Seeds of Resistance; Harvesting Justice: An exploration of spaces where native seeds grow

SEEDS OF RESISTANCE; HARVESTING JUSTICE: AN EXPLORATION OF SPACES WHERE NATIVE SEEDS GROW By JAELYN deMARÍA B.A., Mass Communication, New Mexico State University, 2002 M.A., American Studies, University of New Mexico, 2004 Ph.D., Communication, University of New Mexico, 2012 ABSTRACT This project claims space for articulations of resistance and justice that seek healing for land, people, and all living things. It is intended as a contribution to a revisionist global history that explores strategies of resistance to corporate models of existence. It seeks to situate specific environmental and social justice issues in New Mexico within larger global conversations as a way of making connections to similar struggles and generating diverse solutions. Struggles for justice resist dominant power structures that attempt to block access to physical sites of cultural survival. Issues of land and identity are intricately woven together in the landscape and are at the heart of struggles for dignity and reconnection. This is a multimedia project that explores spaces that have been claimed for native seeds to grow as well as social, political, economic, spiritual and emotional ties that connect people to the land. Struggles seeking justice for native seeds are important components in understanding the evolution of the physical places and emotional spaces where they grow. This project intends to provide examples of how resistance is cultivated. Specifically, it provides case studies of spaces that have been transformed into places where native seeds grow. Sustainable cultures and communities are at stake in New Mexico where recent trends toward corporate control of seed and life increasingly threaten people’s ability to build community and maintain multi-generational connections to seed, land, and culture. This is happening within the context of continuing processes of colonization and simultaneous acts of resistance to that colonization. This dissertation seeks to highlight the resistance.CommunicationDoctoralUniversity of New Mexico. Dept. of Communication and JournalismCollier, Mary JaneGandert, MiguelSchuetz, JaniceCordova, Teres