Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item Un asunto minúsculo: Constelaciones contemporáneas en las narrativas de lo cotidiano(2024) hernandez, daniela paz; Demaría, Laura; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Este trabajo explora cómo lo cotidiano, conceptualizado como 'minúsculo', es representado en las obras de cinco autores contemporáneos latinoamericanos: Teoría de la gravedad, de Leila Guerriero; Leer y dormir, de Gonzalo Maier; Ómnibus, de Elvio Gandolfo; Los llanos, de Federico Falco y Ella estuvo entre nosotros, de Belén Fernández Llanos. Estas narrativas varían en contenido y estilo, pero hablan de rutinas, detalles y asuntos pequeños, como lavar platos, viajar al trabajo u ordenar la casa. El objetivo principal de este análisis es ilustrar cómo estos aspectos aparentemente irrelevantes, mundanos o imperceptibles de lo cotidiano arrojan luz sobre la complejidad del presente y sus discursos de subjetividad. Para comprender el valor de lo cotidiano se estudia, primero, la capacidad de estas escrituras para construir materialidades autónomas y vibrantes; segundo, cómo estos pequeños asuntos minúsculos ayudan a distinguir lo familiar y crear en él un espacio de experimentación para el sujeto; y tercero, cómo producen una temporalidad única e íntima que se lee como una alternativa al tiempo uniforme e industrializado. Estos tres puntos se analizan utilizando herramientas de la teoría de los afectos, nuevos materialismos y los estudios culturales de lo cotidiano. El valor de esta investigación radica en su capacidad para ofrecer un punto de vista único, que va más allá de los límites de lo literario para abarcar una reflexión más amplia sobre el presente. En una era inundada de información y perpetuamente bajo el influjo de lo nuevo, este estudio fomenta la contemplación y la reflexión, ofreciendo una pausa, un contrapunto, al ritmo frenético de la vida moderna. Este trabajo sostiene que estas narrativas crean espacios para un compromiso más deliberado e introspectivo con la realidad y promueven un cambio sutil pero transformador, lo que representa en sí mismo un acto revolucionario.Item DOMINICAN GAGÁ FROM OUTSIDE AND WITHIN: DISCOURSES ABOUT GAGÁ, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC(2024) Hernandez-Sang, Victor; Rios, Fernando; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the discourses that surround Gagá, an African-derived ritual tradition that entails processional music and dance performances to honor deities of Vodou, which is primarily practiced by Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic. This study explores the characterization of Gagá from the perspective of outsiders (the media and public figures) and the viewpoint of insiders (the partakers of the tradition). In the analysis, I identify correlates between the characterization of Gagá in the media over time and major political and economic developments in the Dominican Republic. Additionally, I explore the work that community members of Gagá conduct to combat racism and harmful stereotypes about their music and religion. Based on fieldwork, archival research, and compilation of online media, this work provides a nuanced view of the perspective of gagaseros (practitioners of Gagá) regarding their tradition, self-identification, and racial discrimination.Item “LIBERATING MY MIND... DECOLONIZING MY PHYSICAL BODY”: EXPLORING AFROLATINE/A/O ACTIVISTS’ CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS USING PLÁTICA METHODOLOGY(2024) Martinez-Benyarko, Marinel; Espino Lira, Michelle; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)My dissertation, “Liberating my mind...decolonizing my physical body”: Exploring AfroLatine/a/o activists’ critical consciousness using plática methodology, aimed to understand the experiences of 11 AfroLatine/a/o activists in the United States. Scholars have studied AfroLatine/a/os racial/ethnic identity development and activism separately, but this dissertation highlighted the critical consciousness that both these identities possess. Through a “me-search” process, a form of critical consciousness, AfroLatine/a/os assert agency and resilience to make meaning and reflect upon their Blackness and Latinidad (García-Louis & Cortes, 2020). Additionally, those who identify as activists also engage with critical consciousness in understanding social inequities and oppression (Freire, 1970a). My dissertation explored the critical consciousness that AfroLatine/a/os activists possess using plática methodology. Using a plática methodology, I cocreated knowledge, fostered healing and vulnerability, offered collaborators validation, and incorporated life experiences and community building. Pláticas also “constitute a method that recognizes and values familial and cultural knowledge, and platicando becomes the process of drawing on that knowledge and making meaning across experiences” (González Ybarra, 2018, p. 511). Through pláticas, cuentos, chismes, charlas, regaños, and consejos are shared (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016; González Ybarra, 2018; M. Guajardo & Guajardo, 2007). To accomplish this work, I developed a conceptual framework titled, “Exploring AfroLatine/a/o activists critical consciousness,” that brings together (a) Latino critical race theory, (b) Daché et al.’s (2019) Black-imiento, and (c) Freire’s (1970a) conscientization