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This thesis is about the subtle ways in which discourses on the individual professionalisation of journalists have been fetishised and used since the neoliberal turn to narrow international debates on imbalances in global flows of information and communication; prevent reform of increasingly inegalitarian media systems, and more importantly to dismantle organised resistance and politically divide reporters. The study focuses on how, under the liberal theory of press freedom, journalists publicly talk and think about themselves as "lone wolves" - depoliticised and objective professionals, ideally segregated from lay society, fiercely competitive and insular in their knowledge and authority. This dissertation is the first systematic analysis of "lone wolf" discursive practices in the journalistic world and it addresses the following questions: where and how was this discourse created and enforced historically as a benchmark of professionalism? What are the political uses and epistemic blinders of this neoliberal professional gaze? Does the "lone wolf" discourse ignore or distort important parts of everyday journalistic practice? What are the limitations and lessons to be learnt from instances in the Global South in which journalistic networks and practices have tried to resist the "lone wolf" worldview? I employ historical sociology to show how this professionalisation project was articulated by the North Atlantic coalition of neoliberal governments and the Western media industry, which aggressively opposed the New International Information Order and UNESCO's MacBride Report. I use the case of Mexico to analyse how this project and discourse was adapted in the Global South, in particular how the Mexican media system and journalism pass from being regarded as a Latin American hub for a "new world order" in the 1970s to being presented by Anglo-centric scholarship as a textbook example of press liberalisation and so-called "media opening" (apertura) in the 1990s-2000s. Drawing on over 53 qualitative semi-structured interviews with 39 practitioners and ten months of multisited ethnographic fieldwork, I argue, using Beckerian network analysis, that the neoliberal professional gaze (epitomised in the ideal subject of the "lone wolf") obscures and makes taboo half of the journalistic world, full of overlapping practices with other occupations and realms of expertise, liminal interspaces and efforts at cooperation, collaboration, and reciprocity in and outside the guild. In the empirical chapters I analyse three Mexican collaborative networks built around Méxicoleaks, the Panama Papers and La Estafa Maestra. This study shows how journalists are beginning to realise that in order to get the work done, build trust, and survive against new threats and risks, journalism needs support from allies: activists, auditors, lawyers, fiscal experts, programmers, academics, to name just a few. Furthermore, I demonstrate how these alliances transcend mere survival tactics or the discursive techno-optimism behind a new era of radical sharing. In order to gradually start creating new conventions oriented towards collegiality and solidarity, these collaborations rely on conceptual and material exchanges of knowledge, practice, and technologies (notably databases and other digital tools), among nascent networks of expertise. Using the case of the journalistic world, I argue more broadly that in order to fully understand practices of collaboration and interdisciplinarity among institutions of knowledge and cultural production, we need a paradigm shift from a sociology of professions to a sociology of networked expertise. To this end, my work draws together new trends in scholarship from the sociology of expertise, science and technology studies, and de-Westernised media studies.

Mexican American men have the lowest college completion rate of any ethnic group in the United States. Mexican American men lag behind Asian and White students academically and slightly higher than Black and Pacific Islander college graduates. The study attempts to understand the significance of "The Vanishing Latino Male" (Saenz & Ponjuan, 2009) in addressing Mexican males in colleges and universities. This paper will examine the historical journey of Mexican migration to the United States. A brief history of Mexican immigration to the U.S from the time of the Mexican Revolution through the 1940's Bracero Program and the 1970s is presented. The historical summation seeks to provide clarity as to the large numbers of Mexican Americans migrating to California from World War II through the 1970s. Current literature will address Mexican American males in education through a Critical Race Theory lens. Mexican American males in the study shared stories and photos of persistence and perseverance through a narrative inquiry as they discussed overcoming structural and cultural barriers to completing a 4-year degree. Participants in this study demonstrated their educational journey through moments of hope, appreciation of mentor and familial support, and the desire to overcome barriers to their educational journey. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The present study examines resilience, depression, anxiety, stress, and burnout among teachers in Mexico. Data collection took place in the city of Tijuana, Mexico. Thirty-six teachers participated in this study by filling out the paper-based survey with three instruments: Maslach Burnout Inventory for Educators Survey, Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale, and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Linear regression was utilized to test resilience, depression, anxiety, stress, and burnout among Mexican teachers. Findings show that resilience was a significant predictor for depression, stress, and burnout, but not for anxiety. The goal of this research project is to help advocate for mental health awareness among educators in Mexico. Implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In Mexico, as in many other countries, HIV/AIDS strategies are developed at the federal level and implemented at the state level. Local programs are expected to use data, in particular surveillance data, to drive their decisions on programmatic activities and prioritize populations with which the program will engage. Since the early 1980s Mexico has engaged a complex and consistent strategy to address HIV and as a result, a great deal of data is available to help target prevention efforts. However, data utilization varies by state due to a number of factors that influence the process. This dissertation uses the case of state HIV/AIDS programs in Mexico to identify and explore the factors that influence data utilization and evaluate their effect on these programs. Three distinct papers are used to explore this topic. The first paper is a literature review that provides an overview of factors that have been previously identified to influence data and research uptake by decision-makers. These factors are sorted into three categories--macro political, resource and data characteristics--to develop a model for influencing decisions. This model is then superimposed over the cycle for surveillance data in order to clearly ascertain the effect these factors have on data utilization. In the second paper the model developed in the first paper is evaluated through a study in four state programs in Mexico. Interviews and a survey were conducted to assess how the influence factors facilitate and impede data utilization at the local level. Issues around communication, decision-making power, budgeting, data quality and dissemination were the primary concerns identified. The third and final paper explores decision space in these state programs. Specifically, this paper reviews the negative side effects that enforcing an existing policy against sharing anti-retroviral drugs between states has had on the decision space of programs at the local level. The results from this research show that in addition to the expected barriers to using data for decision-making, there are also a variety of subtle forces affecting local actors that also need to be taken into account if data utilization is to be improved. One of the main contributions of this study is the approach of studying macro political, resource and data factors simultaneously in order to assess the combined effect they have on decision-makers. This study also helps identify potential areas that both local and national-level actors can leverage to move towards data-driven programming, such as improving local capacity for data analysis and strategic changes to current data dissemination practices. Future research directions include additional comparative studies in Mexico as well as in other middle- and lower-income countries, further explorations of constrained decision space and how it affects program performance and an evaluation of the relative value of experiential knowledge in settings were data are absent or unreliable. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation describes the segments and tones of Soyaltepec Mazatec, an Oto-Manguean language of southern Mexico virtually undescribed in the literature with the exception of Pike (1956). The preliminary work done by Pike and subsequent analyses by Goldsmith (1990) and Pizer (1994) are reviewed giving evidence that the system is complex and not easily explained. Documentation of the segments of the language as well as a more complete documentation of the tonal system has significance for language preservation, comparative Oto-Manguean studies, and for phonological theories of tone. This paper presents original field data gathered by the author during visits to Oaxaca Mexico, and describes the phonetic and phonological patterning for segments and tones, as well as presenting an analysis for the tone sandhi. The author's research reveals that Soyaltepec Mazatec contains 17 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel specifications which contrast for nasality. The phonological processes that occur are described as well as the intricacies of the co-occurrence of phonemes within the syllable which are shown to be vital in determining the nature of the syllable onsets. Four levels of tone are confirmed to occur lexically as well as five rising and two falling tones. The tonal processes include the transfer of tones between morphemes as well as the spread of a low register to the end of a phonological domain. These processes are autosegmental in nature; however, because the language makes use of four levels of tone, the one-dimensional tonal representations which are traditionally used are expanded using Register Tier Theory (RTT). Although RTT has not been widely adopted, it is shown to be not only useful but necessary as a framework to describe four distinct levels of tone while still allowing the flexibility of independent feature spreading which accounts for the processes that occur in a straightforward, insightful and predictive manner. It has been suggested that Mesoamerican tone languages do not fit nicely into the typical tonal typology that divides tone languages into African and Asian types. Soyaltepec Mazatec has the inventory of an Asian tone language with tones which are strongly attached to their lexical TBU while at the same time exhibiting processes that are African. It has contour tones that are sequential in nature, floating tones, downstep and widespread spreading. Furthermore, tone is important both in the lexicon and in the grammar of the language. All of these characteristics are prototypical of African systems. Soyaltepec Mazatec does not fit into either tonal classification; it is a combination of the two. The traditional tonal bicameral typology should not be viewed as rigid, exclusive categories. Un-analyzed tonal languages need to be investigated without typological presumptions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Designed to examine the application and cost-effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) for secondary education in developing countries, this document is divided into eight chapters. A general introduction defines the research problem, describes the research methodology, and provides definitions of key terms used throughout the paper. Chapter 2 discusses the nature of CAI, including its instructional capabilities and its cost-effectiveness. Chapter 3 provides a review of the literature on the effectiveness and costs of a CAI system in the developed countries. A general description of some educational problems in the Third World, with specific reference to educational poverty, is provided in chapter 4, and chapter 5 discusses the applications of computers in the developing countries. This is followed in chapter 6 by cost estimates for a CAI system as used in a Mexican secondary school. A discussion of the appropriateness of CAI in the developing countries comprises chapter 7, while the last chapter summarizes the research project and lists nine conclusions and five recommendations. Selected references, a sample questionnaire and cover letter, a list of computer manufacturers, and the categorization of selected developing countries by level of computer activity are provided. (JB)

