This week’s reading offers a very peculiar and almost interpersonal approach to the dynamic of culture as food. Castellanos writes about a woman who is trapped within her kitchen without the skills or resources to succeed in preparing her husband good, quality meals. The strangest thing in this short story is the notion that from this woman’s internal monologue, she appears incredibly intelligent. She produces references to pre-Hispanic civilization, post-colonial literature, and even Spanish Classics. A motive behind this could be to show the great mind that is lost to daily household work, Castellanos displays a very smart woman, but one who presents to her society as stunted simply because she cannot cook red-meat. Castellanos wants to show how unfortunate it is that her mind goes to waste. She uses this character as a microcosm of a much larger societal problem (that she sees). What is questioned is: What is a home? Who lives in a home? What are my culture’s views on marriage? What are the roles of men and women? And, How does this affect me? She is bringing her entire culture under a microscope to examine the notion of Mexican culture and the institutions within it, should they, and if so why.
This brings up a conversation that I really enjoy having about culture is if it works for all of us. As a queer person, I experience this entrapment that our heroine has, this general medium-heat fear that engulfs ours lives. This is a common barrier. When marginalized peoples don’t fit into the general culture there can be devastating consequences for the individual. Our main character doesn’t feel including within the general culture, nor the popular culture, and experiences this eerie dreadfulness. It is unfortunate that she never really finds peace or refuge within a culture or thing, but I think that the majority of the minorities generally cannot. I think this phenomenon is where sub-cultures form, think women’s movements, queer communities, ethnic or racial communities (think East-LA, DTES). The hypothetical end to our main character’s story would have ended kinder with an outlet for her to feel connected with something, a change of her dynamic where she can feel autonomous.
Question: What are Castellanos’ comments on culture, and how does she view a woman’s place in culture, be it general, sub, or popular? And, what are the barriers that one may have to experience popular culture, are there ways to redeem this?
I like all your questions, but perhaps find your question about “subculture” particularly interesting. There’s a lot to talk about here, and we will no doubt not get to it all this week, but I hope you keep asking us to think about it.
For the time being, let me point out that there are lots of different kinds of subculture, which perhaps is a reflection of the fact that there are many forms of marginalization. Heavy Metal or Birdwatching are no doubt examples of subculture as much as queer culture (which of course is far from monolithic) or the DTES, but with very different valences and lived experiences.
In fact, I’d be tempted to argue that there’s no such thing as “general culture,” simply subcultures that are more widespread and/or more dominant than others. I.e. that all we have are subcultures, some of which manage to pass themselves off as universal or national or come to be naturalized and taken for granted (and so perhaps not even seen as culture any more). Indeed, perhaps this is part of Castellanos’s point: that what seems “natural” is far from being so; it is always processed, constrained, in some way.
I might also want us to think more about the relationship between the concepts of “culture” and “community.” I’m not sure how much they ultimately overlap. Or perhaps the question is about the boundaries or the limits of culture, internal or external. I tend to stress fluidity, mixing, hybridization, and so on. But it is equally true that culture can be presented or thrown up as a barrier, for dominant and dominated groups alike.
I’m also somewhat kicking myself that we’re not doing anything specifically on LGBTQ culture, or LGBTQ experience of culture, in this course. (It’s far from the only omission, as I said at the outset, but still.) Perhaps we can remedy that somehow, maybe in week 7. Though for your final projects, I will be asking you to seek out a topic of your own, so that’s another way to make good omissions and pursue your own interests.
In the meantime, the classic (if now a bit dated) work on subculture is Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style, if you don’t know it.
Hi Dylan,
I found your final question particularly interesting, because when people think of popular culture they may think of it as, generally, readily accessible, hence its popularity. However, like someone (I think Beck) pointed out in their blog, Castellanos was orphaned at age 16, and I think this is super significant and relevant to your question. What popular culture do orphans have access to, and how could it be different from what people with the guidance of parents or other guardians may be exposed to? I know a significant amount of the popular culture I was exposed to in childhood was due to my parents, directly or through their influence in my life, identity, and personality. It’s interesting to consider how one may represent an oscillation within their own society by virtue of being less (or even more) exposed to popular culture. In the story, the main character appears never to have been taught to cook by family; she learns from the ancestors of her generation through recipe books. So I guess I would say common barriers to experience popular culture are not having parents or family members, or having parents/family members who don’t have the time to expose you to what they’ve been exposed to. Alternatively, lack of education can be seen as an additional hurdle, although of course you can still be exposed to plenty of popular culture without receiving formal or informal education. If there’s a way to remedy this, I would suggest it’s curiosity and willingness to do research or ask questions from people of the same culture. Here, resources are an additional hurdle, as this is complicated without internet access or, at least, a nearby public library. To anyone who may be interested, a huge turning point in my exposure to Mexican pop culture (since moving to Canada) has been Uruz Radio; they have a youtube channel too (https://www.youtube.com/user/7dorisdoris7/videos), and I strongly recommend them for those who understand Spanish! They have a lot of videos covering the main wars in Mexico, but also cultural phenomena, past presidents, music (they have really good music analysis), legends, museum exhibits, etc., and even videos like “history of candy” in Mexico. My first recommendation would be this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_56UbMa6Bc on Mexican writer Nellie Campobello, who is really both an icon and a legend (you’ll see what I mean if you watch it).
Hey Dylan, I really enjoyed reading your post!
I specifically liked your analysis of her intelligent internal monologue as a way of expressing her wasted potential. In an attempt to answer the second part of your question, I would say that whether or not there are barriers to experiencing popular culture depends on the kind of popular culture in question. For example, Vancouver’s health and yoga culture is expensive, therefore to partake in this form of popular culture you need money. Whereas with a form of internet-based or accessible popular culture (e.g. free NBA game streaming), there are no barriers to its consumption.
That being said, there is a difference between consuming popular culture and contributing to it or changing it. Some forms of popular culture are not available or welcoming to everyone. For example, some forms of popular culture might reflect and promote intolerance towards people of particular ethnicities, races, genders, etc (e.g. not including models of colour in magazines). On the other hand, In cases of cultural appropriation, popular culture should not to be experienced or consumed by people outside of particular backgrounds (e.g. Indigenous headdresses as festival wear or costumes).