Category: Gomez Peña etc.

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 fame and the impact of her body on our culture. Furthermore the sentiments projected in the Salsa in London article, I’ve witnessed many times in North America even if it wasn’t with Salsa. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy reading the article on the Marcos movement I had just never heard of it before. In fact I thought it was a very enthralling article shedding light on the level of performance that was involved to make the whole movement work. The costumes, props and masks were all key in creating intrigue, and uniting people who previously didn’t have a voice. To me the distinction between a uniform and a costume is very small. Why is that when its the military or government workers its a uniform but when its anyone else its a costume? They have the same purpose to make the group easily identifiable as part of their affiliation and let you know that you can come to them for help. I think by utilizing this manner of dress Sub Comandante Marcos did a very smart thing. They used what they needed to in order to get their message out, is it trickery that you planned a performance to do it. I think its not any worse than what any politician today does on the campaign trail. Going back to the Hollywood Latina body article, I thought it was interesting how the writer really focused on Jennifer Lopez’s acting career when for me I had no idea who she was until she came out with her first c.d. In my mind she was always a singer first and an actress second. This is of course largely influenced by the fact that when her first movies were coming out I was too young to be interested in seeing them however her music videos played on Mtv were quick and fun. Soon there after the media was saturated with talk and images of her backside. I can’t really remember how I felt about it at the time, but I think now that the acceptance of a fuller booty was a step in the right direction moving out to the waif image of the nineties. However she is still a very small woman, who although having some curves is not an icon for full figured women. On the other hand I do remember seeing some of her films after she had already become famous. Again I’ve never acknowledged her as a great actress but she doesn’t come across badly onscreen either. The idea that this one woman’s rear end has been talked about more than actually news is appalling but is indicative of our culture right now. All in all I think that this article made me realize that celebrities even if I’m not a fan, do impact my life more than I would care to admit.

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 cultural expressions are adopted by foreign cultures.
The first reading focused on the Zapatistas and Subcomandante Marcos, and the group’s use of the media to carry their message to the world. To some extent, they have turned into a cultural phenomenon and representation of their ideals. They use the media to their advantage, in essence marketing themselves, or as the author says, ‘performing’, to the world. Their most well known representative is Subcomandante Marcos, the masked enigma who is their spokesman. When I was reading the descriptions of the Zapatista movement and the Subcomandante in particular, I could not help but be reminded of Che Guevara and the following that he garnered.
The second reading is about the differences in physical ideals between Latin American culture and ‘white’ culture. To illustrate this, the author discusses the specific example of Jennifer Lopez and her famous rear. One of the things which I found to be very interesting was the observation that Latin American culture and ‘white’ culture have extremely different ideas of what type of body is appealing; while in North America, the ‘perfect’ body is extremely thin, in Latin America it is considered to be more attractive to be voluptuous. Jennifer Lopez’s rise to Hollywood fame is significant because she not only broke out of the stereotypically “Latino actor” roles, but she did without conforming to the Hollywood idea of beauty.
The third reading is about Salsa dancing and music in a European context, and about the adoption of a cultural characteristic by other countries. The author describes the shifting of Salsa to other countries, and also talks about some of the stereotypes which go with it. As well, the point is made that one does not have to belong to a culture in order to enjoy aspects of it.

The last one…

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.

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 welcome read for me, probably because the past few readings were kind of confusing to understand in their translated form. But to return to commending Beltran, she wrote an exceptionally interesting piece and highlighted some very interesting and valid points regarding the construction of beauty that currently exists in society.
I found it intriguing to read about how Hollywood and mainstream media portray beauty. And how even though Jennifer Lopez is proud of her natural beauty and is figure that stands up to conventional beauty norms, loving her big ass and such , scholars still argue that aspects of her identity still remain confined and subjugated to a white primacy. Therefore we don’t really know whether or not our fascination with Jen’s butt is a progressive step that is breaking social constructions (or rather reconstructing them) or if it is perpetuating them. (Beltran highlights how Latina and African women have historically been eroticized and considered objects of sexuality noting how during slavery African women were “property”.) What came to my mind halfway through reading this was the question, what is beauty? And who decides? What I mean is, is what is beautiful decided by men who see beauty or is it decided by women who encompass or embody it, (literally)? I am assuming here that beauty applies to women only, however one could argue that that is not true. Or maybe it is a combination of both? Or maybe it isn’t even in the hands of individual women and men, rather it is political elites deciding what is beautiful for the purpose of efficient governance? I believe that beauty is defined on all these levels. We can see in magazines how mass media perceives beauty, read in government narratives (political art) to see what fits into the national body, ( historically women were considered responsible for reproducing the nation,) or write and receive love letters to see what the individual deems beautiful. All these sources shape beauty. Therefore I see beauty as a shared meaning, the kind developed through interactions of people and culture. Influenced and influences and is continuously evolving or being reflected upon. Beltran points this out nicely at the end of her piece, that even though Jennifer Lopez’s butt may not have necessarily had a deep impact on breaking beauty norms, it certainly evoked scholarly debate about its implications. This in itself has created change and new meaning for which I argue is reconstructing our interpretation of beauty. It is comforting and frightening to know that beauty is merely an invention of our imagination.