This study compared the effects of utilizing children's books, maps, and videos in a theme integrated unit in social studies with the effects of using a social studies textbook in an elementary class. One fifth grade class in New York state was used for this study. In the first treatment, the class received instruction in a unit on Canada using the school adopted textbook, according to the procedures and activities in its accompanying teachers manual. In the second treatment, the class was taught a unit on Mexico using an interdisciplinary approach and children's trade books, maps, and videos that addressed the topic. A pretest and posttest measured achievement and included a brief attitudinal survey. The hypothesis that there would be no significant difference between the samples was accepted. Contains 42 references and 4 appendices including pre- and posttest raw scores, the attitude survey, and teaching materials. (Author/JAG)

This dissertation examines a series of works produced under the influence of a political network between the court of Madrid and the vice regal court of Mexico between 1688 and 1696. The Duke of Infantado (Sumiller de Corps of Charles III), the Marquis of Los Velez (President of the Council of Indies), and the Count of Galve (Viceroy of New Spain) collaborated towards steering the King and other political powers within the Spanish Empire to increase expenditures in the Windward Armada, the protecting fleet of the Indies Convoys, as well as in the general naval protection of the Caribbean. The three men resorted to two authors to produce works with the aim of influencing the courts in Mexico City and Madrid: the Mexican polymath, Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora, and the Galician sailor, Francisco de Seyxas y Lovera. Through the examination of their work and other historical documents, this dissertation analyzes the role of these writers in the construction of the imperial project of Spain’s naval power. The examination of this political-textual network in a polycentric monarchy diverges from previous studies on both Mexican and peninsular Baroque literature that relied on a center-periphery model. Rather, these texts constitute naval authority in which New Spain is not peripheral but central to Spanish imperial power and exercises political pressure over the Madrid Court from a position of hemispheric dominance. The study of these text within an intricate network of literature and scientific works on both sides of the Atlantic allows us to map out connections otherwise obscured by compartmentalized studies on the period, and to foreground the role of sailors and maritime narratives over the traditional portrait of the Spanish Empire as an exclusively land-based power.

This dissertation looks at the political origins and consequences of corruption scandals. On the origins side, the dissertation argues that first turnovers after long periods of dominant-party rule open opportunities for corruption scandals to take place. In turn, scandals contribute to an increase in perceptions of corruption, which explains at least part of the increase in these perceptions during early democratization periods. On the consequences side, the work examines the impacts of corruption scandals on interpersonal trust and electoral outcomes. The dissertation uses quantitative methods and relies on subnational time-series cross-sectional data from Mexico, specifically the 32 Mexican states from the first presidential turnover in 2000 until 2018. The dissertation consists of three papers. The first paper explores the impact of early democratization on corruption scandals and of corruption scandals on perceptions of corruption. The work finds that first turnovers, typical of early democratization stages, increase the number of corruption scandals, which in turn increase perceptions of corruption. Therefore, while the literature has generally assumed that perceptions of corruption increase in periods of early democratization due to an increase in actual acts of corruption, this work transcends assumptions and presents evidence that one mechanism –though not necessarily the only mechanism– connecting early democratization to perceptions of corruption is the incidence of corruption scandals. The second paper examines the consequences of corruption scandals on interpersonal trust. This work finds that corruption scandals create an effect that harms interpersonal trust. More specifically, corruption scandals bring about a decrease in trust in coworkers/classmates and friends. In contrast, trust in neighbors and family/relatives is not harmed by corruption scandals. Interestingly, under certain circumstances trust in family/relatives is even strengthened by scandals, possibly due to a substitution effect after the loss of trust in other relationships. The last paper focuses on electoral accountability after corruption scandals. The literature’s consensus is that scandals damage the incumbent party’s electoral performance, but only mildly. However, the literature has not asked about the damage that corruption scandals might do to the established parties’ electoral performance. This paper argues that corruption scandals, besides harming the incumbent party’s electoral performance, damage the established parties. Additionally, contrary to the literature’s argument that corruption scandals depress turnout, the paper finds that, under certain conditions, corruption scandals might motivate turnout.

