I recently went to watch this movie and I thought a lot about this class. Check it out!
Gun Hill Road
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Taqwacore: American-Muslim DIY Punk
The Slippery Slope of Racial Satire
“Why do Mexicans swim with their clothes on?”
Gustavo Arellano, author of the syndicated column ¡Ask a Mexican! inevitably has a biting response to this question, among many other ignorant and stereotypical questions about Mexicans that flood his mailbox weekly. Arellano intends to debunk racial stereotypes through his cynical, acerbic tone, yet sometimes this tone can teeter on the border between satire and downright offensive material. To the question above, he responds,
“This is by far the most-asked question in ¡Ask a Mexican! history. So, to todos ustedes, I have my own question: Are you all chubby chasers? Like gabachos, an alarming number of Mexicans are out of shape. According to a 2003 study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 24 percent of Mexico’s population is overweight. That’s the second-highest obesity rate in the world following — wait for it — ¡los Estados Unidos! Unlike gabachos, Mexicans respect the public when it comes to flashing our flabby chichis, pompis and cerveza guts — so when we’re out near the pool or by the beach, we cover up. It ain’t Catholicism, machismo or an homage to our swim across the Rio Grande. It’s good manners.”
Arellano’s column has a wide readership—it is published in more than 20 papers across the country and has a weekly circulation of about one million. Through its satire of the racial discrimination and scrutiny that Mexicans face on a daily basis in the US, Arellano’s column provides a countercultural representation of Latinos that is not typical in mainstream media outlets. However, Arellano treads on a slippery slope with his irreverent tone, and has faced some criticism from readers—one of whom told him, “I do not believe you understand the damage you are creating by making it socially acceptable to speak the way you do.” Arellano’s response to this critique of his column is that “Satire is humor laced with stinging facts and points to make specific commentaries attacking the status quo…I advocate logical, lyrical smackdowns of Know-Nothings, who come in all colors.” Arellano clearly intends to deconstruct and challenge xenophobia against Mexicans, yet his irony may be lost on a wider audience, ending up just perpetuating the racist stereotypes. For example, the illustration above is the one that accompanies his column-a fat Mexican man with a mustache and sombrero. The politics of ethnic representation comes into play here—is drawing on stereotypes in order to invalidate them ultimately productive and empowering, or is it debilitating?
At Wesleyan, this debate has sparked up through Wesleying numerous times this year, bringing to light how racial satire does not necessarily sit well with all. About a month ago, for example, the AASC (Asian American Student Collective) advertised a week in which they were sponsoring many events on Wesleying, with a post entitled, “AIIIEEEEE, AN ASIAN INVASIAN!” Underneath the title, the post stated, “Surprise! You’re going about your average week at Wesleyan, when BAM, the Asian American Student Collective comes out of nowhere to sponsor four incredibly awesome events this upcoming week just for you.” The title was intentionally making fun of the historical “Yellow Peril”—the fear of the influx of Asian immigrants in the late 19th century, refashioning the phrase in order to reflect the many events happening on campus that week. However, this satire definitely spurred some controversy in the comments section. The following are several of the users’ comments.
“heyyyyy wesleying, as much as I do appreciate the promotion of these fine events, can we please cease the racist headlines? … We get it, asian and invasion rhyme and there are asians here and there may not have been before. welcome to contemporary society. stop the hate speak”
“I’ve seen asian invasion used in the satirical context, but in those instances the usage was empowering. But in this context it is not. It’s othering and distasteful for a site like wesleying which is decidedly innocuous. Also, who cares if the AASC used it. That doesn’t make it right. Just because their asian doesn’t mean it’s not offensive.”
“Unfortunately, irony is easily lost on the internet; those who don’t care to look beyond the literal, will simply take this title to reaffirm their ignorant beliefs.”
