Both this weeks readings highlighted the exploitative relationship and the power dynamics between the Indigenous and the colonizers in Latin America. The Asturias “Legend of the Silent Bell” describes Latin America under the colonial rule where the church and the European colonizers held power over the poor Indigenous. I found the reading quite wordy, which made it relatively hard to grasp. On the other hand, in “Pongo’s Dream”, an Indigenous man, described as small and fragile, is humiliated by his master repeatedly. In the Silent Bell a woman rips off her eyes in order to donate them, while in Pongo’s Dream he is “smeared in excrement” and sentenced to lick it off the angles body for an eternity. I found both these texts quite graphic in the way they described the violence and maltreatment of the Indigenous.

This made me think about why are we reading these texts in the first place as they don’t seem to be the traditional pieces of popular culture one would expect. Are these readings reflecting the way the Indigenous have been perceived/treated throughout the history until present in Latin America? What do you think?

I had never thought of stamps as having any cultural significance before doing this weeks readings. Sure I have seen plenty of them, I have even bought stamps many times in my life but never have I really paid attention to them. I think most stamps I’ve seen here in Finland are ones that have some flowers or landscapes painted on them. Even if it appears quite natural to me that stamps carry images of culturally significant figures of a given society, I never thought of them as being a part of popular culture. Sure, they’re popular since they are required by the postal system and thus people have to consume the. Moreover, they carry culture, since they often have some cultural imagery on them, but does that alone make them popular culture?

Moreover, I was really surprised that stamps had played such a significant role in several conflicts in Latin America and were used as political tools. Personally, I think I would completely miss a statement if it was in a stamp. How politically effective do you think stamps are be today?

The first 11 minutes of the movie “Black Orpheus” was an intense plunge into some representation of what is Brazilian culture. A young woman arrives to Rio where drum beats and music is playing everywhere and people are dancing, playing and smiling. She wanders through the city confused in the loud crowd while being harassed by every other man. She then takes a trolley to the end station where she receives instructions to find to her way to her cousin. Things that stood out to me the most was the lively and happy representation of the culture and the people as well as the weak, objectified and vulnerable representation of women. I believe that the first representation might be an exaggeration while the latter isn’t that far-fetched.

While reading the text by Williams I was desperately expecting to find a connecting point between the film and his writing, which I believe made my reading a bit hard 😀 Jon mentioned in the lecture that both involve a journey, however I came to realize they were quite unrelated to one another. Williams described how he came from a working-class background and was able to climb up the socioeconomic ladder and receive education from an acknowledged university. He argued how culture is both a way of living as well as cultural productions, such as television and media. I liked his argument about how there is no “masses” that consume unworthy culture, and how the way of living of the working-class is equally worthy culture. This is something I’ve heard many times before, but perhaps in a very different context, that people are some kind of brainless “lambs” and consume whatever crap big producers provide them with. I believe today we’re even more susceptible of consuming mindlessly than we were in 1958 when Williams wrote this text, since we are consuming media rather constantly. Moreover, I think social media has also made it more accessible for people from different social classes to consume the same culture, which also might blur the “traits” of the cultures of different social classes. While I believe that money still talks when it comes to culture that we perceive as “worthy”, I also believe that higher education doesn’t necessarily dictate anymore what trends. However, I believe education equips us with tools to consume mindfully and analyze the content we’re faced with critically, which is definitely a good asset to have in the time of “fake news”, but it doesn’t by no means mean that individuals without this privilege wouldn’t have ideas and culture.

Anyway, I might’ve gotten off track here a little bit but my question for this week is what do you think is the culture that we perceive to be “real” or “worthy” today? Do you think we continue to produce and consume under the terms of middle and upper classes? What would you define as working-class culture anyway?

Hey Everyone!

My name is Emilia Heilakka and I’m a 2nd year Sociology student. I am from Finland and I have been spending this academic year here because of covid 🙁 I have a crazy 10hs time difference, however I am lucky enough that this course is only at 7pm for me! yey! Latin American popular culture is quite familiar to me since I did my high school exchange to Argentina in 2015 and spent a year in Córdoba Capital. Ever since I’ve had this weird obsession with Latin America, and now I’m planning making it a part of my degree as a minor. Therefore, I am expecting a fun course while getting some insight to the cultural phenomena of the region. Looking forward to meeting you all!