Oaxaca Summer Institute

For the thirteenth year, the Oaxaca Summer Institute will provide graduate
students the opportunity to participate in a month-long analysis of modern
Mexican history and culture. The seminar is intended primarily for graduate
students in history and anthropology, but is open to those in other
disciplines, including especially public health and geography. We plan to
admit two or three outstanding undergraduate students.

Professor Guillermo Palacios of El Colegio de M=E9xico will open the
seminar with an introductory lecture on national patrimony and culture and
the challenges facing scholars when taking up these themes.


Seminar XIII will focus on five major themes, each directed by scholars fro=
m Mexico, the United States or Canada.=20

History of public health and medicine
Gabriela Soto Laveaga
(UC-Santa Barbara)

Gender, Sexuality and Power
Ann Blum
(University of Massachusetts-Boston)=20
William French=20
(University of British Columbia)

Environment in history and culture
Christopher Boyer
(University of Illinois-Chicago

A People's History of Mexico, the popular, visual, and musical heritage of
Mexico
William Beezley
(University of Arizona)

Monica Rankin
(University of Texas at Dallas)
With support of Ricardo P=E9rez Montfort (CIESA-Tlalpan)

A concluding workshop will examine violence, migration, and drugs with
Mexican and US participants from Ford Mexico Foundation project.

Other featured seminars will be offered by Deborah Dorotinsky, Instituto
de Investigaciones Est=E9ticas, UNAM; Raquel Para=EDso, Veracruz;
Guillermo
Palacios (El Colegio de M=E9xico), Deborah Poole (Johns Hopkins), Jurgen
Buchenau (UNC-Charlotte), Ana Paulo de Teresa (UAM-Iztapalapa), Mary Kay
Vaughan (University of Maryland), Francie Chassen-L=F3pez (University of
Kentucky), Daniela Traffano (CIESAS-Oaxaca), Ethelia Ruiz (INAH) and
others. The seminar sessions are conducted in both Spanish and English.
Several other scholars have been invited and will be announced shortly.


The 2011 seminar will also include weekly viewings and discussions of
feature films and documentaries, with a particular focus on the role of
film in the study of history and culture.


The cost of the seminar is $2200 US, with a $25 application fee. The fee
includes the cost of the seminar, housing with a family in Oaxaca,
breakfasts (other meals can be arrangement at minimal cost), and weekly
field trips. Participants may enroll in language classes for an additional
cost. Alternative housing in apartments or hotels can be arranged. Limited
financial aid is available on a competitive basis. Graduate credit can be
arranged. The deadline for applications is April 15, 2011.

Participants will be notified within one week after the application
deadline. Final payment and additional paperwork are due May 15 and
students will be provided with a syllabus and additional materials at that
time.

Seminar directors:
William H. Beezley (beezley@u.arizona.edu)
Gabriela Soto-Laveaga (gsotolaveaga@history.ucsb.edu

)
William E. French (wfrench@interchange.ubc.ca)
Monica Rankin (mrankin@utdallas.edu)

For additional updated information, applications, and last year's syllabus =
see the Oaxaca Summer Institute website www.oaxacainstitute.com or contact =
one of the seminar directors.

Latino Youth Majority in California

9 March 2011 Last updated at 05:53 ET

US Census: Hispanic children now majority in California

The latest figures are set to have a political impact

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• US population sees slowing rise
• Why US population growth outstrips EU
• A glance at the future: Second generation Hispanics

More than half of California's children are now of Hispanic origin, according to the US Census Bureau.