While the AASC did sponsor this title, evidently it was misunderstood by some and interpreted as racist, while others recognized the satire yet emphasized that it was distasteful and ineffective in mocking the historical construct of Asians as invaders. Furthermore, the fact that the statement itself was sponsored by Asian Americans did not change its charged content for some of the commenters.
Earlier in the year, there was another controversy on Wesleying in which a blogger (non-Latino) altered a post about Latin@ Affirmation Month by adding his own comments, such as “Ay Papi!,” “mamacita” and “culo” and by posting a picture of the backside of a Latina woman. This caused outrage on campus, and rightly so for its misrepresentation of Latin@s. Arellano and this Wesleying blogger use similar stereotypes and language, but they have different intentions; the former to break down those stereotypes, and the latter to reproduce them, emphasizing his own interpretation of the stereotypical, hypersexualized Latin@ body. Despite these different intentions, the fact remains that specific representations of people are being perpetuated, which blur the line between satire and racism. The AASC Wesleying post highlights this—even though it was endorsed by Asian Americans and the intention was not malicious, the irony was lost on some and it insulted several people. Similarly, Arellano’s column may be well-intentioned, but it may not come across that way to many readers.
Rather than satirizing stereotypes at the risk of reinforcing them, it may be useful to look at other outlets of Latin@ culture, as examined in Loca Motion. Here, the representation of Latin@s is not about using stereotypes in order to debunk them, but about offering other alternatives. Habell-Pallan emphasizes the work of performance artist Luis Alfaro as representing “the intersections of popular culture, spirituality, classism and Chicano life…Alfaro articulated a critique of racism…homophobia…sexism…[and] forces of impoverishment” (83). While Arellano’s column has value in its access to mainstream media and in its critique of racism against Mexicans, Alfaro pushes boundaries and conceptions of the norm in a more dynamic way, outside of the limitations of using stereotypes. The question remains, however, will this type of counterculture movement ever get the type of circulation that Arellano’s column has?
Gaga did what? Maybe it’s time for us to move on.
Earlier this semester, we discussed the process of mainstream culture appropriating aspects of counterculture and what this means in terms of the relationship between the two. One of the books I’m reading for my research paper, Counterculture through the Ages by Ken Goffman (aka R. U. Sirius), eloquently describes this phenomenon and its ramifications:
“…. It’s not surprising, then, that countercultures are usually subjected to some level of persecution. When a counterculture is born, a society finds foreigners in its midst. Breaking taboos, violating norms, challenging sacrosanct ideas: the anti-authoritarian spirit inherent in counterculture potentially threatens any established order. Suppression frequently follows…. When persecution fails to stamp out an active counterculture, the dominant culture tends to assimilate it, subtly weaking, distorting, or sometimes inverting its memes, robbing them of their subversive power. Establishment forces integrate countercultural phraseology into their own propaganda, while economic powers reduce countercultural art and aesthetics to a mass-marketed commodity. Theodore Roszak writes in The Making of a Counter Culture, “it is the cultural experimentation of the young that often runs the worst risks of commercial verminization—and so of having the force of its dissent dissipated.” ….Dropping out is one frequent countercultural response to these difficulties …. countercultures often seek greater freedom to explore and live according to their values by separating themselves from the mainstream” (35-36).
As Goffman comments, since countercultures threaten mainstream society, mainstream society’s first reaction towards countercultures is outright persecution. If this isn’t enough, mainstream society often takes control of memes associated with counterculture in order to weaken and rid them of their original intention. In reaction to this, countercultures often just separate themselves even further from mainstream culture.
What I find really thought-provoking about Goffman’s analysis is the idea that if outright persecution of counterculture fails, mainstream culture attempts to subvert counterculture by appropriating and distorting its memes. And even more interesting is the idea that instead of battling for the right over certain memes, countercultures often just end up reinventing and creating new memes. As Goffman comments, oftentimes, instead of ensuing in a head-to-head battle, countercultural movements move themselves even further away from mainstream society. (He does mention that sometimes countercultures are confrontational, but this usually occurs only in moments). These movements almost seem to be disinterested in confrontation. The battle to control something that has been normalized is almost useless from a countercultural viewpoint as its purpose isn’t to create a new norm; rather, it’s to just not be part of a norm. So, when mainstream society attempts to break and subvert the “otherness” of counterculture, counterculture just moves forward.
