Marin, Noemi

Taking into account: [a] the traditional mother; [b] cultural pressures/expectations; [c] religion; and [d] distinct communication differences in native vs. north American diaspora – the role of mothers when discussing sex with their daughters in Caribbean cultures has a multifaceted set of communication challenges that continue to face mothers and daughters today. When they do communicate, the conversation is predominantly about abstinence and in some cases, condom use completely excluding information about STDS and methods of birth control. The cultural and religious pressures that mothers adhere to may thwart the decision to give their daughters an informative safe sex talk. To truly have effective mother-daughter sexual communication, mothers need to craft educative safe sex messages and communicate that with their daughters. Failure to do so will only increase the likelihood of daughters engaging in risky sexual behavior.

In 2016, Colin Kaepernick, the former starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, unknowingly bartered his athletic aspirations by exercising his First Amendment Right to freedom of expression. Frustrated with what he and many others perceived as pervasive extrajudicial tactics of law enforcement and a seemingly incessant lack of accountability from the American legal system, Kaepernick silently protested by sitting during the playing of the National Anthem. Although, Kaepernick's actions begun as a singular, almost imperceptible act, he has ultimately redefined the significance of taking a knee, and etched his name in a long list of other malcontents in the struggle for racial equality in America. The purpose of this study is to explore in detail one of the most polarizing components of the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM) and Black Social Protests in the United States. Analysis of social media content will argue the value of the Kaepernick "Anti Flag/Anthem" Protest, from a communication-cultural perspective.

This dissertation examines the processes of social, cultural, and political
change that have taken place in Bolivia since the decade of the 1970s and how they
have paved the way for the rise to power of indigenous people and the election of Evo
Morales to the Presidency. It also addresses a growing trend toward more radical
reforms to State structures after Morales' inauguration, which has created serious
institutional chaos and a polarization of civil society. The reforms proposed by the
Morales administration and its political party (Movimiento al Socialismo) include a
new constitution which aims to re-found Bolivia favoring its Andean ethnic groups,
and an indefinite re-election of president Morales. At the same time, his party now in
control ofthe muddled Constituent Assembly charged with writing the new
constitution, intends to diminish the constitutional mandate of a 2006 referendum,
whose results favored autonomias (an administrative and political descentralized
State model, similar to Spain's or Peru's) in four provinces, which would allow a more efficient administration of the different geographical, cultural, and productive
regions of Bolivia while preserving national unity.
This dissertation investigates and recognizes the achievements of Bolivian
indigenous movements (not only Andean, but also those from the Eastern lowlands,
which in fact were the pioneers in the struggle to regain their rights and identity) and
the need to reform a State that should accommodate their rights, values, and traditions
along with those of the rest of Bolivians, the mestizos (mixed blood) and the nonindigenous,
on the basis of consensus and national solidarity. To reach that goal it
defends the necessity to preserve the guidelines of Western participative democracy
and freedom in combination with the modalities of indigenous communitarian
democracy. This basic concept, if applied, would lead the members of the current
Constituent Assembly to write an all-inclusive constitution based on consensus and
reciprocal solidarity, while opening the necessary space for national dialogue and
development, even in the indigenous communities.
This dissertation also proposes the promulgation of autonomias
departamentales in accordance with the results of the 2006 referendum. Its thesis
underlines that autonomias are the most coherent and viable way to descentralize the
administration of the diverse regions of Bolivia in a near future. Autonomies
represent a creative system that is capable of untying the asphyxiating knot imposed
on the regions (departamentos) by a centrist and vertical State, founded in 1825,
which pretended to extend its political and economic control over different historical
realities, geographical contexts, and diverse cultural backgrounds whose
representatives are today demanding fresh air. Methodologically, the panoramic review and analysis of different texts
throughout this dissertation identifies the main causes of the actual social fracture in
Bolivia, as well as proposes a set of possible solutions. Each chapter contains the
analysis of a primary text, along with the discourse of indigenous leaders,
constitutionalists, Bolivian public intellectuals, and my own voice. Among them are
Marcial Fabricano, Alejo Veliz, Felix Patzi, Juan Carlos Urenda Diaz, Ana Maria
Romero de Campero, Alvaro Garcia Linera and Victor Hugo Cardenas, whose
ideological positions, theoretical contributions, and proposals are essential for my
construction of a concise analysis and possible solutions to the perplexing challenges
facing Bolivia today.
This dissertation is based on the recognition that Bolivia is a culturally and
geographically heterogeneous country, where coexistence between its diverse ethnic
groups and regions -aggravated by profound ideological differences, a proverbial
impossibility to govern the country, and the poverty of the majority of its
inhabitants- has reached perilous levels of polarization and social unrest. A real
change and a real de-colonizing revolution (which inspires president Eve Morales and
vicepresident Alvaro Garcia Linera's ideological program) cannot be produced and be
real without the implementation of regional autonomies (autonomias
departamenta/es) and the strengthening of autonomic indigenous municipalities and
territories, already legislated by the actual constitution.
NOTE
A Spanish version of this dissertation (which includes a Collocutio and three more
chapters) follows the present text. Chapters V and VI are focused on the analysis of eastern Bolivia (where a parallel and no less controversial identity, facing the
Andean, has emerged: e/ ser crucefzo) and autonomic proposals more in detail.
Chapter VII presents the voices of Bolivian public intellectuals (indigenous and non
indigenous) who, and for the reasons they explain, are not members of the present
Constituent Assembly.

