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I quite enjoyed the 4 articles by Alex Bellos that were extracted from “Futebol: The Brazilian way of life. The first chapter was written very passionately with excerpts from other authors that add to the strength of the emotional connection that Brazil has to this sport. Here, Bello’s talks about ‘The Fateful Final,’ Brazil’s devastating […]

I think that in the first reading Bellos explains different aspects of the Brazilian culture that are somehow related to soccer. I enjoy the reading even though it was really long. It was very easy to understand and interesting at the same time. I li…

In case someone is interested here is the store I talked about website http://www.modelsofidentity.com/losguerrerosvancouver/index.swf, they are located on 3317 Kingsway. The address is on their website.

I found this weeks readings a good follow up to Vasconcelos and Wade’s discussion on mestizo. From the readings of Ortiz I found out the limitations of how this term can be used and discussed in certain contexts and how it can be expanded to encompass other subjects. I believed that it is the the natural coming together of people and how it comes out. Vasconcelos believes this leads to a superior mixed race, and Wade thinks it serves a function for displacement and identity questioning.

Ortiz challenges Vasconelos and Wades arguments. Mestizaje according to Ortiz seems to be too narrow of a concept. It does not encompasses economic, social and political processes which allow for some societal traits to be above others, despite including the simple racial mixture. Instead of assimilating the natives to the conquistadors and creating a ‘cosmic race’, instead its about learning how each culture could contribute to one another’s cultures and allow all parties to be in the mixture. Ortiz uses the term of ‘transculturation’ rather than the more commonly know ‘acculturation’. He talks about how this term can encapsulate different complexities of ‘transmutation of culture’ such as class; both economic and social, religion, ethics, art, language, ideology, sexuality and other parts of life.  

The two article by Cornejo Polar were very good at explaining how cultural representations are influenced by artistic works of other cultures. Written works of indegenismo which have a European aspect to them by being in prose that describes the native culture.

Millington emphasises the point that trans-culturation is better to the acculturation term. She describes acculturation as referring to a cultural take over as opposed to an mixing or a slow process that influences opposing cultures. Millington goes on to talk about written works that support the thought of the effectiveness of this term. The specific example from Neil Larsen is that transculturation allows for a more equitable cultural influence, performing as a illusion solution that does not deal with the issues of ‘social duality’. While this seems to be true to an extent, it is not completely black or white. I see the this as some sort of quick fix rather than dealing with the real issues that have implications in Latin America.

           

 

The readings of this week end enabled me to go deeper in the notion of mestisaje.

I like the way the first text by Ortiz puts a distinction between the terms « acculturation » and « transculturation ». Acculturation means to acquire a new culture, it is « the process of transition from one culture to another ». For Ortiz, transculturation means both to acquire a new culture and to lose another one, be uprooted from another one (deculturation). Transculturation means to lose a part of its culture, to take a part of another one but also the creation of something new so it is a general process of transformation. However, Ortiz emphasizes the fact that in Cuba some people like the Indian people didn’t have this transition and their culture and institutions have been totally destroyed. This text shows that mestisaje could imply a part of violence and oppression: people have to forget their traditions and customs and have to be assimilated. This violent vision of mestisaje is totally opposed to the « romantic » one of Vasconcelos in his text about the cosmic race. Mestisaje is not always the fruit of the peaceful alliance between two cultures but could be the erase of one particular culture in the benefice to another one. In mestisaje, there is a relation of « dominant-dominated »: one culture always prevails on one another. In his text about indigenismo, Cornejo Polar shows that even in literature, there are some cultural cods. Indigenismo is a type of literature focusing on folk: indigenous myths, legends. However, Cornejo Polar asserts that these texts are written to fit to non-indigenous culture. « It is still a mestizo literature ». « If an indigenous literature must come, it will come in due time, when the Indians themselves are able to produce it ». The real indigenous culture is based on oral storytelling or dance, or they use a graphic language. But on the other hand, this kind kind of literature is also a way to resist. It’s a way to prove that the Spanish didn’t destroy all the indigenous culture which still remains. One could analyze mestisaje and transculturation as the domination of one part on another one: the dominant culture on the indigenous one, but even if the dominated culture is minimized, it is still part of the mix and still exists.