A contemporary example of this kind of appropriation is Lady Gaga’s Telephone, which we discussed in class. As we discussed, her video is full of appropriation of countercultural memes (including, but not limited to, her studded leather jacket which showcases the logos of anarchist punk bands). I wonder how the movements this video steals from should react to her appropriation of their memes. I really think the refusal to engage in confrontation is a profound and elegantly backhanded way of refusing subversion. That is, if it is mainstream culture’s desire to absorb what is foreign to it in order to reassert its own power, there’s nothing better for a counterculture to do than to reject or change the aspect of its own culture that is being absorbed.
Even though “dropping out” and moving on seems to be an excellent way to withdraw even further from the mainstream, this process ends up disregarding complete histories of struggle. On the other hand, although appropriation can be extremely frustrating and upsetting, is it eventually more beneficial to just move on? That is, is the best rejection of the appropriation losing interest in the appropriated memes? Also, I wonder when, if ever, it is worthwhile to battle for a re-appropriation of those memes?
Batalla en el Cielo
Did you just make a weird face after seeing this picture? Did you have to look away? Are you disturbed and wondering why I would post a picture like this on a Latin@ counterculture blog? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you probably feel uncomfortable seeing an attractive female body and an overweight male body together. Why do we feel uncomfortable seeing an overweight male body lying in the bed holding hands with a good looking female body? It seems to me that the media plays a big role in this.
Batalla en el Cielo is a Mexican movie directed by Carlos Reygadas. It contains lots of graphic sex scenes and although the movie contains underlying metaphoric representations about the nation of Mexico, the sex scenes are the ones that are given more attention. Sex scenes shown in this movie consist of an attractive young woman going down on an overweight, middle-aged man, as well as sex between this same man and his even more obese wife. Personally speaking I had to stop the movie during the three minutes scene where the young woman goes down on the overweight man, Marcos. At first I thought, I couldn’t watch it because there’s a girl giving a blowjob to a man but I realized that wasn’t the case. Like I told my Body Fictions class while discussing this movie, the majority of us have seen pornography at least once in our lives. Some people use it to get off while others are not really interested in it. Yet it doesn’t necessarily bother you (or bother you as much) because they show bodies that have been accepted by the media. Yet if we watched an overweight or obese person having sex with someone it’s very uncomfortable.
The reason I chose to talk about this for this blog is because I think this movie is queer. It has been criticized for showing so much nudity especially of an overweight man. What’s even more different is that the main character for this movie isn’t a real actor. He is actually the driver for Reygadas’ father. I find it very interesting that a Mexican director would make such a movie like this and air it in Mexico. Showing sex scenes in a movie is one thing, but having an overweight person having sex is another. While at first I thought this was weird, after watching the whole movie and after learning that it’s ok to accept things that aren’t the norm, to be queer, I’ve grown to appreciate these scenes. This was a bold move Reygadas did and it was good because people need to be exposed to things that the media say is disturbing. If we are comfortable watching people have intimate scenes in the movies than that means any adult of any size with consent should be able to be part of these scenes without being judged.
What’s also interesting is that while Reygadas is using a stereotypical Latina body for some of his sex scenes he also made it hard for the viewer to distinguish the gender of Marcos’ wife when they were having sex. It would be interesting to analyze this more and figure out the meaning behind these scenes. This was the first time I’ve ever seen a movie with such graphic sex scenes and having overweight people having sex as well. I think it’s great that the public can see this side of sex.
