Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation analyzes the construction of a pervasive social imaginary of unequal order in Central America between 1870 and 1900. This period was crucial in the region, which underwent a series of economic, political, and social reforms that would forever transform the natural and social landscapes of the isthmus. Although most of these structural changes have already been studied, it is still unclear how literary and cultural production intersected with the liberal elites' endeavors of social classification, economic modernization, and political institutionalization. This dissertation addresses that problem through theoretical elaborations on the social imaginary (Cornelius Castoriadis) and the distribution of the sensible (Jacques Ranciere). I specifically analyze three different types of cultural texts: household economy guides for girls and young women; cuadros costumbristas (sketches of manners); and sentimental novels and theater plays. Part 1 deals with the cultural measures that contributed to a symbolic and material division of public spaces and private spaces, both ruled by the rationale of capitalism. Chapters 1 through 3 study in detail the role of household economy manuals in the dissemination and implementation of the new capitalist logics of productivity, rationalization, and accumulation across the domestic or private spaces. Chapter 1 analyzes how these cultural texts created two opposing female archetypes: the "economic woman" or "productive housewife", figured as an agent of domestic modernization, and the "abject servant", a subaltern subject that would undergo a set of new domestic policies of surveillance, discipline, and exploitation. Chapter 2 addresses the role of the productive housewives in the implementation of new modes of regulation of time and desire within the urban households, while Chapter 3 covers the rearrangements in domestic spaces brought by the new concepts of comfort and hygiene. Part 2 deals with the simultaneous reo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Abril Trigo (Advisor); Ana Del Sarto (Committee Member); Fernando Unzueta (Committee Member); Marta Elena Casaus Arzu (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Spanish and Portuguese

As in other national cinemas, Mexican cinema has used the theme of the family as the basis for many of its films, though mainly as a way of developing the central conflict of the narrative. Unlike other national cinemas, the trope of the family was promoted by the state as a means through which it strove to give itself legitimacy. Because of the societal conflicts left behind by the Mexican Revolution, the State associated the nuclear family simile with the illusion of national unity that centered on the patriarchy. The media of the time willingly went along with the unwritten precept, and for decades the ideal of national unity was known as ‘la Gran Familia Mexicana', that is, The Great Mexican Family. Many of the films produced during the Mexican Golden Age – La Epoca de Oro – advanced images of the ideal family members: strict fathers, submissive mothers and obedient children that reflected an idealized prevailing dominant order. However, these archetypes were gradually contested by other models and arrangements of the Mexican family as depicted in film, overlapping with the socio economical process of the neoliberal governments (starting in 1982 to the present). The films Por la libre, Perfume de violetas, Amar te duele and Temporada de patos, produced between 2000 to 2004 reveal a new discourse in which the family is portrayed in crisis, highlighting the distressed father figure, which in many cases is absent. The paradigm serves as an allegory of the loss of legitimacy of the Mexican State in the last two decades. In the last twenty years, the neoliberal system has released the government of some of its responsibilities to society such as, providing a minimum infrastructure and an environment well-being for its citizens and their social progress. The neoliberal model has proven to be problematic; it has increased the levels of poverty and social inequality in Mexico. The corpus of films studied in this dissertation examine how the families in the stories mirro (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ignacio Corona PhD (Advisor); Richard A. Gordon PhD (Committee Member); Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar PhD (Committee Member); Soledad Fernandez PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Motion Pictures

BA, Oberlin College, 2018, Latin American Studies

This project offers a new perspective for understanding the country and culture of Chile by examining the messages embedded in sport competitions. I will first detail the success of distance runner Manuel Plaza in his second-place finish at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games, and analyze how Plaza's success at an international competition was adopted and interpreted to represent the entrance of Chile into modern and Western society. I will then discuss the struggle between different sections of Chilean society to create and monopolize the master narrative of the events that took place following the military coup of 1973. This section will demonstrate how sporting symbols like the National Stadium, World Cup, and Chilean national futbol team were used as the battleground to propagate these conflicting narratives. This project aims to understand how definitions of chilenidad, or Chilean identity, have evolved over time, and explore the intersection of chilenidad and sport. Drawing upon historical, political, and literary frameworks, this project advocates for the continued study of sport within the field of area studies, in order to learn from the cultural significance that sport carries.

Committee: Yago Colás (Advisor); Claire Solomon (Committee Member); Patrick O'Connor (Committee Chair) Subjects: Latin American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Spanish and Portuguese

At the same time as globalization unfolded as a new cultural formation that engulfed Latin America in profound economic transformations that affected its social, political, and cultural fabric, Argentina witnessed the emergence of the so-called “New Argentine Cinema”: an outstanding production by a new generation of filmmakers characterized by a formal and thematic break with the country's filmic tradition. My project argues that this new trend in filmmaking, like a seismographic device, captures the unsettling consequences of cultural globalization: the emergence of new subjectivities, postmodern forms of individuation and modes of sociability and political intervention. These films, characterized by a minimalist aesthetics highlighting casual contact, chaotic moments, and erratic flows, portray a landscape where social bonds are a by-product of chance encounters, traditional institutions are deemed obsolete, and indifference permeates interpersonal relationships. Therefore, this project revolves around three interrelated issues: the social and psychological implications of globalization; the production of new social imaginaries; and the configuration of new subjectivities. In order to analyze these issues, I develop a critical-theoretical framework encompassing film studies and discourse analysis; cultural and globalization studies; and studies on subjectivity and citizenship. Focusing on the films' innovative aesthetics, I analyze them as primary cultural products which stage the rearticulation of new forms of subjectivity and new patterns of affect predominant in contemporary Argentinean society, primarily among its youth. Such an approach allows me to enquire into the refracting relationship between cultural products and the dynamics of a globalized society in the Third World; the shaping of new subjectivities in an atmosphere where nations are being increasingly replaced by global capital and transnational corporations; and the construction of new forms of so (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Abril Trigo Prof. (Advisor); Ana Del Sarto Prof. (Committee Member); Laura Podalky Prof (Committee Member); Vodovotz Yael (Other) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Educational Policy and Leadership

This study presents Puerto Rican Folk Healing Practices (PRFHP) as a cultural experience in an attempt to understand attitudes towards health from the healers' perspective and illuminate factors that resonate with the field of somatics studies, which regards individuals as whole (body-mind-spirit connection). Case studies were used to present the nature of six Puerto Rican folk healers and the practices they perform in the island of Puerto Rico. Qualitative research methods were used to gather the information. Semi-structured interviews, video observations, active participation, journals, and field notes were the tools used to capture the experiential approach of this research. Culturally grounded analysis was done in order to find common themes among six Puerto Rican folk healers and their practices. From the culturally grounded analysis, five major themes emerged. They are service, reverence to nature and natural cycles, the concept of medical mestizaje, physical and spiritual world as a continuum and the sense of embodiment. The second analysis explored how assumptions of the somatic framework relates to Puerto Rican Folk Healing Practices. The assumptions explored are a) perception of the world through the body. b) First person experience is privileged. c) Sarcal consciousness as a powerful guidance. d) reality as determined by the perception of the individual e) existence in the world as holistic f) The individuals as simultaneously interconnected with the world. g) The individual as a multi-dimensional being which transcends time and space. Findings from this inquiry present how the first three somatic assumptions, perception of the world through the body, first person experience as privileged and the concept of sarcal consciousness as a powerful guidance, gives discursive logic and a clearer explanation to the cultural theme of embodiment in PRFHP. However, culturally grounded research greatly expands the other four somatic assumptions, especially the last tw (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Seymour Kleinman (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Health