to illuminate the experiences of AfroLatine/a/o activists in a way that highlights their embraced Blackness, heightened knowledge and critical action, and lived experiences. Data were collected via a survey (46 participants), a one-on-one plática (11 collaborators), and a community plática (11 collaborators). Data were analyzed first by collaborators during the community plática. Afterward, I conducted initial/open coding and focused coding strategies. The findings of this study showed that AfroLatine/a/o activists asserted agency and engaged in critical reflection through a continuous process of learning and unlearning to understand their own AfroLatine/a/o identity, country of origin history, colonization, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and internalized racism. The second finding described the racialideologies that AfroLatine/a/o activists created, which included (a) embracing Black identity by taking pride in their physical appearance, hair, and skin color; (b) centering their resistance in language; and (c) rejecting stereotypes and generalizations of Latine/a/o as a monolithic group. Additionally, this study found that AfroLatine/a/o activists defined their activism as community, advocacy, and compassion. Lastly, the collaborators shared how their AfroLatine/a/o identity was a form of existence as resistance, a form of activism. This study presents various contributions to higher education theory, praxis, research, policy, and AfroLatine/a/o activists. My dissertation makes the following contributions: (a) understanding how marginalized communities navigate and resist oppressive systems, (b) validating the experiences and knowledge of AfroLatine/a/o activists, and (c) challenging a monolithic perspective of Latinidad by showcasing how AfroLatine/a/os embrace their Blackness.Item SOUNDING SALVADORAN: POPULAR MUSIC AND POSTWAR IMAGINARIES OF SALVADORAN IDENTITY IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. METROPOLITAN AREA(2023) Villalobos Benavides, Mariángel; Lie, Siv B.; Rodríguez, Ana Patricia; Music; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the role of popular music genres in constructing and enacting an imaginary of national and diasporic community among the Salvadoran diasporic community in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Two music genres with rich transnational histories, rock de las buenas épocas and cumbia salvadoreña, are central to the analysis. The research investigates how cumbia salvadoreña may be considered representative of El Salvador by D.C.-based members of Departamento 15, an “imaginary” additional state of El Salvador formed by its citizens living in the diaspora. The genre aligns with the myth of the perseverant and patriotic immigrant, one who stays connected to their home country through remittances. Before the reign of cumbia salvadoreña, rock de las buenas épocas served as an avenue for Salvadoran youth to imagine alternative realities to those of mainstream Salvadoran society—a parallel of the counterculture movement of the 1960s in North America and Europe. Despite aesthetic differences, both genres are performed at events for the Salvadoran community in the Washington D.C. area, as emblems of nostalgia. I also explore how, in the diaspora, these narratives are reaffirmed and contested. For instance, second-generation Salvadoran Cindy Zavala (also known as La SalvadoReina), performs cumbia salvadoreña with a twist. She presents the stories that have surrounded her as the daughter of immigrants to showcase a "bitter" alternative to the joy and perseverance usually conveyed through the genre. Another example I present is 1.5-generation Lilo González, Jr., a musician who is part of the renowned D.C. punk scene, who has integrated cumbia into his socially committed music. This study is based on intermittent ethnographic research conducted from 2019 to 2022 in the D.C. area, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key events I participated in included the Salvadoran Independence Day festivals in Maryland, which reaffirm the nostalgia that maintains the diaspora as a key player in the economy and national imaginary of El Salvador. The music performed at these festivals, especially cumbia salvadoreña and rock de las buenas épocas, strategically support this narrative, what has been referred to as the mythology of los hermanos lejanos (Rodríguez 2019, 170-174), the “heroic figure of the migrant entrepreneur” Pedersen (2012, 8), and the “model transnational citizens in the global division of labor” (Rivas 2014, 21). Throughout this dissertation, I refer to these mythologies as the narrative of the perseverant immigrant, stemming from the lyrics that describe an immigrant who is facing hardships and misses El Salvador, but nevertheless persists in their endeavor to succeed financially in a foreign country. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the role of music in diasporic communities and the complexities of transnational cultural production.Item UNA MODERNIDAD TENSIONADA: LA PRENSA CATÓLICA DE LOS AÑOS 20 EN BUENOS AIRES(2022) Maurette, Sofia; Demaria, Laura; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Según la Pew Foundation, Latinoamérica es uno de los continentes más religiosos del mundo, con más del 90% de su población identificándose como parte de una religión organizada. Sin embargo, la religión latinoamericana no ha recibido una atención equivalente a sus números. Mi investigación analiza el campo poco estudiado de la religión latinoamericana a través de la lente de su producción cultural, combinando los campos de los estudios religiosos con los estudios literarios y culturales latinoamericanos. En mi trabajo afirmo que definiciones estrechas sobre la Modernidad e ideas normativas sobre el lugar de la religión en la esfera pública moderna, uno de los postulados de la "teoría de la secularización", han resultado en una lectura sesgada de los movimientos y textos religiosos latinoamericanos, generalmente considerados incompatibles con sus aspiraciones modernas.En mi tesis me centro específicamente en las revistas católicas argentinas y su compromiso con las consecuencias del proceso de modernización del país a principios del siglo XX. Para una de estas revistas, Criterio (1928-presente), esto significó elaborar un lenguaje que adoptó la retórica de los movimientos de vanguardia para atraer a la élite intelectual a la que deseaban convertir. La revista femenina Noel (1920-1939), por otro lado, al contrastar la construcción tradicional de género dentro del catolicismo con las nuevas definiciones de feminidad adoptadas por los movimientos feministas contemporáneos, se convirtió en un espacio seguro para sus autoras en el cual construir y realizar una comprensión del género que, si bien respaldaba explícitamente una cosmovisión patriarcal, reformulaba sutilmente el papel de la mujer dentro de ella.Item Heterodoxia critica: Ezequiel Martínez Estrada y Néstor Perlongher(2023) Diaz, Juan Manuel; Demaria, Laura; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The dissertation explores how marginalized discourses of identity have been a central concern in Twentieth-Century Latin American literature. I am interested in writers that have been displaced, muted, ignored, or persecuted for one reason or another: race, sexual orientation, nationality, religious belief, and language. To combine these multiple reasons of marginalization, I advance the concept of heterodoxy. Two among the many representatives of heterodoxy are Ezequiel Martínez Estrada (1895-1964) and Néstor Perlongher (1949-1992). Thus, I argue, on the one hand, that Martínez Estrada inscribes in his Radiografía de la pampa (1933) a pioneer reading of the Frankfurt School’s critical theory to completely subvert the question on civilization and barbarism. On the other hand, I discuss the role played by Perlongher’s Prosa Plebeya (1997) in the dissemination of poststructural criticism in Latin America to rethink the dichotomy through his reappropriation and resignification of concepts like corporality and desire.Item ROBERTO FONTANARROSA: HISTORIA Y LITERATURA A CONTRAPELO. INODORO PEREYRA, EL RENEGAU(2022) Battauz, Cecilia Edith; Sosnowski, Saúl; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As a result of Spanish colonization, nation-building in Latin America followed distinctive and diverse processes, and a protracted chronology that spanned an entire century. The new nation-states that emerged from the nineteenth century wars of Independence forged their own symbols, imagery, and foundational narratives to provide a framework to disparate populations. Throughout the continent, literature played a fundamental role in the construction of symbolic narratives, which inexorably intertwined with official national history. In Argentina, one such myth was built around the “gaucho”, the cowboy of the Pampas plains who freely roamed the countryside. Once an actual social type, the “gaucho” disappeared around the end of the 19th Century due to changes introduced by modernization as Argentina transformed and refocused its economy to supply raw materials for European industries. As a literary figure, however, the gaucho survived as the dominant character of poems, novels, and short stories that conform a unique national literary genre: Gauchesca Literature.In my dissertation I study the comics Inodoro Pereyra, el renegau by Roberto Fontanarrosa (1944-2007), which features an atypical gaucho accompanied by his loyal talking dog. I analyze how Fontanarrosa deconstructs the national literary myth of the horse riding “gaucho” unveiling the inherent racism, social injustice, and ideological manipulation it has conveyed for the last two centuries. Fontanarrosa’s creation, which appeared regularly in the Argentine press and in book format for over thirty-four years until the author’s death, not only denounces the unspoken influence this traditional figure has had in shaping Argentine society, but it also highlights the common misrepresentation of indigenous communities and the unfair treatment to which they have been, and continue to be, subjected. Using parody, humor, and caricature, the comics revise national history and canonical literature along with artifacts from contemporary popular culture, such as films and folk songs. In addition, it offers a postmodern approach to the foundational narratives of the nation. My claims are that the comics offer an ex-centric perspective and that its subversive message defies traditional views of identity as fixed forms that could be predetermined. I propose that the narrative genre of comics—still marginalized from the literary canon—constitutes an excellent medium to present an alternative and irreverent approach to the