Month: February 2009

Tory,
I agree with what you are saying here and feel that you have really explained well some of the key themes in the class. While Latin America represents a huge mixing of culture, race, tradition, belief, etc., it would be wrong to assume that this automatically signifies a sense of social equality. While the concept of ‘Mestizo’ may seem attractive in its inclusiveness, it is undeniable that a strong and even rigid racial hierarchy exists in much of Latin America. I think that a lot of this has to do with legacies of conquest and colonization as much of Latin America culture and history can be defined through shifting relations of power. However, I think that it is important keep in mind that in in the face of domination, there is a strong sense of resiliency that causes culture to constantly reinvent itself rather than merely being crushed.

Over the past weeks we’ve spent discussing Latin America in this course, several prevalent themes have arisen in my mind.  Most important of these is the concept of synthesis and its role in the many different ways “culture” is created.  Latin America, in my mind, is predominantly an area of cultural synthesis–a meeting of many different people, classes, practices, traditions, beliefs etc.  Each Latin American country has its own specific history of cultural generation and the interactions of these many different factors, which is why these “Latin American nations” resist such easy categorization; something which seems to have proved very frustrating for many of us taking the course.  However in an attempt to unify all of these enormously different regions, I would suggest the idea of cultural synthesis as a most prominent characteristic–yet this too is a very slippery idea.
As many students have pointed out in class discussion, we should not submit to the common (mis)construction of this cultural synthesis as an equal, mutually beneficial, two-way exchange elicited by both sides in the pursuit of the common interest of sharing culture…Rather, we should remember that the synthesis of many different peoples ways of life was brought about through conquest, coercion,  and very often the subversion of  ideas, practices and beliefs.  A prime example of this was that which was debated in class–the costumbrista or folk-catholicism practiced by communities of Maya (and non-indigenous) people in Central America.
So perhaps another important aspect of “Latin America” that characterizes so many diverse regions is the constant struggle for power and the social conflict brought about primarily through conquest and colonialism and perpetuated today by issues of race, class and nationality.

¡Ya estamos a la mitad del curso! ¡wooooow! No lo puedo creer…
Es increíble la rapidez con la que pasa el tiempo… Debo decir que ir a esta clase me gusta por la forma en que discutimos las lecturas y que podemos expresar los diferentes puntos de vista, algunas veces me impresiona las distintas formas de ver una lectura dependiendo del punto de vista que cada uno de nosotros tenemos, de nuestras ideas y en general de nuestra cultura misma.
Creo que dentro de los temas que hemos visto en clase, una de las preguntas que más trabajo nos costó resolver y llegar a una definición más o menos satisfactoria fue la de primera: ¿qué es la cultura?, para ello nos apoyamos en las lecturas de William y Keesing. Llegamos a la conculusión de que la cultura es algo ordinario, tal como lo describe el título del trabajo de William, puesto que la cultura es todo! Y que a pesar de que muchas veces no nos damos cuenta, estamos frente a una pequeña cosa que es parte de la misma cultura, por ejemplo los “modismos” al hablar, formas de vestir, ideología, etc.
Durante la segunda semana revisamos una de las lecturas que causó un poco más de controversia: En mis propias palabras de Evita Perón, (junto con la de Vasconcelos, creo yo) y el escrito de Borges A Celebration of the Moster, en las cuales vimos dos puntos de vista opuesto respecto a la definición de que es la gente. Al mismo tiempo me gustó el análisis que hicimos de las diferentes formas que se utilizan en América Latina para definir una sola palabra: “people”.
¿Qué es la cultura popular en América Latina? Fue la pregunta que debíamos resolver durante la tercera semana, con la ayuda de la lectura The Faces of Popular Culture de Rowe, en la que vimos la gran diversidad cultural que comprende la cultura latinoamerica, que va desde las famosas telenovelas mexicanas, hasta coloridos carnavales, así como las formas en que se ha ido transmitiendo y difundiendo dicha cultura con el paso de los años.
En la cuarta semana vimos un poco de lo que es el folclore representado en las leyendas, tomando como ejemplo los escritos de Austrias y Arguedas.
Obviamente algo característico de la cultura latinoamericana es el mestizaje que se ha dado en los últimos años desde la conquista hasta nuestros días. Vimos el punto de vista un tanto radical de Vasconcelos y una idea más central de Peter Wade.
En general creo que este curso ha sido muy interesante y me ha permitido tener un punto de vista más amplio, así como cuestionarme muchas cosas que ocurren alrededor de mí, ahora conociendo la cultura canadiense, que pareciera una mezcla de varias y extrañando la cultura mexicana….

