Browsing by Subject "immigration"
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Item Embodied Storying, A Methodology for Chican@ Rhetorics: (Re)making Stories, (Un)mapping the Lines, And Re-membering Bodies(2012-10-19) Cobos, CasieThis dissertation privileges Chican@ rhetorics in order to challenge a single History of Rhetoric, as well as to challenge Chican@s to formulate our rhetorical practices through our own epistemologies. Chapter One works in three ways: (1) it points to how a single History of Rhetoric is implemented, (2) it begins to answer Victor Villanueva's call to "Break precedent!" from a singly History, and (3) it lays groundwork for the three-prong heuristic of "embodied storying," which acts as a lens for Chican@ rhetorics. Chapter Two uses embodied storying to look at how Chican@s are produced through History and how Chican@s produce histories. By analyzing how Spanish colonizers, contemporary scholars/publishers, and Chican@s often disembody indigenous codices, this chapter calls for rethinking how we practice codices. In order to do so, this chapter retells various stories about Malinche to show how Chican@s already privilege bodies in Chican@ stories in and beyond codices. Chapter Three looks at cartographic practices in the construction, un-construction, and deconstruction of bodies, places, and spaces in the Americas. Because indigenous peoples practice mapping by privileging bodies who inhabit/practice spaces, this chapter shows how colonial maps rely on place-based conceptions of land in order to create imperial borders and rely on space-based conceptions in order to ignore and remove indigenous peoples from their lands. Chapter Four looks at foodways as a practice of rhetoric, identity, community, and space. Using personal, familial, and community knowledge to discuss Mexican American food practices, this chapter argues that foodways are rhetorical in that they affect and are affected by Chican@ identities. In this way, food practices can challenge the conception of rhetoric as being solely attached to text and privilege the body. Finally, Chapter Five looks at how Chican@ rhetorics and embodied storying can affect the field(s) of rhetoric and writing. I ask three specific questions: (1) How can we use embodied storying in histories of rhetoric? (2) How can we use embodied storying in Chican@ rhetorics? (3) How can we use embodied storying in our pedagogy?Item Ethnic niches, pathway to economic incorporation or exploitation? Labor market experiences of Latina/os(Texas A&M University, 2006-04-12) Morales, Maria CristinaThis dissertation investigates the ethnic labor market activities of the Latina/os. This study is important since regardless of their historical and increasing presence in the U.S., Latinos continue to find themselves disproportionately at the bottom of the social hierarchy (Saenz, Morales, and Ayala 2004). Furthermore, due to their lack of access, a significant amount of the members of this group are turning to employment in an ethnic niche. While there is no consensus as to what exactly constitutes an ethnic niche, a distinct characteristic is the co-ethnic nature of the work environments. Special focus is placed on how immigration status/nativity, gender, nativity, and skin color influences job search activities and wage differentials in the ethnic niche. While these factors have been found to impact the mainstream labor market, our knowledge of how these factors operate in a work environment with a dominant presence of co-ethnics is ambiguous. Utilizing data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI), results show that Latina/os workers in co-ethnic niches receive fewer economic rewards than their ethnic counterparts in the general labor market. Furthermore, within the Latina/o population dark-skinned individuals are more likely to be employed in ethnic niches while the lighter-skinned are more likely to be employed in the general labor market. When examining the stratification factors of immigration/nativity status, gender, and skin color, in addition to social networks, findings show that these stratification factors operate in a similar fashion in ethnic niches as they do in more mainstream labor markets. Thus these findings question the presumably protective work environment of ethnic niches.Item Immigrants' Acculturation as Expressed in Architecture: 19th Century Churches and Courthouses in South Central Texas(2014-12-09) Morris, Jacob JamesThis paper introduces a conceptual framework to analyze identity and assimilation processes in immigrants? architecture. Specifically, the study examines European immigrants who arrived directly to Texas port cities and settled in South Central Texas during mid-to-late nineteenth century. The architectural choices made in the communities in which these immigrants settled express various aspects of their orientations to maintain identity and tradition while at the same time assimilate to the new land. The theoretical framework theorizes that the manifestation of these two distinct directions in public architecture in these communities is conditioned by community context and building type. This study posits that churches serve as the symbol of cultural heritage and reflect the collective memory of immigrants? homeland. Courthouses have been considered as the predominant symbol of self-government and of community?s civic pride. Thus, the county courthouse served as the icon of immigrants? negotiation of new and externally derived civic responsibilities, i.e., assimilation. Consequently the study focused on two building types, churches and courthouses, built in Texas county seats. The locations were chosen so that the sites will represent a variety of immigrant ethnic groups. To test the expectations derived from the framework, this study utilized a small sample comparative analysis. The comparisons of the targeted buildings (courthouses and churches) were conducted along specific criteria, which included site, morphology, and building technology. The findings show that across all criteria, churches exhibited a higher degree of European traditional architecture in correspondence to the cultural identity of each applicable ethnic group. Courthouses generally reflected architectural patterns of that era across Texas and thereby were more similar to one another, in the context that they reflected overall contemporary practice throughout the state of Texas. The courthouses demonstrated the assimilation process of immigrants to their new land. These findings lead to a better comprehension of the influence of immigrants upon public architecture in their new homeland, and to the recognition of the significance of identity, pride, and place in the interpretation of historic architecture.Item U.S. newspaper coverage of immigration in 2004: a content analysis(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Zhang, JingThis study examined the U.S. newspaper coverage of immigration in 2004. Previous studies have focused on the ideological implication of news coverage, showing that the news frames conveyed elites?? racism toward immigrants. Little research has been done to offer an overview of the general U.S. news content on immigration in the 21st century, such as a study on how topics, themes, and sources shape news frames. Guided by the principle of framing, this study explored the topics, themes, sources, frames, and differences of three major U.S. newspapers??The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Houston Chronicle??on immigration. One hundred and twenty-nine articles were examined for this study. The study found that a frame of ??confrontation and frustration?? emerged from the most dominant topics, themes, and sources present in the newspapers. The study also showed that the newspapers were less concerned about differentiating between ??who was legal and who was illegal.?? Half of the time, the newspapers studied represented immigrants, regardless of legal status, as one group. The newspapers were found to be more concerned about reporting the immigrants?? shared experience of living in a non-native country, including shared problems such as in home ownership and in education. Differences among newspapers showed The New York Times?? ??unofficial newspaperof record?? reputation, the Houston Chronicle??s local emphasis, and the Los Angeles Times?? reflection of minority power in California.Item “Under the glorious inter-American flag of New York” : Club Cubano Interamericano and the process of Cuban American community formation in New York City in the early 20th century(2013-12) Hadjistoyanova, Iliyana; Guridy, Frank AndreThis report explores Club Cubano Inter-Americano’s history in order to show how it helped situate Cuban immigrants within the Anglo and Latino communities in New York City in the early 20th century, and it examines the ways in which immigrants balanced their island heritage with community building in the United States. The different parts of the report focus on the organization’s foundation, leadership, activities, events, and treatment of race. A historiography of similar social groups provides a necessary background of the overall structure and goals of Cuban mutual-aid societies. Although the question of race was never officially present in Club-related rhetoric, a number of similarities link its makeup and functions to an existing tradition of Afro-Cuban mutual-aid societies on the island and abroad. The analysis of the New York Club Cubano Inter-Americano provides a glimpse into a part of the Cuban migration in the United States that simply does not fit with the rest.