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Description
Femicide, the purposeful killing of women because they are women, has become a systemic epidemic in Mexico much do in part to two machista actors over the past few decades. These two actors are drug trafficking organizations, better known as cartels, and the government of Mexico at all levels. The investigations by many non-governmental organizations, like Amnesty International, and those by international governmental organizations, like UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have estimated that an average of 7 women are killed per day simply because of their gender, and the government has yet to take their urgent recommendations to enact true changing legislation. Meanwhile, the government continues to provide impunity for the murders, many times cartel members. Thus, while cartels are the perpetrators of violence against women and use their body counts as a weapon of war resulting in the majority of cases of femicide, the Mexican government are using their body counts as a tool for political repression and resorting to their machista culture. This thesis works to further provide evidence of this through investigating failed laws and programs set by the government and revealing links between machismo - intense hypermasculinity - and the reason by which these perpetrators of genocide continue to do so, especially in places like Ciudad Juarez. The paper ultimately explains that cartels and governments, use women's fear of being killed to make them solidify their power over them and the country of Mexico as a whole. Recommendations to end this genocide includes holding the government completely accountable for their blatant wrongdoings against women as a population, place more women in positions of governmental power, and ensuring that corrupt and self-interested officials do not get placed into office as well as ensuring that impunity is not seen as the absolute for killing, raping, or violating women at any level in Mexico.
ContributorsGonzalez, Breanna A. (Author) / Cruz-Torres, Maria (Thesis director) / Velez-Ibanez, Carlos (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
https://mendotadrought.wordpress.com/
Beginning in 2011, California’s most recent drought has brought four years of some of the warmest and driest seasons on record. Mendota, California in the San Joaquin Valley is a microcosm of the struggles many agriculture communities face when water resources are scarce. Known as the “cantaloupe capital of the world,” agriculture represents over half of Mendota’s economy, making unemployment one of the many challenges they face. However, community members are working to move forward and preserve the place they call home.
Medota has a population of about eleven thousand people with over 96 percent of them being Hispanic. The stories of elected officials, field workers, farmers, police, school leaders and local business owners give testament to a mounting fear for future water allocation. But their voices also give way to a shared belief—the community’s resilience will persevere through California’s drought. Mendota is presented through a multi-media piece that uses photos, videos and descriptive articles to showcase both their hardship and hope.
Beginning in 2011, California’s most recent drought has brought four years of some of the warmest and driest seasons on record. Mendota, California in the San Joaquin Valley is a microcosm of the struggles many agriculture communities face when water resources are scarce. Known as the “cantaloupe capital of the world,” agriculture represents over half of Mendota’s economy, making unemployment one of the many challenges they face. However, community members are working to move forward and preserve the place they call home.
Medota has a population of about eleven thousand people with over 96 percent of them being Hispanic. The stories of elected officials, field workers, farmers, police, school leaders and local business owners give testament to a mounting fear for future water allocation. But their voices also give way to a shared belief—the community’s resilience will persevere through California’s drought. Mendota is presented through a multi-media piece that uses photos, videos and descriptive articles to showcase both their hardship and hope.
ContributorsLang, Erica Lynn (Author) / Rodriguez, Rick (Thesis director) / Fergus, Tom (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (Contributor) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
In 2012, President Obama presented an executive order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which primarily defers the deportation of unauthorized immigrants who are under the age of 31 and who arrived to the US before the age 16, among other things. This study examines the impact DACA has had on the identity formation, interfamilial relationships, and future plans of 15 Mexican-origin adults (18-27 years old, 47% female) who were approved for DACA in Arizona. Participants were recruited using flyers and the snowball sampling method. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide by a bilingual, culturally competent interviewer. The interviews were recorded and then a transcript-based pragmatic, thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted. Findings show that participants who arrive to the U.S. at a younger age (under 5) identify as American, while those who arrive at an older age (over 8) do not feel like they can identify as an American because they spent more time in Mexico and are more attached to their home culture. Physical characteristics also played a factor in whether or not participants felt like they could identify as American. Participants describe their financial responsibility in their families increasing since receiving DACA. They also describe how they are now seen as role models to other undocumented youth in their families. Despite the uncertain future of DACA, these participants continued to have ambitious goals such as becoming lawyers and working at robotics companies. Future studies should include larger sample sizes and formally test theories of identity.