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. The setup has been remarkably different from what I have been accustomed to throughout the past three and a half years of university, and I appreciate the change!

I have been in sciences until this year of university, although I have dabbled in some first and second year arts courses, I have been taught through ‘calculation’ and ‘facts.’ It has been challenging to not only learn to think subjectively, but also to do so on a topic that I have no foundation in. Clearly, the representations of ‘pop culture’ in Latin America which we have been investigating are reflective of the Latin American experience as a whole. Having very little knowledge on this topic, I have been trying to sort out whether its easier to grasp from a top-down approach, seeing what the readings have to say about what has gone on in Latin America, or the bottom-up approach seeing how the Latin American experience has influenced pop culture. The class offers a good combination of the two, and despite my never-ending struggle, I appreciate the mixture in the class and our capabilities to individually express our own perspectives on what we are learning.

I am aware that this is not a history or political science course, however, pop culture has much to teach us about the Latin American lived experience, identity and culture. I have been fighting the urge to use my scientific background to ‘define’ these things, and rather attempting to simply observe and reflect. Using ‘pop culture’ as a channel to discuss any one of these topics is a representation of the individual (whether it be the dancers, the authors or the poets) unique lens through which they view their experience. This is reflective of what it means to be ‘Mexican,’ ‘the people’ or whatever they may be trying to convey. It is the individual experience, the unique perspective, the lived experience that makes it what it is. To each their own, and that defines what is the ‘truth’ for ones self.

The blog has been incredibly useful to accommodate all learning styles. I personally am not as much an audio learner, or one to comment excessively in class, but would rather read and write. Others, simply find it easier to express themselves through their writing. It has been wonderful to see how my classmates are progressing through their learning in this class.

Upon reading the course description for the class I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into. I was pleasantly surprised on the first day of class when we watched Orfeo Negro one of my favorite movies that I’ve only seen because my father took me to see a reshowing of it. Ever since I have learned a lot in this course about the people of the culture and why said culture has endured. Moreover I have gained much from the discussions of the readings and videos including different interpretations and symbols that I completely missed the first time around. In the future I would like to have more of these discussions because I feel they have sort of petered out through the weeks. Anyway back to what I enjoyed about the class, among the reading I relished the legends and the pongo’s dream the most. It was like brain candy allowing my mind to wander into a long ago land full of whimsy and creativity. In the spectrum of reality I really liked reading Eva Peron’s “My Message” even though at the time I found it contradictory and repetitive. Now I see that its more about the ideas she presented and what she meant to the people that made her great whether or not she made conflicting comments. I found some of the readings challenging and anger-inducing but I would rather that over some easy boring piece that elicits no reaction inside me. Its makes writing a blog easier. Lastly I find it much easier to understand the readings and the authors point of view once given context and more information about their lives. Perhaps before asked to the reading we could be given a briefing that would enable us to critique more fully. All in all I enjoy this course.

Hard to believe that we are already half way done! So far, I have enjoyed many aspects of this class. In discussing many elements of both the meaning of culture and the people, and specific cultural traditions in Latin America, I feel that my knowledge has expanded in all areas. Interestingly, though I have taken many classes in anthropology, I feel that I have learned at least as much about what ‘culture’ is in this class, and likewise, am probably more confused by it as well. I have never really had the opportunity to study ‘popular’ culture to such an extent, and I find that it adds a fundamental dimension to the study and understanding of culture as a whole. I also find that I have been able to make connections about culture, popular culture, and the people that we have discussed in this class in many of my other classes, which is exciting.

I really enjoyed the first two articles that we read by Williams and Keesing. I like the concept of culture being ordinary; that it is not an authentic relic of the past that can be found in a museum, or a form of high art only accessable to the elite, but rather it is all around us. Everything we see, from infrastructure and architecture, to human interaction and social relations sheds light on the embedded history that has sculpted the culture that we see today. Culture in Latin America can not be reduced to strictly indigenous culture or legacies of European culture, but rather it represent the mixing of it all. In comparing culture to a Coral Reef, I really enjoyed how Keesing dismanteled this idea, suggesting that culture is not simply a natural process that slowly changes over time and is unintentional in doing so, but rather culture is reactionary. Culture exists out of a serious of power relations and struggle that have conciously dominated and resisted domination. Forces of globalization, modernization, and colonization have effected culture, and people have continuously resiseted and reacted to these forces thus adding yet another dimension of the culture we see today.