The latest data from the 2010 census shows that Latinos and Asians accounted for most of the population growth in California over the past decade.
The number of Hispanics rose 28% to 14 million, reaching near parity with non-Hispanic whites, while Asians grew 31%.
California remains the biggest state, growing to 37.3 million, but not enough for additional seats in Congress.
The detailed figures from the 2010 US Census shows that Hispanics now account for 38% of California's population, almost equal with the 40% of non-Hispanic whites.
These number 15 million, a drop of 5% on the previous census.
The Asian population now stands at 4.8 million, while the non-Hispanic black population is down 1% at 2.2 million.
Redrawing districts The state's Hispanic population under 18 years of age increased 17%, while the number of non-Hispanic white children fell 21% over the past decade.
"Hispanics are the future of California," William Frey from the Brookings Institution told the Washington Post.
"Any local or state initiatives that have to do with education need to reach out to this population."
California grew by some 10% over the past decade, on par with the national average.

Asians were the fastest-growing group in California

But it was not enough for the state to pick up more seats in the House of Representatives.
This contrasts with the next biggest state, Texas, whose population grew nearly 19% to 25 million and has gained an extra four congressional seats.
The figures released on Tuesday also show a shift in population within California.
Inland areas registered more growth rather than the traditional centres such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The census figures are also used to redraw legislative and congressional districts within states.
The 2010 Census figures will have more impact than before because for the first time an independent body, the Citizens Redistricting Commission, will be responsible for setting the boundaries for districts represented in California's Senate and Assembly.
Previously, districts were redrawn by politicians.

Mexico Police Chief Marisol Valles Seeks Asylum in US

9 March 2011 Last updated at 02:35 ET

Mexico police chief Marisol Valles seeks US asylum

Marisol Valles had been hailed as Mexico's bravest woman

Continue reading the main story

MEXICO'S DRUGS WAR

• Agent's murder: Impact on US-Mexico ties
• Analysing the murder figures
• Q&A: Drug violence
• Battling the cartels

Mexico's youngest police chief, Marisol Valles Garcia, has fled to the US after apparently receiving death threats, US immigration officials have confirmed.

She attracted worldwide attention last year when she became police chief of a border town plagued by drug violence after no-one else dared take the job.
She is now seeking asylum in the US after fleeing across the border into Texas.
Ms Valles was sacked from her post on Monday for being absent without leave.
The criminology student was hailed as Mexico's bravest woman in October when she became head of public security in the border town of Praxedis G Guerrero at the age of 20.
The town is in the Juarez Valley in Chihuahua state, a battleground for drugs cartels fighting over lucrative smuggling routes into the US.
Local police and officials in the region have been frequent targets for attack despite a large military presence.

At the time of her appointment, she told the BBC she was accepting the role despite the risks involved because she felt Mexican citizens had a responsibility to try to improve security.
Praxedis is close to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's most violent city, where more than 3,000 people were killed in drug-related violence in 2010 alone.
The US Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency (ICE) confirmed that Ms Valles was in the country.
"She will have the opportunity to present the facts of her case before an impartial immigration judge," an ICE official told Reuters.

Concluding Remarks

Dear all,

It has been a pleasure to share thoughts and reflections with you in the blogosphere. This blog will stay up for as long as we prefer, and you are free to continue posting on it and/or referring to it. I hope that this course has functioned for you in several ways: 1) as a mechanism for raising our collective awareness regarding some of the most pressing political, economic, social, and cultural phenomena currently transpiring on the US-Mexico border; 2) as a survey of fascinating, controversial, innovative, creative, and virtuosic artworks across several genres that have addressed themes of the "borderlands;" 3) and, finally, as a place where we can converse and engage in dialogue about these controversial and traumatic issues without collapsing into polemicism and partisanship. I think that you have been excellent leaders and participants in all of these respects, and I thank you for this cross-border journey. I hope that your final projects move beyond the classroom and that you can also find a way to return to some of these art pieces and border themes in your future work. Have a great spring break!

Best,
KZ

Mexico Shootout Leaves 18 Dead in Tamaulipas

8 March 2011 Last updated at 02:51 ET

Mexico shootout leaves 18 dead in Tamaulipas state

Continue reading the main story

MEXICO'S DRUGS WAR

• Agent's murder: Impact on US-Mexico ties
• Analysing the murder figures
• Q&A: Drug violence
• Battling the cartels

Gunbattles between rival gangs in a north-eastern Mexican town have left 18 people dead, police say.

