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 Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Contemporary Music

The Festival Internacional de Flautistas en el Centro del Mundo has helped countless flute students across the globe to get an international education, increasing the development and knowledge of the next generations of musicians. This dissertation will explain how the Festival, through its abundance of rehearsals, performances, and masterclasses, has become an imperative resource for the growth of the international flute community. My intention with this document is to advocate for a more widespread dissemination of Latin American musical repertoire and educational opportunities and to build strong flute communities in every country, regardless of financial status or other limitations. This document also serves as a guide for flutists from any country who wish to benefit from the pedagogical ideas, repertoire selections, and historical performances from the Festival Internacional. Through historical and narrative methodologies, this research presents findings from over thirty years of festival performances and classes, including interviews with key guest artists and participants as well as a review of festival programs.

Committee: Teresa Sanchez D.M.A. (Committee Chair); Dominic Wells Ph.D. (Other); Elaine Colprit Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kevin Schempf M.M. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education; History; Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Music; Music Education; Pedagogy; Performing Arts; Personal Relationships; Social Research; Teacher Education; Teaching

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2021, Philosophy

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz has yet to achieve her proper place in the early modern canon of philosophy. For the past century Sor Juana, the 17th century Mexican nun and scholar, has been examined through different lenses—literary, gender studies, and Latin American philosophy. In this thesis, I argue for the need to examine Sor Juana's works through the lens of philosophy of literature. In three chapters, I look at two of Sor Juana's works and how she used the genres of letter writing and poetry to advance her philosophical ideas about women and herself. The first is a poem known as Hombres Necios or Foolish Men, and the second is a letter known as La respuesta a Sor Filotea or The Reply to Sor Filotea. Poetry and letter writing were some of the only genres permitted to women at this time. Sor Juana took advantage of this restriction and exploited the natural attributes of these two genres so that her arguments were less vulnerable to censorship. The first chapter examines Hombres necios through a philosophy of poetry lens. In the poem, Sor Juana asserts that there are sexual double standards that women suffer; these double standards are placed on them by men. Many scholars like Octavio Paz, Frank Warnke, Alan Trueblood, Electa Arenal, and Amanda Powell examine Sor Juana's poetry through literary or feminist lenses. I add to their interpretations and contribute to the philosophical discussion the idea that Sor Juana's poem creates a space for her arguments. By using the structure of the redondilla, or “little round one”, Sor Juana emphasizes different words to create double meanings and give words to the anger that women feel. The poem allows men a slight reprieve of guilt, before they are confronted with her conclusion that all men are to blame. The second and third chapter focuses on the similarities that Sor Juana draws between her own persecution and self-defense to that of Socrates found in Plato's Apology. By comparing the two defenses, we see parallels betw (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ammon Allred (Committee Chair); Madeline Muntersbjorn (Committee Member); Manuel Montes (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American Literature; Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, History (Arts and Sciences)

In January 1959 Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and soon proved to be a perplexing opponent for the United States. The island nation did not have to commit soldiers or weaponry to advance its revolutionary agenda in Latin America. The ideas and romanticism associated with the Cuban Revolution were enough to foster anti-U.S. and pro-Cuban sentiment in the region. Historian Thomas Wright wrote that the Cuban Revolution “embodied the aspirations and captured the imagination of Latin America's masses as no other political movement had ever done.” Castro declared during the “Second Declaration of Havana” in 1962 that “it is the duty of every revolutionary to make the revolution. In America and the world, it is known that the revolution will be victorious, but it is improper revolutionary behavior to sit at one's doorstep waiting for the corpse of imperialism to pass by.” For U.S. policymakers, confronting Castro and his revolutionary agenda became a top priority during the 1960s. Adolf Berle, a veteran U.S. foreign policymaker with experience dating back to the Franklin Roosevelt administration, headed John Kennedy's task force on Latin America and offered the president counsel on how best to confront the growing unrest in the region. While Berle noted the positive effects that a focus on democracy, economic development, and social reform could have, he also called on the administration to launch a “psychological offensive.” In an attempt to co-opt the energies of the Cuban revolution and impede Fidel Castro's influence in Latin America, the United States waged an extensive public diplomacy campaign against the revolutionary fervor emanating from Havana. This international history, based on research in the United States, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, tells the story of Washington's attempt to discredit the Cuban Revolution, while simultaneously cultivating public opinion in Latin America during the 1960s. Central to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Chester Pach (Committee Chair); Kenneth Osgood (Committee Member); Patrick Barr-Melej (Committee Member); Kevin Mattson (Committee Member); Brad Jokisch (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; International Relations; Latin American History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Spanish and Portuguese