If you’re interested in watching this, it’s on Netflix and here’s the trailer (it has English subtitles!):
Kenyon Farrow and the Endless Intersections of Prison Abolition
On Wednesday, April 27th, Kenyon Farrow, former executive director of Queers for Economic Justice, gave a talk here at Wes entitled “Incarceration Nation: The Endless Intersections of Prison Abolition.” His talk focused mostly on the historical origins of the prison-industrial complex (PIC), the rise of the PIC as a failed solution to today’s social problems, and the need to abolish this system.
Specifically, Farrow discussed how the 13th Amendment, which bans slavery except as a punishment for a crime, was intentionally crafted with this loophole so as to preserve the slave economy of the Southern U.S.; the implementation of Black Codes, which de facto criminalized public assembly among black men, allowed for “convict leasing,” in which former slave owners were paid by the state to re-enslave black prisoners. It was at this point that prison construction increased dramatically in the U.S., demonstrating how today’s prison abolitionists share a direct lineage with slavery abolitionists.
The prison-industrial complex, as it has been theorized by Critical Resistance (an abolitionist organization based in Oakland, California, to which Farrow has donated his entire honorarium) is about an entire material and ideological structure that undergirds imprisonment. This structure includes the impulse to “call the police” and increased policing in low-income communities of color, the shift in immigration policy from “service” to “enforcement” (reflected in the change of the immigration agency’s name from Immigration and Naturalization Service to Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the denial of welfare and public housing to anyone convicted of drug crimes, the reliance of low income white communities on prison construction for employment, and the massive industry that builds and supplies prisons. Because the PIC is so expansive in these ways, it is not a “single issue” but one that makes sense to approach from many different entry points, including queerness.
One specific intersection between queerness and the PIC is the precarious position of queer folks in heavily policed communities and the tension between the need for safety from homophobic attacks versus the violence of policing that supposedly would protect against such homophobic violence. Organizations run by and for queers of color have found ways to escape this tension. Farrow spoke about the Audre Lorde Project in New York City, which has organized small businesses in parts of Brooklyn by training them on how to serve as safe spaces for queer folks in the community. In this way, homophobic violence has been effectively countered and diminished without relying on increased police presence that enacts its own kind of racist violence on these neighborhoods.
Another example of the intersections between queerness and the PIC is the case of the New Jersey 4, which was detailed on a flier distributed at the event entitled “Fighting Intersectional Justice.” In the summer of 2006, four black lesbians from New Jersey were harassed and attacked by a man in Greenwich Village in New York City, and upon fighting back in self-defense were arrested and charged with “gang assault,” a Class C Felony with a mandatory minimum sentence of 3.5 years in prison. The flier identifies four trends represented by this incident that highlight the intersections of queerness with the PIC: street harassment of women and queers, gentrification of the neighborhood, the pathologization of women of color, and legal lynching. The trends combined work to make queer women of color one of the populations most disproportionately impacted by the PIC.
So why is prison abolition an integral part of queer politics? As Cathy Cohen argues in her amazing essay “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens,” the radical potential of queer politics lies in its capacity to understand how “numerous systems of oppression interact to regulate and police the lives of most people.” In this sense, the PIC is yet another way that a state built on racist heteronormativity has worked to police bodies it deems as deviant. The structure of the PIC reminds us that the “policing” that Cohen writes about is not just metaphorical or discursive but involves actual police officers whose job it is to capture certain kinds of non-normative bodies to put into high-tech cages that have been compelled into existence by a far-reaching network of institutions and ideologies. The importance of Kenyon Farrow’s talk therefore is to remind us that radical queer politics means fighting against institutions like the PIC that may not on the surface appear to have much to do with queer liberation.
