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First off I just want to say that doing this reading was very to relate to since the subject was not just something I had heard about but already previously experienced. In this case I’m talking about Jennifer Lopez and more specifically her rise to fa…

Hello,
Firs of all sorry for the delay… again. We’ll I dont really know where to start with this blog. I took this blog because, as this is -hopefully- my last term at UBC, I wanted to study things that I am curious about. When I read the title of the course, I really really really […]

Siendo un fanatico del futbol, estaba esperando con ansias esta lectura. El futbol, para muchos latinoamericanos es mas que un deporte mas. Es una pasion; es parte de la vida de uno. Uno va al estadio y practicamente es como un jugador mas en la cancha…

La transculturacion es un proceso de cambio cultural inducido por la introduccion de elementos de otra cultura. El crea este termino, transculturacion y lo separa del termino aculturacion, el cual es un proceso de modificacion de una cultura de un grup…

Desde el comienso de los tiempos han habido siempre una mescla de culturas y de gente. Pero nose porque siempre que uno habla de mestizaje lo primero que le viene a la mente cuando se habla de mestizaje (o al menos a mi y a gente que conosco es latino …

De las dos lecturas la que mas me gusto fue la de Jose Maria Arguedas. Esto porque me hace recordar al tipo de historias que son contadas por gente mayor (abuelos) a gente mas joven. Es una historia la cual nos muestra al pongo, el cual es constantemen…

Hello classmates and professor,I hope you had a little chuckle after reading my “hilarious” pun/title. But it’s true, last tuesday was our last LAST 201 class and it’s sorta hard to imagine that already its over. I am super happy/excited that MY first …

Have you choose your fruit yet?? I think I earned a couple extra marks there… I made you and the whole class laugh… hahaha

Well well well…We have reached the end! Hard to believe in a few weeks Summer will be here, long days at wreck beach and enjoying the Sun finally after 8 long months. All in all, this class was not entirely what I expected. It was harder, more theore…

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I will confess that I have some difficulties to realize that we are at the end of the year. The end of the year also means for me the end of my exchange year and my return to France! I will […]

…Wow!¡ Hoy es la última clase de este curso! La verdad tenía mucha curiosidad de cómo sería tener una clase de la cultura latinoamericana fuera de ella, por lo que no tenía idea de cómo iba a ser. En verdad me gustó esta clase porque tuve la…

I truly did enjoy this class this term. It isnt entirely what I expected, but none the less I am leaving having learned quite a lot. i thought there was good variety in the readings from history to contemporary while covering many regions throughout Latin America. As I have said in blogs before, my experience […]

As a Latino I was very curios about this course. I wanted to take it to see how other cultures look at us and what they think. I have to admit that at first it was a little boring, we covered a lot of history about where our culture comes from, but I g…

 The three readings this week were my favorite so far. The first one by Gomez-Pena illustrated the leader of the Zapatista movement, “Subcomandante” and his ‘performance’ as a leader, hero or perhaps a representation of popular culture. The Zapatistas as a “National Liberation Army” are known for their use of media and theatrical ways of getting what they want. Their war is a performance, and could be viewed as one of the first post modern liberation movements. Subcomandante is a major representative of the Zapatistas and could be viewed as “the latest pop hero in a noble tradition of performance activists..”(223). He and the Zapatistas are known for wearing black ski masks that hide their identities which in turn illustrate the planning, performance and symbolic intentions of the group. Subcomandante Maccos is a new age super hero, in some ways constructed by the people for the people.

 

The second article is about Jennifer Lopez and her bum… As welll as the fact that she is a topic of discussion as a so called “crossover celebrity”. Jennifer Lopez is considered Latina from the Bronx(from Puerto Rican heritage) and has a stereotypically Latin female body. ‘Latin Body’ as in a curvy figure, like a guitar, with a nice sized bottom.. all of which has generated a sort of public obsession. The article aims to prove that J.Lo is one Latina working in Hollywood that has refused to conform to the “white” idea of what is beautiful. That she loves her booty and doesn’t feel that when a woman is wearing clothes it should look like it looks on the hanger. Her body conflicts with this mainstream pop-culture idea of what is desirable. Throughout the article, Beltran wants to portray the idea that, “it is possible to view Jennifer Lopez not as another victim constructed in a still-racist society as an ethnic sexual object…But as empowered and empowering through asserting qualities such as intelligence, assertiveness, and power-while also proudly displaying her non-normative body and declaring it beautiful”(82).

 
The third article by Valesquez analyzes salsa, instruments and the performance of a Latin style and identity in London. The attempt to portray ‘Latinness’ through music and dance is not solely for people from Latin areas of the world. The talent, desire, and love of these art forms is not something that is only from ones roots. Valesquez analyzes the connections between music, bodies, and places and how they are less linked to your back ground than a lot of people think. (Or used to think?) It’s the idea that I’ve seen brought up in many anthro classes regarding the notion that ‘black people can run fast, or are good at dancing’. After hearing about these things in class its funny how I am aware of people in my daily life actually making reference to that. The thing this article says most is that there is a sort of tie between dance and Latin American people but the tie is not biological, and that its not only Latin American who know how to do it. There is latin American culture in many places around the world and other people living in those places are often inclined to join in and try out things they fine appealing within those cultures, and they will have just as good a chance as getting the dance steps as the next guy. A persons chances at getting the movements are specific to cultural practices and social meanings within their own life.

 In the reading about theories of mixture and hybridity, Canclini writes about popular culture and how it is an extremely complex idea. His main topics are in regards to Urban popular culture, the changes that happen in reaction to migration, atypical processes of youth as well as the underemployed who are ‘employed’ in informal markets.  His proposed hypothesis is as follows “that is makes little sense to study these ‘slighted’ processes under the aspect of popular cultures”(206).By analyzing communities and how they come to be incubators of ideas, power, and culture he is able address opposing ideas on humankind as a whole. He writes about his perhaps radical notion regarding whether we should use the term ‘popular’ at all when referring to pop culture as it is just far too broad. To him there seems little sense in using this term and instead he proposes that we use the term ‘hybrid culture’ instead. This hybrid culture he proposes is not purely popular, not purely elite and so on. To him, this is far more accurate and includes all manifestations. He goes on to point out the bond between urban and rural spaces and their relations to mass media. He also describes other areas of the more correctly termed hybrid culture such as national monuments to “reintroduce the question of the modern and postmodern uses of history”(212) We learn how monuments interact and what they represent within contemporary urban symbolism. He also looks at the arts and analyzes the fact that they are often only found in places of ‘high culture’ where much of the public is not able to enjoy it, and that the art that ends up in the public eye “facilitate the interaction of memory with change and the revitalization of heroes thanks to propaganda or transit” and basically where they are able to affect and influence to a greater extent.

 

Throughout this article Conclini presents theories of hybridization. I found The idea of fragmentation really interesting when he discusses video cassette recorders , videos, photocopiers, video games… The idea that often things are ripped out of context and new versions created. I thought of records and how many musical artists wish for the album to be heard all at once. It’s the whole thing that is supposed to be heard and enjoyed. I thought specifically of the album “Another Side of Bob Dylan”. Its an amazing album, that Bob Dylan recorded in one sitting, without any retakes. Its meant to be heard all together and is really amazing when listened to that way. Not to say that its not good to hear the song ‘all I really wanna do’ on someones mixtape or ipod shuffle. Its just not the same. Anyways, I enjoyed this part of the article the most J

I found the readings for this week to be some of the most interesting of the term. They were all concerned with the portrayal of Latin American culture in other areas of the world, and by the transitions which occur when (in this case) Latin American c…

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