This dissertation is structured as three papers which seek to contribute to the increasing body of literature on three looming crises in Latin America, in topics identified as the core of public policy debates in the region for the upcoming decade. The first paper explores the relationship between levels of air pollution and safety incidents in Medellín, Colombia, during the period 2017-2019. Using an empirical strategy, I find a positive relationship between PM₂.₅ pollution levels and both property and violent daily incidents at the neighborhood level, after accounting for weather and location characteristics. These findings constitute a valuable tool for cost-benefit analysis of the environmental crisis in Colombia that uses an approach focused on its effects on safety that is currently absent in the conversation. In the second paper, on the crisis of chronic disease, using the Mexican Health and Aging Study 2018 we compare total out-of-pocket expenses for physician visits and medication among older adults living with diabetes in Mexico, stratified between urban, semi-urban, and rural localities. We find that although the healthcare safety net program (Seguro Popular) has improved access to care, older Mexicans affiliated with it have far higher out-of-pocket expenditures for medications than those on employer-based plans in all localities. Across all groups, the uninsured bear the highest burden of expenditures, highlighting continued need to address health inequities for the most underserved populations. Finally, the third paper on the rental markets’ crisis, follows the need to increase research on the availability of non-ownership alternatives in the region. It explores the effectiveness of an ease-of-eviction policy in Costa Rica by using household surveys to explore rental volumes before and after changes in regulation, while putting the country’s rental markets in broader perspective compared to OECD countries and their varying levels of eviction restrictions. The salience of these papers is greater today than ever, as Latin American countries face both present and looming policy crises on multiple fronts. Tackling these issues effectively will require a combination of public innovation, rigorous academic research, and interdisciplinary approaches to complex policy challenges.

Feminicides are the gender motivated killings of women. In other words, they are the killing of women because they are women. This difference in motive from homicides means that feminicides merit legal distinction, which led all 32 Mexican states to reform their penal codes in order to include feminicide. This paper investigates the evolution of feminicide typifications across states, and evaluates whether states with stronger feminicide laws have been more effective at enforcing justice by having higher prosecution rates for feminicides. Three factors are of particular importance when measuring the strength of feminicide laws: (1) the number of objective criteria used to recognize gender motive; (2) the presence of subjective elements; and (3) the recognition of feminicide as an autonomous crime. This paper finds that between 2010 and 2017, the typification of feminicide laws improved for all three criteria, but many states continue to have laws that are far from ideal. Over the last decade, feminicide prosecution rate fell as a result of an increase in violence throughout the country, even though the number of feminicide prosecutions increased. Yet the strength of the laws had a positive and significant effect on feminicide prosecutions, suggesting that the decrease in the feminicide prosecution rate would have been greater were it not for the stronger laws. This paper finds that the average improvement in the feminicide laws led to an increase in the feminicide prosecution rate of between 12% and 21%.

The 1921 “Exhibición de Arte Popular” established the category of arte popular in Mexico. The exhibition required that all works be made from materials originating in the country of Mexico and created through “authentic” Indigenous traditions. In other words, the focus was on creating a national identity founded in Indigeneity rather than on the Indigenous communities themselves. Since 1921, discussion of arte popular has focused on either dismissing it as a tourist trinket or advocating for its inclusion as ‘art’. However, there has been a serious lack of discussions centered on arte popular's appropriation of Indigenous cultures for a national aesthetic. This has led to an underwhelming focus on the relationships between contemporary Indigenous communities and the objects they are creating. This investigation takes a decolonial approach that focuses on the relationship between Indigenous communities and the non-human (materiality) to offer an alternative approach to studying arte popular. In this paper, I investigate the changes in the relationship between the Otomi people and amate (bark paper) and explore different ways art history can approach arte popular through materiality.

Based on 15 months of ethnographic research in Milpa Alta, a rural, southern municipality of Mexico City, this thesis focuses on local understandings and contestations surrounding "violence against Indigenous women", while questioning the meaning of "violence", "Indigeneity", and "femininity," and the relationship between these concepts. I argue for rethinking violence, as present interventions in Milpa Alta may contribute more to perpetuating than alleviating it. Newly circulating discourses of human rights and women's rights, and high numbers of femicide and sexual trafficking victims in the region, have made Milpaltenses aware of the issue of violence against women. Paradoxically, many acknowledged it to be widespread, while insisting that women and men are equally powerful: Local ideologies of work and love emphasise complementarity and interdependency in marriage. In practice, interdependent work and love contain within themselves potential for violence. Instead of directly discussing "violence", Milpaltenses often spoke of "order" and "chaos": They interpreted certain acts as maintaining or changing embodied states and the social order. Violence was also often likened to love, as one may find expression in the other, and both engender transformation. Instead of viewing women as "victims", a pejorative epithet, they were frequently lionized as "strong women", "hard workers", "strugglers", and "warriors", protecting their families and communities from all kinds of harm. Historically, women have fought alongside their men in the communal struggle to defend the local forest against the interests of mining companies and paper factories. In sum, my analysis of local discourse, life history interviews, historical and mythic narratives, religious practice, and gendered work shows that violence against Milpaltense women can neither be understood in terms of "culturally legitimate violence", nor in terms of patriarchal oppression alone. Thus, anti-violence strategies promoting an individualist notion of women's rights are not only inefficient, but also risk socially isolating the women accepting this approach. I conclude that intervening to save women from "cultural violence" and imposing a particular understanding of violence, is ineffective. Development initiatives would be more likely to meet women's needs if they built on local understandings, which link love and violence, rather than oppose these.

