Central American Theses and Dissertations
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/7107
2024-03-29T10:34:13ZNão é apenas sobre nós: Food as a Mechanism to Address Social and Environmental Injustices in Mato Grosso, Brazil
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/19533
Não é apenas sobre nós: Food as a Mechanism to Address Social and Environmental Injustices in Mato Grosso, Brazil
Chavez, Marisela Andrade
The Landless Workers Movement (MST) is one of the most important social movements in the world for the implementation of agrarian land reform. Their fight for access to land has been based on the premise that land should serve a “social function.” Since its birth in the 1980s, the MST has settled more than one million people in Brazil on approximately 35 million acres of land (an area about the size of Paraguay). Many of the settlements across the country have demonstrated a commitment to move beyond social justice by combining environmental justice into their discourses and activities, and pinning their struggle with the fight for food sovereignty. This ethnographic research explored the different ways that environmental discourses activities are being incorporated into the movement by describing the experience of the 12 de Outubro settlement in the state of Mato Grosso. Interviews with members of 12 de Outubro reveal that by implementing alternative agricultural methods like agroecology and agroforestry, they believe they are able to restore and protect the land that they acquire, while working towards food sovereignty. Secondly, they hope to demonstrate that their struggle for access to land is not just for individual benefit, but rather, that by growing healthy food sustainably and by developing a cooperative that benefits the entire community; it is truly fulfilling its “social function.” Finally, they believe that their partnership with a local university has connected them to the larger urban community through the establishment of CANTASOL, a solidarity commercialization system, extending awareness about food, the environment, and social justice into the urban sphere.
2015-08-31T00:00:00ZThe Effect of Religion on Latin American Migration to the United States
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/19047
The Effect of Religion on Latin American Migration to the United States
Hill, Jeffrey
This paper explores the effects of religion on Latin American migration to the United States. It updates the existing literature on the effect of religion on the six stages of migration (decision, preparation, journey, arrival, settlement, and transnational linkages) by integrating field research with existing case studies to illuminate the ways in which religion plays an important part in each stage. It argues that deportation should be considered as the seventh stage of migration because of its ubiquity and the unique challenges it presents to migrants. It explores the effect of both institutional religion and personal faith on the migrant being pushed through the deportation process. The paper employs the use of qualitative interviews and a case study of the Casa del Migrante Scalabriniana in Tijuana, Mexico to explore the effects of religion on each stage of migration. While the study does not argue that religion is a part of every migrant's journey, it does provide evidence that religion is an important resource throughout the stages of migration, even to those who do not consider themselves to be religious. Finally, it invites more research be done to explore the effects of religion on the newly proposed deportation stage of migration throughout Mexico and Latin America as a whole.
2015-05-31T00:00:00ZRewriting Columbus in the New Latin American Historical Novel
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/19019
Rewriting Columbus in the New Latin American Historical Novel
Cervantes, Federico
This work intends to analyze the historical and social relevance of the New Latin American Historical Novel (NLHN) based on the parallel evolution of this literary genre and the new postmodern trends in history. This work will primarily explore how fictional texts question the past from the present perspective and challenge history as a unique discipline for understanding past events. As a specific example of historical revisionism in NLHNs, the research will examine the rewriting and demystification of Columbus as a hero, highlighting how historical literature has questioned the conquest and its consequences for the history and culture of Latin America. It is evident that the NLHN attempts to explain the actual underdevelopment of Latin America as an outcome closely connected with European intervention, in opposition to a more antiquated view that has seen it as a positive event for this region.
2015-05-31T00:00:00ZDIGGING THE ROOTS or Resistance and identity politics of the mouvman rasin in Haiti
https://hdl.handle.net/1808/12842
DIGGING THE ROOTS or Resistance and identity politics of the mouvman rasin in Haiti
Jayaram, Kiran C.
The ideological, cultural, and physical means which brought François Duvalier to power in 1957 created a process whereby the state idea became the metonym for all Haitian identity. In what is now called the Roots movement, some people working on the grassroots level began resisting the Duvaliers and asserting a new Haitian identity for themselves. Among the several parts of the movement, people calling themselves sanba-s began experiencing and living according to what they considered “traditional” means, wherefrom they created a new music, mizik rasin. An analysis of the sanba-s’ politics of identity regarding history, music, dress, language, and religion conveys a cultural critique of late Duvalierism and other contemporary social issues.
Submitted to the Center of Latin American Studies and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
2002-01-01T00:00:00Z