Here’s a video of Kenyon Farrow speaking about similar things AND MORE at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy conference at Hampshire College two years ago:
See What You Are Missing…
Univision, one of the biggest television broadcasting network for Latino viewers have launched their “See What You’re Missing” campaign in response to the information released by the Census that “Hispanics account for approximately 56 percent of the total population growth from 2000-2010.” In their video for the campaign, Univision talks about the queer latinidad of dualism and the reality of the merging of two cultures resonates what life has been like for many Latinos in the United States. Nonetheless, when the campaign is looked into closely what Univision is really trying to do is allow America to see the value in Hispanics because it allows them potential to “unleash their economic growth”. It also strongly stereotypes Hispanics with Novelas, Futbol and Tamales (all things that play a major role in Mexican culture). The video also fail to include Latino queer culture , but i see how that could be expected since Univision is trying to please the larger Heteronormative audience of America. of Is this the only way that the Hispanic population can become appealing to Americans? Should we simply be looked as economic consumers and not as college graduates, doctors, engineers, factory workers, government officials, and students? Should we be generalized into simply being possible economic profit and just that?
Marketing itself at the “#1 Place To Reach Hispanics,” Univision has taken it upon themselves and the rest of America the following two questions: what are we/you doing to include Hispanics in the marketing plans and how do we/you know we’re/you’re doing it right? Their website for this campaign then proceeds to provide the American audience with three basic principles which Univision deems important when assessing the two previously asked questions. The major subheading on the three principles were as follows:
- Think Hispanic During Every Planning Stage- Total market planning isn’t about shifting budgets. It’s about doing more with what you’ve got. It’s about looking for growth and delivering brand results by identifying and marketing to all your potential consumers. As you define your strategy and success metrics; as you conceive new products and design new packaging; as you develop new creative and media plans; constantly ask yourself and your teams: “What about Hispanic?”
- Reach Hispanics In Culture- Brands strive to lead with insights and connect with consumers emotionally. How do you accomplish that in this multicultural nation? By speaking to them in their language and their culture. Nielsen ad effectiveness research shows that, through communicating in-language and within a culturally relevant environment, ads realized significantly higher recall and likeability. (2)
- Understand Acculturation- Finally, don’t make the common mistake of thinking that acculturation automatically means English proficiency. Acculturation is about culture but language is just one expression of Hispanic culture. One can be completely fluent in English and still “lean Latino” in values, traditions, and key consumer behaviors like food, media consumption and entertainment choices.
I, personally, feel really uncomfortable with this. Firstly, because the term Hispanic (his-panic) makes me feel really uncomfortable, I am no one’s panic. Secondly, because it asserts the innate capitalism in every American that something can only be valued when it becomes of use. There is a strong sense that “Hispanics” have now become important, implying that they weren’t before, because their numbers are growing. Now, big business and marketing companies need to reassess their marketing techniques to include Hispanics in theirs plans simply because it will of a benefit to their company. But why shouldn’t Latinos be recognized as legitimate citizens of the county simply off the fact that many Latino immigrants are working on agricultural fields and doing many jobs that white Americans don’t want to be doing? Why should Latinos be made to feel important because the numbers of first generation Latino students to attend college is increasing?
I think that one of the things that is really bothering me s that the queer latinidad that is individually experienced as a Latino/a as a marginalized group for so many years is now being exploited to de-marginalize us and bring us into the center. Univision’s way of doing this is by but by telling companies how to exploit Latino/as into buying their goods and making us vulnerable to large corporations. It extremely confusing for me to get my thoughts into words but why couldn’t we be brought into the center because we have been under-acknowledged as minorities for so many years and the work of undocumented immigrants have been appreciated? Why isn’t it enough that are numbers are high for us to be recognized? Why must we only consider ourselves important based on whether or not businesses market to us? Why should Latino/as be only considered as a large marketing group and not as individual in search of American opportunities? Why is it that our marginalized, queer experiences, dualism and ability to speak two languages used as a marketing scheme by Univision for large businesses?