This dissertation is a collection of chapters that demonstrate the relationship between return migration, human capital, and labor outcomes in the origin developing countries. Return migration is an intrinsic part of the cycle of international migration and development. Migrants acquire new skills, accumulate human capital and savings during their stay abroad. When they return, this accumulated capital may generate benefits for the left behind family members but may also affect their reintegration into the labor markets in the origin countries. In my first chapter, I estimate the effect of a return migrant in the household on the schooling outcomes of children and adolescents in Mexico. My second chapter examines how the presence of a return migrant in the household affects the school-work decisions of adolescents, particularly focusing on the type of jobs that adolescents in return migrant households engage in. In the third chapter, I investigate the labor outcomes and occupational mobility of returnees in Ghana who have migration experiences from abroad. The US-Mexico corridor represents one of the most massive migrant movements in human history. Since 2007 the trend has reversed, with more Mexican migrants returning to their homes than those moving to the U.S. The experiences gained abroad benefit not just the return migrants but may also cause spillover effects that enhance the living conditions of their households. In the first chapter, I establish the causal effect of a return migrant in the household on schooling-for-age and school attendance of children aged 6-19 in Mexican households. Using data from the 2010 Mexican Census, I employ an instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity of treatment status. I use an index of U.S. interior immigration enforcement interacted with municipality migrant shares to the U.S. states as the source of exogenous variation. I find an increase in school attendance and an increase in schooling-for-age of children in households with return migrants. I speculate these improvements to be driven by the migrants' experience and accumulation of savings in the U.S. My paper suggests return migration from a developed to a developing country as a mechanism through which migrant flows may benefit origin developing countries worldwide. My second chapter examines the causal effect of a return migrant in the household on the school-work tradeoff and the occupational choices of adolescents aged 12-19 years in Mexico. I address the endogeneity of the presence of a return migrant by using exogenous variation in the municipality's exposure to U.S. interior enforcement interacted with the municipality migrant shares. My results suggest an increase in the probability of school attendance, a decrease in labor market participation, and a decrease in the probability of working and going to school simultaneously for children of households with return migrants relative to non-migrant households. Moreover, I find a decrease in the probability of employment in wage/salaried work, and an increase in self-employment among children in return migrant households. These improvements are likely driven by the migrants' experience, accumulation of human and financial capital in the U.S, as well as better labor market opportunities when they return. Policies aimed at facilitating the return of international migrants may substantially improve the quality of education and can act as a channel to reduce child labor. Migration schemes and demographic characteristics of return migrants in Ghana vary greatly from Mexico. The conclusions from the US-Mexico migration are not transferable to Ghana's migration, thereby making return migration in Ghana another compelling case. Researchers have demonstrated interest in the return of skilled migrants as a mechanism to reverse the brain drain in the developing world. In my third chapter, we examine the relationship between international migration experiences and the labor market outcomes of returnees in Ghana. Specifically, we compare the probability of employment and the occupational choices of return migrants with the non-migrants in Ghana. We use rich longitudinal information on the migration histories in the Migrations between Africa and Europe (MAFE) project data for Ghana 2009-2010. We use immigration restrictiveness in the popular destination countries, U.K. and Netherlands, as the source of exogenous variation in temporary migration decisions in an instrumental variable framework. Using multinomial logit models, our results suggest that returnees are more likely to engage in wage/salaried employment relative to non-migrants. They are more likely to experience downward occupational mobility compared to their first jobs before migrating. However, only returnees with a smaller duration of stay abroad and a smaller number of trips experience occupational downgrading. Our research suggests policies enhancing reintegration into the labor markets as strategies to utilize the migration experiences and capital accumulated abroad. Attracting skilled migrants back to their home country entails access to higher-paid employment opportunities when they return. Thus, the results from my research suggest policies enhancing reintegration into the labor markets as strategies to utilize the migration experiences and capital accumulated abroad. While policymakers in developing countries are concerned about the brain drain associated with the migration of their workforce, return migrants, with their accumulated skills, savings, and human capital, can contribute to improved socio-economics outcomes in their home country. With limited empirical evidence on the effects of return migration on the home country, my dissertation builds on a novel and a limited body of literature on the link between return migration and economic prosperity in the home country.

There is a growing understanding that cannabis legalization in and of itself may not be the answer to the lasting harms of drug prohibition. Various examinations of the medical cannabis industry have uncovered issues of equity and how legalization can perpetuate the harms of prohibition by subjecting already marginalized small time producers to larger, more developed firms that can set competitive prices. Rather, the nature of legalization policy determines the effectiveness in alleviating the harms of prohibition and avoiding some of the environmental effects of legalization. Using Mexico, this paper will demonstrate how the legacy of prohibition has resulted in a consumer over producer narrative of legalization which in turn results in a pharmaceutical model of production based on the need to tightly control cannabis. The lingering anxiety of the illegal drug market and international market factors push a pharmaceutical model that is more capital intensive and environmentally fraught. Mexico’s newly legalizing market can help us see into the workings of this process and provide a way forward that is more equitable and more sustainable

Loneliness has garnered attention in recent years as a public health issue of “epidemic” proportions. From linkages between loneliness and increased heart attack risk and depression (Cacioppo et al 2006, Xia and Li 2018) to loneliness as a cause of contemporary political polarization in the U.S. (Brooks 2018), the lived experience of loneliness examined through an anthropological lens is limited. In this paper, I explore the subjective experience of “soledad” among Mexican adolescents living under conditions of socio-structural adversity. In an effort to respond to “what really matters” (Kleinman 2006) in the context of daily life for adolescents who participated in the study, this paper identifies soledad as shaped by and grounded in morally-laden cultural conceptions of familial and interpersonal convivencia (living with, being with). Through feelings of “depresión (depression),” having “nobody to talk to,” and the absence of “confianza (trust),” this paper examines what it means to “to be with” or “live with” others in relation to soledad. I argue for an increased attention to the primacy of lived experience in the context of global mental health research on the topic of loneliness and its intersections with mental health and wellbeing.

Fifty years on, we still only have a few of the answers to the many questions surrounding the massacre at Tlatelolco. Not yet do we know how many people were really killed, what became of their bodies, or where the orders came from. But we have at least confirmed the broader strokes of what occurred in Mexico City on the night of 2 October 1968. In this paper, I attempt to answer another question: who was responsible? Traditionally, in response to this question, historians, activists, and reporters have all pointed their fingers toward Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and his underlings, be they ministers or generals. And while blood is most certainly on their hands, I propose we cast a new antagonist: the International Olympic Committee and its president, Avery Brundage. In most every work on the massacre at Tlatelolco and the surrounding student movement, the Olympics appear as nothing more than a footnote, either a point of leverage for the students to pressure the government, or more simply the backdrop before which the protests occurred. Similarly, sport historians have largely avoided grappling with the massacre itself, instead turning their gaze on any number of other controversies that occurred at the 1968 Olympic Games. What they missed, and what I will show, is this: Brundage and the IOC not only had foreknowledge of the impending massacre, but they actually pressured the Mexican government into committing it. For this paper, I have made use of a wide range of secondary sources, as well as a number of newspaper archives, the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center’s 1968 Oral History Project, IOC records, the National Security Archive, and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library’s archive.

As inequality continues to grow, scholars remain conflicted on solutions to diminish the gaps in earnings. Mexico is an upper-middle income country, however it is also among the high inequality countries. This study uses data from the Mexican Intercensal Survey to analyze the relationship of the dispersion of education on the amount of earnings inequality. Regions with higher educational inequality and educational attainment tend to have higher earnings inequality. The research was expanded to explore how inequality has changed over the course of the 21st century. The results concluded that the mean educational attainment and average earnings increased as the GINI and EGINI coefficients notably decreased over the fifteen year timespan. From a policy perspective, this finding sets the tone for a bottom-up approach. While not hindering the attainment of the top, ideal policy would incentivize opportunity for bottom achievers. Furthermore, the results clearly contradicted Kuznets’ hypothesis with a U-shaped distribution between earnings and inequality. This paper explores alternative development theories as well as policy action focusing on education to reduce inequality.

