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Las personas públicas de mujeres fuertes mexicanas generalmente se definen como desafiantes y contrarias a los roles sociales generalmente aceptados de las mujeres sumisas. Dichas personas públicas exigen atención y buscan incluirse en la cultura popular. Sin embargo, cuando se analizan mediante los rubros de la teoría queer, se revelan

Las personas públicas de mujeres fuertes mexicanas generalmente se definen como desafiantes y contrarias a los roles sociales generalmente aceptados de las mujeres sumisas. Dichas personas públicas exigen atención y buscan incluirse en la cultura popular. Sin embargo, cuando se analizan mediante los rubros de la teoría queer, se revelan arquetipos heternormativos. Esta tesis examina cronológicamente la obra de tres cronistas mexicanos de los siglos XX y XXI, Salvador Novo, Carlos Monsiváis y Sara Sefchovich, analizando su retrato de mujeres fuertes que ocupan sitios urbanos públicos en la Ciudad de México. Se investigan los efectos sociales elitistas de las imágenes públicas de mujeres fuertes, revelando restricciones patriarcales de mujeres en espacios públicos y construcciones subsecuentes de personas públicas como exóticas y cosificadas, asimismo facilitando interacciones con una sociedad sumamente masculinista y machista. La falta de agencialidad social real se revela cuando el patriarcado se reafirma, a pesar de la índole disconforme de las mujeres retratadas. Los constructos de familia y de masculinidad exigen la existencia tanto del padre y del esposo ausentes como del hipermacho y de la acompañante mujer sumisa limitada a sitios privados. El retrato de mujeres fuertes en la obra analizada desnaturaliza la imagen de domesticidad, señalando que las mujeres mexicanas salen del hogar para ocupar sitios públicos en la Ciudad de México. Como la normalización del constructo de familia se cuestiona, la teoría queer se utiliza en una manera innovadora para analizar dichos retratos de mujeres fuertes y agencialidad sociopolítica.
ContributorsHolcombe, William Daniel (Author) / Foster, David William (Thesis advisor) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Committee member) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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ABSTRACT This thesis aims to demonstrate the validity of political violence in contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives as a reflection of the sociopolitical situation of immigrants and their descendants in the United States (U.S.). The thesis explores the various ways in which contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives present

ABSTRACT This thesis aims to demonstrate the validity of political violence in contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives as a reflection of the sociopolitical situation of immigrants and their descendants in the United States (U.S.). The thesis explores the various ways in which contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives present the political violence in the U.S. towards Mexican and Peruvian immigrants and Chicanos and Peruvian Americans examining the intersections that exist between the resistance and violence discourses and its sociopolitical consequences. Although the topic of political violence has been previously studied in U.S. and Latin American narratives throughout its history, its analysis has been insufficiently explored as far as contemporary narratives of the XXI century are concerned. With this in mind, two texts will be used to study this discourse of violence in Chicano and Peruvian American literature: Alejandro Morales' "Pequeña nación" (2005) and Daniel Alarcón's "Guerra en la penumbra" (2005). The thesis examines the immigrant as a center of discourse exploring the conflict between them and the institutions or groups in power that instigate this political violence. The first chapter covers the socio historical background regarding Mexican and Peruvian migration flows to the United States in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The second chapter introduces "The Triangle of Violence" proposed by Norwegian mathematician and sociologist Johan Galtung as the basis for the theoretical framework and approach of this analysis. Chapter three analyzes the Chicano short story "Pequeña nación" by Alejandro Morales. The analysis of the Peruvian American short story "Guerra en la penumbra" by Daniel Alarcón follows in chapter four. The conclusion emphasizes the problem of political violence experienced by immigrants in the U.S. in contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives and possible solutions contained therein, protesting a problem that can hinder immigration policy reforms and the defense of human rights.
ContributorsSifuentes, Ana (Author) / Rosales, Jesus (Thesis advisor) / García-Fernández, Carlos J. (Thesis advisor) / Alarcon, Justo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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From Impossible Angles Towards Strategic Ones: Narratives of Death, Life, and Disability in La Muerte me Da and El Huesped The glamour of single-handedly overcoming adversity, sidestepping obstacles, or defying the odds makes for great mystery or adventure fiction, but fails to do justice (poetic or otherwise) to lives that