Here’s what I have to say to America:
No, thank you. I recognized that you have taken me into consideration when marketing simply because the number of Latinos is growing. Value me because I am a citizen of the United States and not just a marketing group that you can exploit. Don’t see me and think how I can be of an asset to your business. Talk to me in Spanish because you want to get to know my culture and me. Understand my dualism as a construction of my queer identity and slowly learn to respect it. Come to terms with the reality that I am not going anywhere and that there is a need for Ethnic Studies courses, not only because our numbers high, but because even with low numbers there is a great need for Latino students to understand their history. Understand my ethnicity to be different than that of other Latinos. Latino’s are not all Mexican. Do not generalize, discriminate, or marginalize. Our numbers are growing; take us into consideration as part of what constitutes the American people, but not as just a marketing group.
Precious Knowledge and Assimilation
Picture from: http://www.kpbs.org/photos/2011/mar/15/9864/
I went to go see Precious Knowledge this last Sunday night. I know I saw some people from the class and if you didn’t get to go, you should definitely try to watch it, it’s worth the watch!
Here’s the trailer:
Something that stood out to me and something that was infuriating to many was the argument that Tom Horn and his supporters were making that Ethnic Studies encourages separation and hate towards others. They called for the Chicanos that were in these classes to assimilate. Assimilation sounds nice and all to some, but to me it seems that these people want others who do not fall into that “American” cookie cutter shape to give up their culture in order to do so. I did a project my freshman year when this topic came up and this is a video I found of a congressman addressing assimilation:
This is frightening because he is asking all people who come from different backgrounds to assimilate by giving up their culture, their heritage, their language. This enforces the idea that if you don’t act correctly “American” or “speak American,” you are refusing to be part of this country. This is very similar to the accusations being made against these Ethnic Studies classes. There was the assumption that just because they were learning history differently (some officials were very disturbed that teachers were insinuating that the Founding Fathers were racist -___-), because they were reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed, because of the Che Guevera picture in the classroom, because Spanglish and Chicano culture were given their due, that these students were being taught to hate the United States and be un-American. What is it to be American though? These officials, many of them older white men, decided that they were the ones who get to decide what being American is to young Chicano high schoolers. People who offer a different view of Americanism were wrong and were not being patriotic because they mentioned that Benjamin Franklin might have been racist. It seems that rather than appreciate Chicano culture that seems to be very prevalent in Arizona, the officials wanted to be rid of it and enforce a culture that these students did not identify with.
Part of the reason I wanted to do this post, aside from the movie, was that on Being Latino, there was a post about Latino assimilation by Daniel Cubais called What Does It Mean for Latinos to “Blend In”? , where he talks about someone who mentioned “My in-laws came from Mexico, and now just a generation later, they are fully assimilated and blend in. Except for being a little darker, you would never know where they were from” and this of course enforces that Latinos should be aiming to be able to “pass for white” (Cubais). Mejorando la raza anyone? For those who don’t know, mejorando la raza, literally means “bettering the race” AKA marry someone with light skin so your children will have lighter skin and will be “better.” This made me realize that, yes, there are Latinos out there who do not value their culture and skin color and want to “fully assimilate.”
Of course for me this brings to mind the Anzaldua and Rodriguez readings that we did at the very beginning of the year. I feel like for the most part, our class agreed more with Anzaldua’s reading of things. Rodriguez however spoke to me in another weird way. I seriously went through school the same way he did, even though I obviously have a different view of the experience because I am in strong support of bilingual education and affirmative action. Watching this film, he seemed to have opinions similar to those of Tom Horn, all this “unnecessary” stuff like Ethnic Studies, etc. He seems to be a product of this type of thinking that is now threatening the Ethnic Studies in Tucson. Anzaldua on the other hand seems to have been/be in a similar place to these students, trying to discover her Chicana identity and navigating through life as displaced and confused, the way many of these students must feel. Her different works capture the struggle she undergoes when she is not fully accepted as American or Mexican, therefore she is a Chicana.
And lastly, there is a petition that Ajua Campos and other groups have begun circulating in support of keeping Ethnic Studies in the Tucson Unified School District.
