what is culture?

• Williams, Raymond. “Culture is Ordinary”. The Every Day Life Reader. Ed. Ben Highmore. London: Routledge, 2002. 91-100.
• Keesing, Roger. “Theories of Culture Revisited”. Canberra Anthropology 13.2 (1990): 46-60.

what is the people?

• Perón, Evita. “My Message”. In My Own Words. Trans. Laura Dail. New York: New Press, 1996. 47-92.
• Borges, Jorge Luis. “A Celebration of the Monster” Trans. Alfred J. McAdam, Suzanne Jill Levine, and Emir Rodriguez Monegal. Borges, a Reader: A Selection from the Writings of Jorge Luis Borges. Ed. Emir Rodriguez Monegal and Alastair Reid. New York: Dutton, 1981. 202-210.

what is popular culture in Latin America?

• Rowe, William, and Vivian Schelling. “The Faces of Popular Culture”. Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America. London: Verso, 1991. 49-150.

popular culture as folk culture

• Asturias, Miguel Angel. “Legend of the Singing Tablets,” “Legend of the Crystal Mask,” “Legend of the Silent Bell,” and “Legend of the Dancing Butchers”. The Mirror of Lida Sal: Tales Based on Mayan Myths and Guatemalan Legends. Trans. Gilbert Alter-Gilbert. Pittsburgh, PA: Latin American Literary Review Press, 1997. 81-126.
• Arguedas, José María. “The Pongo’s Dream”. The Peru Reader. Ed. Orin Starn, Carlos Iván Degregori, and Robin Kirk. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995. 258-263.

theories of mixture I: mestizaje

• Vasconcelos, José. The Cosmic Race. Trans. Didier T. Jaén. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. 1-40.
• Wade, Peter. “Rethinking Mestizaje: Ideology and Lived Experience”. Journal of Latin American Studies 37 (2005): 239-257.

folk culture and modernity

• Campbell, Bruce. “Mexican Muralism and the Official Public Sphere”. Mexican Murals in Times of Crisis. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003. 29-72.
• Taussig, Michael. “The Spirit Queen’s Court”. The Magic of the State. New York: Routledge, 1997. 1-75.

theories of mixture II: transculturation

• Ortiz, Fernando. “On the Social Phenomenon of ‘Transculturation’ and its Importance in Cuba”. Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar. Trans. Harriet de Onís. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995. 97-103.
• Millington, Mark. “Transculturation: Contrapuntal Notes to Critical Orthodoxy”. Bulletin of Latin American Research 26.2 (2007): 256–268.

popular culture as mass culture

• Bellos, Alex. Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life. London: Bloomsbury, 2003. 43-145.
• Hippolyte Ortega, Nelson. “Big Snakes on the Street and Never Ending Stories: The Case of Venezuelan Telenovelas”. Imagination Beyond Nation: Latin American Popular Culture. Ed. Eva P. Bueno and Terry Caesar. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998. 64-80.

theories of mixture III: hybridity

• García Canclini, Néstor. Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity. Trans. Christopher L. Chiappari and Silvia L. López. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995. xxiii-xlvi, 206-263.

the end of popular culture?

• Gómez-Peña, Guillermo. “In Search of a New Topography”. Dangerous Border Crossers: The Artist Talks Back. London: Routledge, 2000. 221-227.
• Beltrán, Mary C. “The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Struggle: Media Constructions of Stardom and Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Cross-Over Butt’”. Quarterly Review of Film and Video 19.1 (2002): 71-86.
• Román-Velázquez, Patria. “The Embodiment of Salsa: Musicians, Instruments and the Performance of a Latin Style and Identity”. Popular Music 18.1 (January 1999): 115-131.

final thoughts: the Eternaut and Mafalda

• The Eternaut, selection: page one, page two.
• Mafalda: about, page one, page two, page three, page four.