Browsing by Subject "Mexico"
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Item A dyrosaurid crocodilian from the cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Escondido formation of Coahuila, Mexico(2012-12) Shiller, Thomas A; Lehman, Thomas; Chatterjee, Sankar; Barrick, James E.Two fragmentary marine crocodylian specimens were discovered in Upper Cretaceous marine strata near the town of Sabinas in Coahuila, Mexico. Although exposures are poor in the vicinity of the collection sites, associated ammonites indicate that the specimens were recovered from either the Sauz Creek Member or lower part of the Cuevas Creek Member of the Escondido Formation, and are Maastrichtian in age. The two specimens share several unique features, including a reduced seventh dentary alveolus and flat mandibular rostrum that indicate they pertain to the extinct crocodylian family Dyrosauridae. The two are assigned to the same species, referred to here informally as the "Sabinas dyrosaur." The proportions of the mandible in the Sabinas dyrosaur are unusual. Its rostrum is narrow, but relatively short, and intermediate in form between typical longirostrine and brevirostrine dyrosaurs. The distal end of the mandibular rostrum is uniquely shaped with laterally expanded margins and enlarged, closely spaced, first and second alveoli. Dentary alveoli thirteen through fifteen are grouped together, with the fourteenth alveolus laterally offset and confluent with the thirteenth. The splenials participate in only a small part of the mandibular symphysis, and do not diverge laterally with the dentaries in the mandibular rami. The mandible lacks internal or external mandibular fenestra. These unique features, and unusual combination of character states, indicate that the Sabinas dyrosaur represents a previously unknown species. Based on criteria used to recognize marine reptile feeding guilds, the skull and tooth morphology indicate that the Sabinas dyrosaur had a durophagus diet, and may have preyed on the thin-shelled ammonites that are abundantly preserved in the same deposits. Restoration of the fragmentary skull suggests that the Sabinas dyrosaur had a total body length of about 5 to 6 meters, and was among the largest dyrosaurs known. Although dyrosaurid crocodylians were abundant and diverse in Africa during Late Cretaceous and Paleogene time, the Sabinas dyrosaur represents only the second species thus far known from North America. Its occurrence in Mexico is compatible with an hypothesized trans-Atlantic dispersal event of dyrosaurs from Africa to North America during Late Cretaceous time.Item A Study of The Impact of Workplace Spirituality on Employee Outcomes: A Comparison Between US and Mexican Employees(Texas A&M International University, 2014-04-16) Daniel, Jose Luis; Mayfield, Jacqueline R.The concept of workplace spiritualty (WS) has gained importance in the last years. However, most of the research has been qualitative and focused on culture in the United States. The purpose of this study is to expand the understanding of workplace spirituality by conducting an empirical analysis of its impact on employee outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and individual innovative behavior in Mexico and the United States. The research model predicts that workplace spirituality will have an effect on all employee outcomes. A total of 304 employees from different industries in Mexico and the US were surveyed. Results from PLS analysis show that workplace spirituality has a positive and significant relationship with all employee outcomes including turnover intention. The latter is different from what was hypothesized, however, a possible explanation is offered. In addition, a test of workplace spirituality perception differences between the two countries was conducted. The result indicates that people from both countries perceive workplace spirituality differently.Item A Virtuous Cycle: Tracing Democratic Quality through Equality(2011-10-21) Ross, Ashley DyanThis dissertation asks the question: How do democracies improve in quality? Building on previous scholarship, the author offers a theoretical framework that traces democratic quality through equality of outcomes. The quality of democracy may be conceptualized as a virtuous cycle where the procedural aspects of democracy motivate politicians to expand equality. This broadening of substantive opportunities outcomes, in turn, deepens democracy by developing individual-level political participation. The theoretical framework is applied to the context of public services with the expectation that quality democracies with high government capacity more broadly distribute basic public services and that this pattern of provision cultivates political participation. The first empirical analysis tests if the quality of democracy and government capacity are associated with reduced service inequalities for a sample of 75 countries. It is found that while equalities of education and sanitation services are significantly related to democratic quality, healthcare is not, nor is government capacity shown to play a significant role. To further explore this, the Mexican states are analyzed for the years 2000 to 2004; the results show that capacity in terms of tax collection efforts is associated with lower inequalities in education services in states with high electoral competition. The second empirical analysis turns