Please sign it if you haven’t already!
Accessing the Deep Roots of Chican@ Literature
In Wind Shifts a collection of Latin@ poetry I was introduced to Eduardo C. Corral, a poet originally from Arizona who brings to light the Chican@ literary tradition. Although Corral brings Chicana/o work to light he also acknowledges the fact that most Chican@ literature is unknown and unread by the American mainstream, and the work that is known normally mimics Western styles instead of bringing a different perspective (as so much of the unaccessed Chican@ literary canon does).
Eduardo Corral says, “Mexico, like the Western canon, must be voraciously consumed, and occasionally regurgitated. Yet this has only been done with a few Chicano/a poets who have been accepted into the American literary canon. Even so, the canon has, so far, only accepted Chicano/a poetry that mirrors its traditions. If I flip through the Norton anthology I have to reach the 1970s to find the last names I can pronounce beautifully. In the work of these Chicano poets—Gary Soto, Alberto Rios, Lorna Dee Cervantes—you will find cultural-specific work, but the work is also richly infused with the influence of the Western canon. I adore the work of these poets. It has influenced me immensely. But these poets have been accepted by the editors of the Norton anthology for a reason: their poems can be easily consumed by Anglo readers. These poets work in English. The shapes of their poems are gorgeous repetitions of traditional poetic structures. Their poems educate the reader but don’t admonish the reader. The work of Chicano poets like Gloria Anzaldúa, Alurista, José Montoya whose poems flaunt the linguistic influence of caló, Spanglish, and Mesoamerican languages, whose poems force Anglo readers to reckon with past and current injustices are absent from the Norton. The American canon has rejected Chicano/a writers who play in red dirt. The work of Anzaldúa, Montoya and Alurista requires a deep and profound knowledge of Mesoamerican and Chicano histories. Most Anglo readers—heck, most Mexican-Americans—don’t have the education or the will to unlock the beauty of these poems.”
After having taken Latin@ Countercultural Literature I’m so happy that I’ve been introduced to Anzaldua’s work, but there is still a long path ahead to get fully acquainted with the brilliant Chican@ canon that is present in our world and continuing to grow. Hopefully in the years to come, this work can become as much a part of the U.S. curriculum both in high schools and colleges as the European and American literary canons (I have full confidence that my classmates will be a large part of this endeavor). Hopefully, in addition, eventually the U.S. schooling system will make it so that students are acquainted fully enough with Mesoamerican and Chicano histories to have a full appreciation of the brilliance of these works.
Here is a link to a poem by Corral called “Border Triptych for Gloria Anzaldúa” that pays tribute to a great author, but continues to add to the Chican@ canon in a profound way.
http://www.webdelsol.com/LITARTS/CORRAL/corralpoem2.htm
Corrales in this poem is as he describes “I’m a coyote. But of instead of smuggling people across the desert, I transport words across the white of the page.”
Santeria: Queer and DIY?
Picture from: http://blatherwincerepeat.com/?p=2745
I read quite a few of the poems from Paper Dance (because they were so good!). I really zeroed in on “La Curandera” by Diana Garcia (57). In this poem, aspects of “indigenous practices” are brought up.
Something the poems have focused on is the negative ways in which “pagan” practices are/have been viewed. The main over view of the poem is that her grandmother asks her to get a scapular blessed for a novena for Don Jose, a man who is ill. Her grandmother is a Curandera, a healer. Since she is a healer, she makes teas for different afflictions such as flu, measles, insomnia, etc. However the priest refuses to bless the scapular. He dismisses their practice as “witchcraft,” even though there is a clear connection to Catholicism. So instead rubs the scapular in a prayer book, “hoping to catch stray blessings” (57). At the end of the poem, at the novena of Don Jose, when her Nana reveals the scapular, she says that, “Hail Mary’s rise, and I slip three steps from grace. I can never go to heaven if the old man dies” (58).