The Tamaulipas state government said shooting erupted in the town of Abasolo but gave few details.
Gunmen in trucks and other vehicles had exchanged fire around the town, reports said.
Tamaulipas has been at the centre of a turf war between the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels, which are battling to control lucrative drug smuggling routes.
Mexican media say Abasolo has lacked a state police command post for several months.
Reports said Tamaulipas residents exchanged Twitter messages about Monday's shootings hours before the bloodshed was confirmed by the state government. Some tweets warned people to stay indoors.
The shooting, which began at about 0650 local time on Monday, lasted several hours.
In a brief statement, the state government said federal troops and police had been sent to restore order.
Abasolo is an agricultural community about 100km (60 miles) from the state capital, Ciudad Victoria, and has a population of about 14,000.
Last month, shootings in the nearby town of Padilla also left 18 people dead.
More than 34,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against the drug gangs in late 2006.

How to cross the border: Some suggestions for Illegal immigrants

Quebradita and the pasito duranguense are more than just a passing fad; their practitioners saw it as an ethnic celebration against the oppressive and unwelcoming backdrop of anti-immigration sentiments and growing xenophobia. This is perhaps one of the most overt examples of art as a rallying cry that we've studied in this class. Hutchinson notes that the dance clubs that sponsored the quebradita provided a forum for embodying a confrontational aesthetic and a space for creating cross-cultural bridges; it is more a political gathering than mere leisure activity. How might these "bridges" affect the demographic makeup of other free assembly political meetings? Will the quebradita and other ethnic celebrations become a political weapon commonly used for campaign rallies, for example?

The paradigm of identity in border music and dance

The overarching theme of border-oriented music and dance appears to be the owning of identity, regardless of the controversy that certain identities may carry. Particularly with narcocorrido music, there seems to be an ideological discrepancy between celebrating and romanticizing the lives and adventures of narcotraffickers and warning and deterring the music listener from the dangerous life style. While the music certainly offers explicit accounts of the dangers of the narcotraficante lifestyle, the upbeat, danceable nature of the music and the element of boasting in the lyrics suggest a desire to claim pride of one’s community and all of its members, even if said community members are performing dangerous, illegal, and life-threatening activities. With border dance, including Nor-Tec and Quebradita forms, despite criticism of its authenticity and stylistic choices, the members of the border dance community preach the importance of emphasizing and demonstrating a strong sense of identity through their performance. Whether or not the music and dance of the border culture benefits or hurts the cause towards mending the issues surrounding border tension and immigration, they create and strong sense of community and maintain a sense of pride in identity.

Danced politics and Nor-tec Rifa!

Dance is a medium through which we had not yet really border culture and I find it to stand on its own from other art forms. There is truly a universality that is unique to dance and for this reason, it seems a more inclusive genre than music, theatre, performance art or film- all of which are grounded in a language and a specific voice. Dance is easily accessible to anyone. Perhaps most notably, many of these dance forms are improvisational which distinguishes them significantly from the other mediums we've looked at.  Nor-Tec must be a deep authentic expression of the true self as it is often unrehearsed and unplanned. I do wonder, in the room, how open these dance cultures are to strangers? If one does not know the "rules" of the form, how able are they to engage?

Gender and musical appropriation

The game of body politics that women play in regards to the nor-tec is the reaffirmation of one's power over her body, a site that has been an commodity and taken advantage of by the media and others. In the case of Diana in Los Angeles, dancing nor-tec empowers her, giving her the power to express her sexuality without the addition of a male body and becoming a sexual object. In this regard, why do you think certain nor-tec dancing styles allows women to reclaim their bodies?

