College of Arts & Humanities
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.
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Item La Familia Es Lo Primero - An Oral History Interview with Violeta Rivas(2014-05) Herberger, Mallory B.; Rivas, VioletaIn this oral history interview, Violeta Rivas discusses her experience as an immigrant in the United States. Born in Nicaragua in 1960, Violeta and her husband came to the U.S. in 1984 to escape the Sandinista regime and to build a new life. Thirty years later, they are still here. Although Violeta had originally intended to return to Nicaragua, she and her family stayed, and throughout the course of the interview, she displays an acute awareness of her life in retrospect. Leaving her home was a sacrifice, but she did it for her family; every obstacle she faced and every cultural barrier she had to overcome was for her family. That is the essence of the interview, and throughout the course of this oral history, Violeta guides her listeners through the things that matter the most to her: religion, tradition, and moral values. Violeta’s story is not just one of many Central American immigrant narratives; it is a part of a whole, and without it, the picture is not complete.Item Carlos Morales Interview(2014-05) Morales, Monica; Morales, CarlosItem Eder Deleon interview of Ismar Deleon(2014-05) Deleon, Eder M.; Deleon, IsmarI interview Ismar Martin Deleon. He is my father and he was born in 1963 in Salcaja Guatemala. He migrated to the United States in 1981 at the age of 17. The reason he came to the United States was because his father who had migrated to the United States a few years before was struggling to pay the bills. The key points of the interview were family, work, religion, and soccer. Ismar started working at the age of seven with is parents making cortes. Cortes is the clothing that indigenous people wear. He would get up early to help everyday around four in the morning. His favorite past time was playing soccer he wanted to go pro and play in Guatemala. Due to lack of money he was forced to migrate to the United States with his father. Ismar played for many teams in Salcaja he even played for a team called America which was the best team in the town and a semi pro team. When he was 17 he came to the United States to work. He felt that since he was the oldest son in the family he had to take on that responsibility. He left his youth and all of his friends and family in Guatemala to come to the United States were he did not know any one but his father. He did not mind the sacrifice he had make if it meant his family would live a better life. He grew up as a catholic in Guatemala and to this day still practices the catholic religion. In the interview he mentions religions several times and gives thanks to god for everything he has today. Today he is successful he has a house in the United States and two in Guatemala. He is currently working to make sure his children earn a degree.Item Salvation Abroad: Macedonian Migration to North America and the Making of Modern Macedonia, 1870-1970(2005-04-18) Michaelidis, Gregory; Gerstle, Gary; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation explores the establishment of Macedonian diaspora communities in North America, and the concurrent development of Macedonian national identity, between 1870 and 1970. Taking a transnational approach to cultural history, it ultimately finds a reciprocal relationship between Macedonian migration and identity by focusing on key nationalist leaders and organizations, as well as the crucial points of transformation in the evolution of Macedonian national identity. By blurring the boundary between Canada and the United States - as did many migrants from Macedonia who saw the two countries as "Upper" and "Lower" America - this study emphasizes migration rather than settlement in order to unveil nationalism's religious, cultural and political components. The dissertation, therefore, is grounded not in the cement of a single national narrative, but in the cultural products that result from passages - physical, spiritual, and social - among nations. As the nineteenth century ended, a climate of deprivation and violence compelled tens of thousands of men from the Macedonian region to depart their troubled corner of the Balkans and find economic salvation abroad. Like their fellow villagers, most of the migrants considered themselves to be geographically Macedonian but culturally Bulgarian. Almost none identified with a nationality in the modern sense. This study argues, however, that more than simply fulfilling an economic mission abroad, the migrant men, and later their families, capitalized on the freedoms North America offered to forge a broader "salvation" that fundamentally changed their national and ethnic worldview. Put another way, migration catalyzed a process in which the migrants became, simply, "Macedonians." Far from leaving behind the political and cultural battles of their homeland, the migrant communities formed political, cultural, and religious organizations that sought to influence the policies of both their host and home countries. But defining the new Macedonian nation proved a contentious issue. As the migrant communities cleaved into left- and right-leaning factions during the middle and latter years of the twentieth century, the nature of Macedonian identity, which, I argue, was intimately connected to notions of Macedonian cultural history, became a fiercely contested subject, and remains so today.