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In this research I analyse a corpus of three short stories, one chronicle, and four novels by Mexican authors that use boxers as main characters. The chronicle is “Las glorias del gran Puas”, by Ricardo Garibay (1978). The short stories are “Fuera del ring”, by Guillermo Samperio (1975); “El Rayo Macoy”, by Rafael Ramirez Heredia (1985); and “Campeon ligero”, by Juan Villoro (1999). The novels are Con la muerte en los puños, by Pedro Angel Palou (2003); Las paredes desnudas, by Imanol Caneyada (2011); Juan Tres Dieciseis, by Hilario Peña (2014); and Artilleria nocaut, by Victor Solorio (2014). I approach this texts from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing from journalism, sociology, film studies, and history of sports focused on the inclusion of ethnic minorities. My intentions are to examine the icon of the Mexican boxer in pop culture and to explore the evolution of its portrayals in Mexican literature, by reviewing paradigmatic representations in cinema and press that preceded the literature around boxing. These paradigmatic portrayals include those created from the Mexican nationalist point of view of Mexican Golden Age Cinema. I demonstrate how the fictional depiction of the boxer has been that of one of the “pelados” (as Samuel Ramos called them) at the core of the stereotypes generated by the discussion on national identity in the after math of Mexican Revolution. I argue that the boxer has been an ambiguous icon. In one hand, it is a figure prone to a catastrophic failure during the 20th century, often used to portrait certain stereotypes that emphasize shortcomings linked to social class, race and gender. However, it has also been used as a champion-figure representing those who come from the margins of society and questioning the power structures in Mexico after the social movements of 1968. Certain features have been essential to this ambiguity: strategies of hipermasculinization and questionings of masculinity, the creation of a champion of the people who ends up being both a hero and a scapegoat, and its public visibility that allows society to question itself by questioning the iconicity of the boxer. I argue that in the 21st century the Mexican boxer has been used in Mexican literature in a new way. It has been introduced through neo-detective literature as a potential hero who can overcome certain stereotypes from the 20th century. This hero fulfills the path suggested by Joseph Campbell and in doing so is also a vehicle of criticism towards drug-related violence, and life on the Mexico-United States border, and gender issues. We even encounter the first female boxer in the history of Mexican literature. However, the boxer remains a scapegoat, but in a more dynamic way, as proposed by Rene Girard: the boxer fulfills the functions of the receiver of public hate, but also, admiration. As Girard conceived it, this scapegoat carries in itself both harming violence and benefic violence. The boxer is a new type of hero for a new type of society.

MUJERES EN MOVIMIENTO: LA REPRESENTACIÓN DE LA MIGRACIÓN FEMENINA EN LOS CUENTOS DE CRISTINA PACHECO, NADIA VILLAFUERTE Y ROSARIO SANMIGUEL by Sonia A. Rodríguez Hicks B.A., Tourism Planning, Universidad Hispano-Mexicana, 1986 M.A., Spanish, University of Wyoming, 2002 Ph. D. Spanish, University of New Mexico, 2017 ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on the representation of migrant women in recent Mexican narrative through the examination of three short story collections, El oro del desierto (2005) by Cristina Pacheco, Barcos en Houston (2005) by Nadia Villafuerte and Bajo el Puente (1998) by Rosario Sanmiguel. During most of the twentieth century, Mexican literary representations of migration depict males who migrate alone or with their families to work in agriculture and construction. But in recent decades, we see a surge in women migrating, often leaving their children in their country of origin with family members. In the context of neoliberal globalization, traditional gender norms and values are negotiated and transformed within the family and across national borders. But while migrant women achieve some autonomy by leaving domestic space, they often find work in sectors traditionally associated with women, such as housecleaning and child care. Cristina Pacheco, Nadia Villafuerte and Rosario Sanmiguel depict the fragmentation of conventional patterns of behavior associated with women as daughters, wives, and mothers. Their stories articulate what Abril Trigo denominates as “migrant memory” in which the past is associated with their country of origin; their present with life in transit, and their future with the American dream. In this analysis, we witness a partial restructuration of gender roles in the private and public spheres, as migrant women achieve a certain degree of autonomy and agency, but at the same time traditional roles continue to be perpetuated across borders.

En el presente trabajo emprendo un analisis de uno de los rasgos mas esenciales de la novelistica del autor mexicano Jorge Ibarguengoitia (1928-1983): un aparato critico subyacente en su obra que plantea un debate sobre los modos de la representacion a la vez que cuestiona los discursos que adoptan los mismos. Ibarguengoitia presenta dicho aparato critico por medio de la relacion polifacetica y equivoca entre la realidad extraliteraria y la ficcion que forja en su obra. A partir de las obras Estas ruinas que ves (1975), Las muertas (1977) y Dos crimenes (1979)—la llamada trilogia del “Plan de Abajo”—subrayo una cohesion aproximativa y estilistica que cultiva Ibarguengoitia, producto de una base de recursos que emplea para lograr la presentacion heterogenea de la relacion entre la no ficcion y la ficcion. Esta base consta de los siguientes aspectos: primero, la concepcion de lo que yo denomino el espacio quimerico, el cual consiste en la invencion y el retrato detenido de la region ficticia del Estado de Plan de Abajo; segundo, los recursos narrativos que maneja el autor, los cuales comprenden elementos autorreferenciales y autorreflexivos, para alterar la percepcion de los discursos emitidos en su novelistica y desplegar este cuestionamiento discursivo a niveles metaliterarios, intertextuales e intratextuales; tercero, la enunciacion multiple o la heteroglosia, la cual permite una polifonia de voces que plasma una omnisciencia artificiosa y plantea una disparidad discursiva que impulsa que el lector cuestione todo discurso. Con la finalidad de señalar la mirada critica de Ibarguengoitia, analizo el espacio socialmente construido en su novelistica como puesta en escena de la que se vale el autor para comentar el poder del que disponen los discursos para tergiversar, fabricar y mitificar la verdad, lo cual influye en la percepcion y la presentacion de su realidad social. En sintesis, expongo que la trilogia del Plan de Abajo cimienta una fusion entre la documentacion y la imaginacion que engendra una reflexion sobre la verosimilitud y el acto de la representacion en el contexto de las problematicas sociales y artisticas de Mexico.

En este trabajo se estudia la obra Mal de amores de Ángeles Mastretta como representante de la postmodernidad en la literatura hispanoamericana, más concretamente en la mexicana. En el análisis se toman en cuenta elementos como la historiografía y su enfoque en cuanto a la recreación en la historia no oficial, que da la palabra a ciertas minorías, como son las mujeres, los militantes de izquierda y los pobres. Partiendo de ese prisma se contextualiza la obra dentro de una narrativa escrita por mujeres sobre el tema de la Revolución Mexicana y se hace una comparación de la situación política del pasado con la del presente. También se analiza cómo se presenta el concepto postmoderno de la descentralización en la novela en cuanto al feminismo, al tiempo, al espacio y a la concepción de los personajes. El estudio acaba haciendo un análisis de la deconstrucción del sistema patriarcal y político en la novela.