LAST Popular Culture as Mass Culture

I found Bellos's paper on futebol to be very intersting. The represenation and meaning behind futebol in Latin America became very aparent to me and its outstanding powers on the public, the players, countries as a whole and invevitably the world in one way or another. Its clear that futebol is much much more then just the simple game of futebol in Latin America. For me this was hard to comprehend because personally a game to me is just a game and thats as far as i take it. Futebol as shown in this article however means everything to alot of people. It made me curiuos to why this is so... how such importance and prestige could be layed on such a simple game. It also made me question why this tendency for futebol to be 'everything' and be such a big part of everyday life was more consistent in Latin America rather than North America. It appears as though larger  political meanings are attached to futebol in Latin America or atleast are more evident than in North American leagues. An interesting aspect realating to this is the Olympics where the power of sports is truly showcased. However, this force that connects people through sports can also tear others apart and create grudges/hatred not only between individual players or athletes but on larger scales of countries or regions. At the end of the day it is clear that sports are an extremely strong force with unbelivaibly strong powers globally. 

LAST The End 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.

LAST Theories of mixture

 This weeks three readings on theories of mixture were very intriguing.  The term transculturation is brought into use in the firs article on Cuba. Fernando explains that in Cuba there has been so many cultures of which have influenced have been so diverse and overshadow in importance to everything.  Following this paper Polar begins to talk about literature. Both indigenismo and Heterogeneous literatures are examined.  I felt as though when Polar gave some specific cases of homogeneity and heterogeneity I was better able to understand the concepts better.  Later on in this piece a quote by Jose Carlos Mariategui  caught my attention. “If an indigenous literature must ome, it will come in due time, when the indians themselves are able to produce it” ( Polar 108) This quote caught me off guard and is highly debatable and I personally feel it to be untrue.  There is an assumption made that acknoledable Indigenous literature has not already emerged. Finally there is Millingtons paper. I felt his paper for me was a a paper that brought the prior papers and itself together. Talking about ideas and concepts in the last papers and bringing and metamorphing some new ones. In conclusion it is evident that the perception and ways we think of Latin America  has been affected by tranculturation. From here however, I believe we need to anaylize and try to understand the processes that affect cultural views and there social realtions.