to the local level of government - where services are delivered. Using original data from interviews and government records of four Mexican municipalities, the author examines the aspects of democracy and government capacity that are correlated with lower inequalities of public services. The findings highlight that intense electoral competition and institutionalized channels of citizen input as well as capacity in terms of sound collection of municipal taxes and innovations in municipal funding are characteristics of governments with broader distribution of basic public services. The third empirical analysis tests if public services are related to individual-level political participation. Employing survey data from Latin America and Africa, the author finds that ?good? public service evaluations are associated with greater likelihoods of voting in high quality democracies - those with intense electoral competition - but limited government capacity. This offers evidence that in a developing context, public services enable political participation.Item Affecting violence : narratives of Los feminicidios and their ethical and political reception(2012-12) Huerta Moreno, Lydia Cristina; Robbins, Jill, 1962-; Domínguez Ruvalcaba, Héctor, 1962-; Arroyo, Jossianna; Chapelle-Wojciehowski, Hannah; Ravelo-Blancas, Patricia; Pia Lara, MariaIn Mexico there is an increasing lack of engagement of the Mexican government and its citizens towards resolving violence. In the 20th century alone events such as the Revolution of 1910, La Guerra Cristera, La Guerra Sucia, and most recently Los Feminicidios and Calderon’s War on Drugs are representative of an ethos of violence withstood and inflicted by Mexicans towards women, men, youth, and marginalized groups. This dissertation examines Los Feminicidios in Ciudad Juarez and the cultural production surrounding them: chronicles, novels, documentaries and films. In it I draw on Aristotle’s influential Nicomachean Ethics, Victoria Camps’ El gobierno de las emociones (2011), María Pía Lara’s Narrating Evil (2007), Vittorio Gallese’s and other scientists’ research on neuroscience empathy and neurohumanism, and socio-political essays in order to theorize how a pathos-infused understanding of ethos might engage a reading and viewing public in what has become a discourse about violence determined by a sense of fatalism. Specifically, I argue that narrative and its interpretations play a significant role in people’s emotional engagement and subsequent cognitive processes. I stress the importance of creating an approach that considers both pathos and logos as a way of understanding this ethos of violence. I argue that by combining pathos and logos in the analysis of a cultural text, we can break through the theoretical impasse, which thus far has resulted in exceptionalisms and has been limited to categorizing as evil the social and political mechanisms that may cause this violence.Item Afro-Mexico : identity politics in the Costa Chica(2007-12) Bartolini, Linda Yolid; Guridy, Frank AndreIn Mexico, blackness is rendered invisible due to the absence of Afrodescendants from nationalist discourse. Nonetheless, in the past decade, a series of black political organizations emerged in the Costa Chica region of southern Mexico. This study builds upon a series of interviews conducted with both activists and community members in several towns of the Costa Chica region in order to explore the dynamics and history of these organizations, and to evaluate their relationship with the communities and the state. This investigation analyzes and documents the link between social movements and identity formation, and evaluates how these emerging black social movements are both contesting a national discourse that excludes them, while simultaneously constructing an Afro-Mexican identity that demands recognition from the state. A focus on social movements highlights the processes involved in the emergence and construction of collective black identity in contemporary Mexico, and it builds on the growing body of research on Afro-Mexican identity politics.Item Aj-Ts’ib, Aj-Uxul, Itz’aat, & Aj-K’uhu’n : classic Maya schools of carvers and calligraphers in Palenque after the reign of Kan-Bahlam(2005-12) Van Stone, Mark; Stross, BrianAncient Maya inscription carvers at the city of Palenque in what is now Chiapas, Mexico worked in teams to complete large and complex stone tablets. Like artists everywhere, they each had developed idiosyncratic habits which the modern connoisseur can learn to discern, in order to identify which parts of a particular monument were sculpted by one or another artist. The author scrutinized several eighth-century CE inscriptions, panels in stucco and limestone, analyzing how many artists worked on each, to wit: the Temple XVIII Stuccos, the Temple XIX Platform, the Temple XIX Stuccos, the Temple XIX Panel, the Panel of the 96 Glyphs, the Lápida de la Creación and associated fragments, the Palace Tablet and its associated fragmentary panels, and the Tablet of the Slaves. The ensemble whose main components are the Panel of the 96 Glyphs and the Lápida de la Creación are all by one hand, and the Tablet of the Slaves was the work of four carvers, but the Temple XIX Platform surprisingly employed fourteen carvers, and the Palace Tablet over a score. Their territories were not divided textually, and display idiosyncratic spellings of glyph