, ɡ/ or rhotics, or on acquisition in relation to factors such as task type, time abroad, and motivational intensity (e.g. Alvord & Christiansen, 2012; Díaz-Campos, 2004, 2006; Face, 2006; Martinsen, 2010; Martinsen & Alvord, 2012; Shively, 2008; Shively & Cohen, 2008; Tanner, 2012 a, 2012b; Zampini, 1994). Like these studies, the present study incorporates linguistic and extralinguistic variables, but this time focusing on Spanish /l/ acquisition in native English speakers. Furthermore, the present study investigates L2 lateral liquid /l/ acquisition by comparing L2 results with previously established L1 research of /l/. Reviewing a variety of SLA phonological research in a wide range of contexts, I include in this study nine independent variables based on syllabic context, phonetic context, level of learning, task type, and motivational intensity. The L2 Spanish /l/ data came from digitally recorded speech samples from 21 L2 Spanish speakers and were compared with a benchmark established by similar recordings from two L1 English and two L1 Spanish speakers. All participated in conversational and reading tasks, and all the L2 participants completed a background questionnaire for demographic and linguistic experience data and the Survey of Motivational Intensity (Gardner, 1985) to measure individual motivational intensities to learn Spanish. From these data, target-like /l/ acquisition was determined by acoustically derived formant measurements and tested for significance in a variety of variables. Of the independent variables, syllabic context proved to be collinear with vowels preceding and following /l/ and motivational intensity was not statistically significant. Moreover, the results prove that syllabic context, certain preceding and following phonetic segments, level of learning, and task type all have a significant effect on successful L2 Spanish /l/ acquisition.

Este estudio busca analizar lo grotesco y su relación con la identidad nacional en las dos novelas más importantes de Jorge Icaza: Huasipungo (1934) y El Chulla Romero y Flores (1958). Estas obras exploran los temas de la animalización y la máscara social dentro del contexto de la sociedad ecuatoriana de la primera mitad del siglo XX para denunciar el abuso de los indígenas y el trauma del mestizo por tener sangre indígena. Estos dos conceptos se conectan con la noción de la construcción de una verdadera identidad nacional a través del indigenismo y el reconocimiento de la ascendencia nativa.

Este proyecto consiste en la traducción de un guión de documental para televisión de carácter informativo y motivacional, adaptada a la diversidad de población de hispanoparlantes con diversidad de modalidad de habla. También, por encargo del cliente, el documental será adaptado en su traducción a una amplia audiencia diversa en cuanto a características socioculturales. Para realizar traducción, se utilizará una visión integradora aplicada a las diferentes teorías de la traducción. A pesar de tener en cuenta a los hispanoparlantes del mundo, la población a la que se dirige en particular el proyecto es la población hispanoparlante que convive en Estados Unidos y España como modelos típicos de convivencia intercultural. El proyecto incluirá reflexiones de antes, durante y después de la traducción, así­ como ideas de continuación en el objetivo de obtener mejores traducciones e interpretaciones adaptadas a una audiencia diversa.

This project analyzes three examples of testimonial literature written by favela residents in Brazil to demonstrate the extent to which these accounts contest or confirm the popular news media's violent representation of favelas and their inhabitants. The literary works Quatrocentos contra um: Uma história do Comando Vermelho (1991) by William da Silva Lima and Capão pecado (2000) by Ferréz and the documentary Notícias de uma guerra particular (1999) present an insider's perspective of the violence that takes place in the favela and thus can reveal the factors that contribute to it. Through these explanations, readers and viewers become aware of the generally unheard side of the story of the repressed and ignored poor class. Lima's voice in Quatrocentos contra um serves to explain the way that crime was organized as a means of survival to combat the repression and abuse of the government, and in Capão pecado Ferréz demonstrates the difficulty that favela residents who are not involved in drug trafficking have in avoiding the violence that surrounds them because they do not have equal opportunity for education and employment. He suggests a non-violent rebellion through artistic means to build a positive image of favela inhabitants, both inside and outside of the poor community. The documentary Notícias de uma guerra particular directed by João Moreira Salles and Kátia Lund presents information that places much of the blame for violence on the lack of social structure that would integrate the poor, and more importantly allows for honest, hardworking favela residents to share their experience of trying to make a living and avoid illegal activity while suffering from the stereotype that all who live in poor communities are involved in violent activity. Together these works constitute an attempt for the violence of the favelas to be explained through the voice of favela residents themselves.