From Impossible Angles Towards Strategic Ones: Narratives of Death, Life, and Disability in La Muerte me Da and El Huesped The glamour of single-handedly overcoming adversity, sidestepping obstacles, or defying the odds makes for great mystery or adventure fiction, but fails to do justice (poetic or otherwise) to lives that are both physically and conceptually "marked" by more complex challenges. From a theoretical view, a similar desire to escape or maintain the perceived "dividing line" between fact and fiction, nature and nurture, mind and body, is confronted by a diverse set of human experiences, all of which have come to be defined, and continue to define themselves, along both sides of such a divide. Disability, typically viewed as an "emerging" branch of literary and cultural critique, is perhaps the most pervasive. Hidden under the covert language of the "grotesque", "monstrous", "doppelgänger", "freak", "eccentric" or "queer", disability has historically represented something other than itself. Two texts that attest to both the real and imagined possibilities of resignification and new modes of articulation surrounding disability are La muerte me da (2007) by Cristina Rivera Garza and El huésped (2006) by Guadalupe Nettel. From different points of departure, both texts offer a narrative approximation towards the disabled mind, body, and perceptual experience. In ways that are both similar and different, these narratives question one's perceived access to that which is otherwise understood to be the physically and conceptually "inaccessible" or "illegible" space of disability. Such approximations towards, and articulations of, the disability experience are processes that move, largely unnoticed, both within and beyond texts. As this construct continues to transform itself from both within and outside itself, disability acquires intellectual and practical value while requiring the "experts" in fields beyond the narrow scope of medicine, education, and rehabilitation to (re)consider their own approaches to, and apprehensions of, disability in order to redefine what or who is accessible or viable for literary and cultural debate.
ContributorsNewland, Rachel Renee (Author) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Committee member) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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This dissertation investigates the life and career of singer Celia Cruz and the cultural legacy she has left the Hispanic culture in the United States and the world. It explores the musical journey of the Queen of Salsa and analyzes the different genres and themes that she developed in her

This dissertation investigates the life and career of singer Celia Cruz and the cultural legacy she has left the Hispanic culture in the United States and the world. It explores the musical journey of the Queen of Salsa and analyzes the different genres and themes that she developed in her performances during the years of her dedication to the public professional career. Among the various topics, this work discusses the African influence on the music of Celia Cruz because she made her first step to fame with the music and lyrics from African religious traditions. Additionally, this project investigates the theme of nostalgia and how Celia Cruz, with her music, helped to perpetuate the nostalgic feelings of Cuban exiles. It surveys the repertoire of songs with nostalgic themes that helps to perpetuate in the memory of the Cuban diaspora, a Cuba that no longer exists and is reflected only in their imagination. This work also examines feminist and queer issues in the life of Celia Cruz, in the lyrics of her songs and in many of her performances. Finally, it explores various stages in Celia Cruz's career that stand out: first, her beginnings in Cuba and Latin America where she soon became known as the Guarachera of Cuba; then, the contribution of Celia Cruz to the salsa music since its appearance in New York, its development in the United States, and its rapid international spread. Similarly, this project shows that Celia Cruz, with her performances worldwide, gained popularity and became the Queen of Salsa. She excelled on indoor and outdoor stages, on the small and big screen, and took her musical talent around the world. Because of her great artistic work, she was recognized for her achievements multiple times and won awards in the United States, Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, finally winning the title of Global Salsa Icon.
ContributorsRodríguez Torres, Caridad Milagros (Author) / Foster, David W (Thesis advisor) / Tompkins, Cynthia M (Committee member) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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La frontera entre México y Estados Unidos es un territorio que se ha conceptualizado y construido por el centralismo mexicano y por el discurso chicano dominante: el de Borderlands. Estos dos focos equidistantes establecen sus perspectivas a partir del contacto que la región fronteriza tiene con los Estados Unidos

