Not your mother's Latinas : film representations for a new millennium

This dissertation seeks to contribute to film, feminist and Latino/a studies by exploring the construction and ideological implications of representations of Latinas in four recent, popular U.S. films: Girlfight (Kusama 2000), Maid in Manhattan (Wang 2002), Real Women Have Curves (Cardoso 2002) and Spanglish (Brooks 2004). These films were released following a time of tremendous growth in the population and the political and economic strength of the Latina/o community as well as a rise in popularity and visibility in the 1990s of entertainers like Selena and actresses such as Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek. Drawing on the critical concepts of hybridity, Latinidad, and Bakhtinian dialogism, I analyze these films from a cultural and historical perspective to consider whether and to what degree, assuming changes in the situation of Latinas/os in the 1990’s, representations of Latinas have also changed. Specifically, in this dissertation I consider the ways in which the terrain of the Latina body is articulated in these films in relation to competing societal, cultural and familial conflicts, focusing on the body as a site of struggle where relationships collide, interact and are negotiated. In this dissertation I argue that most of the representations of Latinas in these films defy easy categorization, featuring complex characters grappling with economic issues, intergenerational differences, abuse, mother-daughter relationships, notions of beauty, familial expectations and the very real tensions between Latina/o cultural beliefs and practices and the dominant Anglo culture of the United States. Specifically, I argue that narrative and visual representation of Latina bodies in these films reflects a change in the Latinas offered for consumption to film viewers, presenting us with what some critics have called ‘emergent’ Latinas: conflicted and multilayered representations that in some cases challenge dominant ideologies and offer new demonstrations of Latina agency.

Balancing wildlife and bioenergy values on private forestlands in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan

There is interest in developing a reliable, sustainable, domestic U.S. biofuels industry. A domestic biofuels industry has the potential to provide economic, environmental, and national security benefits on a local, regional, national, and global level. The Mascoma Corporation plans to develop a cellulosic ethanol facility in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula. The primary feedstock of the plant site would be trees sourced within a 150 mile supply radius. In the eastern Upper Peninsula, this radius encompasses Alger, Chippewa, Delta, Luce, Mackinac, and Schoolcraft counties. In these six counties there are 1,320,500 acres of NIPF (non-industrial private forestlands). These acres account for 40% of the total timberland in these six counties. Thus it is likely that in order for the successful implementation of a cellulosic ethanol facility the support of local NIPF owners will be necessary. This thesis presents research on how eastern Upper Peninsula forest landowners think about and manage their land. It is based on 48 in-depth interviews with these landowners. The goal was to determine how landowner values and beliefs, on a variety of issues including wildlife management, land management, biofuels development, and climate change, are expressed through both their current management decisions, and possibly their future land management decisions. Some of the values articulated by the landowners in this study included biodiversity protection, conservation of healthy game populations, and the production of high-value timber. Understanding the values and beliefs of landowners in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan is critical for successfully developing a sustainable regional woody bioenergy.