Nor-tec while becoming part of the Mexican American musical canon, is also an evolution of the ideas of Chicanismo. It is a distinct in that it draws upon Mexican music and American music, making a genre that appeals to those who speak both Spanish and English in ways that other musical forms have not. Personally, I would prefer to listen to the sounds of Nor-tec collective than the sounds of Ricky Martin. Perhaps it is because one is much better and musically imaginative that they other. Or perhaps it is because one is just an appropriation of one musical form and lyrics transformed into English with the other is a true mixture. This appropriation can be considered inauthentic, but that is a relative term. Looking to Ricky Martin and others as a point of interest, why did the music of certain Latin Americans make it into the mainstream mainstream ,while others were left on the periphery?

Week 10

While reading "Danced politics and quebradita aesthetics," the quote that stood out most to me whas when Hutchinson said, "When I first began to study the quebradita, I was struck by how many people were moved to express disapproval of my topic. A Mexican police officer who stopped me as I drove across the border wanted to know why I didn't study something 'nice' instead, like ballet folklorico." It made me think about the difference between "high" and "low" culture and their respective values. I find it interesting that though "low culture" has a reputation for being lawless, disorganized, and embarassing, it is often, on the flipside, empowering. For example, when I went to Lah Tere's talk as my cultural event, she talked about how hip-hop music essentially saved her life as a teenager growing up in the barrio. The same goes for the quebradita, as Hutchinson discusses its effectiveness in keeping teenagers out of gangs. I see that as central to the reason why things seen as low culture are worth studying. Though we may want to ignore such art forms and focus on the polished, shiny aspects of a culture, young people growing up in difficult circumstances may have trouble accessing or relating to what we consider respectable (ballet, the fine arts, and orchestra come to mind when I think of this idea). If they cannot have things like hip-hop, rap, and the quebradita, they have even fewer forms of self-expression to turn to, making falling into drug and gang culture far easier. Therefore, I think it can be interesting and meaningful to analyze the history behind low culture, why it is viewed as such, and how it can possibly make positive contributions to society. What do others think about the quebradita article and the upsides and downsides to high and low culture and the distinctions between them?

Week 9 Questions

1. I love the idea of the "quebradita" that uses music and dance to physically express cultural identity, class tensions and nationalism for Mexican-Americans. How much more beneficial is it to use aesthetics like dance and music which have a universal quality in their expression that performance, possibly limited by language barriers, may not provide? Is this art form too ambiguous in trying to address Americanization AND cultural identity? Does this come across without having read the articles that we were assigned? What is the significance of dancing solo versus as a couple, especially in the feminist context of border culture which we learned back with Nao Bustamante?

2. As we reach the end of the quarter, I would like to look at the art forms as a whole. Between music, visual art, and performance, what are each form's individual advantages and disadvantages? What different approaches does each take in examining and addressing border culture? What are the different borders which have been crossed throughout the quarter as we looked at the border culture and what are the benefits of being more knowledgeable as we are now in helping to ease the conflict between Mexicans and Americans?

Week 9 question

On page 172 of Nor-Tec Rifa, Madrid explains that Nor-Tec is a fantasy. This connected with me. Images of losing oneself in the music on a dance floor popped into my head, and all of his claims were instantly true. He writes: "Nor-Tec is a fantasy that ameliorates ethnic, racial, and gender roles and class conditions that contradict these desires while at the same time contesting them, providing a site for their performative reconfiguration." This incredibly powerful statement makes me wonder, do we have something this powerful and equalizing in American music? A style of music that draws everyone together, no matter what gender, race, or class, while at the same time individualizing them as they all dance in their own personal style?

The passion and conviction with which Madrid speaks of the Nor-Tec dancing brings to mind all of the different languages Anzaldua spoke of in her book, except in a more positive light. A person's Nor-Tec dance is an individual preference, much like language, only without the stigma. Everyone is free to dance as they please, free of judgment. Are we capable of expressing more through dance than we think? How powerful is the language of dance? Madrid points out that Nor-Tec dance is "a canvas for the projection and reconfiguration [...] of social representation and self identification." To me, it sounds like he is speaking of a language so much that it is uncanny. If language was treated with the same freedom and acceptance as dance, would border relationships change?

