Water and Basic Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean

human development, water, sanitation

Front Trigger Hose Nozzle/Pistol Grip Hose Nozzle

debris, sandpaper, decorative paper, and rhinestone

Front Trigger Hose Nozzle/Pistol Grip Hose Nozzle

debris, sandpaper, decorative paper, and rhinestone

A War of Proper Names: The Politics of Naming, Indigenous Insurrection, and Genocidal Violence During Guatemala’s Civil War.

During the Guatemalan civil war (1962-1996), different forms of anonymity enabled members of the organizations of the social movement, revolutionary militants, and guerrilla combatants to address the popular classes and rural majorities, against the backdrop of generalized militarization and state repression. Pseudonyms and anonymous collective action, likewise, acquired political centrality for revolutionary politics against a state that sustained and was symbolically co-constituted by forms of proper naming that signify class and racial position, patriarchy, and ethnic difference. Between 1979 and 1981, at the highest peak of mass mobilizations and insurgent military actions, the symbolic constitution of the Guatemalan state was radically challenged and contested. From the perspective of the state’s elites and military high command, that situation was perceived as one of crisis; and between 1981 and 1983, it led to a relatively brief period of massacres against indigenous communities of the central and western highlands, where the guerrillas had been operating since 1973. Despite its long duration, by 1983 the fate of the civil war was sealed with massive violence. Although others have recognized, albeit marginally, the relevance of the politics of naming during Guatemala’s civil war, few have paid attention to the relationship between the state’s symbolic structure of signification and desire, its historical formation, and the dynamics of anonymous collective action and revolutionary pseudonymity during the war. Even less attention has received the affective and psychic dynamics between proper naming, state violence, and the symbolic formation of the Guatemalan state. This dissertation addresses that relationship and dynamic. Following a historical-anthropological perspective, I argue that, from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s decade, prior to the beginning of the civil war, the Guatemalan state took the form of a finca-state. The Guatemalan finca-state functioned by inscribing, in the form of proper names, lineages and inheritance of colonial and post-colonial origin that came to signify wealth, whiteness, renown, and surplus of pleasure or jouissance, in the form of White-European patronymics, by virtue of which, indigenous proper names were forced to occupy the position of loss. This form of inscription, I argue, produced the foreclosure of the indigenous other. For the indigenous pueblos, nonetheless, state enforced inscription established forms of interpellation that desubjectivized the conditions of their own institutions of proper naming by turning them into mere objects of identification. The politics of pseudonymity and anonymity that proliferated between 1979 and 1981, especially among indigenous people of the Guatemalan highlands, was a refusal of a form of state that excluded the possibility of their recognition beyond identification. In a deep sense, anonymity and pseudonymity enabled revolutionary militants to become truly others, a condition that disorganized previous forms of state identification. In their inability to respond to a sense of crisis under conditions of anonymous collective action and revolutionary pseudonymity, the Guatemalan army responded with massive violence as an attempt at eliminating their sense of threat. I pay particular attention to the Ixil region, where the UN sponsored Guatemalan truth commission concluded that the Guatemalan army perpetrated acts of genocide against indigenous communities of Ixil descent. This dissertation is based on extensive archival research conducted between the months of October 2014 and May 2015, extensive collective and individual interviews carried out between 2004 and 2007, and ethnographic observation in the Ixil region between May and October of 2015. Its methodology follows the routes of collaborative research, archival reading, and ethnographic participant observation

PREDICTORS AND OUTCOMES OF THE OCCURRENCE AND VALENCE OF CAMPAIGN-RELATED TALK: THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN NEW MEDIA USE, CONVERSATIONS, AND VICARIOUS LEARNING IN THE CONTEXT OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Study 1 explored the dominant or deciding barriers and facilitators, beyond environmental and systemic factors, influencing women’s LARC uptake (RQ1, RQ2). Moreover, it examined pregnancy ambivalence and motivation to prevent unintended pregnancy as distal variables to LARC information seeking and uptake (H1, H3). Additionally, it examined embodied experience as an important source of information about contraception (H4). Furthermore, it explored how informal and formal sources support reproductive health decision-making, specifically focusing on social networks as sources of information, knowledge (RQ3, H2), and norms regarding LARC uptake (RQ4, RQ4a, RQ5). Study 2 examined the influence of social learning and LARC knowledge in the evaluation of campaign messages (RQ6) and tested whether such evaluations influence the generation (RQ7) and diffusion (H5) of campaign influence. Finally, it examined how exposure to negative or positive online LARC talk influences intentions to seek information (H6) and adopt LARC (H7). In study 1, findings suggest that increasing the pervasiveness of LARC information, experiential or not, may facilitate women’s familiarity and comfort with this method. Moreover, familiarity and comfort with LARC methods may help translate knowledge to interest, and potentially subsequent use. Additionally, the findings from study 2 concur with previous studies consistent with DOI, in that increased exposure to a campaign can prompt participants to initiate discussions about LARC with friends, which then serve as the potential initial step toward adopting a LARC. In sum, this dissertation contributes to the theoretical and practical understanding of women’s perceptions and use of new media, mass media, and interpersonal communication channels in relation to contraceptive decision-making

Factors influencing the Relationship between the Latinx Community and Law Enforcement

The study has quantitative and qualitative aspects. The quantitative aspect measures how attitudes toward law enforcement and fear are related and how attitudes toward law enforcement and willingness to seek help from law enforcement are related. The qualitative aspect explores how trust plays a role in the relationship between the Latinx community and law enforcement. The qualitative aspect of the study also seeks to address how the overall relationship between the Latinx community and law enforcement can be improves. Participants completed a quantitative survey that measured their attitudes towards law enforcement, fear towards law enforcement, and willingness to accept help from law enforcement. Separate participants completed a qualitative interview that looked into the factors that influence the level of trust that Latinx Canal residents have in the San Rafael Police Department as well as how those levels of trust shape the interactions between residents of the Canal community and the San Rafael Police Department. The interviews were conducted over zoom and lasted twenty to thirty minutes. No significant correlation was found between attitudes regarding law enforcement in the Latinx community and fear levels. A significant correlation was found between attitudes regarding law enforcement in the Latinx community and willingness to seek help from law enforcement. The qualitative findings demonstrated that trust levels between police and the Latinx community residents can be increased through the humanization of both parties. The Latinx community residents expressed that the humanization process consists of police involvement in the community beyond security, frequent interactions between the police and residents over time, and through transparency. As trust levels increase, fear levels towards law enforcement decrease in the community

NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S IUD: IDENTIFYING MEMORABLE MESSAGES ABOUT LARCS

Reducing the percentage of unwanted pregnancies has been one of the top objectives of the national health promotion Healthy People since the early 1980s. As the increase of unwanted pregnancies continues, research is necessary to uncover factors that influence the decisions women make about their contraceptive methods. The current study examines the topics and the sources of memorable messages regarding LARCs. To address the research questions, this study will analyze interviews conducted with young women about memorable messages regarding LARC methods. This study is a formative research of memorable messages in the context of contraceptive methods, specifically long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). This study gives insight into characteristics to better target young women when promoting contraceptive methods, especially LARCs. Debunking myths and misconceptions about LARCs and improve overall health literacy about these methods among young women and their mothers should be a top priority