I really enjoyed the first and last article as well but don’t blame me if I feel that Jen’s butt is more fascinating to write about.

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 rebels) from Mexico. This is a fascinating situation where a leader of a rebel army and potential future president of a nation, is thrust into an international spotlight largely due to the suspense of hiding his true identity behind a balaclava or ski-mask. “el Sup” as he came to be known, used the media like it was a stage to create a buzz throughout the entire world that grew into erotic and cult-like following. However, as time wore on, the love affair with Marcos and the Zapatistas faded away and they were never really true contenders to take control of the Mexican government, in fact, “the day President Zedillo disclosed Marcos’s identity on national television, no one even batted an eye” (Pg. 228). Interesting read, I would have never guessed that the world would have become so enamoured with a smooth talking masked man from Mexico but it happened and it is an interesting situation to reflect upon.
The second article is about Jennifer Lopez’s voluptuous body so naturally it was not a difficult read for me. The author Mary Beltran argues that J-Lo’s attitude towards her body and how it was received in the United States created a new role for Latina crossover actresses. In the past, Latinas were typecast into certain roles that were rigid and secondary in regards to the plot. J-Lo bucked that trend by not only being a short curvy actress in a streamline world, but also by stepping into lead roles that Latinas had rarely ventured in the past. her success led to an almost obsession with her body and was “indicative of larger changes in the cultural landscape” (Pg. 83). There is no question that J-Lo’s “crossover butt” was a big deal in the late 90’s and was a huge influence on future notions of appearance in Hollywood.
The last article by Patria Roman-Valazquez talks about how the performance of Salsa can provide a lot of insight into how Latin American pop culture is becoming blurred throughout the world. As more and more non-Latin people engage in traditional salsa practices, a new identity for the music is being born. One that has a unique touch on tradition salsa performances and shows that even if non-Latin people engage in this type of music, they can articulate the true meaning of Salsa through they way in which they move their body, not by where in the world the dance is taking place. In a globalized world, even certain dances are becoming transient and this article does a nice job of showing how salsa has made its way to London and is being enjoyed by people from all over the planet.

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 movement, Latina celebrity and salsa music) are what most people consider to be Latin American pop culture, myself included. This was my perception of L.A. pop culture at the beginning of this course; however, having now arrived at the end of the course, I have a much broader view of it!

At times I found it a bit humorous to be reading about J.Lo’s butt in such an academic context. However, I felt that these 3 articles analyzed pop culture elements, which we may not give much thought to, in a way that gave light to the underlying social struggles that they may represent. For example, the article on salsa music argued that as salsa music crossed borders from Latin America to England, certain social constructs were perpetuated through the music. For example, racial stereotypes on rhythm and movement became an issue. Caucasian players were stereotyped as being musical, and therefore played horns in the band whereas Latin musicians were stereotyped as more rhythmic, and therefore played the drums and percussion instruments. In the article on Jennifer Lopez’s North American cross-over, issues of gender stereotypes were raised. Jennifer Lopez’s success and “sex symbol” status in North America challenged conventional views of “beauty” in North America as being unnaturally thin. The fact that Jennifer Lopez was considered beautiful with her large butt challenged these views.

I feel that all 3 articles stressed the fact that popular culture, and perhaps culture in general, are constructed by a people. The leader of the Zapatista movement created a character to represent himself in the public sphere and the movement was described as a “performance”. Jennifer Lopez’s success in Hollywood was constructed by the media. Salsa music is a construct in that anyone can learn to play salsa music, and it is not necessarily something that certain people can do better than others simply because they are born into it.