Week 10 Questions

1. One aspect of Madrid's argument (and also quintessential to Kun's) is the concept of music-making as identity formation. I completely agree with what they say regarding this, the kind of music one listens to is oftentimes at the center of who that individual is. However, and this is what I wrote about in my paper, I'm concerned that at face value, if this concept of identity formation were taken too far, it would further entrench the "us versus them" concept that continually cycles through racism and xenophobia. Where is the line between music-making for the joy of declaring personal identity, and music-making declaring and entrenching an "us versus them" mentality?

2. As I think about dance that has been especially politically charged or just controversial, I think of Elvis shaking his hips and the polarizing nature that it had in American society in the 50's. In this new era of globalization and desensitization, is it possible for dance to have that kind of impact still? More specifically, do quebradita, Nor-Tec dance, or pasito dance styles accomplish what their artists set out to do?

Cultural Outing- Latino/a Studies Professor's Work on Trans-National Performances of Indigeneity

Micaela Diaz-Sanchez PhD Mellon Post doctorate Fellow in Latino/a Studies presents “Body as Codex-ized Word Chicana+Mexicana Transnational Performances of Indigeneity”:
For my cultural outing I attended a lecture/reading by Professor Micaela Diaz-Sanchez held by Northwestern’s Latino/Latina Studies Program. Professor Diaz-Sanchez addressed the topic of the representation of indigeneity by two different Chicana/Mexicana performance artists and how indigeneity is presented in both the artistic and political realms of modern Mexican society. Her paper focused on two distinct performances by two artists- Jesusa Rodriguez and Celia Herrera-Rodriguez. Her analysis of the two works delved into the issues of class, gender, race, and sexuality that arise within the two pieces, focusing specifically on the codification of class in the disclusion of Mexico’s indigenous peoples in modern-day Mexico. Jesusa and Celia take very differing approaches to represent the struggles of indigenous peoples in Mexico. Jesusa’s performance piece, entitled Coatlicue addresses the broader sense of indigeneity and it’s place within Mexico’s national identity. Her piece involved a giant puppet of an indigenous “mother goddess” who chides her children of Mexico for forgetting their indigenous roots and the modern political schema that is working to keep Mexican indigeneity as solely a memory. Celia’s piece is a more intimate portrayal of the influence of the indigenous as she tells her own story and the story of her family. She shows how everyday activities like ironing or opening a blanket are rooted in the collective indigenous past. Her focus is a more personal historical recover of the indigenous. With both artists, even with their differing cultural politics and aesthetic techniques, work towards addressing the issues present in modern Mexico in regards to indigenous rights and the collective embracing of the indigenous past (specifically by Chicano/as). Professor Diaz-Sanchez’s work was completely applicable to our class discussions of how performance can be used as a political tool. Her talk also briefly mentioned Cherrie Moraga’s The Hungry Woman. For our purposes, within this class, the fight of the indigenous is similar to that of the borderland people who are searching for an identity as a group who is claimed by neither side. Both artists use their differing artistic merit to fight for the rights of these groups, focusing on the class struggles that emerge as a member of an ostracized or forgotten group. In a similar vien, the borderlands are an unclaimed space that people attempt to push to the back of our collective historical memories, as though not acknowledging the truth will make a change. As these artists prove, it is only through drawing awareness to these issues that we will ever move forward.

"Nor-tec Rifa!" questions

On page 179 of Alejandro Madrid's "Nor-tec Rifa!" it is mentioned that Latin American discourses, "in an attempt to create a unified Latin American other against which to identify a homogenized white U.S. identity, have themselves homogenized Latin American cultures and the diversity of Latin American experiences in the United States." I wonder whether building an "us vs. them" mentality necessarily creates a homogenized "us" and "them"? Is there a way that this dichotomy is maintained with a more heterogeneous view of one side by the other? Or does understanding the other side's complexity legitimize it to the point that the "us vs. them" phenomenon is partially broken down?

