Department of History
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/24269
2024-03-28T23:20:22ZLa Prensa y El Gran Pueblo Mexicano: A Study of Spanish-language Newspapers in South Texas, 1850-1930
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31751
La Prensa y El Gran Pueblo Mexicano: A Study of Spanish-language Newspapers in South Texas, 1850-1930
This study focuses on Spanish-language newspapers published by Mexicans in South Texas from 1850 to 1930. These newspapers played a vital role in mobilizing Mexican communities for collective action against anti-Mexican violence, racism, and the segregation of their children in schools. This study also examines the influence of these newspapers on the formation of Mexican American identity. These newspapers connected large groups of people through cultural narratives and contributed to defining concepts like "patria" and "raza", exhibiting many of the qualities Benedict Anderson attributed to print capitalism's role in the act of imagining oneself as part of a community. The research presented here specifically focuses on South Texas due to its significance in the Mexican experience within the United States. Cities like San Antonio and Laredo were hubs of social and political activity in which large Mexican populations participated, especially during the years of the Mexican Revolution. Influential Spanish-language newspapers, such as La Crónica and La Prensa, emerged from this region. These newspapers were widely popular and played a crucial role in mobilizing Mexican communities through their content, strongly influencing group identity and politics among Mexicans in the United States.
2023-08-31T00:00:00ZSallie Brooke Capps: Education Trailblazer in North Texas
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31700
Sallie Brooke Capps: Education Trailblazer in North Texas
This thesis closely examines the life of Sallie Brooke Capps (1864-1946), a liberal-feminist progressive reformer who passionately advocated for better academic opportunities for young white women and children in North Texas during the first-half of the twentieth century. At a time when women seldom held leadership positions and instead trained to lead lives as domestic household managers, Capps found a way to combine both. Moreover, her support for the education profession opened the door for many young women who came after her to attend college and become successful teachers and administrators. As the vice-president of the Texas Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Association in Dallas, Capps forged close professional connections with female reformers who shared the same progressive ideas as her and used her networking to constantly champion for additional programs that promoted the welfare of children at home, in church, and in school. Capps was also an instrumental part in the development of the popular Fort Worth Kindergarten Association's teaching college and the College of Industrial Arts in Denton, where she consistently put the best interests of the female students first and proudly served as the secretary on the latter institution's Board of Regents for eighteen years. Furthermore, Capps's involvement in and devotion to church and community activities were part of Fort Worth’s civic growth during a critical period of expansion. This study attempts for the first time to analyze Sallie B. Capps’s historical relevance in the state’s broad history, utilizing her personal papers and diaries, Texas education records, a variety of organizational records from Texas Woman's University and Fort Worth newspaper clippings, and an assortment of secondary sources about the history of education in North Texas.
Pearl Chase and Thomas More Storke: Two Community Builders in Twentieth Century Santa Barbara, California
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31427
Pearl Chase and Thomas More Storke: Two Community Builders in Twentieth Century Santa Barbara, California
**Please note that the full text is embargoed until 5/12/2024** ABSTRACT: Pearl Chase (1888-1979) and Thomas More Storke (1876-1971) are the main protagonists in this dissertation which analyzes Santa Barbara, California, and its twentieth- century development. These two individuals dedicated their lives to improving, maintaining, and preserving their unique city, as they supported—and often led—many architectural, civic, educational, environmental, and infrastructural projects. Chase and Storke were selected to headline this dissertation because they were excellent examples of community builders whose prolific endeavors resulted in many achievements. Some of these accomplishments have become Santa Barbara icons for which the city is known, such as its picturesque architectural style and a University of California campus (UCSB). Chase and Storke were also chosen because their adult lives spanned almost three-quarters of the twentieth century, and thus, this analysis could examine the impact that many of the era’s major events had on the Santa Barbara area. In addition, these two Santa Barbarans offered an opportunity to examine this topic from varying perspectives, due to Chase and Storke’s differences in career, marital and family choices, as well as gender, origin, and heritage.
The results of Chase and Storke’s efforts still exist today—from those projects that can be seen, such as Lake Cachuma or the Santa Barbara Airport, to those ventures that cannot be visible because they were prohibited to exist, like garish commercial signage or an overly industrial economic base. Chase and Storke’s memories in Santa Barbara are also reflected in ways that might expected of such involved citizens, such as awards, honors, and landmarks bearing their names. However, these two dedicated people also left behind a legacy of civic commitment, as they encouraged others by example—and by recruitment—to be community- and philanthropic–minded, qualities that are important elements to the character of Santa Barbara.
2022-05-12T00:00:00ZProject Jobs: Reagan, the INS, and Undocumented Workers in 1982
http://hdl.handle.net/10106/31239
Project Jobs: Reagan, the INS, and Undocumented Workers in 1982
Using digitized archival material, newspaper articles, and court documents, this thesis examines a 1982 federal deportation campaign in the United States called “Project Jobs,” which resulted in the apprehension of an estimated 5,400 undocumented workers, and the ultimate deportation of 4,000 of them. The operation targeted nine major U.S. cities with the goal of freeing up jobs for unemployed U.S. citizens during a recession. While Operation Wetback targeted undocumented workers in the agricultural sector, Project Jobs targeted high-paying urban jobs that were intended to be desirable for U.S. citizens. Although the operation received substantial publicity at the time, it has since been forgotten, and is virtually absent from the current historiography. By linking the operation to the economic recession in 1981, the suffering reputation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the Reagan administration’s four-year struggle to get the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 passed through Congress, this thesis argues that Project Jobs was a significant event in U.S. history, with substantial consequences for undocumented workers in urban America.
2023-05-11T00:00:00Z