Lastly, all 3 articles provided instances of Latin American popular culture crossing borders. The Zapatista movement became known worldwide. Jennifer Lopez, a Latina actress, found success in the United States. Salsa bands can now be found all over England, as well as almost anywhere else in the world. The question is: does this mean the end of popular culture? I don’t think so. I believe that it is exactly this crossing of borders, with new meanings being created, that makes popular culture interesting, exciting and dynamic. The ability to be contemporary and change with the times is essential to the definition of popular culture.

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 powerfull. It re-set in my mind the true powers of media and its reign over the general population.In the second article by Beltran the topic of study was not just simply Jennifer Lopez but on a larger scale the popularity of Latina Americana stars in the U.S and around the world. The things that Jennifer Lopez brought to the entertainment world and the was in which she changed it were stupendous. As she carried with her a roboust behind the popularity of it grew. This changed societies views on what was atractive and what was not. No longer was a skinny model body a thing of such desire but the evolution of more larger bodies become accepted and embraced.  It shows that ‘crossover’ celebrities offer a challange to the status qou of Hollywood and serve as a outpost for something new and different. Its also evident how people such as Jennifer Lopez on the ‘outside’ can have such an outstanding efffect of social norms and cultural standards. Finally there is Roman-Velazquez’s paper. His paper showcases debates about how slalsa contructs a particular sense of Latin American identity through the bodies of musicians. He also mentions the playing of latin music by non-latin people and their assumptions of “natural’ relations. All in all these three readings provided me with ample information and new ways on thinking about the existence of popular culture in latin American.

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 see how this mysterious figured appeared and created so much impact in the people that they started writing love letters to him and doing shows that in some way involve him. I think that a point that this article is trying to make is, where is the line that divides popular culture, the division where people follows things just because and where people follow things because they actually believe in that.
Jennifer Lopez is one of the most famous Latin people, she is famous for acting, singing, having her one clothes line and maybe some other things, but the first thing that called everyone’s attention was her butt. She went to Hollywood to prove herself as an artist and she made it, and she never felt that she should change her body in order to achieve it. As most Latin women, she is voluptuous, and american people notice that quite fast. She got there and prove all the stereotypes wrong, she prove that curvy women can be hot too. She is an icon for Latin people, because she was one of the first ones to step up in Hollywood and have success. Was her butt the reason why she success? Nobody knows, but it sure helped her, and it also help other people, many comedians and singers took advantage of her physical atributes to get more audience and followers.
Latinos are well knowed for exotical dances, one of them is Salsa. It has been used in other countries to attract the latin community there, and also to make more exotic the enviroment in their own country. Again, as JLo, “big” women are used to sell the image of the club and the dance. They are used as sex symbols, and lets face it, it’s better to have girls dancing on stage than men, they move better and know how to sell the dance, and dependig on their looks it would be the personification of Latino in all its glory.

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 they would try to exploit. I actually did not know much at all about this and found it very interesting. The second article talks about Jennifer Lopez, and, more specifically, her butt. The author traces Lopez’s rise to stardom, fueled by her butt, to explain the processes and conflicts involved in the globalization of Hollywood and of Anglo perceptions/ideals. It was very interesting to read how Lopez represents a commodification of Latinism which magnifies a cultural conflict (beauty ideals) in the realm of celebrities. However, I think that the authors comparison of her “exploited” position with that of ‘Hottentot Venus’ is unfair and a gross exaggeration. Shes a star, that’s what starts are; exploited. Something about them, physically, causes millions of people to buy magazines like People and to go see movies like Gigli. Her butt is just one example of this, and it happens to be (supposedly) typically Latina. I found the article on samba most interesting, probably because of my interest in music, but I also have a small problem with it. The author really emphasizes how so many people essentialize styles music along ethnic lines. To some extent this is very true, especially when it comes to biological factors, but I think it is important to understand that ethnicity plays an important role. A person’s mindset will dictate how they approach a certain style of music, whether listening to it, playing it, or dancing to it. Well, mindsets, especially about music, tend to differ along ethnic boundaries. This is why B.B. King plays the blues and Eric Clapton plays blues-rock. That isn’t to say that a person can’t acquire or alter their mindset; I’m sure there are some great salsa players in England. But culture will always vary from region to region, from ethnic group to ethnic group. People are different and express themselves in different ways. And a lot of the time, when people deny this and attempt to do what some very different people are doing, you get results that can only be called failure (e.g. Kenny G). Latin music will always be best played by Latinos, black music will always be best played by blacks, and white music will always be best played by whites. With exceptions. Globalization has certainly been progressively increasing the amount of exceptions (of “cross-overs”), but I don’t think culture will every become globally homogenized to the extent that regional differences are non-existent. Regions would have to be nonexistent.