In Evita Peron’s book In My Own Words she adresses the ‘people’ in a passionite way. However reading this article brings into question, who exactly are the people? According to Peron, the people are generally those who have in some way been disenfranchised by the system, ie the women, the poor, the sick, the elderly, etc. Many definition of the ‘people’ can exist, but as this relates to the study of popular culture, one can see that culture can both come from a trickelling of culture from the elites of above, or an absorbing of culture from the masses of below. Cultural exchanges are multideimensional in their flows.

This concept is well defined in Rowe and Schelling’s “The Faces of Popular Culture.” Though this article cuased some debate in class, I feel that its aims were explain how parts of indigenous life and culture were ‘crushed’ during the time of conquest an colonization, there is a certain resiliancy of culture that have not allowed for domination, but rather hybridization and mixing of cultures. In this article we see the exchange of culture from ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up,’ along with an extreme hybridization of customs and religions. The authors note that as capitalism effects culture, commercial processes can make art pre-packaged and for profit, thus cheapining their form. Rowe and Schelling note that at certain points commodification can go too far and get eaten up by the ‘culture industry’ which leads to a degradation in quality and creativity. They suggest that history is not nuetral by guided by popular culture that can get absorbed into commercial and state culture.

Lastly, I will comment on the discussion of race. I find race a particularily interesting concept in Latin America. Through conquest, colonization, and slavery, many mixed races were created that further created social hierarchies. In The Cosmic Race Vasconcelos suggests that it is in the mixtures of race that make Latin America strong and unique. However through his language, it becomes very obvious that race is far from nuetral. Wade argues that even in the concept of ‘mestizo’ that signifies to many an inclusion of all, their still exists a strong sense of racial hierarchy, and this mixing has not equated to social and racial equality. In Latin America, generally speaking, lightness of skin often equates to social status, and black or indigenous colouring can often be found at the bottom of this hierachy.

Upon reflection of the first half of the semester I am overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge in the classroom. After years of being a student, I have come to realize that in many cases I absorb the most knowledge just simply from listening to my classmates speak. This class is certainly no different as there is an immense amount of information being conveyed through our class discussions and I am very much enjoying it. I guess the main concept of the first half has been “What is culture?”. The Williams and Keesing articles provided examples of Culture both as a journey and similar to a coral reef. The journey symbolizes how culture is never stagnant and continues to morph and evolve and the Coral Reef references how culture constantly changes and acquires deposits but there is no specific pattern for that change as it grows, similar to a Coral Reef. After reading these two essays, I was left with a strong sense that culture is very much ordinary…its the clothes we wear, the cafes we go to, and all these other very mundane aspects of life. Once I grasped the basic concept of Culture as flowing and ever evolving, I was able to tackle all the other readings with this basic pillar in mind.

I have really enjoyed this class so far!
Throughout the last few weeks we have investigated and analyzed a number of general ideas and terms. Attempting to define them was very difficult as there was always another persons idea or point of view.  We have over the last few weeks come face to face with the slippery slope that accompanies  attempts to define such broad and capacious terms.

The first two readings by Keesing and Williams gave us two different views or ways to look at culture. Keesing  employs a very anthropological way of looking at cultures. He believed anthropologists needed to rethink the way they approached culture. He gave us a very attractive metaphor of the Coral reef. Williams on the other hand believed that culture is ordinary, that all people are a part of culture and make it what it is. He uses the metaphor or a journey to exemplify the idea that culture is moving, growing, unbiased, and all around us. These two views simply gave us some insight into what others have said on the term “Culture”.

The second readings were by Eva Peron, and Borges. They both addressed the term “The people” and just who the people are. In My Message by Eva Peron the people are presented as “Pueblo” which in Spanish translates to an inclusive, small town community feel that represents all people except the elite. In Borges article “Celebration of the Monster” we see a different side of the Argentine people, perhaps a more real side. This is a perspective coming from the middle of the crowd, informal and representative of how normal people feel and think in Argentina at the time of Peronism.

