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Theories of mixture: transculturation
Posted by: Brian | March 8, 2009 | Comments Off on Theories of mixture: transculturation
The first reading was by Fernando Ortiz. I liked how he explained that transculturation encompasses more processes involved in the evolution of cultures, in this case Cuban culture. I liked how he explained how the white people and the people of colour arrived to Cuba. I think that those distinctions are important when trying to understand the reactions of the different groups of people that leaded to the formation of the Cuban culture.
In the second article by Antonio Cornejo I understood that he was trying to point out that Latin American literatures should be understood in the basis of its own and in the basis of other literatures. I think that because sometimes when Latin American literature is compared to European some critics say that it is just a copy and at some point I think it has some aspects of the European literature but at the same time has new aspects, but there is not a clear cut because the process of mixing is quite complex just as the racial mixing. I think that Cornejo also wrote that through literature people from Latin America can try to understand themselves and the dynamics of the culture. When he writes about Chronicles he says that the author always compares things of the “new world” to things that already known, so all the Chronicles have to have a reference point. For Indigenismo he writes that it is not called Indigenous literature because it is not written by Indigenous people but for middle-class, radical people that see the marginalization of Indigenous people. I think it would be even better if Indigenous people could have their own voice to represent themselves.
I enjoyed reading the last article also because even though he points out the flaws of Ortiz he also recognizes the good parts of Ortiz´s argument. Mark Millington writes that the word transculturation is some kind of teleology that gives the people of Latin America a sense of an identity within the different “national-bodies” of the region. I liked also how he connects the meaning of the transculutration with the past colonial legacies and with the present globalization. After reading that article I felt that as the world changes and as we face new challenges, we (human beings) need explanations so that is why words such as transculturation become so meaningful.