compounds as well as carving habits. The conclusion discusses possible reasons for these findings, relating them to the unusual Maya practice of never correcting mistakes in monumental inscriptions. A likely reason seems to be that the ancient Maya considered these texts not merely as a permanent record, but as ongoing, living repetitions of the ritual in question, and had to be completed in a very short time.Item American emigrants: confederate, socialist and Mormon colonies in Mexico(2016-05) Kinney, Emily Rose; Bsumek, Erika Marie; Butler, Matthew; Brown, Jonathan; Cox, JamesThis dissertation discusses three different colonization schemes of Americans in Mexico—Confederates in the wake of the US Civil War and Reconstruction who refused to live under the Union government, a group of who tried to establish a utopian society, and Mormons who sought refuge from prosecution in the United States from anti-polygamy laws. In many ways, each of these groups were a far cry from the Mexican government’s ideal of colonists, but each also benefitted from the idea that Anglo-Americans were particularly well suited to the “exploitation” of natural resources and the development of an industrial capitalist economy. The Mexican government, particularly under Porfirio Díaz’s regime, was willing to grant certain freedoms to these groups that it denied to others. Thus, while millions of people across the world looked to the United States for political and economic freedoms, dissidents in the United States often turned to Mexico for the same reason. The assumptions about white Americans also worked in the colonists’ favor on a personal level. Most of these colonists had very little capital and brought nothing to invest in Mexico besides their labor. Nonetheless, they actively sought and established relationships with the Mexican elite—attending parties and hosting gatherings with some of the richest people in the region. Despite their status as privileged white American colonists, all three groups engaged in some form of justifying their presence in Mexico. The colonists were all aware that their presence in the nation was contentious. Through varying methods, all performed Mexicanidad, or Mexican identity, to prove their belonging in Mexico.Item American football in Mexico: factors influencing success of teams within the National College Football Organization, Organizacion Nacional Estudiantil de Futbol Americano (ONEFA)(2009-05-15) Martinez Garcia, Gabriela DeyaniraThis study investigates the factors or determinants that influence success of teams within the Big 12 Conference of the National College Football Organization in Mexico. The findings of such a study were perceived to be useful to other football teams in Mexico, enabling them to implement the strategies and practices of the teams considered the most successful. The participants in this study included head coaches and players of teams within the Big 12 Conference in Mexico. Two questionnaires containing open-ended questions were addressed to coaches and players in telephone interviews. The data acquired was first transcribed in its original language [Spanish], and then translated to English. Content analysis was used in the analysis of the data. The results indicated that several factors- themes, emerged from the interviews, and they were organized into the input-throughput-output model of organizational effectiveness (Chelladurai, 2005). The participants considered these factors to be influential for the success of football teams within the Big 12 Conference. Human resources represented the most determinant factor in the input model. The throughput model showed the procedures or strategies implemented by the teams to guarantee the attainment of goals. Finally, in the output model, winning the championship represented the most important goal for coaches and players; however, only the head coaches mentioned other goals, such as having successful programs, having their players graduate, and so forth, as important in their football programs. The results identified the factors perceived to influence success of football teams within the Big 12 Conference in Mexico. These findings will be useful to coaches and players of other football teams in Mexico and enable them to implement the strategies and procedures perceived to lead teams to success.Item An intercultural exploration of journalistic framing of immigration in the Mexican Press and United States press(2008-08) Madison, Thomas Phillip; Wilkinson, Kent; Chambers, Todd; Johnson, TomSince the mid-1990s, immigration through and from Mexico to the U.S. has increased. This has led to a good deal of controversy on the issue for all sectors of life, and is immediately apparent in newspaper reporting. In 2006, with proposed changes to federal immigration policy on the legislative table, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people took to the streets and protested these changes. For this study, a sample of 1028 newspaper articles dealing with immigrants and immigration was taken from both U.S. and Mexican newspapers between October, 2005 and September, 2006. The articles were analyzed for journalistic frame, tone, attitude toward immigrants and immigration, objectivity, and number and types of news sources used by the journalists. Several differences between U.S. and Mexican journalists’ coverage of the protests emerged, and were considered as part