Both Spain and Peru experienced protracted violent conflicts between insurgent groups and State forces during the second half of the twentieth century. In Spain, this involved Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a radical Basque nationalist organization which sought Basque autonomy via armed struggle in a conflict which lasted from 1959 until 2011. In Peru, the insurgent threat was represented by Sendero Luminoso, a Maoist guerrilla insurgency based in the Peruvian highlands that sought drastic sociopolitical change within Peru. Sendero Luminoso launched what they deemed a people's war in 1980, and the bloody conflict that ensued continued until 1992. The damage caused by each of these conflicts was monumental, both in terms of the loss of human life and damage to infrastructure in both countries. In this dissertation I examine the depiction of these conflicts in a selection of Peruvian and Spanish novels and films. I argue that each work promotes a certain version of the conflict it describes, and that this can be revealed through an analysis of the humanizing and dehumanizing discourses at play in the representation of the actors in both of these conflicts. From Peru, I will examine Santiago Roncagliolo's novel Abril rojo (2006) and Fabrizio Aguilar's film Paloma de papel (2003). From Spain, I will analyze the novel Ojos que no ven (2010) by J.A. Gonzalez Sainz and the film Yoyes (2000) by Helena Taberna. In this work, I argue that these discourses of humanization and dehumanization affirm or deny, respectively, the humanity of subjects involved in these violent political conflicts. I assert that dehumanization is employed to legitimate systemic violence during a state of exception, while humanization serves to refute that legitimation by providing a more comprehensive image of the actors and their motivations. Furthermore, I signal the significance of the use of these discourses, as I consider these works to be part of a larger corpus from a number of disciplines that (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar (Advisor); Ignacio Corona (Committee Member); Aurélie Vialette (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Spanish and Portuguese

Digital Aesthetic and Notions of Identity in Contemporary Bolivian Filmmaking examines two related issues: on one hand, the emergence of new aesthetic currents made possible by the specific properties of digital formats; on the other, the emergence of new forms of distribution and exhibition. By comparing two different groups of digital films (those made by a new generation of young globally-recognized directors that stand for an auteur cinema in Bolivia, and those made by marginal communities in collaboration with the collective group TAFA that works outside the limits of the official film industry), I explore how digital technologies have been the driving force behind the flowering of the Bolivian film industry (traditionally seen as a minor industry even across Latin America) and the means by which Bolivian filmmakers engage with local, national and international issues and dynamics in innovative ways. My study also examines larger theoretical questions about how digital technologies are helping to reformulate national identity within the context of the Evo Morales administration and enhance the performance of cultural citizenship. My work has also important implications for debates within the discipline of film studies– particularly in terms of the democratizing potential of digital technologies. In surveying the transformative effect of digital technologies on Bolivian filmmaking and community-based politics, my dissertation questions the hypothesis of some critics that the so-called “digital revolution” would remain circumscribed to a tiny sphere of more wealthy individuals and nations.