This paper examines the role of construction systems in the success and failure of the Mexican government and the private sector in providing housing for the working class at the end of the 20th century. In this study, construction systems are examined that enabled developers to build thousands of housing units with significant sociocultural impacts on urban development in Mexican cities. Based on evidence collected from governmental housing policy, interviews with individuals, technical manuals, and documentary film, this study demonstrates that construction technology at the end of the 20th century produced low-income neighborhoods as material assemblages that interacted with human desires during the global economic challenges of the period. Keywords: Social housing, Mexico, monolithic construction technology, assemblage theory

The transboundary nature of water dividing Mexico and the United States (U.S.) transforms the entire border region into an instrument of cooperation, a source of conflict, a national security issue, and an environmental concern. Reasonable data collection and research analysis have been conducted for surface waters by joint governmental institutions and non-governmental bodies. However, with the exception of the U.S. Transboundary Assessment Act Program (TAAP) (focusing on the Hueco Bolson, Mesilla Bolson, San Pedro and Santa Cruz aquifers), there is no comparable research, institutional development, or assessment of transboundary groundwater issues on the frontier. Moreover, data collection and methodologies vary between the two countries, there is no broadly accepted definition of the transboundary nature of an aquifer, and available legal and policy frameworks are constrained by non-hydrological considerations. Hence, there is a conceptual and institutional void regarding transboundary groundwater resources between Mexico and the U.S. The purpose of this paper is to bridge this void and characterize transboundary aquifers on the Mexico–US border. It reviews existing international frameworks for identifying hydrological and social criteria that characterize an aquifer as transboundary. It then assesses data from both countries to propose where and which aquifers could be considered transboundary. Finally, the paper proposes an agenda for assessing Mexico–US transboundary aquifers as a means for improving groundwater management in the border region.

The U.S. imports 87 percent of its avocados from one region (Michoacán) in Mexico. Although environmental and social costs associated with avocado production are significant, consumers and retailers in the U.S. are not aware of them in part due to complex, opaque supply chains. In this paper, we use a methodology known as TRACAST (Tracking Corporate Actors Across Space and Time) to reconstruct avocado supply chains between U.S. retailers (e.g. Kroger and Costco) and Mexican producers and exporters. Using remote sensing and machine learning, we document how avocado plantations have led to significant deforestation in Michoacán, whose forests are important reservoirs for biodiversity, especially the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). We estimate that ~20% of the total forest loss (15,000 ha) in Michoacán between 2001 and 2017 is associated with expansion of avocado orchards. Despite these impacts, interviews reveal that industry experts (namely representatives of firms and government officers) do not consider avocado production to be a driver of deforestation in the region. This disconnection between actual and perceived environmental impact can be addressed by the U.S. governmental agencies (namely USDA APHIS) who play influential roles in regulating avocado imports for sanitary and health purposes and by the vertically integrated avocado trading companies who connect Michoacán packing houses to Kroger, Costco, and other large U.S. grocery retailers. Key measures to make the U.S.- Mexico avocado trade more sustainable include greater information transparency and multi-stakeholder initiatives.

This paper examines how the Wixárika, or Huichol, as they are more commonly known to the outside world, have successfully engaged in a decade-long struggle to save their ceremonial homeland of Wirikuta. They have fended off a Canadian silver mining company’s attempts to dig mines in the habitat of their most important sacrament, peyote, using a remarkable combination of traditional and modern resistance techniques. This thesis proposes that a significant actor in their successful resistance and cultural survival is the regular, ritualized consumption of peyote that has provided the Wixáritari with psychological and social benefits. Specifically, recent research has shown that supported psychedelic use aids in novel problem solving and resilience to stress, increases feelings of connectedness, and stimulates noetic insight, and these benefits appear to support the Wixáritari's fight against a multinational corporation which has the support of the federal government. The thesis then broadens its scope to explain the relevance of the Wixáritari case for social theory more generally. I describe how the recent neuroscientific paradigms which are resulting from this research such as that of the “entropic brain” cohere well with anthropologist Victor Turner’s conception of structure and anti-structure. The thesis then goes one step further to suggest that all societies once had methods of inducing this type of anti-structural/entropic experience as a means of ensuring psychological and social health, and that the Wixáritari are just one example of a culture which has maintained these rituals into the present day. It then speculates that these ritualized uses of psychedelics may point to a biological and cultural basis for the foundation and persistence of religious and mystical experience in general, as a producer of social solidarity and inhibitor of mental illness, and a means for ensuring flexible and creative solutions are crafted against whatever existential or environmental threats may arise in human experience.

Health care reform in Latin America has been a continuous process over recent decades, and several countries have implemented programs of universal care. This dissertation looks at the implementation of universal care programs in Brazil and Mexico, and highlights the politics of implementing these reforms. In the first paper, I evaluate the implementation of infrastructural reforms as part of Seguro Popular in Mexico. I conclude that the reforms were partially successful, but that success varied considerably by region. In the second paper, I show that spending on health care in Brazil is strongly related to political partisanship, and that the reform process has not significantly changed this relationship. In the third paper, I suggest that individual characteristics, and not political variables, best explain variations in the quality of care patients receive in Brazil. As a whole, these papers serve to highlight the understudied role of politics in the implementation of health care reform.

This paper explores language ideologies, code choice, and ethnolinguistic identity in Maya-dominated areas of Mexico and Guatemala. As the Maya, or Pan-Maya, Movement has grown in scope and force since the 1980s, particularly in Guatemala, possessing a "Maya" identity has become defined in new ways. Since Mayan languages are still spoken with a strong degree of vitality in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and the western highlands of Guatemala, examining Maya identity through beliefs about, and use of, indigenous languages and Spanish is a particularly useful focus. In comparing Maya peoples' beliefs and identities in each of these regions, this paper argues that Maya identity is highly dependent on the historical, political, and cultural context in which it exists.

An integral part of the Catholic mass during the 1500s, the dulcian or bajón became one of the first Western European instruments to reach the western hemisphere. Replaced by the bassoon in the 19th century, the instrument remained in use as Spaniards living in Mexico emulated the entertainment and fashions of Europe and it appeared in many symphonies and operas. Following an upsurge in nationalism after the Revolution of 1910, a plethora of works exhibiting a truly Mexican style of composition developed, fueled by government money for the arts. Currently, Mexican composers enjoy success within the Western classical music community, and the bassoon continues to appear in symphonic, solo and chamber works. This paper briefly examines the history of the bassoon in Mexico and later analyzes the current state of the genre, with some general information and commentary on classical music in that country. This discussion is supported by the examination of several recent pieces of solo bassoon music and chamber music with ensembles of ten or less that include the bassoon. The genre currently suffers from a lack of scholarly resources documenting the most recent developments in Mexican composition. As a result, numerous print and internet sources were consulted to provide a well-rounded discussion of this topic. The composers discussed in this analysis are divided into two categories: prominent composers and those who are lesser-known or underperformed. This project provides biographical and stylistic information for each composer as well as the background and musical characteristics of each composition examined. The paper concludes with a list of Mexican solo and chamber works featuring the bassoon as well as a selected discography to facilitate further research of the bassoon music from this country.

