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Dissertation Information for Oscar Santiago Valerio-Jimenez

NAME:
- Oscar Santiago Valerio-Jimenez

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2001)

ADVISORS:
- Norris Hundley Jr.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- James Lockhart
- Sonia Saldivar-Hull
- David G. Gutierrez

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: "Indios barbaros", divorcees, and flocks of vampires: Identity and nation on the Rio Grande, 1749--1894

Abstract: This study analyzes the interplay among state formation, cultural change, and the construction of identity in the Spanish/Mexican and North American borderlands. It reveals the ways that three nations--Spain, Mexico, and the United States--competed for control of the Lower Rio Grande region and, in the process, helped shape society between the 1740s and the 1890s. The transitions in the region's government precipitated multiple transformation in ethnic relations and national identities. Beginning as Spanish subjects, colonists conquered and enslaved the region's indigenous peoples; then as Mexican citizens, residents defended the northern border from Indian and North American attacks; and ultimately, they became U.S. citizens under local governments dominated by European Americans. Gender relations in the borderlands also changed with U.S. annexation, partly because marriage and divorce, controlled in Mexico by the Catholic church, passed into the jurisdiction of U.S. civil authorities. I argue that the state-building processes of Spain, Mexico, and the United States molded but did not determine the identities of the inhabitants of the border region. Residents adapted to each government's attempts to control the region; they undermined formal structures by fashioning fluid, often contradictory identities within the borderlands' volatile political atmosphere.

The dissertation contributes to the history of Chicanas/os, the U.S. West, and the borderlands. The first study of the border region to compare the periods before and after annexation, the work uses Spanish- and English-language sources from Mexican and North American archives. These include legal records, municipal and federal documents, newspapers, parish records, folk songs, and personal papers. The study adds to recent literature that revises the emphasis on the victimization of Chicanas/os, as it highlights Mexicans' role in subjugating Indians before the arrival of European Americans. It then demonstrates that although Mexicans suffered land dispossession and lost political power, they adapted to the U.S. As voters, Mexican men decided elections and won some offices; women used the courts to seek divorces and protection from violence. The dissertation furthers recent scholarship that emphasizes the heterogeneity of Chicana/o experiences and communities, as it demonstrates the inequalities created by class and gender differences among ethnic Mexicans.

MPACT Scores for Oscar Santiago Valerio-Jimenez

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-09-03 22:22:02

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Students under Oscar Santiago Valerio-Jimenez

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None