Abstract
The paper argues that when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the fall of 2005, Governor Blanco of Louisiana responded appropriately and as effectively as a governor with limited state resources could have responded. The paper demonstrates how in contrast, George W. Bush disgraced the Presidency and the entire nation by demonstrating appalling apathy and incompetence as this Category 5 hurricane and ensuing floods ravaged America's fourth largest city and devastated many smaller cities and towns lying in its path.

From the Paper
"When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in the fall of 2005, Governor Blanco of Louisiana responded appropriately and as effectively as a governor with limited state resources could have responded. In contrast, George W. Bush disgraced the Presidency and the entire nation by demonstrating appalling apathy and incompetence as this Category 5 hurricane and ensuing floods ravaged America's fourth largest city and devastated many smaller cities and towns lying in its path...."

Tags:hurricane, katrina, competence

Abstract
This essay compares and contrasts Candido and his wife America with the Mossbacher family in T. Coraghessan Boyle's novel "The Tortilla Curtain." The comparison and contrast focuses on the implications for U.S. society of the differences in lifestyle between each family. Boyle further illustrates these in the section entitled "Arroyo Blanco."

From the Paper
"In his review of T. Coraghessan Boyle's 'Tortilla Curtain' John Skow labels his criticism of the book 'Snobs and Wetbacks.' This is significant because in the Arroyo Blanco section of Boyle's novel we are provided with two distinct realities; that of the white, upper-middle-class yuppies living in developed estates and the illegal Mexicans who provide a ready source of inexpensive labor. A line is drawn between Arroyo Blanco Estates and the immigrant compound outside its fences."

Tags:Marxist, capitalism, illegal immigrants, Mexican border, labor, privilege, American Dream, coyote, predator, ethnocentrism, exploitation

Abstract
The paper illustrates how Boyle's narrative, "The Tortilla Curtain", breaks down the geography of race by personalizing the conflicts that occur from the repeated encounters between two couples; Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, a white couple, and Candido and America Rincon, an immigrant couple. The paper describes the Mossbachers' white enclave of Arroyo Blanco as the idealized and densely boundaried world of the American dream. The paper highlights how Boyle consistently represents his white characters as requiring a sense of control over their own bodies and their self-contained "white" environment that is seen as under attack from the Mexican immigrants. The paper notes the irony that these same immigrants are eventually hired as the laborers to construct a wall that is designed to exclude them and also analyzes the fire as a natural and ultimate threat to a community that was almost paranoiac in its protection of space and building of walls.

From the Paper
"First published in 1992, The Tortilla Curtain is T. Coraghesan Boyle's ambitious attempt to map the destructive though neatly hidden tensions between upper-middle-class Southern Californians and the illegal Mexican immigrants flooding into the Los Angeles area, most often through well-organized (and extremely dangerous) "holes" along the under-patrolled border south of San Diego. Like Paul Haggis's recent film Crash (2004), Boyle's novel explores the geocultural assumptions territoriality (that is, the ownership of place and space) as they come to intersect with the dominant pseudo-liberal politics informing the (in)tolerances within a racially-diverse community that tends to collapse the conditions of racial or ethnic "otherness" into an easily imaginable collective identity. Put another way, this is a novel that explores characters who attempt to contain the concept of otherness into a knowable schema that ultimately allows the characters to deal with racial differences by considering them normal or part of the landscape both literally and metaphorically."

Tags:class, immigrants, Mexicans, coyotes, borders, walls, otherness

Abstract
Among the most colorful periods in America's remarkable early history is the Gold Rush era. In the late 1800s, the discovery of gold triggered a flood of immigrants into the country, all intent on making their fortune. These miners shaped the early history of America and created a great deal of the legend that surrounds the era of the "Wild West". While some of the legends of lawlessness and debauchery are clearly exaggerated, life in the mining towns of the Gold Rush era was clearly 'rough and ready'. This paper examines life in the mining camps of the Gold Rush era. This includes a look at the people who made up the camps, the general atmosphere, as well as prostitution, gambling, general lawlessness, and the role of religion within the mining camps. The demise of the mining camps is examined in the context of the development of the railroad and the emergence of the Settlement Act. In addition, the fate of many of these mining camps as ghost towns is discussed, including threats to their continuing existence and hopes for their preservation.

From the Paper
"Today, time has begun to erase the physical traces of many of America's more permanent historic mining camps. As a result, there has been a recent movement aimed at the preservation of these pieces of American history. In Montana, Virginia City and Nevada City were considered among the National Trust's top 10 "Most Endangered Historic Properties." The two towns were famous for their fine collection of buildings and artifacts from the 1860s and 1870s gold rush era, and were being slowly auctioned off by a private owner. Ultimately, the State of Montana, in association with a group of private and public sources known collectively as the Montana Heritage Preservation and Development Commission bought the property, and began preservation in earnest (Visit Montana)."

Tags:James, W., Marshall, miners, Oro, Blanco