Date of Award
2021-12-01
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Communication
Advisor(s)
Carlos A. Tarin
Abstract
There is a gap in grief research in the field of Communication that is related to the Mexican American experience. Mexican Americans navigating two often opposing cultures may experience additional complications as they attempt to maneuver the differences in grief rituals that align with either American or Mexican customs. This may result in the bereaved experiencing disenfranchised grief. This study aims to examine the significance of Mexican American bicultural grief rituals as a third option to determine how that relates to disenfranchised grief.
The first part of this study is a textual analysis of media coverage of Mexican American grief rituals as they were publicly performed following the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas on August 3, 2019. The second portion of this analysis embraced autoethnography in the form of a textual analysis of my personal journal entries following my motherâ??s death. The results showed that public displays of Mexican American grief rituals resulted in me resolving my own feelings of disenfranchised grief following my motherâ??s death.
These results suggest that by understanding and acknowledging the significance of Mexican Americans grief rituals, Mexican Americans may lessen the possibility of experiencing disenfranchised grief.
Language
en
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
Copyright Date
2021-12
File Size
110 p.
File Format
application/pdf
Rights Holder
Sandra Ramirez
Recommended Citation
Ramirez, Sandra, "Wailing For My Cultura: Disenfranchised Grief Among Mexican Americans Navigating A Bicultural Identity" (2021). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 3325.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/open_etd/3325