subject, since its literary standing challenges the centrality of the official canon. At the same time, the comics suggest the need to see tradition and identity as concepts under constant change, thus showing a postmodern critique to monolithic grand narratives. Although my study concerns Argentine society, I believe it to be microstructurally significant for its premises may be applied to other societies built upon national myths, such as those created by most nation-states in the Americas after gaining their independence from colonial administration and cultural hegemony.Item Potencialidades desbordadas: Comunalidad y resistencias en las fronteras mexicanas(2022) Reyes , Nidia Mariana; Long, Ryan R; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In recent years, the intense crises of economic globalization, political polarization and escalating violence have increased the dangers faced by migrants around the world. Mexico and Central America present cases where these factors have exacerbated the precariousness and brutality suffered by undocumented migrants. My dissertation focuses primarily on the representations and practices that portray the current socio-political situation of forced migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States. As well as on the artistic responses that shed new ways of imagining the resistance of the migrant and Latinx community. The variety of responses to the migration crisis is reflected in the diversity of the materials I analyze and interpret: documentaries, websites, novels and poetry. I compare Mexican writer Yuri Herrera's novel Señales que precederán al fin del mundo (2009) with Citizen Illegal (2018), a collection of poetry by José Olivarez, an American writer born to Mexican immigrants. I also develop an analysis of the transnationally co-produced (American and Salvadoran) multimedia journalistic project Los que iban a morir se acumulan en México (2017), which I read under the theoretical guideline of Mexican writer Sara Uribe's Antígona González (2012). Finally, I study the way in which the issue of migrant disappearances on the Mexican border is treated. I analyze the documentary María en tierra de nadie (2011) by Marcela Zamora, which portrays the journey of Central American mothers searching for their missing daughters and relatives, and the website WhoisDayaniCrystal, inspired by the documentary, ¿Quién es Dayani Crystal? (2013), which deals with the process of identifying the body of an undocumented migrant found in the so-called "corridor of death", one of the hottest and most dangerous areas of the Arizona desert. My analysis of literary texts from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border shows how the border is not only a geopolitical and economic boundary but also a confluence of times, spaces, and bodies. But above all, it is a confluence of migrants and a multiplicity of people who, despite encountering violence at the borders and the migrant path, resist through every day and/or fleeting acts. En los últimos años, las intensas crisis de globalización económica, la polarización política y la escalada de violencia han aumentado los peligros a los que se enfrentan lxs migrantes en todo el mundo. México y Centroamérica presentan casos en los que dichos factores han exacerbado los niveles de precariedad y brutalidad que sufren lxs migrantes indocumentados. Mi disertación se centra principalmente en las representaciones y prácticas que retratan la actual situación sociopolítica de la migración forzada desde México y Centroamérica hacia Estados Unidos. Así como en las respuestas artísticas que arrojan nuevas formas de imaginar la resistencia de la comunidad migrante y latinx. La variedad de respuestas a la crisis migratoria se refleja en la diversidad de los materiales que analizo e interpreto: documentales, páginas web, novelas y poesía. Por ejemplo, comparo la novela del escritor mexicano Yuri Herrera, Señales que precederán al fin del mundo (2009) con Citizen Illegal (2018), una colección de poesía de José Olivarez, un escritor estadounidense nacido de inmigrantes mexicanos. También desarrollo un análisis del proyecto periodístico multimedia coproducido transnacionalmente (estadounidense y salvadoreño) titulado Los que iban a morir se acumulan en México (2017), mismo que leo bajo la pauta teórica de Antígona González (2012) de la escritora mexicana Sara Uribe. Finalmente, estudio la manera en la que se trata el tema de las desapariciones de migrantes en la frontera mexicana. Analizo el documental María en tierra de nadie (2011) de Marcela Zamora, que retrata el viaje de madres centroamericanas que buscan a sus hijas y familiares desaparecidxs y la página web WhoisDayaniCrystal, inspirada en el documental, ¿Quién es Dayani Crystal? (2013), que trata del proceso de identificación de un cuerpo de un migrante indocumentado encontrado en el llamado "corredor de la muerte", una de las zonas más calientes y peligrosas del desierto de Arizona. Mi análisis de los textos literarios de ambos lados de la frontera entre México y Estados Unidos muestra cómo la frontera no es sólo un límite geopolítico y económico, sino también una confluencia de tiempos, espacios y cuerpos. Pero, sobre todo, es una confluencia de migrantxs y una multiplicidad de personas que a pesar de encontrar violencia en las fronteras y el camino migrante, resisten a través de