of the larger context of a year’s worth of reporting.Item Arc-related Mesozoic basins of northern Mexico : their origin, tectonic inversion and influence on ore localization(2016-05) Lyons, James Irwin, 1948-; Kyle, J. Richard; Lawton, Timothy Frost; Cloos, Mark; Horton, Brian K; Elliott, BrentNew structural mapping and radiometric dating in northern Mexico integrated with previous studies indicate the need for revision of current regional tectonic models. The Mezcalera Marginal Basin, an autochthonous Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous basin exposed from southern Arizona to Guerrero replaces accreted terrane models. The lack of significant documentable offsets of this marginal basin provides evidence that contradict proposed major Mexican transform faults in northern Mexico. A left-lateral Cenomanian transpressional fault along which the Caborca and related terranes and offset Bisbee Group strata were displaced is documented by east-directed thrusting of the translated basement and supracrustal strata over the autochthonous Mezcalera Basin strata. Oxfordian (149 Ma) submarine volcanic domes at Batopilas, Chihuahua indicates the Nazas arc of central Mexico migrated across the Mezcalera Marginal Basin, and 124 to 138 Ma dates on Bisbee Group Morita Formation tuffs indicate Alisitos arc volcanism to the west. The well documented Late Cretaceous through Miocene arc migration can thus be projected to the Early Jurassic. Oceanic plate rollback toward the Pacific from the Jurassic through the Early Cretaceous explains the observed arc migration as well as the resulting extension of the Mexican continent. A previously unrecognized intracratonic basin, the Carrizal Basin, a probable northern extension of the Mexican Basin, is documented west of the Chihuahua Basin. The older usage Aldama Platform is divided into the Casas Grandes Platform to the west and the Florida-Aldama Ridge to the east of the Carrizal Basin. Basin inversion as defined by mapping of bivergent out-of-the-basin thrusting along both sides of both the Carrizal and Mexican Intracratonic Basins suggests inversion as the principal tectonic process that produced the Sierra Madre Oriental fold belts. Stratigraphic relationships document the inception of tectonic shortening as Late Cenomanian and a folded 43.7 Ma rhyolite flow at Division de Norte, Chihuahua documents continuing basin inversion well into the Eocene. Previous observations of spatial correlations between structurally complex basin margins and numerous major Cretaceous through Miocene mineral deposits are enhanced by the discovery of the large Cinco de Mayo polymetallic carbonate deposit hosted in stacked west-directed out-of-the-basin thrusting on the west margin of the Carrizal Basin.Item Assessment of the Mexican Eagle Ford Shale Oil and Gas Resources(2013-08-02) Morales Velasco, Carlos ArmandoAccording to the 2011 Energy Information Agency (EIA) global assessment, Mexico ranks 4th in shale gas resources. The Eagle Ford shale is the formation with the greatest expectation in Mexico given the success it has had in the US and its liquids-rich zone. Accurate estimation of the resource size and future production, as well as the uncertainties associated with them, is critical for the decision-making process of developing shale oil and gas resources. The complexity of the shale reservoirs and high variability in its properties generate large uncertainties in the long-term production and recovery factors of these plays. Another source of uncertainty is the limited production history. Given all these uncertainties, a probabilistic decline-curve analysis approach was chosen for this study, given that it is relatively simple, it enables performing a play-wide assessment with available production data and, more importantly, it quantifies the uncertainty in the resource size. Analog areas in the US Eagle Ford shale were defined based on available geologic information in both the US and Mexico. The Duong model coupled with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methodology was used to analyze and forecast production of wells located in the previously defined analog sectors in the US Eagle Ford shale. By combining the results of individual-well analyses, a type curve and estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) distribution for each of the defined analog sectors was obtained. These distributions were combined with well-spacing assumptions and sector areas to generate the prospective-resources estimates. Similar probabilistic decline-curve-analysis methodology was used to estimate the reserves and contingent resources of existing wells. As of March 2013, the total prospective resources (P90-P50-P10) for the Eagle Ford shale in Mexico (MX-EFS) are estimated to be 527-1,139-7,268 MMSTB of oil and 17- 37-217 TSCF of gas. To my knowledge, this is the first oil estimate published for this formation in Mexico. The most attractive sectors based on total estimated resources as well as individual-well type curves are located in the southeast of the Burgos Basin and east-west of the Sabinas basin. Because there has been very little development to date, estimates for reserves and contingent resources are much lower than those for prospective resources. Estimated reserves associated with existing wells and corresponding offset well locations are 18,375-34,722-59,667 MMSCF for gas and zero for oil. Estimated