In the article by Rowe and Schelling the concept of popular culture in Latin America is contemplated and discussed. This article described Latin America based on times in history, customs, traditions, art, culture, and ways of life that made me really picture everything. This article did a good job of explaining the many different and also similar popcultures present in Latin America. It consists of a medley or mixing of old and new ways of living, ways before colonization mixed with the new ideas brought by the Spanish, and the ideas of recent times. Culture is always evolving.

The next articles we read were by Asturias and Arguedas bringing attention to Folk Culture. In Latin America the notion of Folk has to do with indigenous heritage. Asturias presents a collection of legends, stories having been handed down through the years. It is important to note that when legends that come from an oral culture are written down they can lose some of their magic or be written solely in a way that the author decides they should be. Arguedas tells a story of the Pongo, who gets revenge on his master. This folk tale is written from an indigenous point of view, a great identification with mestizo and the lower side of society. It is about the lower people getting their own back, if only for a moment there is always room for resistance.

The last readings by Vasconcelos and Wade discuss theories of mixture.  Vasconcelos provides us with a very utopian idea about a 5^th race. His idealistic view is that love will bring us together with the creation of something new. A collection of all races best qualities. He still employs a hierarchy within the races with some better than others. His racist undertones as well as unrealistic ideas made me question … well basically his sanity. His arguments are extremely controversial and difficult to begin to break down. Wade on the other hand talks of the concept of mestizaje, and the idea of a mosaic. This is a more realistic way to look at the differences and dualities within the mestisaje. People have the choice to decide how they want to view themselves.

So far in this course, we have talked about many different aspects of Latin American culture. The first thing we discussed was the nature of culture. We found that culture does not fit into a nice little box; nor can it be defined in a straightforward manner. The consensus that was reached through discussion was that culture is constantly evolving, and is to an extent shaped by outside influences.
We also talked about the role of the general masses in the shaping of culture, as well as the influences of cultures upon one another. The article by William and Schelling contained examples of aspects of European cultures influencing aspects of Latin American cultures, as well as examples of Latin American cultures influencing European cultures. Personally, I found this to be especially interesting, since in the past I had only given superficial thought to the links between various cultures. For me, this article in particular drove home the point that was made in the beginning of the class, that culture is ever-changing.
Other examples of readings that I enjoyed were the indigenous legends written by Asturias, and the Pongo’s Dream . The legends all carried a passion and rawness of emotion that I equate (maybe naively?) with the indigenous civilizations; while I was reading them I kept thinking about the ancient civilizations- human sacrifices and gory games of something related to soccer. In general, I found the legends to be interesting, although I had to read them through several times in order to understand them (semi) completely.
On the other hand, I only had to read The Pongo’s Dream once; coupled with the fact that it was only 3 or 4 pages, it has by far been my favourite reading of the term. All joking aside (!), I think that this short story by Arguedas gives a particularly poignant picture of the life led by the indigenous people of Latin America under their self proclaimed masters. It also resulted in what I thought was a good discussion, with several different interpretations being introduced to the class, as well a discussion about the introduction of Catholicism to Latin America.
One of the last readings was La Raza Cosmica, which also led to some passionate debates. My general impression was that the author was slightly nuts, but the reading was valuable in a purely academic way.
In regards to the rest of the term, I don’t think I would want any drastic changes; maybe a little more time for class discussions, and slightly more focus on modern popular culture, but that is about it.

So far, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this course. It’s definitely lived up to my expectations. I’ve found the readings for this class interesting, and rather diverse. However, I enjoyed reading the more literary readings, such as the folk tales or the Borges reading, and wish there was a bit more balance between the academic and literary readings. But, maybe I’m speaking too soon! It is, after all, only half way through the semester.

I also like the way the course has been organized. Although we did spend quite a bit of time defining culture and “the people” in general terms before jumping into Latin American-specific popular culture, I felt this was necessary in order to understand the rest of the course.

I have found the readings & discussions we’ve had on mestizaje and racial mixture particularly interesting. Looking forward in the course, I see we have a few more lectures on this topic, and I am definitely looking forward to learning more about it. I feel like it’s a very complex topic, with many different arguments for and against it. I also enjoyed reading the article by Vasconcelos. It was different from your conventional, university-assigned reading in that we were encouraged to challenge the author’s arguments and ideas, and not just agree with them.