Committee: Laura Podalsky PhD (Advisor); Fernando Unzueta PhD (Committee Member); Richard Gordon PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: 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

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, Spanish

This paper closely studies most of the poems related and inspired by the doctrine of the presocratic philosopher Heraclitus written by Jorge Luis Borges, Oscar Hahn and Jose Emilio Pacheco. It aims to explain why and how these three Latin-American poets coincided in their election of that Greek philosopher as a way to express their metaphysical concern about the changing world. In addition, it examines in which ways they were influenced not only by Heraclitus, but also by other poets that preceded them in the admiration and interpretation of his thought, and what are the intertextual relations that exist among them all.

Committee: Maria Alvarez (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, Latin American

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2006, English (Arts and Sciences)

The Divine and Miss Johanna is a novel that began as a first-person tale of a spiritual woman who fell in love with someone else and left her husband. Her parents took the husband's side in the messy break up. Its title has varied from Blue to Runaway Wife to The Silver Lake. Should a reviewer classify the book as it was in its early stages, it would have been classified as “women's literature.” The author's journey as a writer has been at least as profound as the influences that created an entirely different novel—the study of modernism, postmodernism, gothic, magic realism, and the sublime as well as the effect professors' and writers' comments had on the author and her writing. The Divine and Miss Johanna evolved into a novel that blurs the boundaries between the American gothic tradition and the lush, lyrical world of magic. It is a book that questions what it means to be a Christian and the meaning of spirituality. Told in different voices, all of the characters move in spaces that a reader might interpret as real, as a projection of the character's unconscious, or, perhaps, as a space of deep denial. In turn, The Divine and Miss Johanna is negotiating the territory between American gothic and Latin American and African magic realism in a uniquely American way. The novel also explores the hypocrisy of Christianity and the import of faith. The author believes that the book now is literature—not “women's literature.” The critical introduction establishes the context in both the author's life and her readings and scholarly research for such hybridity.

Committee: Zakes Mda (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2024, History

Between 1896 and 1938 Cleveland developed into one of the nation's leading Industrial centers. Cleveland's population of 262,353, which ranked tenth in the nation in 1890, increased to 900,249 by 1930 and reflected this industrial growth. Tom L. Johnson, mayor of the city from 1901 to 1909, often considered the greatest American mayor of the period, built a municipal government that attempted to deal with the urban conditions manifested by this industrial growth. At the same time, Cleveland's business and civil leaders argued that the physical city needed to project an image of modernity and progress that matched the industrial and economic production that had transformed the way of life for the residents of the nation's “sixth city.” Clevelanders had begun to realize that their city, with its growing population and accumulation of wealth due to it industrial prominence, was capable of emulating and rivaling some of great cities of Europe. This elite vision, when realized (first in the Group Plan of government buildings, and later with the Cleveland Union Terminal) often discarded and pushed to the periphery the poor (working classes) and “immoral” who lived, worked, and shopped in the spaces that were demolished and reconstructed in the creation of an imagined community of progress and modernity.

Committee: Kevin Kern (Advisor); David Cohen (Committee Member); Kenneth Bindas (Committee Member); Martha Santos (Committee Member); Stephen Harp (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Urban Planning

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Art History

Luchita Hurtado is a Venezuelan painter who spent much of her life working between Central America and the United States. Though Hurtado developed an extensive portfolio over 80 years, her work was not widely recognized or exhibited until the late 2010s. Her work explores themes of the body's connections to nature, spirituality, identity, and motherhood through the lens of the female gaze. Her series titled I am, created in the 1970s, is unique because she paints a self-portrait by looking down at her body, forcing the viewer to take on her gaze, within a variety of natural and domestic spaces. This thesis project will be an analysis of what it means to thwart the male gaze in painting, with the example of Hurtado's series I am. This thesis engages with alternative practices of looking, the meaning of the gaze, the impacts of ecofeminist interpretations of the work, and the emphasis on the omniscience of the gaze in Western painting.