contingent resources are 14-64-228 MSTB of oil and 8,526-13,327- 25,983MMSCF of gas. The results of this work should provide a more reliable assessment of the size and uncertainties of the resources in the Mexican Eagle Ford shale than previous estimates obtained with less objective methodologies.Item The association between marginalization and mortality rates in Mexico, 2003-2007(2012-05) Díaz Venegas, Carlos; Hummer, Robert A.; Angel, Jacqueline L.; Angel, Ronald J.; Roberts, Bryan R.; Villarreal, AndresThe marginalization index for each municipality in Mexico confirms that the country is characterized by substantial economic inequality. Using this index as a tool to measure inequality in urbanization and data from the Consejo Nacional de Población (CONAPO) and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), this work first analyzes observed spatial patterns of the marginalization index. Next, this dissertation analyzes the association between marginalization and mortality patterns inside Mexico. Overall, there is evidence of high marginalization linked to high mortality rates. Factors that might influence marginalization like geographical differences do not seem to influence the relationship between marginalization and mortality. Factors like migration and indigenous population percentages show more relevance in explaining the association between marginalization and mortality as a social causation effect.Item Baseline of salmonella prevalence in retail beef and produce from Honduras and Mexico(2012-08) Maradiaga, Martha; Brashears, Mindy M.; Miller, Markus F.; Thompson, Leslie D.Salmonella is a common cause of food-borne illness worldwide, especially with must recent outbreaks. The sources of these outbreaks include contaminated animal products, including raw or undercooked meat as well as contaminated produce. The objective of the current study was 1) to develop a baseline for the prevalence and identification of Salmonella in beef and produce in Honduras, and produce in Mexico; and 2) to identify Salmonella serotypes in both Honduras and Mexico. A total of 393 retail whole muscle beef cuts samples and 383 produce samples (cantaloupes, cilantro, cucumbers, leafy greens, peppers, and tomatoes) were collected from major cities in different regions in Honduras in 4 different trips. A total of 514 produce samples were collected from major cities in Mexico in 6 different trips. Produce types and analysis followed the same as in Honduras. All retail beef and produce samples were tested using the BAX® System PCR Assay for Salmonella detection, with positive samples isolated for Salmonella using traditional cultural methods. Positive isolates were agglutinated and prepared for serotyping. Overall, the prevalence of Salmonella-positive samples in Honduras (N = 393) retail beef resulted in 5.9% with a 95% CI [3.9, 8.7]. Whereas positive beef carcass swabs was 7.8% in both beef plants in Honduras (11/141). The most common serotypes identified in Honduras were Salmonella serotype Typhimurium followed by Salmonella serotype Derby. The overall prevalence of Salmonella in Honduras produce (N 383) was 2.4% with a 95% CI [1.2, 4.5]. Overall, the prevalence of Salmonella-positive samples in Mexico (N = 514) produce resulted in 2.1% with a 95% CI [1.2, 3.8]. The most common serotype identified in Mexico was Salmonella serotype Meleagridis. Other serotypes found in Mexico were Typhimurium, Kentucky, and Newport.Item Bleeding Mexico : an analysis of cartels evolution and drug-related bloodshed(2012-08) Medel, Monica Cristina; Dietz, Henry A.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.Item Borderlands without borders : migrants in transit in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico(2015-05) Morante Aguirre, Mariana; Leu, Lorraine; Rodriguez, Victoria E.Each year, thousands of undocumented migrants in transit travelling on "La Bestia" through the Western route cross the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico- the second largest metropolitan area in the country. This thesis focuses on how the intersection between the "illegality" of Central American migrants and Mexican "nationals" creates a contested space of undefined border(s) through State's processes, everyday practices, political discourses, and landscapes. The research provides a spatial analysis of migrants in transit's trajectories, as well as of their experiences and relations with both the built environment and with the "locals" in a specific urban context. The analysis sheds light into the distinct ways through which migrants' trajectories are qualified by legal status, and by specific political, social and cultural imaginations and discourses of space. Furthermore, in an effort to "bring the humans back" to migratory narratives, this thesis brings to the fore the multiplicity and diversity of migrants' stories and trajectories while uncovering how the mobilization of the State and civil society creates racial and class borders that further marginalizes migrants in transit through the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.Item Bourbon reform and buen gusto at Mexico City's Royal Theater(2011-05) Zakaib, Susan Blue; Deans-Smith, Susan, 1953-; Twinam, AnnDuring the late eighteenth century, as part of a broader reform initiative commonly referred to as the “Bourbon reforms,” royal officials attempted to transform theatrical productions at Mexico