I really like this reading so far. It is intimidatingly long but haaaay, this is University after all!
I like how sensitive the author seems to be, for the most part, about respecting indigenous populations all over LA throughout the article. I also like the indepth look and detail about dance, spiritual and religious rituals in the beginning half of the chapter. I took Intro to Latin American Studies last semester and loved the course, but didn’t love how general every section was. So I’m happy to be able to see more clearly some detail.
It’s a cool article though, definitely relevant to the beginning of this course. It kind of shows the history of exactly how the entire notion of “popular culture” began in Latin America. It’s hard to imagine a world where “popular culture” exists with the absence of social media. Like “popular culture” in the 1800s without Instagram to confirm everything. Strange.
The first half of the chapter brought me back to last semester in school where we learned about “sycretism” – basically the mixing of two cultures, and in the case of Peru specifically, the mix of pre and post colonial traditions. And I guess in this context – out of that mix, comes new notions of pop culture.
Also something I have been thinking about, not only during this reading, but in all of them so far, I’m thinking back to our first class in LAST201 where Jon made us think real critically about what culture is and what it is not and how you can appropriately define it… And honestly it’s kind of difficult to read anything super neutrally now because all I can think is like… IS THE AUTHOR EVEN CONSIDERING HOW MANY DIFFERENT THINGS CULTURE CAN BE?
For example, in this chapter, page 64, the author is outlining what he is going to examine next, and he states: “Our frame of reference excludes Southern Mexico and Guatemala because they have the highest presence of native culture, instead we’ll focus where cultural boundaries are more fluid.”
Like that still leaves the rest of Mexico, which is HUGE. Stating that the cultural boundaries are more fluid for the rest of the region is pretty bold statement to make I think? And also there is definitely “native culture” that exists in the remaining part of Mexico, why is it’s presence more or less fluid??

Just wild! I’ll never be able to hear the word “culture” again without my head spinning.