Committee: Jeannette Klein (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2024, Studio Art

The field of figurative painting is a longstanding mode by which the human body can be imagined, remembered, and chronicled through color and form. Art made about the body is a visceral way for artists to explore the problems, and joys, that unites us, as humans, regardless of time period, language, or place of origin. I seek to understand why humans connect and communicate expressively, and how this manifests in interdisciplinary art forms, by researching and creating artwork surrounding the conceptual dialogue of how memory and sense of place work to form one's identity. I use arbitrary color in the form of the color blue in order to communicate messages of emotion and reverence towards my subjects, as well as a plethora of found materials applied to my paintings which ground my figures in imbued meaning. As a painter and art historian, I am interested in how this conceptual framework is reckoned with in the context of gender by women artists. I am principally guided by the work of Luchita Hurtado, a Venezuelan painter who only received recognition for her extensive portfolio of self-portraits in domestic and natural spaces as a nonagenarian. Other artists explored include Judy Chicago, Tiffany Alfonseca, Clemencia Lucena. The development of this thesis project will be twofold. The project will develop as both a critical analysis through academic writing on the subject as well as demonstrations of creative research with the development of a painting portfolio. I will exhibit this portfolio at the Ohio University BFA Thesis Exhibition in April 2024.

Committee: David LaPalombara (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation examines how several alternative, autonomous collectives in Bolivia are creating new names, new languages and new ways of imagining and carrying out political practices that lead to social transformations. These emancipatory activities are occurring in Bolivia and other urban Andean spaces in politically imaginative ways, outside of the official structures of power that have claimed to bring about the formal decolonization of society. Bypassing permission, funding, or support from the state, these groups offer insight into how to make possible what even the Plurinational State of Bolivia has failed to materialize, and this insight is of utmost importance to reflection on autonomy today. A more profound knowledge of the strategies of these feminist and hip hop groups and how they are making other worlds possible in their daily activities and thinking can offer very critical insight into multiple fields of study. I consider the ongoing alternative struggles of these groups as the working of alternative emancipatory practices through the actualizing of sonic, visual, and physical territories of hope where multiple worlds are possible. All the struggles examined in this investigation revolve around the “same persistent questions,” as Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui asks: “How can the exclusive, ethnocentric `we' be articulated with the inclusive `we' – a homeland for everyone – that envisions decolonization?” (Rivera Cusicanqui, 2012, 97). This question loops back again and again to the even more overarching yet equally persistent question that she poses: “How have we thought and problematized, in the here and now, the colonized present and its overturning?” Pausing to learn from the wisdom and understanding that may accompany these experiences of creating new languages and ways to think about and actualize social transformation is sure to offer at least some possibility of igniting insurgent hope.

Committee: Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar (Advisor); Ignacio Corona (Committee Member); Ana Del Sarto (Committee Member); Fernando Unzueta (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Art Criticism; Cultural Anthropology; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Modern Language; Music; Performing Arts; Womens Studies

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Contemporary Music

In this document I examine Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre's ballet Rhythmetron, adding to the scholarly literature available on the contributions of Latin American composers to the percussion ensemble repertoire. Using archival, ethnographic, and text-based analyses, I inquire into the genres, instruments, and performance practices of the piece, as well as its critical reception. This history reveals that the colonial relationship with black sound has continuously been re-inscribed in Brazilian cultural artifacts, and that institutional biases are upheld when determining what constitutes Art music. Through its inclusion of the Afro-Brazilian genres of samba and maracatu, Rhythmetron invites us to consider the hierarchies of valuation that govern what constitutes Brazilian popular music, art music, and ballet, revealing racialized power dynamics. I utilize postcolonial theories of hybridity to demonstrate that Rhythmetron dialogues with the Dance Theatre of Harlem's intent to reimagine and break racial expectations in the realm of classical ballet. This research reveals that what is guarded in our cultural memories is power-laden, and shows that more inclusive canonization practices can challenge existing narratives and create new ones.