City’s Real Coliseo (Royal Theater). Influenced by new intellectual trends in Spain, especially the neoclassical movement, reformers hoped that theater could serve as a school of virtue, rationality and good citizenship. This essay analyzes the theatrical reform effort, traces its foundations from sixteenth-century Spain to eighteenth-century Mexico, and seeks to explain why the initiative failed to transform either the Coliseo’s shows or its audience’s artistic predilections. It argues that the initiative was unsuccessful for three primary reasons. First, reformers did not have the power to compel impresarios and actors to obey their new regulations, and economic constraints sometimes forced officials to bend their strict aesthetic standards to appease the audience's largely baroque predilections. Second, Mexico City’s diverse and thriving public sphere made imposing a new popular culture profoundly difficult, especially given that reformers’ one-dimensional vision of neoclassicism failed to account for the variety and debate within this movement. Consequently, the theater added fuel to public debate over the definition of buen gusto (good taste), rather than merely instructing passive citizens as reformers had hoped. Finally, widespread public derision of the performing profession meant that many spectators did not take actors seriously as teachers of morality, taste and rationality. Actors’ reputation as immoral lowlifes, which derived in part from late-sixteenth century debates in Spain over morality and illusion in drama, complicated reformers' already difficult project of transforming the theater into a school of sociability and citizenship.Item Built upon the Tower of Babel : language policy and the clergy in Bourbon Mexico(2016-05) Zakaib, Susan Blue; Deans-Smith, Susan, 1953-; Twinam, Ann; Butler, Matthew; Garrard-Burnett, Virginia; McDonough, KellyThis dissertation provides the first in-depth analysis of the “Bourbon language reforms”—a series of royal and ecclesiastical policies aimed at spreading the Spanish language in New Spain (now Mexico), enacted primarily between the 1750s and 1770s under the rule of the Bourbon dynasty. The limited scholarship on these reforms has assumed that a monolithic Bourbon state sought to mold a monolingual, Spanish-speaking empire. It has also suggested that creoles (American-born Spaniards), mendicants (Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian friars), indigenous peoples, or some combination thereof responded by uniformly opposing the Bourbon state’s oppressive measures. I challenge both of these arguments by analyzing the central Mexican Catholic Church’s “language regime”—not only official policies, but also their historical context, and predominant ideologies about indigenous languages and their speakers—between 1700 and 1821. I demonstrate that indigenous languages were deeply integrated into the inner workings of the Church—not only its religious services, but also its bureaucracy and hierarchy. Native language competency helped to determine clerics’ career paths, forge socioeconomic hierarchies within the Church, and shape political disputes between warring royal and ecclesiastical factions. This key role of native languages in the Church helped induce the Bourbon language reforms. In spite of the reform effort, however, native languages continued to play a critical role in ecclesiastical administration through the end of the colonial period. This was due in large part to the fact that the Bourbon state did not seek uniformly to eradicate these languages; indeed, royal and ecclesiastical authorities could not even agree on precisely what their language policy should entail. Few priests (creole or not) felt the need to resist a reform effort that was contradictory, piecemeal, and of limited consequence for the Church. Contrary to many scholars’ assumptions, these findings indicate that modern Mexico’s linguistic inequality is not a persistent vestige of colonial policy. Instead, 18th-century language policy was only an early step in a centuries-long process leading to today’s particular brand of linguistic discrimination.Item Buying discretion in Mexico's new democracy : patronage in bureaucratic-legislative relations(2010-05) Velázquez López Velarde, Paris Rodrigo; Weyland, Kurt Gerhard; Greene, Kenneth F.; Madrid, Raul L.; Theriault, Sean M.; Ward, Peter M.The dissertation analyzes why legislators fail to use their oversight powers over bureaucracy in democratic Mexico. While dominant institutional theories assume a unidirectional flow of authority from politicians to bureaucrats, in Mexico there is a bidirectional negotiation process; as such, principals have formal rights to control the agents, but agents have informal leverage over principals, as well. Due to the absence of a Weberian state and extensive state intervention, bureaucrats are able to control resources that legislators require in order to advance their careers. By distributing resources that politicians can use for patronage purposes, bureaucrats obtain legislators’ consent to design and implement programs as they wish. Consequently, members of Congress renounce their control powers in exchange for securing resources for their constituents or cronies. Furthermore, informal mechanisms of influence neutralize the formal control powers that legislators have over bureaucrats. Public officials’ power and the lack of