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In the interest of understanding why some social movements succeed where others fail, this dissertation analyzes a particular type of resistance movement from southern Mexico. Revitalization movements centered on the creation and circulation of indigenous language texts have become widespread throughout the Americas. Seeking to reverse the myriad marginalizing effects of colonialism and its aftermath on indigenous peoples and the languages they speak, these movements aim to create written literatures for languages that, unlike national ones, circulate primarily orally. Such projects therefore have a dual agenda: to extend indigenous language use into new realms, and to raise indigenous languages' status from languages spoken by peasants and peons to languages worthy of sonnets, plays, and liturgical hymns. I demonstrate that although language revitalization movements are prominent in Mexico, the majority have failed to stimulate popular interest. While indigenous writings are useful for making national political claims, they remain largely irrelevant and unread locally. By contrast, the initiative I studied represents that rarest of beasts: a success story. Revitalization efforts in Mazatec, the local indigenous language, have met with great popular success. A broad range of speakers now writes poems, stories, and above all songs in their language. Across the region, speakers participate in annual Day of the Dead Song Contests and the burgeoning cassette tape industry the contest has generated. An even wider segment of the population uses these texts as consumers and performers. In accounting for this relatively rare popular success, I analyze the culturally specific ways that literacy and writing in Mazatec were introduced, thereby coupling them to quintessentially local, ethnically marked practices and values, especially those expressing homage to the dead through the vehicle of song. I then show how the Mazatec situation stands in contrast to other revitalization

The purpose of this thesis was to start a line of inquiry into how well the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) radars can detect a satellite deployment from a Soviet space shuttle, one that is comparable to the U.S. space shuttle in size and capability. The radar locations and capabilities were assumed to be the ones presently operating plus a new PAVE PAWS radar in Texas and a new mechanical tracker on the island of Saipan. All radars were assumed to be in working order, and tracking the shuttle. The shuttle was assumed to be launched in a 51.62 deg inclination, and would attempt deployment only at an ascending or descending node. The satellite could move away from the shuttle along the shuttle's radius vector, velocity vector, or angular momentum vector, so that it is approximately 50 kilometers from the shuttle one half an orbital revolution later. The geocentric angular separation, absolute distance apart and range difference is calculated when the pair are closest to the radar. The elevation angle above the radar's horizon is estimated, and assuming the worst-case viewing geometry of the shuttle and satellite by the radar site, a topocentric range difference and angular separation are determined. These values of angle and distance are compared to that particular radar's capabilities and if the range and angle are much larger, approximately equal to, or less, than the sensor's limiting range and beamwidth, then the probability of detection is labeled high, medium or low, respectively. An orbital maneuver burn of a naval surveillance satellite at a selected deployment opportunity is tested, leading to its detection by the next radar that has an opportunity to view the shuttle and satellite.