Committee: Daniel Piccolo DMA (Advisor); Irina Stakhanova PhD (Other); Sidra Lawrence PhD (Committee Member); Marilyn Shrude D.M. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music; Performing Arts

Master of Arts in Spanish, Cleveland State University, 2019, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Tras la nominacion de El abrazo de la serpiente de Ciro Guerra a mejor pelicula extranjera en los premios Oscar en 2016, muchos criticos periodistas colombianos celebraron el filme, a menudo enfatizando el cuidado con el que el director retrato a los pueblos indigenas de la Amazonia. Es cierto que la obra plasma un dialogo muchas veces didactico entre personajes arquetipicos—dos cientificos de Occidente y un chaman indigena—y que Guerra retrata en la diegesis, asi como provoca en el publico, un evento politicamente productivo, lo que el estudioso Boaventura de Sousa Santos denomina una “ruptura epistemica”. Por otro lado, el foco recurrente del filme en el consumo de medicina ritual y vegetal por parte de los visitantes de la Amazonia siembra semillas de fetichismo y exotismo, ademas de fomentar un extractivismo cultural y material. Al articular, visibilizar y valorar lo indigena, la pelicula desafia modos hegemonicos del conocimiento a traves de las representaciones de: a) ontologias relacionales prevalentes en la Amazonia colombiana, b) modos orales y rituales de transmision del conocimiento, y c) concepciones temporales no lineales. Con apoyo de pensadores poscoloniales, posestructuralistas y ecocriticos (i.e. Said, Haraway, Morton), esta tesis elabora sobre como el cine podria revelar lo incompleto de paradigmas hegemonicos del razonamiento. Asimismo, El abrazo sigue una tendencia historica a romantizar y consumir lo indigena (especialmente al otorgar permisos para la participacion en rituales amazonicos los de afuera de la comunidad indigena). Estas tendencias se exploran a traves del pensamiento (tambien) poscolonial, ademas de apoyo antropologo y sociologo (i.e. Pratt, Fotiou, Ulloa). Al fin, esta tesis subraya la urgencia y la importancia de esa ruptura epistemica mencionada anteriormente y reconoce que la forma en que los espectadores interpreten e interioricen la pelicula decidira la calidad del impacto social duradero de la obra.

Committee: Matías Martínez Abeijón Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Hebat-Allah A. El Attar Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephen Gingerich Ph.D. (Committee Member); Antonio Medina-Rivera Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Philosophy; Epistemology; Film Studies; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Motion Pictures; Native Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Theatre

This dissertation combines performance analysis, cultural materialism, and theory on urban social space to develop a theory of citizenship performance. I analyze three performances that occurred in public spaces in Bogota, Colombia each of which responds to violence resulting from Colombia's long civil war and challenges dominant notions of who belongs to the cultural community, as well as how the community behaves collectively. I argue that citizenship performances respond to violence within Colombian culture in three ways: first, they remap community behavior by modelling alternative modes of public moral comportment; second, they destabilize and recode the symbolic languages of the cultural community; third, they assert the cultural citizenship of marginalized communities by presencing their lives, struggles, and histories in public social space. The first chapter analyzes a performance project by Bogota's alternative theatre company Mapa Teatro, that maps out the social histories of the former barrio Santa Ines, also known as El Cartucho. Beginning in 2001, Mapa Teatro began work on a series of performances and installations which documented the demolition of the barrio, culminating in a multimedia production called Witness to the Ruins, a citizenship performance that staged the lives of the former residents of Santa Ines on the rubble of the barrio itself, before it was transformed and gentrified into the Parque Tercer Milenio (Third Millennium Park). Because Witness asserts the cultural citizenship of a marginalized community – a community literally removed from the center of the city – it exemplifies performance that re-positions citizenship within urban public space. While Mapa Teatro's work re-maps the city and re-places the lives of marginalized citizens, the second chapter examines urban artist DjLu's project Juegasiempre, (Always Play), which scrutinizes the ubiquity of the tools of war and dismantles complacent acceptance of violence in the urban lan (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ana Elena Puga D.F.A. (Advisor) Subjects: Theater Studies

BA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

The Story of the Jews in Mexico recounts the narrative of a community that thrived religiously and socially in a foreign land. The Jewish story in Aztec lands dates back to the year 1492, when Jewish subjects were expelled from Spain, and traveled furtively to the New World. This research shadows the lives of the Jews from the colonial era in Mexico to the present day. It is a story of challenges, achievements, failures, and triumphs. This research project is a multilingual venture. Primary sources written in Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish, and English were utilized.

