ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank faculty at the University of Texas at Austin who supported the development of this thesis, including journalism professor Mercedes de Uriarte, my graduate advocate and thesis supervisor, and economics professor Harry Cleaver, my other thesis reader. Journalism professor Robert Jensen, radio-television-film professor Nikhil Sinha, and philosophy professor Douglas Kellner also helped to shape my ideas.

General support and encouragement from within the journalism department, for which I am thankful, has come from other graduate students, like George Estrada, from the office staff, in particular Maggie Fitch, from junior faculty such as Chuck Halloran, Gigi Durham, and Frank Durham, and from the graduate advisor James Tankard. I am thankful for receiving financial awards administered by the journalism department: the Ada Frances Miller Endowed Graduate Scholarship, the Readers Digest Foundation Scholarship, and the Readers Digest Travel Grant.

Financial support for thesis research and travel to Mexico, came in the form of two Shell Foundation Grants administered by the College of Communication, a Tinker Foundation Research Travel Grant administered by the Institute for Latin American Studies, an International Education Fee Scholarship from UT’s Study Abroad Office, an Institute for Latin American Studies Travel Grant, and a Global Exchange Scholarship. These sources helped to partly fund my participation in a Global Exchange sponsored Human Rights Delegation to Chiapas, Mexico, in the winter of 1996, and thesis research based at the Colegio de Mexico, in Mexico City, during the summer of 1996.

Helpful to developing an initial understanding of U.S. military assistance to Mexico were Peter Lumsdaine, then of Global Exchange, and John Ross, author of Roots of Rebellion. Sergio Aguayo, on the faculty at the Center for International Relations at the Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City was instrumental in allowing me to use the facilities of the Colegio. In Mexico City, Jorge Chabat of CIDE (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas), Erik Fernandez of the Universidad Iberoamericana, John Saxe-Fernandez and Raul Benítez Manaut both at the National Autonomous University, helped develop my ideas.

Since returning to college five years ago to finish my B.A. degree, and since enrolling in an M.A. program at the University of Texas at Austin in August, 1995, I have received support and encouragement, all too numerous to list here, from family members, lovers, friends, instructors, and colleagues. Computer assistance from my brother, Evan Wray, has been essential. Especially encouraging has been Pamela Thompson, in whose beautiful home I have lived while writing this thesis.

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