La frontera entre México y Estados Unidos es un territorio que se ha conceptualizado y construido por el centralismo mexicano y por el discurso chicano dominante: el de Borderlands. Estos dos focos equidistantes establecen sus perspectivas a partir del contacto que la región fronteriza tiene con los Estados Unidos en términos de intercambios económicos y culturales. La tradición de definir la zona fronteriza se inicia a partir de 1848 con el Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo. Más tarde, dicha región estaría en indiferencia por su distancia geográfica con el centro mexicano, excepto durante la Revolución mexicana. Sin embargo, la región fronteriza empieza a recibir gran atención hacia finales del Siglo XX, cuando nuevas formas de intercambio económico entre México y Estados Unidos se empiezan a desarrollar. La frontera, entonces experimenta un crecimiento económico que se refleja, a su vez, en el resurgimiento y crecimiento de la cultura fronteriza. El antropólogo cultural, Nestor García Canclini intentó definir la cultura fronteriza al analizar el uso del idioma inglés en Tijuana. En sus estudios, tanto Tijuana: la casa de toda la gente (1989) como Culturas híbridas: Cómo entrar y salir de la modernidad (1992), García Canclini sostiene que la frontera es un espacio de hibridación cultural. Por otro lado, las teorías dominantes dentro del campo chicano definen la frontera en términos metafísicos. Para Gloria Anzaldúa, el espacio fronterizo es el Borderlands: un área geográfica en donde los paradigmas de la psicología del individuo están en constante conflicto. Considerando estos antecedentes como punto de partida, esta investigación se enfoca en el estudio de la cultura fronteriza como múltiples universos de signos que entran en contacto unos con otros. Tal como lo establece Iury Lotman en su estudio teórico La semiosfera (1996), una semiosfera es un espacio delimitado por una frontera que, a su vez, tiene la función de traducir información de otras semiosferas. De manera que dicho concepto se muestra adecuado para analizar El gran preténder (1992) de Luis Humberto Crosthwaite y Berlín 77 (y otros relatos) (2003) de Carlos Adolfo Gutiérrez Vidal. En última instancia, al establecer los espacios fronterizos como universos culturales (semiosferas) se devela el nivel de contacto entre éstas, especialmente entre las semiosferas mexicana/americana y la fronteriza.
ContributorsEncinas, Diana (Author) / Volek, Emil (Committee member) / Hernández-G., Manuel De Jesús (Committee member) / Acereda, Alberto (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Anchored to the Mexican-American and U.S. Latino historical experience, this dissertation examines how a Latino and Chicano Canibalia manifests itself in literary and cultural production across the different literary periods of the Southwest and the United States as formulated by Luis Leal and Ilan Stavans: Colonization: 1537-1810, Annexations: 1811-1898, Acculturation:

Anchored to the Mexican-American and U.S. Latino historical experience, this dissertation examines how a Latino and Chicano Canibalia manifests itself in literary and cultural production across the different literary periods of the Southwest and the United States as formulated by Luis Leal and Ilan Stavans: Colonization: 1537-1810, Annexations: 1811-1898, Acculturation: 1898-1945, Upheaval: 1946-1979, and the fifth period, Into the Mainstream: 1980-Present. Theoretically, the study is primarily based on the work Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en América Latina (2005) by Carlos Jauregui. This Canibalia claims that the symbol Caliban, a character taken from the drama The Tempest (1611) by William Shakespeare and interpreted in Calibán (1971) by Roberto Fernández Retamar, is an indispensable reference that, today, links the discourse on Colonial Studies in Latin America and, for us, also in the Mexican-American Southwest. To particularize Jáuregui’s critical perspective, we draw from the work The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History (1990) by José David Saldívar, whose call for a School of Caliban not only brings together all subaltern subject positions but marks the value of the “schooling” such an institution will provide. For Saldívar, Chicano and U.S. Latino scholarship needs to be incorporated into Caliban Studies due to a shared anti-imperial resistance. We also rely on the theoretical work Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (2000) by Walter Mignolo, which links colonial difference to border thinking and examines contemporary dialogues on Orientalism, Occidentalism, and post-Occidentalism with regards to Latin American, Chicano, and U.S. Latino cultures. Our study interprets such works as I Am Joaquín (1967) by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, the performances of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, the novels Peregrinos de Aztlán (1974) by Miguel Méndez and Entre la sed y el desierto (2004) by Óscar L. Cordero, US Latino films like Balseros (2002) and Which Way Home (2009), the Mexican film Acorazado (2010), and Chicano and US Latino poetry that features the literary symbol examined under our critical approach; in turn, we have learned that the Chicano and Latino Canibalia is a collection of cannibal discourses which have as an objective stereotyping civilians of Mexican and Latin American descent in the United States. Our critical discourse provides an understanding of today’s complex cultural ties between all countries. A Chicano and Latino Canibalia serves as a bridge of understanding regarding the discursive silences in the history of the United States and Latin America as well as the world.