Six different nations have claimed sovereignty over some or all of the current state of Texas. In the early nineteenth century, Spain ruled Texas. Then Mexico rebelled against Spain, and from 1821 to 1836 Texas was a Mexican province. In 1836, Texas Anglo settlers rebelled against Mexican rule and established a separate republic. The early Anglo settlers brought their form of civilization to a region that the Spanish had not been able to subdue for three centuries. They defeated a professional army and eventually overwhelmed Native American tribes who wished to maintain their way of life without inference from intruding Anglo settlers. This history fostered a people who consider themselves capable of doing anything—an exceptional population imbued with a fierce sense of nationalistic and local rooted in the mythic memoirs of the first Anglo settlers. The purpose of this study is to explore the origin and development of Texan exceptionalist beliefs. The “taming of the Texas wilderness,” the Alamo, the defeat of Santa Anna at San Jacinto, the formation of a republic that earned recognition by major foreign powers, Stephen F. Austin, Davy Crockett, William Travis, are all elements in the great Texas myth. From the letters and documents of the early settlers, the extensive papers of Stephen F. Austin, the war papers of the Texas Revolution, newspapers of the era, and other sources, it is apparent that the early Texas settler did not come to Texas for any altruistic purpose. Texas provided a second chance for many who had been previously unsuccessful and an opportunity to gain riches from the extensive land bounty granted by the Mexican government. This research provides additional depth to a neglected part of Texas history. Removing the mystique of the Texas legend reveals a far more colorful and complex period. These early Texans were a complex, divided, greedy, racist people who changed the course of the United States and established a legend that has withstood the test of time.

Five years ago, when Mexico transformed its energy sector, most commentators were worried about the government’s capacity to implement the reform. What would the upstream contracts look like? Would the auctions be transparent? How would international companies react? After two successful auction rounds, 107 signed contracts, and the creation of viable regulatory agencies to manage and monitor the reform agenda, the questions have changed. Today, Mexico’s capacity to implement energy reforms and attract foreign investment is no longer in doubt. Today, the most pressing questions about the reform concern its long-term sustainability. Can it survive the Mexican electoral cycles? Will Mexico continue down the same road that fosters private participation in the development of new fields? How safe are the current investments in Mexico from the rise of populism and nationalism in the Mexican political narrative? In other words, moving forward, are the necessary legal pillars cemented in place firmly enough to survive any political hurricane? The legal response to these questions, as with many legal issues, is unclear. This paper focuses on why the legal architecture of the energy reform for upstream activities is not as “bulletproof” and “irreversible” as some Mexican officials claim.

Composed in 1927 and dedicated to Segovia, Ponce's Sonata III, one of the staples of the classical guitar repertoire, is the focus of this paper. To put this piece into proper perspective among Ponce's other works, biographical information leading up to the composition of the piece is presented first. Each of the three movements is then analyzed with regard to formal construction as well as harmonic and melodic language. Analysis is an important precursor to actually playing the piece, as Sonata III is a work that departs from Ponce's previous compositional style. The main portion of this paper addresses the preparation and interpretation of Sonata III. The insight gained through initial analysis of the piece is used to arrive at a musically satisfying interpretation of the work. Specific performance suggestions are included. Technical issues are addressed and possible solutions are presented. Alternate fingerings are provided to alleviate some of the common technical challenges the guitarist will encounter. A transcription and discussion of the Segovia revisions are also present. The paper concludes with general suggestions for improving performance that would be applicable to other works for guitar as well. This synthesis of biographical information, analysis, editorial options and performance suggestions, has hitherto never been never been done for this great work.

This dissertation consists of three essays investigating the impact of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a developing country. Using panel data for Mexican manufacturing plants, I investigate how FDI affects domestic plants’ productivity; ask whether there is a link between productivity and wages; and estimate how trade policy affects investment and productivity at the plant level. The second paper tests whether the wage premium associated with foreign ownership is due to foreign firms’ attempts to prevent worker turnover and associated technology leakage, or simply due to sorting of higher ability workers into foreign-owned plants. This paper provides a framework for testing the worker-stealing hypothesis by exploiting the different predictions worker-stealing and worker-heterogeneity yield regarding the relationship between productivity and wages, and productivity and employment. I find evidence supporting the worker-stealing hypothesis. Tests between the worker-stealing and worker-heterogeneity models support the former. However, this behavior is not limited to foreign-owned plants, and only explains a small fraction of the average wage difference between foreign and domestic plants. The first paper estimates the effects of FDI on the plant’s productivity (the own-plant effect) and on other plants’ productivity (spillover effects). Using plant and industry price-cost markups to control for differences in market power and sorting of foreign plants across industries respectively, I find that foreign ownership is positively correlated with plant productivity. Productivity spillovers come only from FDI originating in North America. Furthermore, productivity is inversely related to the subcontracting share of revenue, reflecting the fact that maquiladoras (assembly plants which export most of their production back to the United States) have a significantly lower value-added compared with other plants. Foreign-owned plants also have higher markups indicating they possess greater market power. However, higher industry shares of foreign ownership lead to lower plant price-cost markups, supporting the hypothesis that foreign entry increases competition. The third paper investigates how trade protection affects investment and productivity. I find that tariffs decrease the probability a plant will invest in new capital or facilities, which in turn are correlated with increased productivity. Furthermore, these results are strongest for the smallest plants in an industry.

In 1943 the Rockefeller Foundation, nominally in partnership with the Mexican government, initiated its Mexican Agriculture Program (MAP). Over the subsequent decades, a complex network of worldwide inter-governmental/NGO relationships was formalized along the model developed in Mexico. The dissemination of this research-educational model of agronomic “rationalization” to much of the Global South became retroactively known as the “Green Revolution.” This paper argues that this imposition of “rational” agronomy and agricultural economics through mechanization, monoculture, and synthetic inputs is constitutive of “epistemic colonialism.” Despite the attention paid to the Green Revolution as an agronomic undertaking, using economics and anthropology case studies (1965-1979), this thesis argues that the Green Revolution was a both a technoscientific intervention and a social scientific intervention in indigenous Mexican agricultural knowledge making that combined to form a development regime. This co-produced development regime was embedded in a hierarchical set of nested co-productive relationships with Mexico’s desire to modernize through urbanization and national identity formation and with the United States’ Cold War geo-political strategy of pseudo-territorialization for the creation of a liberal-democratic capitalist bastion against Soviet expansion.