While the readings have been great, I also enjoyed the use of video and youtube clips that were used at the very beginning of the semester. I find I learn better when a variety of different media is used (such as writing, music, video). Hopefully there will be more of this later on in the course!

I have learned over these past weeks has much to deal with Latin American Culture, but also Culture in general. I now understand culture is something fluid, and that you define for yourself. No individual can define it for you and you can’t define it for another individual. I have learned that throughout history people have influenced ideas of culture to manipulated the populous of countries and regions (specifically Latin America). I also learned the different types of extreme views that culture and assimilation views can reach (Jose to be more precise). I also learned that everyday things around us can be considered cultural items and icons. Culture is something perceived in one’s head and not in items necessarily as well though. The folk culture with the blending of cultures was quite interesting. It showed how culture can be built like a tapestry over time. It also displayed the assimilation tactics that the Spanish used towards the natives, which we also learned about. It was apparent that they had been change generation by generation to reflect other views. Instead of worshiping just the sun god it became the same god as that of the house of Christ. Other students pointed out how different days in Mexico were also dual ritualistic for both the Catholics and the native religion. I found it funny that in order for us to find out that culture is so complex that it took so many weeks but after showing us that no one can quite get it right that I have come to this conclusion. In order to define culture you must look deep within yourself and only then you will truly get a sense of what your own culture is and then and only then can you go into cultural studies without being ignorant towards certain individuals, despite what their ideas may be.

So far our readings have been very diverse, and they have explored different aspects of Latin American culture in depth. We started off with the Williams and Keesing readings, which talked about how to interpret culture and how to define it. Culture is not solidly set in stone, unchanged by time. It is not only appropriated to a certain environment and group of people (for example, culture in the form of a museum or “high” culture as the product of the elite). Culture is present everywhere, even in the most mundane scenarios and it is produced even by the most ordinary people.

We also read about Peronism, by Borges, who was against Peron, and by Evita Peron, who obviously supported her husband, the president of Argentina. Evita believed she was one with the people, and that she could relate to the descamisados of Argentina. Borges, on the other hand, revealed Peronists as ruthless people who acted out violently without reason. We saw the contradictory interpretations of the people in Peronist Argentina through these readings.  Then, William and Schelling discuss various aspects of Latin American culture itself, like samba, Mexican artefacts and telenovelas. Here we saw the way traditional facets of Latin culture have evolved into their modern forms.

We then got into folk culture, as presented in the reading by Asturias, which was a collection of indigenous stories. Asturias interweaves reality with fantasy, and I this is what made these stories a little hard to read for me, although they were interesting. Our next reading by Arguedas depicted the abuse of the Indigenous people by the Spanish, and the Indigenous people’s rebellion.

Then we had Vasconcelos, who argued that a new race should emerge from the mixing of Spanish and Latin American races. This reading was a little creepy, because it seemed like Vasconcelos was predicting and encouraging the creation of a superior race. This race would be calculated, and this superior race would possess the Amazon. Wade’s article discussed mestizaje and its implications on the personal and public levels, and reveals the complexities of being mestizo.

I am hoping the readings for the rest of the term will focus on more modern topics, and that we will discuss current Latin American cultural issues. The readings are interesting, but so far, they have not fully explained today’s Latin culture.

During this past weeks we have learned a lot of Latin American culture. First we study some general concepts of what culture is and how is developed, also which factors affect the most on this development and how culture is formed. We realized that culture is basically ordinary and everything that surrounds us and that there is not a real definition of what it is, but we all have the idea of culture in our heads. Then we start getting a little more involved with latinos with both articles about the people, how they were spoken to and the different perspectives, while Borges was a more “on the surface” article, Peron’s one was more from “above”, even if she always said that she was like the people. But they give a clear idea of who are the people, el pueblo. Then we got a little more into Latin culture and folklore, how they were “created” when the Spanish arrived, and how they have been devoleping in all these years. How we were created from a mixture of different cultures. Also we saw how natives were treated back then and they are sometimes in some places still treated like slaves. We saw also how important are legends and how we create them and inherit them from our ancesters, but they are not written, they are passed by narration from generation to generation. We have seen some of the more general aspects of our culture and in the biggest countries, with the exception of Guatemala, but that is just a scoop of what we latinos really are.