actos cotidianos y/o fugaces.Item ACTS OF QUEER RESILIENCE: TRAUMA AS IDENTITY AND AGENCY IN LGBTQ POLITICAL ASYLUM(2022) Perez, Christopher J; Sies, Mary; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution is the impetus for asylum seekers to flee their home countries and seek protection elsewhere. Much of the scholarly literature and published legal cases correlate persecution with trauma and approach traumatic events of asylum seekers as always living with barriers or as a “victim.” Additionally, while there is extensive research and scholarly work on LGBTQ immigrants, there is little work specifically on LGBTQ asylum seekers, which suggests these stories matter and have value but often go unheard. Whose stories are told, heard, and valued with immigrants, and specifically asylum seekers? And, what are the risks or advantages of telling stories? For asylum seekers, making a credible case of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution places their trauma in an exchange of capital that advances neoliberal governmentality in the U.S. The nation-state benefits when resourceful “victims” of persecution ask for protection. Neoliberal governmentality can be traced to Michel Foucault’s notion of “biopower” where the body is viewed as a laboring machine, disciplining the body to optimize its capabilities and extort its forces. Biopower is literally having power over other bodies in “an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations.” Although neoliberal governmentality is a necessary component in discussions of political asylum, its reductionist aim leaves little room for agency for asylum seekers or those with asylum status. How might political asylees use their identities and trauma to subvert neoliberal governmentality? I argue that LGBTQ asylum seekers use their own tactics and techniques in an “art” of self-determination or what I call queer resilience to navigate and negotiate systems and structures of power. While there is no doubt that trauma exists for asylum seekers, using trauma to categorize asylum seekers as lacking, weak, defective, or even victims is a reductionist approach in understanding asylum seekers’ identities and agency. Trauma is operational in how one negotiates structures and systems of power, different spaces, building networks, and obtaining resources. Trauma offers both a useful entry into the legal aspects of political asylum processes and also advances discussions of subjectivity and epistemology. Using narrative analysis, grounded theory, poststructuralist theory, and queer theory, this dissertation unpacks the creative agency of LGBTQ asylum seekers as they make sense of their lives, form their identities, navigate spaces, and negotiate systems of power to “queer” political asylum processes. More specifically, using interviews and examining published cases and other published archival materials, this dissertation details the story of a gay man from a Latin American country who successfully gained asylum in the U.S. and how his asylum process, his trauma, and his racial, gendered, and sexual identities contributed to his agency, which subverts political asylum and offers new ways to consider the operation of biopower, governmentality, and self-determination.Item Reading the Contemporary Body in the Works or Eduardo Lalo and Rita Indiana Hernández(2021) Lewis, Matthew C; Quintero-Herencia, Juan Carlos; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is interested in specificities of Caribbean bodies and the strategies that are used to perform, imagine, and make sensible the textual body so that it may be read through archipelagic contexts. I posit that the multi-disciplinary works of Dominican Rita Indiana Hernández (Santo Domingo 1977) and Puerto Rican Eduardo Lalo (Cuba 1960) turn a critical and creative eye to the corporealities that have been obscured and overshadowed by exotified, mainstream, and normative bodies and their representation. I argue that we tell stories with our bodies, and, likewise, the body is a text to be performed, read and made sensible. However, what we understand for the body—its capabilities and its limits—is a direct product of how these narratives have been politically and socially constructed, appropriated, and implemented in hegemonic discourses. My intervention lies questioning what narratives and images or the body are produced and privileged in these texts: how do these corporealities become sensible and make sense of the other bodies around them? What are the potential corporeal poetics and politics that may tie these texts together? By looking at the representation of anonymous bodies, the creation of Puerto Rican body-images, and the Dominican bodies situated within primal soundscapes, I suggest that these specific texts break with both preconceived and prescribed notions of a “Caribbean identity” and what it may mean to be Caribbean. This dissertation aims to interrogate the limits of hegemonic discourses of nationality and history by engaging with the ways in which the texts of Hernández and Lalo perform their own relationship to the contemporary, always crossing and challenging limits, imagining transitive bodies in constant motion, and implementing diverse strategies to produce and inhabit contemporary intervals that fiercely reject fixed and prescriptive notions of what a Caribbean body is, or of what it is capable.