Committee: David Odell-Scott (Advisor) Subjects: History; Judaic Studies; Latin American History; Religion

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

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Arts and Sciences: Romance Languages and Literatures

The aim of this research is to explore the existence of a Latin American literature on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, more specifically in Spain. A tradition that has its origins in the figure of the Inca Garcilaso; which was consolidated at the beginning of the last century and whose evolution has increased in the present. This migratory literature together with other internal triggers has brought about an alteration of the traditional Latin American canon throughout the 20th century and its overcoming in 21st by a literature “en espanol”. This panorama leads me to glimpse a large number of young Latin-American writers with a presence in Spain during the last ten years, stimulated by the publishing world and by a long tradition endorsed by the vanguardias (avant-garde) first, later by the boom, and finally by the "Bolano phenomenon", and already consecrated within a concept of literature in Spanish, aspects that I cover in the first two chapters of this dissertation. Using the terminology of Dagmar Vandebosch, I have organized the literary production of these authors, through three narrative movements: cosmopolita (cosmopolitan), migrante (migrant) and radicante (radicalizing); which I have developed over three subsequent chapters and illustrated with the literary analysis of six novels : Monasterio of Eduardo Halfon, La pena maxima of Santiago Roncagliolo, Una tarde con campanas of Juan Carlos Mendez Guedez, Paseador de perros of Sergio Galarza, Un jamon calibre 45 of Carlos Salem, and Hablar solos of Andres Neuman. Finally, I consider relevant the contribution of all these aspects to the academic field with the clear objective of helping a better understanding of certain areas of study such as: migrant narrative, transatlantic studies, transnational narratives, the relevance of the publishing world, the Spanish-language narrative of the 21st century, the Hispano-American narrative of the 21st century and the narrative written in Spain in the 21st centu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patricia Valladares-Ruiz (Committee Chair); Andres Perez-Simon (Committee Member); Nicasio Urbina (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American Literature

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2016, Spanish (Foreign Languages)

Uno de los poetas mas conocidos del siglo XX es Ernesto Cardenal (1925-). Nacido en Nicaragua, ordenado sacerdote en 1965, y elegido Ministro de Cultura por su pais desde cuando la dictadura cayo en 1979 hasta 1988, sus poemas han sido leidos por todo el mundo por la profundidad del tema y su relacion con la teologia de la liberacion. Aunque no empezo su carrera con la intencion de ser una voz de los oprimidos, Cardenal convirtio su pasion en iluminar la opresion de la gente en America Latina y lo hizo escribiendo poemas – poemas basados en la realidad de los acontecimientos que estaban pasando a su alrededor. Algunos de sus trabajos mas conocidos son Epigramas, Homenaje a los indios americanos, Hora 0, El estrecho dudoso y Oracion por Marilyn Monroe y otros poemas, pero lo que captura su teologia de la liberacion antes de la revolucion en Cuba en los ultimos anos de 1960 es Salmos, un libro escrito con la forma y contenido del Antiguo Testamento, adaptado a la realidad de la Guerra Fria en Latinoamerica. En esta investigacion se explicara la evolucion de este poeta que se hizo poeta-profeta en la luz de la explotacion de la gente de America Latina, algunos de sus trabajos mas destacados, la explicacion de lo que es la teologia de la liberacion, y como esta teologia se expresa en Salmos.

Committee: Oscar Lepeley Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Juan Martin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kathleen Thompson-Casado Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies