Browsing by Subject "El Salvador"
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Item Burden of the Cold War: The George H.W. Bush Administration and El Salvador(2012-02-14) Arandia, Sebastian ReneAt the start of the George H.W. Bush administration, American involvement in El Salvador?s civil war, one of the last Cold War battlegrounds, had disappeared from the foreign policy agenda. However, two events in November 1989 shattered the bipartisan consensus on US policy toward El Salvador: the failure of the FMLN?s largest military offensive of the war and the murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter by the Salvadoran military, the FAES. Despite more than one billion dollars in US military assistance, the war had stalemated, promoting both sides to seek a negotiated political settlement mediated by the United Nations. The Jesuit murders demonstrated the failure of the policy of promoting respect for democracy and human rights and revived the debate in Congress over US aid to El Salvador. This thesis argues that the Bush administration sought to remove the burden of El Salvador from its foreign policy agenda by actively pushing for the investigation and prosecution of the Jesuit case and fully supporting the UN-mediated peace process. Using recently declassified government documents from the George Bush Presidential Library, this thesis will examine how the Bush administration fundamentally changed US policy toward El Salvador. Administration officials carried out an unprecedented campaign to pressure the FAES to investigate the Jesuit murders and bring the killers to justice while simultaneously attempting to prevent Congress from cutting American military assistance. The Bush administration changed the objective of its El Salvador policy from military victory over the guerrillas to a negotiated political settlement. The US facilitated the peace process by pressuring the Salvadoran government and the FMLN to negotiate in good faith and accept compromises. When both sides signed a comprehensive peace agreement on January 16, 1992, the burden of El Salvador was lifted.Item Confusion, conformity, and contradiction : the Salvadoran state's reluctant engagements with indigenous recognition(2007-08) Clark, Joshua P.; Hooker, JulietThis thesis explores the recent shift in one aspect of Salvadoran state discourses about the content of the Salvadoran "nation": that dealing with the existence and status of indigenous people. Having recently shown signs that it may abandon its longstanding position that El Salvador is a homogeneously mestizo country, the state’s tentative steps towards official recognition of an indigenous population are shown to lack clarity of both substance and purpose. The representations of and knowledge about Salvadoran Indians that are today being deployed by state actors are sporadic and promote incoherent visions of what "being indigenous" means (and can mean) in contemporary El Salvador. Two related claims about the nature of Salvadoran state recognition of indigeneity follow from this realization. First, "the state" should not be seen as a unitary actor with one set of consistent interests in the kind of indigenous subject it will authorize and the national image it will foment. Second, the representations of indigeneity that constitute semiofficial acts of recognition are the direct result of international influence directed at agencies of the Salvadoran state. Specific state actors are modeling the way they make Indians visible in conformity with ascendant norms of multicultural recognition that become operant in subtly, yet meaningfully, different ways. Both of these claims point to a "state" whose control over knowledge production and subject formation is limited, a fact that I end by suggesting that indigenous activists should take into account and, indeed, exploit in their struggle for greater political agency as indigenous people.Item Forced into exile : conflicts of space, gender and identity among young Salvadoran deportees(2015-05) Gutierrez, Miguel Jr.; Rodriguez, Néstor; Roberts, Bryan R., 1939-The focus of this thesis is on male, Salvadoran deportees, aged 20-35, who after spending their formative years in the United States, are faced with the task of reintegrating into Salvadoran society. Overall, Salvadoran males account for 90% of detainees and deportees to El Salvador (UCA, 2015). Through this sample, I explore the experience of young deportees in the growing call-center sector, and explore the consequences of gendered, transnational narratives, and the impact of deportations on their identity. The backdrop for this study is El Salvador's growing call-center industry, as this is the site where I interviewed participants, and one that was continuously framed as a site of criminality by local Salvadorans. The way young deportees maintain bonds with their former communities in the United States, perform their identities, and self-identify can greatly influence the manner in which they interact with Salvadorans in their new society. Consequently, these former aspects can greatly affect how deportees reconstruct their lives in a foreign context.Item Grassroots peacemaking : the paradox of “reconciliation” in El Salvador(2011-05) Velásquez Estrada, Ruth Elizabeth; Speed, Shannon, 1964-; Hale, Charles R.This paper examines how ex-combatants of El Salvador’s 1980-1992 civil war view post-war processes of reconciliation. I demonstrate that contrary to dominant understandings of ongoing political polarization in El Salvador, perpetuated by Salvadoran political parties, many former army and guerrilla combatants are coexisting in the same communities and working together in various ways. I show how the Salvadoran Peace Accords and the apparent political polarization has opened a space for the recreation of social networks and the creation of communities in post-war societies. I call this process “grassroots peacemaking,”emphasizing the everyday negotiations of remembering and creating new social relations in a nation torn apart by war and violence.Item Human rights strategies in the context of changing political opportunity structures : the case of two transnational networks in El Salvador(2012-05) Ramirez, Allison Marie; Dietz, Henry A.; Dulitzky, Ariel E.; Weaver, CatherineThis report explores the evolution of advocacy strategies amongst human rights organizations in El Salvador over the past two decades, focusing in particular on domestic activists’ perceived need to use transnational venues for activism in order to achieve positive domestic results. The Salvadoran political transition in 2009 is used to examine how changing political opportunity structures at the domestic level affect human rights organizations’ transnational strategies. Extensive in-country fieldwork in 2011 involved eighteen in-depth interviews with activists, academics, and government officials, four months of participant observation with one of the human rights organizations of interest, and primary document content analysis. The results of this research allow for two human rights networks to be considered: the historical human rights movement seeking justice and reparations for human rights violations committed during the Salvadoran civil war, and the contemporary migrants’ rights movement seeking both protection and reparations for Salvadoran migrants and their families. The findings suggest that despite significant openness at the domestic level, activists perceive transnational strategies as an important complement to domestic strategies that allow them to achieve positive concrete change and protect against future reversals in policy.Item La afectividad como contra-discurso de la poesía comprometida de Daisy Zamora, Otto René Castillo y Roque Dalton(2010-08) García Núñez de Cáceres, Jorge Federico; Arias, Arturo, 1950-; Shumway, Nicolas; Robbins, Jill; Salgado, César; Rodríguez, Ana PatriciaIn this work, I explain that the focus of criticism on the Central American poetry of the second half of the twentieth century has emphasized its political content. I argue, however, that such a limited view obscures the broader import of this poetry and its place in Latin American literature. By reading the work of Nicaraguan Daisy Zamora, Guatemalan Otto René Castillo, and Salvadoran Roque Dalton with an emphasis on affectivity rather than revolution, I suggest a different relationship between the poet and society, one that is not limited to the marginal figure of the mujer soldado, the poeta guerrillero or the poeta marxista in conflict with all societal norms. Rather, I argue that my study portrays the complex subjectivity of the speaker/poet not unlike that of non-revolutionary poets, as well as his or her multi-dimensional affective connections to family and society. At the same time, an analysis of affect in this poetry allows us to reconsider the nature of the revolutionary figure itself, no longer a myth or a romantic hero, but an individual inserted in society in a more complex way. In Chapter 1, “Daisy Zamora: De la mujer-soldado a la mujer-mujer”, I contend that an analysis of affectivity of her poetic work reveals how personal memory constructs an individualized subjectivity different from that of a woman-soldier. In the second chapter, “Otto René Castillo: De la lucha revolucionaria a la soledad del poema,” I argue that a negative connotation of romantic love is projected in his poems bringing about traces of existential solitude in the lyric subjectivity. Furthermore, Castillo’s poetry elicits a binary opposition between “the people” and the guerrillero in which the former is portrayed as lacking of agency. The third chapter, “Roque Dalton: y/o subjetividad en crisis,” reveals the ways in which the Salvadoran poet textualizes a poetic of disenchantment by way of projecting disdain and contempt to the “motherland.” In conclusion, my approach pinpoints how Zamora, Castillo and Dalton share the same preoccupations, affects and ways to conceive reality, which are also similar to the practices of those poets whose works are better-known given their national origin or because their poetic production has been widely studied by academia. This document has been written in Spanish.Item “Liberation technology?” : Toward an understanding of the re-appropriation of social media for emancipatory uses among alternative media projects in El Salvador(2014-05) Harlow, Summer Dawn; Johnson, Thomas J., 1960-; de Uriarte, Mercedes LynnThis dissertation explores whether and how alternative media in El Salvador incorporated information communication technologies (ICTs) for social change, and whether incorporating said technologies changed citizen participation not only in the media process itself, but also in a broader discursive sphere as well as civic and political life. Within the context of a digitally divided region, this project employed ethnographic methods—including in-depth interviews, participant-observation, and a content analysis—to interrogate the perceived potential value of ICTs in alternative media for contesting power, contributing to social change, and opening spaces for citizen participation in technology and through technology. This research is merely a beginning stage in learning how digital communication tools influence alternative media practices, and what that means for participation, mobilization and empowerment. This study contributes to burgeoning literature focused on communication for social change and technologies by adding an international focus, and by furthering our understanding of under what circumstances alternative media can (or cannot) employ new technologies in liberating ways, especially in a region where use of and access to these technologies is far from universal. Ultimately this dissertation advances existing literature with two main contributions: extending our understanding of the digital divide to include inequalities of social media and whether it is used in liberating or frivolous ways, and including technology use—whether liberating or not¬—as a fundamental approach to the study of alternative media.Item Making Mangroves: Ecologies of Mangrove Restoration in El Salvador, 2011-2013(2014-05-05) Wilmot, Fiona CoralieMangrove restoration for climate mitigation based in adaptation is a national environmental policy in the Republic of El Salvador. Rural, resource-reliant communities are considered especially vulnerable to extreme weather events associated with global climate change, and mitigation based in adaptation is an intervention intended to reduce vulnerability and enhance ecological service provision from mangrove systems. The Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) program of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is supposed to provide guidance towards funding sources. Critical scholars from Geography and other branches of the social sciences have suggested that due to its similarities to other market-based payments-for-ecosystem-services (PES), REDD+ deepens socioeconomic inequalities in rural communities and promotes poverty, while it does nothing to mitigate climate extremes. Some scholars have called this ?carbon colonialism?. This research examines those claims through a mixed-methods case study based on fieldwork in El Salvador. It engages the literatures of restoration ecology and the ?new carbon economy?, and uses a governmentality framework provided by anthropologist Tania Murray Li to analyze processes whereby ecological mangrove restoration became adopted, adapted and appropriated in the Lower Lempa region of El Salvador. Ecological processes include restoration ecology (manipulating nature to reach a desired state), cultural ecology (use of resources by people), and political ecology (the ways power relations determine access to resources). The results show that throughout the mangrove restoration governance network, people adapt and appropriate knowledge and techniques in order to reconcile state restoration policy with their own ideological, social and material interests. Within the context of climate change in a globalized world, I found no evidence to support the claim that poor, resource-reliant rural Salvadorans were being subjected to coercive pressure to relinquish territory, or had access to critical resources restricted by the state, or had been deprived of voice, autonomy and agency in the process of laboring for the state, as would be predicted by claims of neocolonialism. Although the restoration workers remained poor and subject to climate extremes, they were not excluded from benefiting from the restoration process.Item Neoliberalism, urban growth, and structures of inequality : community-based strategies to combat gang violence in El Salvador(2007-12) Uzzell, Caitlin Whiteford; Sletto, BjørnThis thesis analyzes the infamous Mara Salvatruchas (MS-13) in Central America, an international gang that has become increasingly powerful and violent. I will examine the cycle of violence perpetuated by the urban structure in Central America, which is characterized by economic and social segregation and sometimes violent oppression, resulting in part from neoliberal economic policies. I will critically review a variety of current MS-13 interventions in El Salvador and elsewhere, and examine how policies have impacted the growth of this international threat. Successful examples of community-based gang interventions, specifically targeted to reach youth, will be examined to determine important components of effective, bottom-up gang interventions that may be applied in El Salvador.Item Politics, identity, and art education : an ethnographic case study of MARTE and cultural revitalization in El Salvador(2010-08) Casco, Milady Diana; Adejumo, Christopher O., 1959-; Bolin, PaulThis thesis examines the Museum of Art of El Salvador (MARTE) and its art education programming to understand its role in community building and cultural revitalization efforts in post-war El Salvador. MARTE emerges onto El Salvador’s landscape showcasing the country’s artistic heritage while organizing art education opportunities for the capital city, San Salvador. After six weeks of onsite observations and interviews with museum staff and community members, this investigation explores how MARTE’s art education programming contributes to the development of a refashioned collective cultural identity and, as a result, reinfuses the value of art, cultural awareness, and solidarity back into the community. MARTE provides a beneficial model for understanding the complex relationship between Western-influenced cultural institutions and non-Western communities, and the challenges of placing value on arts education when greater social concerns (e.g., economic insecurity) prevail.Item Utilization of Sorghum in El Salvador: Grain, Flour and End-Product Quality(2012-02-14) Pinilla, Luz ElianaThere is limited information on the utilization of sorghum for human consumption in El Salvador. Increased wheat prices have driven the baking industry to seek alternative cereals for manufacturing of their products. The white color and bland taste characteristics of Salvadorian sorghum is ideal for use as a partial substitute of wheat (up to 50 percent) or alone in baked goods and a wide variety of foods. Further information on the grain quality, milling characteristics and impact on end-product was assessed to make better use of the available grain. Three different varieties of improved and local cultivars (RCV, Native and ZAM 912) were evaluated for their grain, flour and end-product quality. Grain hardness, color and composition of the grains varied from hard to intermediate to soft. Burr, hammer and roller milling were used for sorghum flour production. Impact of grain characteristics and milling quality was evaluated through the flours produced and their end-product quality. Grain hardness significantly affects flour and final product characteristics. Harder grain, RCV, produced flours more difficult to cook and with a grittier texture than those produced from Native cultivars (floury endosperm). Cupcakes produced from harder grain flours had lower volume and harder texture than cupcakes made from the Native varieties. ZAM 912 was an intermediate hard sorghum variety and produced the darkest flour and darkest cupcakes due to its pericarp hue. Appropriate use of this grain?s flour can be used in baked products with a darker hue (e.g. chocolate pastries). Harder grain flours can be utilized in coarse crumb products (e.g. cookies, horchata, and atole). Hammer mills produced the coarsest particles for all the varieties evaluated. Burr mills produced flour with similar cooking and end-product texture qualities as the roller mill. However, burr mills are not suitable for production of large quantities of whole sorghum flour. Nevertheless, they are more affordable for small entrepreneurs. Cultivars analyzed produce quality flour that can be used in an array of baked foods, i.e. ethnic beverages, porridges, cookies, flour mixes, tortillas, sweet breads. Whole sorghum flour substitution as low as 25 percent in wheat-based foods can represent significant cost savings for its users.