ContributorsLopez, Alejandra (Author) / Diaz McConnell, Eileen (Thesis director) / Martinez, Airin (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Across the world, nations manage their borders in various ways. Brazil and Uruguay share a non-militarized dry border, which creates a range of unique challenges and assets for that region. Through historical, linguistic, and cultural context as well as ethnography-inspired mixed method research, this paper demonstrates that the border region serves as an area of cultural blending. While elements of national affiliation are still present, at times, semiotic and linguistic elements are neither Brazilian nor Uruguayan, but have taken on their own identity.
ContributorsAraiza, Ulises (Co-author) / Desper, Tate (Co-author) / Escobar, Edward (Thesis director) / O'Connor, Brendan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The identity of Latinx womxn is multidimensional and widely misrepresented in media. To address this problem, I plan on presenting the multifaceted nature of this intersection by documenting micro perspectives via photography. I articulate my individual perspectives of Latinx womxnhood by using lived experiences, testimonio, through a metanarrative, painting, poetry, and mixed-media art. My micro perspective/metanarrative, as well as the testimonio/art pieces, along with the photography will speak to the macro which is surrounding and engaging us. Testimonio and art are intertwined for me and this project is a proclamation of how these two flow into one another to the point where they are essentially the same. Nosotrxs is a project that focuses on reconciling the stereotypical, media representations of Latinx womxnhood with reality. How I approach this issue varies, I looked both inside and outside of myself to articulate what I see going on in the Latinx community. I photographed Latinx womxn of different nationalities, races, and gender expressions to humanize them to an audience. I painted two canvases, one with the phrase "What justifies a border between you and I?" and one with an impressionist/surrealist focus on Central America. My fourth piece is a sculptural minimalist desert with a video of U.S. border patrol agents destroying water jugs intended for migrants in the Sonoran desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. My fifth piece is a collection of poetry I wrote over the past year that reflect on my identity as a Latina woman based in Phoenix and born in California. All of these pieces together are a small representation of Latinx womxnhood in Phoenix, Arizona.
ContributorsMartinez, Claudia Belen (Author) / Fonseca, Vanessa (Thesis director) / Danielson, Marivel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / CISA - Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication (Contributor) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is the most prevalent type of esophageal malignancy in the United States (US) and the rate of occurrence continues to grow rapidly. As the prevalence of risk factors such as obesity and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) rises, the rates of EAC are expected to continue rising as well. Unfortunately, the 5-year survival rate remains low and the lack of targetable, oncogenic drivers presents challenges in developing more effective and less toxic therapeutics. The current standard of care for EAC involves combinations of chemotherapeutics and radiation therapy that can cause severe side effects and often leads to refractory and relapsed disease. According to the cancer stem cell model, a small subset of the tumor cell population is responsible for cancer's ability to replicate, metastasize, and relapse. These cancer stem cells (CSCs) can self-renew and differentiate. Napabucasin, a "stemness" inhibitor, which works by inhibiting STAT3, has shown promising results in pre-clinical and clinical investigations across a variety of solid tumor types. Because a major barrier in treatment of EAC is the likelihood of relapse, targeting the CSC population that results in this phenotype is a therapeutic strategy of great interest. We hypothesize that employment of napabucasin to inhibit stemness through STAT3 represents a viable therapeutic strategy in the EAC setting. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of napabucasin on EAC cells. Napabucasin was shown to reduce phosphorylation of STAT3 as well as levels of MCL1, a cell survival protein downstream of STAT3, and levels of "stemness" markers Nanog, Sox2, and B-catenin via immunoblot analysis. Napabucasin monotherapy showed high efficacy in some EAC settings, with IC50 values in a clinically achievable range. The treatment in combination with cisplatin, a standard of care chemotherapeutic, resulted in reduced cell viability than either treatment alone indicating that a combination strategy could reduce the dosage of each drug needed. The data suggests that STAT3 inhibition in combination with current standard of care treatments could be a viable therapeutic strategy in EAC, and improve the dismal survival for these patients.