legislative control over bureaucracy are documented by analyzing the budgetary process and health policy in Mexico between 1997 and 2006. The main implication of the dissertation is that although democratization produced changes that gave more formal powers to Congress, it has not eliminated the informal mechanisms used by bureaucrats to influence legislators. As a result, public officials continue to enjoy ample leeway in implementing public policies and programs.Item Campaign advertising and its effects : the case of Mexico(2014-05) Rivera, Gustavo; Luskin, Robert C.This dissertation explains how and under what conditions voters are affected by campaign advertising, taking particular account of the conditioning role played by political knowledge and ad tone. It builds on psychological research showing that people make regular mistakes in attribution, evaluation, and decision making; that they tend to give greater weight to negative than to equally credible positive information; that they better match their political choices with their interests and values when they are more politically knowledgeable; and that cognitive shortcuts cannot fully compensate for meager political knowledge. I introduce a psychological theory of how individuals react to campaign advertising in light of: (1) their political knowledge and (2) their natural impulse to give greater weight to negative information (i.e., negativity bias). Using data from an original laboratory experiment conducted in Mexico City in 2012 and from the 2006 Mexico Panel Study, I examine the effect of campaign advertising on the attribution of candidates' character traits, the evaluation of candidates' policy proposals, and vote intentions. I show that campaign advertising's effects on the attribution of candidates' character traits and the evaluation of their policy proposals are conditioned by the voter's degree of political knowledge and the ad's tone (negative or positive). I also show that campaign advertising has a significant, indirect effect on vote intentions through its effect on the attribution of candidates' character traits and the evaluation of their policy proposals. Finally, I explain why negative advertising has systematically bigger effects on voting behavior than equivalent positive advertising. I look at the case of Mexico to shed light on the effects of campaign advertising in developing democracies. Since most academic research has looked at the United States, this thesis intends to deepen our understanding of campaign advertising in comparative perspective, looking at a country where the thinness of party identification, the ambiguity of issue ownership, and the novelty of the party system renders voters more susceptible to information in campaign advertising.Item Capitalizing on Castro : Mexico's foreign relations with Cuba and the United States, 1959-1969(2012-05) Keller, Renata Nicole; Brown, Jonathan C. (Jonathan Charles), 1942-This dissertation explores the central paradox of Mexico's foreign relations with Cuba and the United States in the decade following the Cuban Revolution--why did a government that cooperated with the CIA and practiced conservative domestic policies defend Castro's communist regime? It uses new sources to prove that historians' previous focus on the foreign and ideological influences on Mexico's relations with Cuba was misplaced, and that the most important factor was fear of the domestic Left. It argues that Mexican leaders capitalized upon their country's "special relationship" with Castro as part of their efforts to maintain control over restive leftist sectors of the Mexican population. This project uses new sources to illuminate how perceptions of threat shaped Mexico's foreign and domestic politics. In 2002, the Mexican government declassified the records of the two most important intelligence organizations--the Department of Federal Security and the Department of Political and Social Investigations. The files contain the information that Mexico's presidents received about potential dangers to their regime. They reveal that Mexican leaders overestimated the centralization, organization, and coordination of leftist groups, and in so doing gave them more influence over policy than their actual numbers or resources logically should have afforded. The dissertation uses the concept of threat perception as an analytic and organizational tool. Each chapter considers a different potential source of danger to the Mexican regime in the context of the Cold War and the country's relations with Cuba. For the sake of clarity, it breaks the threats into the categories of individual, national, and international, even though these subjective categories may blend into one another throughout the course of the analysis. The first chapter begins with an individual threat: Lázaro Cárdenas, a powerful former president who became one of Fidel Castro's most dedicated supporters. The next three chapters analyze threats on the national level by looking at the domestic groups that Mexican leaders perceived to be the greatest dangers to their regime. The final two chapters move to the international level and examine the roles of Cuba and the United States. As a whole, this study of the connections between Mexico's foreign and domestic politics makes a significant and timely contribution to the historiographies of modern Mexico, U.S.-Latin American relations, and the Cold War.