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ABSTRACTO

Anclada a la experiencia histórica mexicoamericana y eulatina, esta disertación examina cómo se manifiesta la Canibalia chicana y eulatina en su producción literaria y cultural de las distintas épocas del Sudoeste como diseñadas por Luis Leal y Ilan Stavans: la Colonización: 1537-1810, las Anexiones: 1811-1898, las Aculturaciones: 1898-1945, la Turbulencia: 1946-1979 y el quinto periodo, Hacia la corriente cultural dominante: 1980-Presente. Se fundamenta en la obra teórica Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en América Latina (2005) de Carlos Jáuregui. Esta Canibalia afirma que el personaje simbólico Caliban, tomado de la obra The Tempest (1611) de William Shakespeare e interpretado en el ensayo Calibán (1971) de Roberto Fernández Retamar, es un referente indispensable que hoy en día conecta los horizontes de los estudios de la colonialidad en América Latina y, para nosotros, en el Sudoeste de los Estados Unidos. Para profundizar la perspectiva crítica de Jáuregui, se acude el trabajo The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History (1990) de José David Saldívar, cuyo llamado por una School of Caliban reúne no sólo las posiciones de los sujetos subalternos, sino que nos acerca a entender la schooling o escolarización sobre lo que significa su resistencia. Para Saldívar, la lucha chicana y eulatina se incorpora a los estudios calibánicos de resistencia anti-imperial. También, nos apoyamos en el trabajo Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (2000) de Walter Mignolo, el cual liga la diferencia colonial con el pensamiento fronterizo y explica los diálogos contemporáneos alrededor del orientalismo, el occidentalismo y el post-occidentalismo con respecto a las culturas latinoamericana, chicana y eulatina. Nuestro estudio se ha enfocado en los trabajos Yo soy Joaquín (1967) de Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, las performances de Guillermo Gómez-Peña, las novelas Peregrinos de Aztlán (1974) de Miguel Méndez y Entre la sed y el desierto de Óscar L. Cordero, filmes eulatinos como Balseros (2002) and Which Way Home (2009), la película mexicana Acorazado (2010) y la producción de la poesía chicana y eulatina con el símbolo examinado bajo dicho enfoque crítico; como resultado, hemos aprendido que la Canibalia chicana y eulatina es un conjunto de discursos caníbales los cuales tienen por objetivo estereotipar a los ciudadanos estadounidenses de origen mexicano y latinoamericano en los Estados Unidos. Se trata de una nueva forma de entender los complicados lazos culturales que unen a los países de hoy en día. La Canibalia chicana y eulatina es el puente que conduce al entendimiento de los vacíos discursivos de la historia de los Estados Unidos y América Latina así como el mundo.
ContributorsRamos Rodríguez, Tomás (Author) / Hernández-G., Manuel De Jesús (Thesis advisor) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / Foster, David William (Committee member) / García-Fernández, Carlos Javier (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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ABSTRACT

This interdisciplinary study examines the linguistic strategies that determine perception of female representation in Peruvian feminist narrative during the late XIX century. It uses as reference narratives that are considered representatives of the literary tendencies of Latin América feminine trajectory. The feminine subject was studied in two novels of Mercedes

ABSTRACT

This interdisciplinary study examines the linguistic strategies that determine perception of female representation in Peruvian feminist narrative during the late XIX century. It uses as reference narratives that are considered representatives of the literary tendencies of Latin América feminine trajectory. The feminine subject was studied in two novels of Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera: Los amores de Hortensia (1886) and Blanca Sol (1889). The novels were selected with the aim of capturing the evolution and the development of the female characters as self-realizing subjects.

The theoretical framework is led by the speech act philosophy of John Austin, John Searle, and Victoria Escandell Vidal. The feminist literary theory is guided by the feminist principle of Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva that relates to the development of female subjectivity; by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and Virginia Woolf that reveals the dynamics of women’s creativity.

Through a close analysis of the speech acts, the research demonstrates that the female characters used their tactics to complain and request on their attempts to uproot the hegemonic normative social structures. The speech acts are presented as key instrument for a better understanding of the complex mechanisms of language, through which the feminist ideology of the nineteenth century is transmitted and reproduced. Within feminist theory the purpose is to show how the performative nature of language can be applied to the concept of power as subversive resistance. While the evolution of the female protagonists through the different spaces they move were traced, the investigation’s central idea that envisions the feminine subject as a process, was also examined.