This weeks articles explored the terms and associated meanings of transculturation. In the first article by Ortiz we learn of his ideas regarding the terms acculturation and transculutation and that he feels the latter is more appropriate or fitting. He states that the word ‘acculturation’ describes “the process of transition from one culture to another…” Arguing that transculturation as a term is more fitting. In his study he looks at Cuba because of its complex and extremely diverse cultures and “transmutations of culture” that have taken place there. He puts forward the idea of Cuba being similar to a mother and father having children together, the resulting child has similarities to both parents but is ultimately something new. Transculturation is defined throughout as the process from one culture to another.

 

Antonio Conejo Polar gives us another point of view regarding types of literature in Latin America. He specifically talks of the heterogeneous and homogenous literature and indigenismo literature. I found this second article a bit harder to get into, and I look forward to talking about it in class.

 

The third reading by Mark Millington examines and analyzes the arguments presented in Ortiz’s ‘Contrapunteo Cubano’. I think Millington does make good points and arguments against Ortiz’s (maybe too positive) outlook on transculturation. The idea that culture is like two people procreating making something new may be too simple. The idea that a culture can just change easily like that and it is not always a nice positive creation in the end.

 

            After reading Vasconcelos and Wade’s discussions on mestizaje, this weeks readings presented an interesting follow up regarding the limitations of certain terms when discussing this topic of cultural and racial mixture. Mestizaje seems to talk about an almost natural process of people coming together and how it plays out. In Vasconcelos opinion, this leads […]

The first article by Ortiz is a fantastic overview of how Cuba has morphed, rather dramatically, into the country it has become today. He discusses how Cuba experienced so much change is such a small amount of time by stating “The whole Gamut of cultur…

For this weeks reading, I found that Ortiz’s version of Mestizaje seems to be more “down to earth” than the romantic version that we analyzed earlier by Vasconcelos. In his essay, Ortiz presents the term transculturation, as the gaining of cultural aspects by mixing different points of view from several cultures, however he acknowledges that […]

The last time we speak about mestizaje, we enlighten the fact that the theory of syncretism was based on an idea of the dominance of one culture on the others.  Thus, the « cosmic race » resulted to be a way to purify the indigenous cultures, which were considered as inferiors. Contrary to the theory in term […]

… Transculturación… En el primero de los artículos, escrito cubano Fernando Ortíz se hace una reseña de cómo fue el cambio cultural que se vivió en Cuba, pero creo que los más importante es como este da origen a lo que Ortiz llama transcultu…

 This weeks three readings on theories of mixture were very intriguing.  The term transculturation is brought into use in the firs article on Cuba. Fernando explains that in Cuba there has been so many cultures of which have influenced have been so…

The first reading from this week pertains specifically to Cuban culture and the elements that it consists of. The author uses the term transculturation to denote the mixing of various cultures and races which resulted in the evolution of every aspect o…

I thoroughly enjoyed the readings for this week. Similar to our readings on “mestizaje”, it was interesting to read work by the original author of studies on “transculturation” and then be able to read work by an author who tests the arguments presente…

I think I was doing pretty well with the term “transculturation” until I reached Millington’s article.  According to Millington “transculturation stands alone as a description of a process of mixing” and “hybridisation… is linked with hybridity as a…

The readings for this week talk about the concept of transculturation.Ortiz presents the word as an alternative to acculturation, which he argues implies an acquiring of culture. He says that the process undergone in Cuba and the Americas as a whole (…

These week’s readings discuss several complex academic terms all related to Latin American post colonial societies and there structures. I think that the real complexity raised by such concepts is the different understandings and interpretations of eac…

In Cuba Counterpoint by Fernando Ortiz I found it interesting to read the difference between acculturation and transculturation. Acculturation in Ortiz’s point of view, does not describe the history and culture of Cuba as well as transculturation. Just…

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 colou…

Colores de MexicoALL ACROSS MEXICO IN 6 MINUTES.ENJOY!MUSIC: HUAPANGO DE MONCAYO

I like your comments because I also thought about the Zapatista´s murals, it might be that because we took that class with Marvin with thought about those murals. About the second reading I was also confused but I like how you connected Taussig´s s…