In the first two articles we discussed the “definition” of culture. In his article Keesing suggests the idea of the different cultures to be like coral reefs, in the sense that there is change in the different cultures and that there is not a specific pattern for that change. Willliam on the other hand suggests in his article that culture is all about journeys. We discussed in class that in some form we all as human beings experience the processes of the different journeys.
After that in class we discussed “my message” of Eva Perón. In class we talked about the different connotations that the word “people” might have and still has. Personally I think that even though she was a populist and she say things that people wanted to hear at the same time she did things for the Argentineans. I might not know enough but I think that Eva and Juan in fact did things to improve the situation in Argentina and in my opinion that is what it counts. Then, there is Borge´s article in which he gives the other not so good picture of Eva and Juan´s socialism and how it was not perfect. People were forced only to like Eva and Juan and not to support other parties. Borges refers to this socialism as a monster so at a point Eva and Juan took their socialism to an extreme.
Then, there was the long article by Rowe and Schelling. We talked about how culture is not static and it changes over time. This exchange is two ways, that is to say that Latin America not only changes but also the other cultures in which it comes in contact with. For example nowadays with modernization there are always negotiations and struggles between the different classes and ethnic groups of the different countries of the world.
The last two articles we discussed were of Asturias and Agueda. From Asturias writing I understood that oral culture is somewhat more flexible because new elements are added. This has its advantages and disadvantages because in order to preserve it, it needs to be written and in the process things get lost or added and that changes it. At the same time if it is not recorded then it can get lost so in that way I could say that is kind of hard to decide what to do with oral culture. The last reading was Agueda´s we talked about the liberation theory and how it is used in many places of Latin America as an idea that creates hope among the marginalized people. To tell those stories help oppressed people to continue their struggle against the oppressors.

My reflections of the first half of the semester:

I feel like whenever I write reflections I never know how to begin. I guess I will start by writing about what my expectations were like before taking this class or how I felt in the beginning… Well I was very excited to take this class and hoped that it would link together some of the experiences I had in Peru last year with some relevant or interesting topics that I would learn in the classroom. Actually so far we’ve talked quite a bit about Peru in the classroom, which I find interesting.
Looking back at my initial post about popular culture in Latin America, I seem to have come to the conclusion that there is no single definition. There are many types of popular culture in Latin America and that they all have roots in various places. For instance in the Rowe and Shelling article we learnt how “Carnival has its origins in the Saturanlia and Bacchanalia of Ancient Greece and Rome” (I’m not sure if this is true, but nevertheless) we are presented with the fact that older European cultures have transcended certain aspects of their culture into parts of Brazil’s culture through colonization. There were a few other examples roots of popular culture that come from various place, for instance another one was Portuguese colonizers that brought popular theatre performances called “dancas dramaticas” to Brazil. It sounds like these are very much one way exchanges, but they weren’t. For every part that was introduced in Latin America, it has been reappropriated by those living in the communities. I’m sure that the dancas dramaticas that originally stem from Medieval Portugal are not preformed in the entirely same manner in Brazil, but rather they are a transformation of added, changed and reconstructed dimensions that reflect parts of the indigenous or whichever community’s identity living within these places. Other roots or influences on popular culture that we’ve touched on include colonization, urbanization, neo-liberalization, and the mixing (mestizaje) of different groups. All in all there I have realized that popular culture is influenced through interactions of all sorts.
Thinking about what separates popular culture from “regular” culture or “high” culture, is that it is accessible. It is generally visible or a prevalent aspect in the everyday lives of most individuals in Latin America. Since most individuals in Latin America aren’t part of the elite and mostly encompass the growing middle class or the lower class, in my interpretation, there may be a stronger sense of popular culture is these communities.
The People ultimately have a lot to do with popular culture. The spread, the evolution, the interactions of popular culture depends on people. A tricky question is, who are these people? The fact that there are many types of people, with their own cultures and ways of life, demonstrate popular culture is just as diverse or multifaceted as the people in it encompasses. Learning about popular culture, I have discovered, is quite complex because nothing is quite straight forward. One thing that is continuously reinforced in life, in the readings, and in the classroom is that It is necessary to think critically and that things take time to understand and there many never be a answer…

This ends my reflection on the first half of the semester and I hope the next half we can start to look deeper at some of the questions and the comments that I have and the other students in the classroom. Perhaps we can figure out if and how we (students in the classroom) are influenced by or actively influence popular culture in Latin America.