The body of the literature examining the acquisition of Spanish rhotics is expanding (e.g., Canfield, 1940; Face, 2006; Rose, 2010; Hurtado & Estrada, 2010). Most studies on the acquisition of Spanish rhotics have focused on how students progress at different levels of instruction (e.g., Rose, 2010; Hurtado & Estrada, 2010) while various other factors have been shown to affect the second language acquisition of phonology, such as style variation (e.g., Diaz-Campos, 2006; González--Bueno, 1997; Zampini, 1994), L1 transfer (e.g., Major, 2001), and experience abroad (e.g., Díaz-Campos, 2004, 2006; Lafford, 2006). Work on the acquisition of the Spanish tap and trill by regular classroom students has consistently shown that these sounds, especially the trill, are difficult to master for adult English speaking learners (e.g., Reeder, 1998; Face, 2006). However, the influence of factors such as cultural sensitivity, motivation, and experience abroad has been relatively understudied. This study explores the influence of these factors on the second language acquisition of the pronunciation of Spanish rhotics. In order to investigate the acquisition of Spanish pronunciation, 39 adult learners of various levels of instruction participated in the study. Participants completed a background questionnaire, the Survey of Motivational Intensity (Gardner 1985), and the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) as a measure of cultural sensitivity. Learners' speech was recorded as they completed three different tasks, including a brief oral interview, the reading of a story, and a world list including rhotics in six different phonetic contexts that students were asked to read aloud. The tasks were recorded digitally and production of the tap and trill was analyzed spectrographically using Praat. Finally, the relationship between the aforementioned factors and target-like production of /ɾ/ and /r/ was explored with a crosstab analysis combined with an ANOVA analysis and a multiple regression analysis. The results show that neither Motivational Intensity nor Cultural Sensitivity have an influence in the acquisition of Spanish rhotics. Level of instruction and time of residence are the main predictors of target like pronunciation of the Spanish rhotics. The phonetic context harder to acquire is the trill after an alveolar consonant while the easiest is the tap between vowels.

Mitl Valdez's film Los confines (1987) is an adaptation of several works of fiction by the Mexican author Juan Rulfo. The director chose to adapt two short stories ("Talpa" and "¡Diles que no me maten!") and an episode from the author's first novel, Pedro Páramo. Valdez's intent was to "capturar el sentido" of the Jaliscan author or, in other words, to remain faithful to certain elements of his writing while adjusting them to the filmic medium. The musical score of Los confines is the method of appropriation that this study endeavors to investigate, since it shares common themes, metaphors, and imagery with the source texts. The musical language of Los confines not only communicates meaning within the film, but echoes elements of Rulfo's writing as well. Musical motifs in the score evoke concepts and symbols that form part of the writer's fictive universe and illustrate how Valdez finds "un equivalente en la expresión cinematográfica" for Rulfian material (qtd. in Pelayo).

The object of this thesis is to analyze the presence of the pedagogical ekphrastic elements in the novel The Story of The Predestined Pilgrim and his Brother Reprobate by Father Alexandre de Gusmmão. In the past this novel has been an obscure masterpiece outside the circle of those who study early Portuguese language works. In the last half century there has been a crescendo of the study of this novel as more scholars have taken an interest in the pilgrimage motif and in particular using this novel in comparative literature. A monumental contribution to bring this novel out of obscurity is the recent publication of its English translation by Christopher C. Lund. His efforts make this work more accessible to students and scholars who will become enlightened by its contents. His English translation has been used exclusively and is the enabling factor for this study of pedagogical ekphrastic elements contained in the novel. Pilgrimage is a frequent motif in seventeenth-century literature. His pilgrimage is the narrative of two polar opposite brothers whose journeys take them to six cities. As they traverse these cities, the brothers make choices that lead them to their final destinations of Jerusalem, the symbol of heaven, and Babylon, which depicts hell. Gusmmão emphasizes early on that their choices will cause them to be separated forever. Ekphrases are used to enrich and capture the reader's attention to the teachings of Gusmmão through the choices placed before each brother. Gusmmão employs whit, charm, characterization, ekphrases, vignettes, and allegory, with the poignant pedagogical objective to cause the reader to decide if he or she is a predestined or a reprobate and would be satisfied with the inevitable outcomes. I review the socio-historic presence of the Jesuits in Brazil as well as their remarkable pedagogical influence. Ekphrasis is studied as to its origins and its longevity throughout the centuries and how scholars have defined ekphrasis. The essence of this thesis is the extraction and examination of two hundred and forty-one ekphrastic passages from the novel and the analysis of their pedagogical value along with their pictorial elements. It is important to note that the findings of this study loudly affirm Gusmão's use of pedagogical ekphrastic elements as they were detected abundantly in all but ten of the sixty-three chapters included in his novel. The literary richness created by Gusmão's use of ekphrasis so predominantly throughout his novel is indicative of his stature as a pedagogical literary master.

This thesis examines the Dias Gomes' play turned telenovela, O Bem-Amado, to demonstrate the use of satire and dark humor to make political commentary during the tumultuous sociopolitical era in Brazil from the early 1960s through the late-1970s. This era in Brazil is characterized by the overthrow of the leftist democratically elected civilian government by a corporate-backed hardline military dictatorship in the early part of 1964, which lasts for approximately 20 years. The result of this authoritative military rule causes many artists and intellectuals that oppose the dictatorship's repression to flee into exile abroad or adapt to the changing sociopolitical environment. Those who are not forced into exile begin to procure and find new avenues to express their dissatisfaction with the lack of free political expression. Dias Gomes becomes an accomplished playwright during the late 1950s and 1960s and uses the stage to make sociopolitical commentary and criticism. However by the late 1960s his pieces are continually being censored by the regime. At this time the television soap opera has become immensely popular in the country and the writer receives an invitation by an old colleague to begin writing telenovelas. Through this invitation, the playwright continues to make political commentary through his ability to portray the authentic Brazilian social experience. O Bem- Amado stands out as one of these authentic Brazilian portrayals of a corrupt Northeast Brazilian mayor that does anything to protect his political image. Dias Gomes employs dark humor and satire to point out the follies of the old politician, while at the same time he critiques corrupt authoritarian governments in general. This satiric humor proves to be the right aesthetic to get by the censors of the then authoritarian military regime and make public his sociopolitical criticisms.