The other question I had, while reading the same piece, is in relation to Madrid's characterization of women in "open" versus "closed" dancing. Whenever he mentions women dancing by themselves ("openly"), with no men attached, he says it's a reflection of their desires for modernity and independence and that it removes them from the institutionalized desire for and use of the body that is displayed when women dance with the men ("closed"). My question is...can't this "closed" dancing be a reflection of "experiential" rather than "institutionalized" desire, as well? Why can't a woman desire, in addition to independence, a sense of companionship and dependence on her male counterpart?

Week 9 - March 7

How does the American media effect the rise and fall of Mexican-American social interactions. If it can so shape the music and dancing culture, what are the other effects that it has?

Can cultures modernize without breaking from the traditional? The dance scene says no, that to modernize a new type of music and dancing is needed, but is this so? Could more equal dance styles modernize the older more traditional music?

Politics of Terror, Armed Men, and the Abandonment of Ciudad Juarez

For my cultural outing, I attended Héctor Domínguez Ruvalcaba's talk on Politics of Terror, Armed Men and the Abandonment of Ciudad Juarez at the Buffet Center. In addition to presenting some photos and video, Ruvalcaba presented the research of Daniel Roldán, a student at la Universidad de Ciudad Juarez on the core issues currently plaguing Ciudad Juarez and its people.

Ruvalcaba opened the talk with a series of pictures. "I'm not going to make any comments," he said "I just want to give you a visual image of what Ciudad Juarez is like today." Although we might have expected the images to feature extreme violence, terror and criminality, the photos displayed a completely opposite scene: complete vacancy. A series of data presented after the slideshow revealed that almost 300,000 people fled the city between 2007 and 2010 due to violence, leaving almost 20% of homes in Ciudad Juarez abandoned.

December 2006 marks the beginning of Mexican President Calderon's war on drugs, and simultaneously, a horrific rash of homicides, kidnappings and disappearances. Women are particularly vulnerable, and are often mass-raped and injured as a part of mafia celebrations. "Every time a shipment of drugs crosses the border, the mafia organizes an orgy," Ruvalcaba described, "They kidnap a couple of young women to rape. We know the police are involved because there have been incidents in which we could see marks from the handcuffs."

Criminal involvement of the police and military in Ciudad Juarez was a major theme of Ruvalcaba's talk. Not only are the police directly and indiscreetly involved in criminal operations such as assassinations, rapes, and extortion in Ciudad Juarez, but because the police have aligned with the Juarez Cartel and the military with the Sinaloa Cartel, the two official bodies of armed men have essentially declared war on each other, and left Mexican citizens completely without protection. "You would think that the people would be scared of the criminals," Ruvalcaba stated, "but they're more afraid of the police. To them, the police are the real criminals." Indeed, he continued to note that the police are the largest employer of sicarios in Ciudad Juarez.

But the saddest part of the whole talk was Ruvalcaba's description of the utter desperation and despair in the city. He described an event that had been chronicled in Ciudad Juarez's Diario last year in which a boy was shot while sitting in the passenger seat of his father's car. "He was killed because he was laughing," Ruvalcaba explained, "the guy killed him just because he was happy."

