College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Term of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Art

Committee Chair

Jeff P. Garland

Committee Member 1

Jason Hoelscher

Committee Member 2

Jason McCoy

Committee Member 3

Leif Carlson

Abstract

This thesis explores first-generation Mexican American identity as a lived experience of translation and survival. Drawing from Judith Butler, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Jack Burnham, the work frames identity as performative, embodied, and shaped by overlapping cultural systems. Insects function as models of adaptation, camouflage, and defense, paralleling survival strategies such as code-switching and cultural hybridity. Through sculptural processes including tufting, felting, sewing, layering, and the inscription of Spanglish text, repetition and puncture become material metaphors for pressure, repair, and resilience. Language operates as both subject and substance, resisting grammatical purity in favor of hybridity. The work ultimately positions the in-between not as a fracture, but as a generative site where new forms of belonging emerge.

OCLC Number

1588664801

Research Data and Supplementary Material

Yes

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