This study examines the efforts of the Union and Confederate diplomatic agents to influence the events along the Rio Grande during the Civil War. The paper compares the successful accomplishments of Confederate agent Jose Quintero to the hindered maneuverings of the Union representatives, Leonard Pierce and M. M. Kimuey. Utilizing microfilmed sources from State Department records and Confederate despatches, the paper relates the steps Quintero took to secure the Confederate-Mexico border trade, obtain favorable responses from the various ruling parties in northern Mexico, and hamper the Union agents' attempts to quell the border trade.

Totally 36 aquifers have been identified along the Mexico-U.S. border. Of these, only 16 have adequate data to provide a reasonable level of confidence to categorize them as transboundary. Limited and/or contrasting data over the other aquifers in the region reflects the void in transboundary groundwater management and assessment mechanisms throughout much of the Mexico-U.S. border. This paper identifies management mechanisms, structures, and institutional prioritization related to transboundary aquifers shared between Mexico and the United States. It also evaluates the differences in the transboundary nature of these aquifers, and how their combined hydrological and geographical considerations interrelate with local and regional social, economic, political, and even scale dimensions to create complex management challenges.

Crime and violence are central issues for citizens in new democracies, many of which are increasingly threatened by organized crime and “brown areas” of lawlessness. The impact of crime concerns on vote choice, however, has been largely overlooked in the existing literature on voting behavior, which has centered on the role of partisanship, clientelistic linkages, or economic voting in explaining electoral outcomes. In this paper, I argue that crime voting explains much of vote choice in high crime new democracies. Using Mexico as a representative case of a new democracy facing rising violence, I find that crime considerations significantly affect vote choice in the country’s recent presidential elections. In 2006, crime views had up to five times the effect on vote choice as economic considerations. In 2012, despite stronger partisanship, clientelism, and economic effects, and a dearth of candidate attention to the issue, crime perceptions remained a significant predictor of vote choice. This finding suggests crime matters to vote choice and should be incorporated into models of voting behavior in violence-plagued new democracies.

Mexico's innovative health reforms have attracted scholarly attention beyond its own borders, making it a valuable case to study how countries set priorities. This dissertation examines the multifaceted topic of priority setting through a multidisciplinary approach: each of the three papers of this dissertation employs one of three disciplinary perspectives: historical, quantitative or normative. The dual focus on mental health and HIV--two highly stigmatized diseases with almost opposite histories of prioritization--further underscores the social and historical aspects of health priority setting.

Starting in 1982 Mexico embarked on an economic transition that shifted the Mexican market to export-based development. In 2000, as this model was becoming firmly entrenched, Mexico experienced a democratization process. This paper explores and maps the responses and adaptations of labor unions and confederations in Mexico in the face of the country's dual transitions. It employs concepts from the union revitalization literature of the Global North, uses Bensusán's (2004) typology of unions in Mexico, and draws on data from union literature and interviews with union leaders. By employing the concept of the servicing model of unionism, I describe how the previous political exchange between the state and labor unions can be understood as a "corporatist servicing model." The economic transition disrupted the corporatist servicing model, but unions did not engage in revitalization processes due to the combined weakness of their organizations and strength of the government. In the face of the political transition, however, some unions have surprised observers by expanding their use of revitalization tactics. Some unions in the new democratic context are expanding their autonomy and becoming more responsive to union members. Despite this movement toward more responsible, authentic unionism, these unions still refrain from a full, transformative revitalization project. In most cases the government's repressive powers still limit the ability of labor organizations to sustain strong critique of employers or the government. While democracy has allowed some unions to implement revitalization tactics, the political and economic atmosphere continues to limit many unions' desire to implement transformative revitalization projects. Unions' ability to fundamentally revitalize, or to alter their strategy beyond autonomous cooperation with employers, continues to be impeded by the remaining repressive power of the government. This context allows union leaders to use revitalization tactics to reinforce their positions without fully transforming the union. Thus we see union leaders using revitalization tactics for purposes that are antithetical to the true purpose of union revitalization.

Prevailing Catholic thought in the sixteenth century perceived heresy as a cancer on society and the printed word an effective carrier. Acceptance of this view throughout the Spanish kingdom resulted in the vigilant scrutiny of printed works, in particular those imported or produced in the Americas. Who reviewed manuscript works destined for or written in Mexico before the printing block hit the paper? Did the New Spanish bureaucracy repress colonial authors intellectually or financially? This thesis examines preventive censorship, or the inspection and licensing of manuscripts considered for publishing, and printing privilege in sixteenth-century Mexico. Mexican books printed 1540-1612 and official correspondence form the basis of this thesis. The overarching analysis is diachronic-bibliographic in nature. It starts with the origins of preventing censorship in Spain, its transference to New Spain, and its administration during the first decade of the American printing press (1487-1550). Thrusting ahead, it then delves into the bureaucratic, political, and economic nuances of the mature publishing practice at the turn of the century (1590-1612). The conclusion compares the bookend phases, defines factors, and looks at prevailing practices in Europe to contextualize Mexico’s unique publishing industry. In the Americas, religious authors established, financed, and developed the publishing economy to facilitate indigenous indoctrination and enculturation, enforce Christian hegemony, and promote higher education. As these authors came to dominate in the writing, censorship, and production of Mexican printed books throughout the sixteenth century, printers increasingly assumed a subordinate role. In the European printing industry, non-cleric officials predominantly censored manuscripts and printers assumed primary ownership of intellectual work. Inversing European practice, published authors in Mexico enjoyed significant influence over the censorship, printing, and economic potential of their intellectual fruits from the onset of colonization to the remainder of the sixteenth century and beyond.

Drug-related violence in Mexico has increased exponentially in the last five years, killing near 50,000 people. Even though the country has been a producer of marijuana and opium poppy for nearly a century, it was not until the beginning of the new millennium that drug violence skyrocketed. Up until now, academic studies and policy papers have focused primarily on the political changes Mexico underwent over the last decade and on ingrained corruption as the central factors in explaining the increased violence. But such a jump in homicides rates, as well as the sheer brutality of the violence involved, also reflects the evolution of the country's drug organizations -- which went from being merely feared and ruthless drug producers and smugglers to far-reaching criminal empires that now dominate all aspects of the illicit drug underworld in the Americas. Many have become so powerful that they have formed their own armies of hit men and foot soldiers that operate like full-fledged paramilitary groups protecting their territories and smuggling routes to American soil. Further feeding the cycle of murders in Mexico is an increasing diversification of drug gangs' businesses, which now range from drug production and smuggling to extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking. Through an historical, spatial and statistical analysis, this study sets out to deconstruct the current wave of Mexican drug violence, show how it is spreading and why, and how that reflects the evolution of Mexican drug organizations.

This paper analyses the different ways that two groups in the Los Angeles area use son jarocho, a musical practice from Veracruz, Mexico and the participatory values in a fandango, a communal gathering, to build community and to connect with their Mexican heritage. The first group is composed primarily of Mexican Americans and Chicanas/os who refer to themselves as jaraneros, or players of the main son jarocho instrument, the jarana. For the jaraneros, fandangos provide an opportunity for people to come together in a democratic setting in which the main tenets of neo-liberalism such as competition and privileging the individual over the community are eradicated. The jaraneros are also connected to the Zapatista movement and a global effort to re-examine and ultimately challenge the new world order and its modes of capitalism like free trade under NAFTA. The second group, the jarochas, is composed primarily of immigrants from Veracruz. For members of this group, playing son jarocho is about connecting with their traditions from their hometowns in Veracruz and building community with others from that part of Mexico. Using these two communities as my case studies, I demonstrate the different ways that diasporic and immigrant communities cultivate the practice of fandango and son jarocho in Los Angeles. I argue that the meaning each group has assigned to this practice is reflective of each one's respective relationships to the homeland, Mexico, and more specifically to Veracruz, where son jarocho originates.

This study is an examination of the (broadly envisioned) process that has led to the emerging use of solar water heaters in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. In 2007, Mexico launched a major policy initiative designed to encourage the use of solar water heaters in the residential sector throughout the country. As this policy has been implemented, over one hundred thousand solar water heaters have been installed on new homes and many people are beginning to encounter this technology for the first time. This policy has been successful in placing solar water heaters on the rooftops of new homes, but problems with how some of them are functioning threaten the long-term prospects of diffusion of the technology. The study shows that while solar water heaters have the potential to carry positive environmental and economic benefits at the household level, there are also many potential and actual scenarios in which the technology can have detrimental effects. Drawing on literature from the Diffusion of Innovations, the Social Construction of Technology, Actor-Network Theory, the Multi-Level Perspective on Technological Transitions, and Ecological Modernization Theory, this paper also seeks to contribute to the literature concerning the overall processes of socio-technical transitions.

This thesis explores issue of whether Texas courts are currently capable of applying and willing to apply Mexican law. Texas courts and legal practitioners have historically been unwilling to trust or to apply Mexican law. This thesis explores the doctrines and legal rules that Texas courts have used to avoid Mexican law in the past and into the present. It then examines the few cases in which Texas courts have applied Mexican law to determine that even when applying Mexican law, the courts express uncertainty or an unwillingness to rely entirely on Mexican law. This thesis then describes recent reforms to the Mexican judiciary that should obviate some of Texas courts’ major concerns. However, Texas courts still do not willingly or comfortably apply Mexican law. This thesis concludes by suggesting that the comparative law doctrine of judicial dialogue, or communication among judges, offers the best chance for Texas judges to trust Mexican law enough to apply it. The paper ends with some proposals to implement this exchange.

En el presente trabajo me referiré a la relación, en un plano temático y estructural que puede establecerse entre Cuadernos de infancia (1937) de la argentina Lange con los de otra escritora preterida y recuperada para el canon de la literatura mexicana: Nellie Campobello, quien compuso en la misma época dos libros memorialísticos: Cartucho (1931) y Las manos de Mamá (1937). En particular, se trata de mostrar la concepción fragmentaria del relato autobiográfico en las dos escritoras y el valor de la mirada como focalización de la experiencia.------------This paper deals with the thematic and structural relations between, on the one hand, Cuadernos de infancia (1937) by the Argentinian woman writer Norah Lange, and, on the other, Cartucho and Las manos de Mamá by Nellie Campobello, a forgotten Mexican writer, shortly reinstallated inside the canon of Mexican literature. The target of the comparison consists in pointing out the fragmentary outlook of the autobiographical discourse in both Lange and Campobello, and the importance of the act of looking as the focal point of experience.

This dissertation consists of three essays. The first one brings together the areas of public and labor economics by developing a hypothesis that relates optimal taxation and time use. Using Mexican data on household time use and consumption, we find significant substitution between goods and time in home production and different elasticities of substitution for different house-hold commodities. Adding these findings to the optimal tax problem, we show it is optimal to impose higher taxes on market goods used in the production of commodities with a lower elasticity of substitution between goods and time. This is an analog of the classical Corlett and Hague (1953) result, differing in that we allow for the possibility of substitution between goods and time in the production of commodities. The second chapter is about international migration, in the area of labor economics. On one hand, surveillance of the border between Mexico and the United States by the U.S. government has increased dramatically over the last two decades. On the other hand, undocumented Mexican migrants often make multiple trips between the two countries. Thus, my hypothesis is that these migrants respond to heightened surveillance by increasing the length of stay of the current trip. I estimate a semi-parametric hazard model following Meyer (1990). Using data from the Mexican Migration Project I find no evidence that border enforcement affects the hazard of leaving the U.S. by undocumented Mexican Immigrants. The last essay is about mother's time and children related expenditures. Using data from the Mexican Time Use Survey and the National Household Survey of Income and Expenditure from 2002, I examine the time Mexican mothers dedicate to taking care of their children and the amount of money spent by the household in raising children. The main contribution of this paper is that it analyzes child care time use and child care expenditures simultaneously. The age of the youngest child is the most important determinant of both child care time and money expenditures. It is the case that more educated mothers spend more money on their children. With respect to child care time use, more educated mothers spend more or less time with their children depending on whether they are working or non-working mothers. At all levels of non-mother's income, working mothers spend significantly more money relative to time in child care than non-working mothers. For both groups the ratio of money over time increases at a decreasing rate; however, for non-working mothers the income expansion path is much flatter.

Included in this paper are accounts of my two internships undertaken in the fulfillment of my Master of Science degree from the Institute of Environmental Sciences; the first with Global Vision International (GVI) and the second with Imago Earth Center. As part of my GVI internship I conducted field research on the Meso-American coral reef and taught English in a small Mexican community, with emphasis placed on environmental education. The internship at Imago provided me with the opportunity to work as a naturalist educator with local Cincinnati school children in Price Hill. Further work at IMAGO included research on the energy efficiency of the IMAGO building, presenting my recommendations for increasing the energy efficiency to Imago’s leadership, and then implementing those ideas.

A consistent finding of research on migrant-sending communities in Mexico is that when men migrate, women enter the paid labor force due to the space and demand created for her work in the absence of her husband (Crummet, 1987, 2001; Mummert, 1988; Kanaiaupuni 2000; Aysa and Massey 2004; D’Aubeterre 2005). Research exploring the increasing rates of women’s labor force participation over the past three decades in Mexico argues that women’s work and men’s migration are two parts of a strategic family response to poverty (Garcia and de Oliveira 1994; Parrado and Zenteno 2001). Despite their different perspectives, both agree that men’s migration is accompanied by women’s work. In this paper, I test whether that relationship exists in a national sample of Mexican households. My analysis shows that women’s work is intensified when men migrate from very rural and very urban places, but that the opposite is true in mid-sized cities