Vázquez, Miguel Ángel

In Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court held that individuals detained as enemy combatants at U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay (GTMO) during the War on Terror are constitutionally entitled to the writ of habeas corpus. In so finding, the Court failed to thoroughly investigate the nature of the United States‟ relationship with Cuba – an investigation that would have indicated that procedural due process also ought to be extended to those detained at the base. In this thesis, I review the legal battle over enemy combatants, evaluate the writ of habeas corpus as a remedy for unlawful detention, examine the extension of the Constitution beyond its territorial limits, conduct a detailed review of U.S.-Cuban relations, and conclude that GTMO detainees are also constitutionally entitled to all the protections of procedural due process.

In Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court held that individuals detained as enemy combatants at U.S. Naval Base Guantánamo Bay (GTMO) during the War on Terror are constitutionally entitled to the writ of habeas corpus. In so finding, the Court failed to thoroughly investigate the nature of the United States‟ relationship with Cuba – an investigation that would have indicated that procedural due process also ought to be extended to those detained at the base. In this thesis, I review the legal battle over enemy combatants, evaluate the writ of habeas corpus as a remedy for unlawful detention, examine the extension of the Constitution beyond its territorial limits, conduct a detailed review of U.S.-Cuban relations, and conclude that GTMO detainees are also constitutionally entitled to all the protections of procedural due process.

En momentos de gran cambio social, el tema del poema pastoril siempre parece resurgir. Aunque la formulación intrínseca del poema pastoril, un anhelo latente por el tiempo y el espacio perdidos, se ha mantenido constante, los minúsculos cambios en lo que constituye este respiro idílico revelan mucho sobre la época en que fue escrito. La noción de una Edad de Oro ilustra los ideales de la sociedad y, como tal, yuxtapone la banalidad de la vida cotidiana con aspiraciones estéticas altamente idealizadas de las que el poeta intenta escapar a través de la poesía pastoril. Al centrarme en diferentes movimientos literarios con énfasis particular en el Siglo de Oro español y el período romántico británico, pretendo demostrar cómo los temas contemporáneos—es decir, el descontento político y la floreciente revolución industrial—dan forma a diferentes variaciones de poemas pastoriles que constituyen la distintiva pero escurridiza Edad Dorada nacional.

This paper argues that Kim Il-Sung of North Korea and Fidel Castro of Cuba established personality cults of differing degrees of intensity due to the relative degrees of historical and political isolation present in each state. Although both states followed a similar pattern of dominance, resentment, nationalism, and socialism in their recent histories, their differing overall histories dictated the intensity of their leaders' personality cults. Korea's long history of self-imposed isolationism in combination with xenophobia was continued in Kim's self-reliance ideology and allowed for a fanatical personality cult to develop. Cuba's only experience with isolation was that imposed by the United States through its embargoes, and the resulting hostility between Cuba and the United States actually helped legitimize Castro's regime and personality cult.

This thesis examines the role of food as a social critique in the picaresque genre of Spanish literature. The picaresque novel of 16th and 17th century Spain revolves around the pseudo-autobiographical narrative of a rogue hero who survives life by any means possible, including thievery and deception. The genre demonstrates that only the upper classes of society were enjoying the fruits of Golden Age Spain. In particular, Lazarillo de Tormes and El buscón are the novels used in this analysis to reveal that food, especially the lack thereof, is used satirically in picaresque novels to draw attention to the starvation and suffering of Spanish commoners.

This thesis investigates the case of the legendary Mirabal sisters, or the so called “Mariposas” [the “Butterflies”]: three young Dominican women who sacrificed their lives to end the tyranny of General Rafael L. Trujillo. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the portrayal of the Mirabal sisters in two different books, In the Time of the Butterflies (1994) by Dominican-American writer Julia Álvarez and Vivas en su jardín [Alive in their Garden] (2009) by Dedé Mirabal, the only sister to survive. Mirabal implements an important biographical component in her testimony while Álvarez utilizes the genre of historical fiction to describe the events leading to the sisters’ assassination in 1960. This thesis explores the concepts of “truth” and “fiction” in Mirabal’s memoir and Álvarez’s historical novel, arguing that the range of objectivity and subjectivity in these two genres are interchangeable in the representation of this tragic episode in the history of the Dominican Republic.