Machismo and geographies of hope
Carlos Adams (Author), Carol Siegel (Degree supervisor), Washington State University (Degree granting institution), Washington State University Program in American Studies
My dissertation deals with the concept called hope. Hope is seen as a mechanism that supports us as we strive to seek something the individual or collective deems worthwhile. Hope's universal understanding positions hope in such a way as to argue that we all hope and, therefore, we all hope in the same way. In this dissertation, I attempt to deconstruct this universal understanding of hope. I argue that hope has three key characteristics: imagination, realization, and actualization. Imagination draws off an individual or collective's creative expression and is limited by ideologies, hegemony, and lived experiences. Realization is where the necessary means are developed to gain access to the available resources needed to achieve something worthwhile and is determined by the individual or collective's access to power. Actualization occurs when what is hoped for is actualized by the individual or collective and is momentary because anything hoped for is never permanent. I apply my theory to Chicanos' discourse on their masculinity called machismo. I explore Chicanos' involvement in my three geographies. I show how their imagination is limited by ideologies, hegemony, and lived experiences. I explore how they develop the necessary means to access the available resources, and what it is they should hope to actualize if they want to meet with Chicanas in the development of new and creative futures, My last chapter deals with the concept of Aztlán. I explore how Chicanos construct Aztlán as a patriarchal domain and address how Chicanas construct an Aztlán that has the possibilities to move beyond patriarchy and European colonization. I bring in silence as enabler, which allows for listening to become a liberatory act and creates a meeting place from where to begin to decolonize mind and body
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2006
Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., 2006