After comparing and contrasting the portrayal of the protagonists, a thematic analysis was performed to capture the intricacies of meaning within the discourse. The analysis suggests that female representation in literature can be reexamined through historical, political, and socio-economic contexts, as well as through verbal expression.

Mainly, the comventional norms that limited women to some social places and that oblige them to maintain proper conducts did not silence them entirely, as we can observe in the petitions and complaints that became transcendent acts of defiance.





ABSTRACTO

Este trabajo de investigación interdisciplinario examina las estrategias lingüísticas que condicionan la percepción de la representación femenina y feminista en la narrativa peruana de finales del siglo XIX. El sujeto femenino se ha estudiado en dos novelas de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera Los amores de Hortensia (1886) y Blanca Sol (1889), éstas se seleccionaron con el objetivo de entender la evolución de los personajes femeninos como sujetos que se auto-realizan.

El marco teórico para este estudio es guiado por la filosofía hermeneútica de John Austin, John Searle y Victoria Escandell que se basan en la naturaleza performativa de las expresiones lingüísticas. El análisis de género se basa en la teoría de Judith Butler Luce Irigaray y Julia Kristeva que se relacionan con el desarrollo de la subjetividad femenina; en la ideología de Sandra Gilbert y Susan Gubar y Virginia Woolf que exponen las dinámicas de creatividad de la escritora.

A través del análisis de los actos de habla, la investigación sugiere que los personajes femeninos usan estrategias de quejas y de pedidos con el intento de eliminar las estructuras sociales hegemónicas. Los actos de habla se presentan como un instrumento necesario para un mejor entendimiento de los mecanismos del lenguaje, por medio de los cuales se transmite la idea feminista del siglo XIX. La teoría feminista tiene como objetivo, explicar cómo la naturaleza performativa del lenguaje se puede adaptar al concepto de poder como resistencia subversiva. Se investiga la idea central de nuestra pesquisa que percibe al sujeto femenino como un sujeto en proceso. Después de comparar y contrastar el perfil de los personajes protagónicos, se lleva a cabo el análisis temático para captar las complejidades del sentido en el discurso. Esta investigación propone que la representación femenina puede ser reevaluada por medio de contextos históricos, políticos y socio-económicos y de expresiones verbales.¬

En general, las normas convencionales del siglo XIX que limitaron a la mujer a ciertas esferas sociales y que requerían de ésta una conducta discreta, no las silenciaron totalmente como se puedo apreciar en los pedidos y quejas que resultaron ser medios trascendentes de actos de desafío.
ContributorsAtencia-Oliden, Elizabeth Miriam (Author) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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ABSTRACTO

La identidad y el pluralismo se debaten cuando hablamos de dos escritoras chicanas. Ellas reclaman una herencia judía e indígena en sus obras literarias: María Speaks: Journeys into the Mysteries of the Mother in My Life (2004) de Sarah Amira de la Garza y The Desert Remembers My

