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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…

 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.

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…

The last one…Las tres lecturas de esta semana fueron realmente interesantes y en general me gustaron, cada una describe algún evento, costumbre o idea de la cultura latinoamericana. Algo que me parece interesante y que se presenta principalmente …

The reading of this week illustrated each an aspect of popular culture. The first one by Gomez-Pena showed how “el Sup” Marcos has been turned into a figure of pop culture, a super hero. The second one explained how Jennifer Lopez is a "crossover celebrity". The last one showed insofar as Latinness could be recreated elsewhere than in Latin America. They showed new forms of popular culture, they displayed the revival of popular culture. They both present how Latin American culture (Indigenous leader, Puerto Rican body and salsa) could be mixed with modernity but also with the white culture.

The first reading is a perfect example of mix between tradition and modernity. In order to make his claims be heard, el Sup Marcos turned himself into a character, a super hero. He created like a myth around his real identity. He is a “performance artist”. All this mythology around Marcos created a kind of industry, as the author says: “At one point it became hard to draw the line between radical politics and pop culture, between solidarity and revolutionary consumerism.”  Popular culture means that culture is made by people so Marco’s myth has been constructed by people through what they watched on TV, what they read (for instance comics). The Superhero Marcos is a construction of the 21^th century. He is not the hero of a traditional legend but he is a modern one which means both a political leader but also a commercialized figure. Popular culture can’t be separated from commercialization and mass culture even if one could not reduce it to that.

The second reading by Beltran dealt with the notion of “crossover” celebrity referring to the case of Jennifer Lopez. I would like to focus on two particular ideas: the tension between “Latinization and Latinidad” and the representation of coloured people of “evoking and denying race simultaneously”. Beltran aimed at showing that Jennifer Lopez was one of the only Latina to assume her body and refuse to conform to Hollywood standards. She wanted to erase the differences between the Latinos, the Blacks and the White just by being herself. She wanted to express her real “latinidad” instead of being the Puerto Rican girl who looks like a white that’s why Beltran speaks about a tension between “Latinization and Latinidad”. Latinization means how to represent Latinos inside the white culture so it means that Latinos have to fill the criteria of how being a good Latino according to the white audience which is not the expression of their real identity. It’s the same idea when Beltran quotes Judith Mayne: “African American characters in films often evoke and deny race simultaneously serving as projection of white anxieties about race”. In a sense, the dominant white culture shape the representation of “nonwhite ethnicity in US popular culture”. What Beltran wants to show that that Jennifer Lopez built her own publicity claiming her pride to be Latina. She tried to extract herself from the western standards.

Finally, the last reading by Velasquez shows insofar as Latinness is conveyed through music. Latinness is a felling, a way of singing, of playing salsa. It is tied to the body but it doesn’t mean that only Latin American people know how to do, on contrary it is a way of behaving accessible to everybody. Latin American culture could be recreated everywhere in the world. However, Velasquez shows that people can’t prevent themselves from having cliché about Latin American culture. For instance, women playing salsa have to be sexy.           

It’s not the end of the Latin American popular culture but it is mixed with other cultures that is why it is precisely “popular”. People live in a global world. Borders are crossed all the times so people could pick their culture, they could reinvent it anytime.    

I really enjoyed the readings we did this week. Despite knowing that all the stuff we covered earlier in the term was still prevalent to culture, I feel like the things that are talked about in this articles (Zapatista movement, Latina celebrity and salsa music) by Guillermo are closer the preconceived notions of culture I had thought of before this class when dealing with Latin America. Obviously after being through this course I know that these are not the only things that constitute culture, but instead a multitude of things can be considered cultural.

It was humorous to read about Jennifer Lopez’s rear end in a scholarly situation. At times however, I felt like these articles only covered surfaces issues in popular culture, instead of getting into deeper social issues. When looking at the salsa music article argument, that salsa music crossed borders from Latin America to the UK, many social constructed were perpetuated through the songs. For instance many drew conclusions that Caucasian performers were musically talented, while stereotyping Latin performers as more rhythmic and therefore they must have played drums and percussion instruments.

In the article that focused on JLO moving to North American main stream, the issue of stereotyping genders were highlighted. Jennifer Lopez’s success and sex symbol status in America challenged the thought that in order to be beutifle you had to be thin, as she is not that thing but more voluptuous. The fact that Jennifer Lopez was considered beautiful with her large butt challenged these views.

What I gathered from all three articles was that culture is not easily defined but is easy to create, through social construction. The Zapatista movement leader formulated a character to present himself in public light and the movement was called a performance. JLO was successful because Hollywood constructing her image in the media. Salsa music is something that anyone can learn as long as they have instruction (or construction) from a trained individual, even then it does not necessarily mean that they are performing it right, and in many cases people can become better than their masters. It is even easier to how these movements can be consider popular culture, as they tend to cross many boarders, in Latin America, but more importantly the world. In the end does this mean that culture is becoming popular culture and the loss of individuality, I think not. Instead I think that certain items, performances and icons will always be considered Latin it is just a matter of the disperses that they get in the rest of the world.

It seems clear to me that these last three articles, under the heading “the end of popular culture?” are directly dealing with issues of the embodied experience. The way that the body can naturally be sexualized, ethnically classified, hierarchically organized and gendered exists in all these articles. Part of this embodiment paradigm is […]

Now, this I did not see coming… Though I am not going to say that I did not find the article interesting… I must admit I definitely did not expect to talk about JLo’s butt in this class. However, I think this article by Mary Beltran is a good continuation for the Hybridity topic. If […]

THANKS JON!!! This weeks readings were great! Especially Mary C. Beltran’s piece on Jennifer Lopez’s “Cross-over Butt”. I really enjoyed it because of how clearly Beltran articulated herself. She was so critical and yet so clear. It was definitely a w…

I really enjoyed the readings this week, especially the first two! I find that when some sort of story is being told, I have a much easier time following along. The first article is a short and concise essay about Marcos and the Zapatistas (indigenous …

Definitely enjoyed the readings for this week!Although I now understand that folktales, folk art & theories of mixture can and should be considered in discussions of popular culture, I feel like the subject matter of this weeks readings (Zapatista …

This weeks topic  was examining if there is an end or has been an end of popular culture. In the first article by Guillermo was on the Zapatistas in Mexico. It talks about its intertwined realation with the media and how that relationship is so powerf…

In the first article they talk about this “super hero” figure that was developed in Mexico, he was a fighter for his believes, but did the people that followed him had the same ideology? or did they follow him just because “he is cool”? Also you can se…

The three articles for this week are all related in that they deal with the globalization of culture. The first talks about how El Sup and the Zapatistas used international media as a launchpad for their movement, effectively creating a mythology that…

I loved the readings this week! What a great way to end the semester. The three articles we were assigned this week all dealt with contemporary expressions of Latin American culture that I can relate to on a more personal level. Having spent time in Oaxaca.. Zapatista country, been a die-hard fan of the fly […]

I liked the readings for this week. The first one talks about the Zapatista movement in Chiapas. Just as the author says, Sub commandant Marcos and the Zapatista leaders are very intelligent in order to know how to use the media to get their message a…

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