Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Rader, Nicole E.

Committee Member

Kelly, Kimberly C.

Committee Member

Hughey, Matthew W.

Committee Member

Irizarry, Yasmiyn

Date of Degree

5-17-2014

Original embargo terms

MSU Only Indefinitely

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Campus Access Only

Major

Sociology

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Sociology

Abstract

In this thesis, I explore the following question: what is the relationship between representations of Puerto Rican identity and representations of Puerto Rican social roles in the United States and Puerto Rico? I use articles from the New York Times to analyze the discursive structure of this relationship. Drawing from a systematic random sample of 683 articles from the NYT archives from two time periods before and after the ratification of the Puerto Rican Constitution (1948 to 1952 and 1952 to 1958), I find nuanced accounts that promote a representation of Puerto Ricans as a perpetually “foreign” immigrant group, a form of “American Exceptionalism” that simultaneously criticizes U.S. colonialism and perpetuates U.S. supremacy to ultimately frame Puerto Ricans as U.S. citizens but not as authentically belonging “Americans,” and an ongoing racialization of Puerto Ricans as a group that does not fit within the traditional black/white color-line of the U.S.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/17804

Comments

color-blind racism||race||Commonwealth||identity||Puerto Rico

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