ABSTRACTO

La identidad y el pluralismo se debaten cuando hablamos de dos escritoras chicanas. Ellas reclaman una herencia judía e indígena en sus obras literarias: María Speaks: Journeys into the Mysteries of the Mother in My Life (2004) de Sarah Amira de la Garza y The Desert Remembers My Name:On Family and Writing (2007) de Kathleen Alcalá. En sus obras se examina el proceso de la construcción de identidad dentro de la comunidad cripto-judía en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos. Dicha comunidad ejemplifica y pone en cuestión la construcción de la identidad en el mundo moderno, deconstruyendo la historia tradicional. Se aplican dos conceptos derivados del estructuralismo para analizar el proceso de integrar una identidad más en identidades ya existentes. Bricolaje, concepto teórico de Claude Lévi-Strauss en su obra: El pensamiento salvaje (1962); bricolaje proporciona el modelo a seguir para entender los diferentes patrones culturales que conforman la construcción de una identidad. Jonglerie de Seth Kunin o la manipulación de las identidades, extraído del artículo: “Juggling Identities Among the Crypto-Jews of the American Southwest” (2001). Acudimos al deconstructivismo de Jacques Derrida y al poscolonialismo de Gloria Anzaldúa y Emma Pérez. Este estudio revela que María Speaks deconstruye una educación católica al haber contradicciones eclesiásticas y cotidianas que producen un agudo sufrimiento en el sujeto femenino, ejerciendo como bricoleur, éste acude a la historia chicana de resistencia, a los mitos aztecas y coloniales, y al conocimiento y creencias judías para construir una nueva identidad chicana que incluye la cara sefardita. En The Desert Remembers my Name, el sujeto femenino, partiendo de una conciencia mexicoamericana de los 1950 y los 1960 donde se dan indicios culturales judíos, deconstruye su temprana identidad chicana y, como bricoleur, emprende investigaciones históricas y de familia para recuperar hechos, figuras, prácticas y símbolos para reconstruir una identidad sefardita y opata como parte de una actualizada identidad chicana. El método teórico aplicado, Bricolaje, Jonglerie, deconstructivismo y el poscolonialismo han sido útiles para recuperar la cara sefardita de la identidad chicana heterogénea. Creemos que este estudio representará un punto de partida para futuros estudios de la literatura judea-chicana.
ContributorsBohanon, Citlali (Author) / Hernández-G., Manuel De Jesús (Thesis advisor) / Foster, David William (Committee member) / García-Fernández, Carlos Javier (Committee member) / Elenes, C. Alejandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Coming out from under the shadow of sight, blindness has a story to tell. From Tiresias to The Miracle Worker, literary and visual representations of blindness are cornerstones of compelling tales of loss and overcoming. In support of the inherent value of sight, these conventional narratives overshadow the stories and

Coming out from under the shadow of sight, blindness has a story to tell. From Tiresias to The Miracle Worker, literary and visual representations of blindness are cornerstones of compelling tales of loss and overcoming. In support of the inherent value of sight, these conventional narratives overshadow the stories and lived experiences of blind people themselves. In light of this misrepresentation, I explore what it means to read, write, and see blindness, as well as consider the implications of being blind in present-day Latin America. I achieve this through a transnational and interdisciplinary analysis of novels, short stories, film, and photography by blind and sighted artists and writers whose work has been published or exhibited after the year 2000. In this context, I will demonstrate how blindness can serve as a lens through which the production and reception of narrative and visual culture can be critically evaluated from a blind person’s perspective. Most importantly, this dissertation showcases the critical and creative work of blind people in order to demystify stereotypes and contextualize anxieties surrounding blindness, perception, and identity.
ContributorsNewland, Rachel Renee (Author) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Thesis advisor) / Foster, David W. (Committee member) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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The surge of the chola alteña in Bolivia as a woman who, after being historically discriminated, has achieved her empowerment through her practices of resistance and agency is a very particular and new phenomenon hardly studied. The contribution of this research is in principle to describe and discover the

The surge of the chola alteña in Bolivia as a woman who, after being historically discriminated, has achieved her empowerment through her practices of resistance and agency is a very particular and new phenomenon hardly studied. The contribution of this research is in principle to describe and discover the complexity of this occurrence, but at the same time to open a field of understanding the works of the chola as a preliminary input for alternative feminisms, in accordance to the particularity of each context. As a result, an eclectic perspective from different non-canonical theories stemming from the Americas has been adopted. For example, intersectionality stemming from various social, cultural, racial, and gender contexts is addressed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Dora Inés Munévar, Ann Phoenix, Breny Mendoza y Sonia Montecinos. Research from Aníbal Quijano, Walter Mignolo and María Lugones proposes the decolonization of knowledge. From a Bolivian perspective, the proposal of communitarian feminism by Julieta Paredes and the chi’xi approach by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. At the same time, the documenting of the chola practices has been obtained from non-conventional digital and oral sources. Thus, this research becomes a referent for future feminist research about the chola, but also for understanding other movements and practices of subaltern and discriminated women in similar or different contexts.

The chola is characterized by her peculiar garment which was imposed by the colonizer in the XVIII century, nullifying her indigenous identity. However, this woman has continued to wear it to the present day as much as a tactic of resistance as of empowerment and agency and has transformed it into a current fashion for the valorization of her identity. She is a chi’xi subject who complements or antagonizes opposites without subsuming them. Finally, what guides her practices and strategies are her native cultural values, such as the principle of Living Well, cooperation, reciprocity, and godfatherhood.

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ContributorsLopez, Norma (Author) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Foster, David (Committee member) / Thompkins, Cynthia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019