ContributorsDarwin, Alicia H. (Author) / Stout, Valerie (Thesis director) / Whitsett, Timothy (Committee member) / Carson, Vashti (Committee member) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Changes in Latino neighborhoods in Tucson, Arizona that occurred between 1990 and 2010 were studied. The overall Latino population increased substantially within the larger metropolitan area during the target time period. Neighborhoods were selected that had changed to become predominantly Latino during the target time period based on maps measuring ethnic clusters. Research was designed to characterize Latino neighborhoods in Tucson in terms of transformation. Methodology for comparison between changed and unchanged neighborhoods was developed. Observations were made in the three new neighborhoods, as well as in three historically Latino neighborhoods that experienced little change during the same time period. Interviews were conducted with residents from each neighborhood. Exploratory findings were made regarding the transformation of the neighborhoods with increased Latino populations. Findings showed that two areas of transformation increased largely because of the rise of higher density rental housing while one area transformed because two new affordable subdivisions were created within the studied time period. One new neighborhood's physical domain changed from an undeveloped land to a neighborhood with tract style houses. The historical areas have transformed in different ways including a decrease in crime and an increase in the younger population. The historical areas have experienced little change in the physical domain. All neighborhoods studied had evidences of a Spanish speaking population, and have businesses that cater to the surrounding Hispanic population.
ContributorsLeavitt, Isabella Maish (Author) / Lara-Valencia, Francisco (Thesis director) / Velez-Ibanez, Carlos (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Flora Thew Elementary School is a Title I elementary school in the Tempe Elementary School District. The student body is predominantly Hispanic with an additional large portion of African American students, all coming from low-income backgrounds. The purpose of this project was to investigate the efficacy of American education in these groups of students as well as a personal analysis of the organization, Arizona Mentor Society, that serves to promote student success. The investigation found that while the American education system already fails these students in many ways, the elementary school itself propagates this failure in a faculty body that is unfamiliar with the culture of their student body. Solutions to this problem would include the diversification of the teacher workforce, more strict but inclusive training of educators, and changes in the assessment of these students.
ContributorsKirby, Destiney Amber (Author) / Velez-Ibanez, Carlos (Thesis director) / Foote, Nicola (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Mentions of diversity have become an essential part of every university and medical school’s mission statement. Yet, with such an emphasis on diversity, there is an evident absence of<br/>cultural competence education in the curricula of medical education. There is no clear answer of<br/>what is expected of physicians and no direct transitions for the different stages of medical<br/>training when it comes to cultural competence education. This is a vital issue, as there is a close<br/>relationship between the quality of patient care, patient adherence, and medical providers’ levels<br/>of cultural competence. This research analyzes the extent that cultural competence is taught at<br/>various points of the medical education cycle through a data analysis of an IRB approved<br/>questionnaire given to students within the medical education cycle and their value versus<br/>exposure of cultural competence.
ContributorsIbrahim, Aseel (Author) / Laubichler, Manfred (Thesis director) / Vélez-Ibañez, Carlos (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
I spent the first half of my project researching Mexican cuisine, as well as the history of traditional recipes and how various ingredients became incorporated into the food of the Southwest region. The second half of my project was focused on creating a video to document my family's recipe for making tamales. I analyzed the recipe and its larger cultural and social implications which I presented with a PowerPoint.
ContributorsSantoro, Natalie Ocelia (Author) / Velez-Ibanez, Carlos (Thesis director) / Dixon, Kathleen (Committee member) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05