Though this poem has many themes, this made me start thinking about was how in many different Latin@ cultures, there have been different ways of incorporating “indigenous” faiths with the “more accepted” ones. Curander@s exist in places such as Mexico, Bolivia and Cuba. This “mix” often seems to be a reaction to the forcing of usually Roman Catholicism on the people.
In Professor Ann Wightman’s class Survey of Latin American History, one of the topics we discussed is syncretic fusion or basically the blending of two “entities” that is its own but also has aspects of the two entities that were blended. We also discussed how many times in order maintain their religion, people would place statues of their gods under the altar at Church so when they knelt before the altar, they knelt before their gods. Or when some festivals coincided with their religions’ holidays, they would say their own prayers rather than the Christian ones (“Colonial Contradiction,” HIST/LAST 245, Survey of Latin American History, Wesleyan University, spring, 2011.).
This made me think about religions such as Santeria as Do it Yourself. The people who were forced adapt so they kind of created something that allowed them to work with what they were given in their current situation. This is from BBC’s section on Santeria:
Santeria was created in Cuba by the mingling of Yoruba traditions brought by enslaved Africans from Nigeria and Benin with the Roman Catholic faith of the Spanish plantation owners.
Attempts were made to convert the enslaved Africans, but while they accepted much of the missionary teachings, they didn’t find that these provided sufficient ‘religious fulfilment’.
They continued to practise their own rituals, which they found to be useful and effective, and which, most importantly, filled the spiritual space in lives torn from their original cultural foundations.
Even though Santeria originated in Cuba, it has been pretty prevalent in the United States. A New York Times article by Lizette Alvarez, “After Years of Secrecy, Santeria Is Suddenly Much More Popular. And Public” states that:
For thousands of New Yorkers, such a ”toque” (pronounced TOE-kay), or performance for the saints, is now no more unusual — or secret — than attending shul or kneeling to Allah. Once dismissed as a ghetto religion practiced only by the Caribbean poor and uneducated, Santeria has a growing following among middle-class professionals, including white, black and Asian Americans. There are police officers in New York who pray to Obatala, the father of all deities, or orishas, before they slip on their gun belts. There are lawyers and professors, civil servants and musicians whose homes are filled with altars laden with flowers, rum, cake and cigars to keep the gods happy and helpful. Many dress in white to symbolize purity (Alvarez).
Additionally, the BBC article on Santeria states, it is not an organized religion with a hierarchy or different associations or groups (BBC). It is also very much a do it yourself tradition today because those who are Santeros have to keep the traditions of Santeria alive within their own community, provide their own spaces for worship and figure out who the leaders of the community will be.
This also made me think of the idea of queer-ness as a minority population. This topic has been brought up in many other posts. I see the practice of Santeria is definitely queer. Even though most Santeros seem to be Latin@, Latin@s are usually looked at as Roman Catholic. Also, many times when Santeria is in the news, it is portrayed as this cult that kills animals and is being investigated for animal cruelty. This negative view has caused people to really look at Santeria as this strange, “magic voodoo,” instead of a valid religion (Alvarez). Because of these depictions and lack of respect, Santeria has really been made into a “minority in the majority,” the majority being not only Catholic but people of so-called “valid” faith systems such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. because these faiths are not viewed as cults.
Of course “La Curandera” wasn’t necessarily about Santeria but it does seem to have a similar stigma of “witchcraft” and “cult activity” attached to it. We of course need to keep in mind that this religious blend is not true for all Latin@s, but this do it yourself attitude is still very present in some, if not many sections of the Latin@ religious community and it cannot be ignored or cast off as a “cult.” Since it managed by the practitioners who build and sustain their own religious community rather than go to a church, mosque, synagogue, temple, etc. this could be seen as DIY. And since Santeria is looked at as radically different from other religious because of trances and animal sacrifice, Santeria could be queer in the religious sphere because it does not conform to the norms that other more established religious communities seem to have set.