President Bush's 2001 speech on stem cell research showed unusual intermixing of
rhetorical bits from past arguments of proponents and opponents, suggesting that such
mixing is a distinct rhetorical strategy. Analyses revealed two communities that had
engaged each other over reproductive biology issues for decades, developing distinct
vocabularies and argumentative patterns in that interaction. The speech mixed
fragments ofthese usages. Traditional textual analyses and analyses ofthe mixing
itself showed that the mixing seems to reinforce traditional approaches to divided
audiences by opening up many possibilities for the communities to draw different
meanings from what is said. Analyses of responses to the speech showed such split
understandings, and followup analyses to 2007 suggest that the speech helped freeze
the character of the debate in the form Bush gave it. Mixing is a viable rhetorical
strategy to help manage intractable issues with deeply divided audiences.

This dissertation tests an original hybrid methodology to explore the rapid spread
of the idea of human-made climate change that began in the 1950s after the idea had lain
dormant for half a century. It describes the 1950s rhetorical events that triggered the
idea’s diffusion, then traces how its rhetorical uses gradually gave root to the end-of-thecentury
political impasse over how to respond to the societal implications of the idea.
The research methodology rests on the simple logic that an idea can only spread
by being used in human discourses. It combines traditions of rhetorical historiography
with a philosophical view of intellectual history as the cumulative effect of a “natural
selection” of ideas and their spread by human individuals over time and geography. It
calls for sampling and analyzing rhetorical artifacts in light of the rhetorical situations in
which they originate, focusing on how the idea of human-made climate change is used
rhetorically in scientific and other discourses. The analyses form the basis of a narrative giving emphasis both to rhetorical continuities and to conversation-changing rhetorical
events. They also show how these rhetorical dynamics involve interactions of human
communities using or attacking the idea for their communal purposes.
The results challenge science-focused understandings of the history of the idea
itself and also suggest that the methodology may be more broadly useful.
As to the history, the analyses highlight how changes in the rhetorical uses of the
idea made possible its 1950s breakout in climate science, then led to uses that spread it
into other sciences and into environmentalism in the 1960s, attached it to apocalyptic
environmentalism in the 1970s, injected it into partisan politics in 1980s and shaped the
political impasse during the 1990s.
The data show that the methodology reveals elements of the discourses missed in
histories emphasizing the “power of ideas,” suggesting that a focus on the usefulness of
ideas may be more fruitful. A focus on rhetorical uses of ideas grounds the causation of
intellectual change in human motivation and agency, expressed in material acts that
multiply and disperse naturally through communities and populations.

This study investigates the court interpreter's cultural role and factors affecting bilingual communication in judicial settings. It examines court interpreting as communicative activity and as a challenging type of intercultural communication. Locating the study between prescribed standards of conduct and their practical applications in the courtroom, this thesis features the interpreter's performed role and its impact in bilingual interactions. Offering a dynamic perspective on intercultural challenges, the study investigates judicial interpreters' practice in relation to linguistic foundations, communicative strategies, and dual standards toward their performance. For exemplification purposes, the study includes a series of arguments and counterarguments posted on the National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators website. The overall argument to assess factors affecting bilingual communication in legal settings aims to assist court interpreters in their daily practices. An additional goal is to create a venue for more effective communication and more equitable administration of justice in intercultural context.