Well I’m a tad behind in my blogs as I’ve let them slip a bit but I’m back on it!
So I’m in my last year at UBC and I’ve taken sooo many different courses over the six years I’ve been in school.  I almost have a minor in Asian studies, I’ve taken tons of Anthropology, Sociology and of course Psychology.  Of all the courses I’ve taken so far in my academic career this is one of the most different.  I love the small class size, it makes everything just that more intimate and I can actually speak to the people around me and get their opinions.  This class is one of the only small classes I’ve had at UBC and I like being able to have class discussions about what we’re reading and learning about. 
I really enjoy learning about Popular culture in Latin America, it’s so refreshing learning about something you know absolutly nothing about and being able to actually talk about it with intelligent people is an awesome gift.
I’ve enjoyed most of the readings thus far although I have to say there were a couple that I enjoyed more than the rest.  I really enjoyed Eva Peron’s mesage, I thought it was very heartfelt and really gave us another point of view of popular culture.  I also really liked Pongo’s dream, although short, I really thought it had so much to say, in an indirect way.  I really enjoy reading about the history of different practices in Latin America,such as Muralism.  The details about murals in Mexico and other places was interesting in their different meanings conveyed.  Learning about such people as Rivera and Kahlo and what their art represents, it was interesting in terms of popular culture and how it’s defined. and presented to the public.
These readings and the discussions we have in class have really clarified the term popular culture, in Latin America for me.  All these different aspects bring to life a new way of looking at one’s reality.  The merging of political change, high to low culture, popular practices such as murals and public places really are starting to bring Latin America’s popular culture to life.  At the beginning of this course I knew nothing about what we were going to be learning and now I am much more equipped to make an educated statement about what I think Popular culture in Latin America is.

Although quite long, the readings were interesting this week.  I really enjoy the thought of murals having a large impact on popular culture in Latin America.  The first reading really hit it home what muralism is and how it affects popular culture in so many ways.  I really enjoy the background as always, the history of something such as murals in Latin America.  I enjoy this because I can also relate as I have many artists as friends and they participate in painting murals in Vancouver and other places all the time.  I can easily see how it changes minds and views of art in a dramatically different way.  Murals really bring forward the reality of an area or place and lets the whole world know what’s going on.
The different stories about all the people who are touched by murals, or perceive them in different ways than what might be expected is also interesting.  In our first reading the women in Colonia Guerrero talk about how they see murals in the context of their experiences and lives, "in relation to the spaces they occupy and the experience they are interpreted as depicting."  This shows how murals are incorporated into their everyday lives, these murals are somewhat ‘ordinary’ so to speak, living the lives these women lead every day.  They love the idea of having murals in the places they frequent the most, being part of their relaity as well as telling it’s own.
The way murals are a part of popular places, places that are walked by every day by people who are willing to look and listen, these are the ways in which things are changed.  To paint a mural depicting a suffering culture, would be to break the silence that most people become accustomed to, to make change and call out the wrong in life.  This first reading speaks a lot about political change, public discourse and how murals often attempt to bring something to light.
The second reading was a little more complicated.  I love the stroy telling aspect of this reading but I found it difficult to find my way out of the story it was trying to tell.  Ok that was confusing, so what I mean to say is that I didn’t know the underlying meaning of this story, I found it difficult to decipher it’s content but perhaps that’s my problem.

The readings this week were really interesting, complete and descriptive. However they were also really long and I found it really hard to finish them over the weekend. However, having read them now I feel they brought together some of the ideas that we have been talking about in our classes so far. The notion of power dynamics and struggles and how it all in turn affects and aids in creating the popular culture of a society.

 

The first reading aims at examining, “specifically, public space and discourse, state power, and civil societal movements…” Campbell explains muralism as an art and expression, and how it contributes to Mexican culture. The Murals combine many aspects of culture at all levels of society. They combine folk culture and modern culture and are produced by people working towards a similar expression, action, events, histories, etc in an artistic form that is open to all members of a community. These massive prints are viewed by many generations of people and understood as expressions of power relations between “the people” and the state. Peoples experiences are expressed in the murals, the experiences they have shared and how those experiences have in turn created what they have today. Members of communities come together to share the troubles they have faced together and express these in their art.

 

The second article by Taussig, was also interesting but it took a while for me to get into it. To be honest I don’t know if I really got it, or got it right at least.  I found I had to read a section over a few times, making myself be really present in order to ‘get’ his writing style. “The Queen Spirit” is not really full of such in depth descriptions like Campbells writing about culture and how it comes to be. Taussig more or less provides descriptions that enable the reader to picture for themselves the formation of a culture. His article describes Colombia’s power struggles and the interactions between poorer and more developed worlds. This article had lots of examples but im still not so sure if I’m getting it right.. I look forward to discussing it all in class to see if im on the right track here!

De las lecturas de esta semana la Campbell se me hizo sumamente interesante porque describe éste con detalle el muralismo mexicano, desde sus orígenes y las diversas transformaciones que ha sufrido con el paso de los años. Campbell describe el inici…

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