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 girls and the film Selena, and trying my hardest to catch a rhythm in both Vancouver and Cuban salsa clubs… I felt like I could connect to these analyses.

The first article, “The ‘Subcomandante’ of Performance,” is an interesting display of pop culture and politics fusing to promote a message through the almost celebrity-like idolization of their leader. The Zapatistas message and plea is powerful, yet it is also wonderment as they convey their meaning in unconventional and ever-changing ways which captivates their ‘audience.’ It was interesting to read how Marcos was portrayed by the people. Much like we do with celebrities, Marcos actions are adamantly followed, and the man himself is an object of sexual and emotional desire.  However, once this image has been created, the people do not want to know the real Marcos. They want to preserve the pristine and inspiring image of this leader without taint knowing that he is an ordinary man. There is something much more powerful in the mystery than the reality.. in the mystery anything is possible… in the reality the issues confronted by the ‘zapatistas’ are much more real, and much more stagnant.

The second article came as a surprise.. how has Jennifer Lopez’s behind has influenced social struggles of Latin American’s. I was surprised to find it was actually a completely appropriate foundation for describing how Latino/a’s roles in Hollywood have generally reflected existing ”social and racial hierarchies” (Page 72). Its interesting that Jennifer’s breakthrough role was the true story of the slain Latin American singer Selena that achieved some of these actual breakthroughs, only for Lopez herself to become a symbol of acceptance of certain Latin American cultural aspects in to mainstream North American media.

This article focused on the female body as something that differs between the two cultures. In North America, there is the desire to have a model-thin body, where as in Latin America a full figure “commutes health, inner peace and success” (Page 72). The expectation for Latin Americans in media was to either play into the assigned stereotypical role only a Latin American would play or to conform to North American society. However, Lopez came in and took pride in her figure. Although she did not put much emphasis on her heritage and did ultimately adapt to many expectations of Hollywood, embracing at least this one aspect of herself inspired women in north America and with it carried the “potential to upset the primacy of whiteness” (Page 80).

The Last article regarding Salsa was also quite interesting. It gave the unique aspect of an art-form that is so classically Latin American being translated in to a modern context. This includes women’s involvement in the male-dominated performance, and people from other cultural descents learning and performing the music. This is best expressed when Roman-Velazquez says “that cultural identities are not fixed to a place of origin has more resonance when thinking of those musicians who perform salsa, who may have no direct, or indirect, link with Latin America” (Page 117). Rhythms can be learned, and therefore this art form need not be constrained to the tradition of only Latin American males performing this music. It’s fascinating in respect to how popular culture can be adapted to modern circumstances. In light of rebellion against ‘machismo,’ and the global interest in Latin American music, Latin American popular is being expanded.

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 across. I think that it is great that by using globalization the Zapatistas also become globalized in the sense that most of their economic support comes from International groups. I took one class last semester and in that class we discusses how the Zapatistas want an International indigenous resistance, so that as the world becomes globalize its internal struggles become Internationalized. I think I liked that idea because I think that part of the problem with the marginalization of the Indigenous people comes from the national governments but there is the other part that comes from International government.
The second article about Jeniffer Lopez challenging social constructions was also really interesting. I liked the part on page eighty two where it says 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.” Just, as Mary Beltran writes in her article, people of different ethnic backgrounds always play in the movies the stereotypes related to their ethnicity. Jennifer Lopez also somehow represented the “exotic” Latina, but at the same time contested the standards of what is considered beautiful in Hollywood. So I think that it is very important to challenge the cultural constructions by using the stereotypes.
The third article was also good. The role expectation in this case for music is always ambiguous. I think that in her article Patria Román-Velazquez says that the assignation of roles to play or dance salsa is not black and white. I believe that as we discussed during the whole semester things are more complicated than that. There can be good dancers that are not from Latino America as there can be good dancers. I think that she highlights that ethnicity has nothing to do with your qualities to play or to dance salsa; the importance lays on the practice and the technique to improve while playing salsa.