By Lena LaJoy
A University of Maryland doctoral student and UMD alum shared their research findings on how men engage with politics more than women and the historical significance of the Mexican Miracle Wednesday.
The Mexican Miracle is a time of economic growth from the 1940s to the 1970s that shaped Mexican culture. Carolina Batista, a doctoral student in the Department of Government and Politics, and Samuel Aguayo, a doctoral alum studying gender disparity and historical literature, discussed the miracle’s impact and political differences between men and women in front of a crowd of roughly 15 UMD community members at H.J. Patterson Hall. The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center hosted this discussion as part of the Graduate Lecture series.
Batista said that her research looks at behavioral differences and news interaction during elections between men and women. Batista said while her research shows a sharp difference in response between genders, it does not explain why men appear to be more involved in politics.
Batista presented graphs based on data she collected from a survey and a digital trace. She explained that digital trace data is a map that shows what people are doing on their devices. Batista said she reviewed responses from men and women regarding Brazil’s 2022 election, Argentina’s 2023 election and Chile’s 2022 constitutional change.
Her data showed that men are more likely than women to react emotionally when election results are revealed. She said her results showed that men are more likely to engage with political news. Batista discussed that this data goes against societal beliefs that men are less emotional than women and explained that women feel less involved in politics due to a lack of female candidates.
“Men access more political news than women, although for reactivity, men increase or decrease engagement sharply based on election outcomes,” Batista said.
Batista said she hopes to better understand why women show less interest in politics through doing qualitative analysis and surveys.
Aguayo, who earned a doctorate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, started the last portion of the research discussion. He shared his work, which looks at two books set during the Mexican Miracle to see how society changed over time.
Aguayo discussed “Balun Canan” first. Aguayo said the book is separated into three parts and is about an indigenous group rising up against landowners in Southeastern Mexico. He said that his research on this book aims to show the connection between indigenous communities and the earth.
The second book, “Guerra en el Paraiso,” depicts two teachers who start a rebellion against the government. He said the book talks about a metaphor of all people being the same because everyone has the same body parts. Aguayo connected this back to his overarching idea of the bond between indigenous communities and nature.
“The novels do not aim to give a voice to the victims of oppression, but rather explore and fictionalize those hidden episodes that the Mexican government’s official history has encrypted,” Aguayo said.
Sashi Juarez-Galindo, a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Government and Politics, said he wanted to attend this event because he is interested in similar research, and he wanted to become more familiar with Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Juarez-Galindo said he has worked with Batista in the past, and she told him about this event. In his own research, Juarez-Galindo focuses on comparative politics and wants to incorporate Latino culture into his research. He said this graduate lecture helped him better understand certain concepts he wants to research.
“I take away that I’m a lot more familiar with trace data, which is something that I want to utilize, but also that there’s two books that I should read,” Juarez-Galindo said.
Jonathan Brower, a postdoctoral associate professor and postdoctoral associate in the graduate school in the Office of Professional and Career Development, said preparation for the event was easy since the event had already been established. He said the main tasks were finding a room, speakers and resources to promote the event.
Brower said that the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center was only able to host one Graduate Lecture Series this semester. He said LACS tries to host the graduate series two to three times a semester to highlight the wonderful graduate students researching Latin America.
“They are having the conversations that we need to have,” Brower said.
Featured Image: Carolina Batista and Samuel Aguayo discuss their graduate research at the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center Graduate Lecture held in H.J. Patterson on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Photo by Miller Rogers-Tetrick.