Pictorial Diagram of the Mexican Drug Cartels

NYTimes: Mexico's Calderón Visits White House Amid Rising Tension

March 3, 2011

Mexican Leader Visits Obama Amid Tension

By GINGER THOMPSON

WASHINGTON — President Obama and his Mexican counterpart will meet Thursday in an effort to repair damaged relations and tamp down a diplomatic blame game over the violent drug wars raging south of the border.
President Felipe Calderón of Mexico is to spend the morning at the White House, and in a joint news conference the two leaders may signal whether they were able to overcome the chill that has taken hold in their once warm relations and take any concrete steps toward renewing their common fight against drug trafficking organizations.
The talks come more than two weeks after an American law enforcement agent was gunned down by suspected drug traffickers on a busy Mexican highway. The attack reinforced a sense among Mexicans that their government was losing the war against drugs. And it reminded Americans that this was their fight, too.
But there has been as much tension as cohesion across the border, with the United States raising questions about whether Mexico was too weak and corrupt to stand against organized crime, and Mexico accusing the United States of failing to accept responsibility — in deeds, as much as words — for its share of the problem.
“Mexico wants the United States to act with more urgency,” said Rafael Fernández de Castro, who last week left his post as an adviser to Mr. Calderón to return to academia. “And Washington wants Mexico to show more results.”
Until recently, the two governments publicly appeared to be the strongest of allies. Mr. Calderón was the first head of state that Mr. Obama received after he was elected. The two leaders have met at least five times, including two trips Mr. Obama took to Mexico in 2009 and Mr. Calderón’s state visit to Washington last May. A couple months before that, in an unprecedented display of American support for its southern neighbor, several of Mr. Obama’s highest-ranking cabinet members met in Mexico City with their Mexican counterparts to work on strategies for cooperating in the fight against drug trafficking organizations.
Those expressions of goodwill, and increased cooperation among agencies, however, didn’t add up to much on the ground. More than 34,000 Mexicans have been killed in drug-related violence in the four years since Mr. Calderón took office and dispatched his military to take down the traffickers.
Mr. Obama and Mr. Calderón have seemed undaunted, saying the violence was to be expected and was a sign that the well-armed and well-financed traffickers were in disarray as a result of the government offensive.
“This is a generational battle. It’s going to take time,” said Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican envoy to Washington. “Whoever thought this was going to be easy is smoking too much of the stuff we’re seizing.”
Then, at the end of last year, the diplomatic harmony was shattered when secret State Department cables released by WikiLeaks presented a picture of such intense rivalry among Mexico’s civilian law enforcement agencies and its military that little gets done. Mr. Calderón shot back last week, telling a Mexican newspaper that the cables showed the “ignorance” of American diplomats, and accusing United States law enforcement agencies of tripping over one another.
Add to that, both Mexico and the United States will have presidential elections next year. Mr. Obama is counting on the Latino vote — which is predominantly Mexican. And even though Mr. Calderón cannot run for another term, the way he handles relations with the United States will almost certainly affect his party’s chances.
Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said with Mexico and the United States deeply dependent on each other for things like trade, immigration and security, the diplomatic tensions threatened to overshadow the need to work together day to day.
Mr. Selee said not to expect any bold new initiatives to be announced during Mr. Calderón’s visit. Officials in both governments will consider the trip a success if they can put things back to where they were before WikiLeaks.
“The relationship is working well at an operational level,” Mr. Selee said. “But the presidents need to get the political dialogue back on track, because this griping can get in the way of everything else.”
Mr. Obama is expected to reiterate his confidence in Mr. Calderón, and promise to make good on the $1.4 billion the United States committed to Mexico’s counternarcotics efforts under a policy called the Merida Initiative.
Whether that’s going to be good enough for the openly miffed Mr. Calderón remains to be seen. Political observers said they would be listening to Mr. Calderón’s comments and watching his body language for cues.

Two Points that I Neglected to Mention Re: Art Critique

Hello, all. I hope that we enjoyed moving and shaking today as we reflected upon the borders of our critical and evaluative practices. A couple points that I wanted to bring up:

1. We did not discuss paradigm shifts in art practice. This is an aspect of social and institutional critique: sometimes, formerly-effective art practices no longer 'work' for audiences in the same ways. Ideas and methods of presentation become dated, and new methods are developed. At other moments, 'old' ideas and methods are reintroduced to 'new' publics. Why? I think that these trends are important to observe as keys to the large-scale issues and concerns affecting populations at a certain time and place.

2. In addition to Sara's excellent point about geographic and temporal changes in conceptions of what constitutes 'art,' we should acknowledge that our own tastes are frequently changing, that we like things that we formerly did not, and that we 'outgrow' other ideas and texts that formerly engaged us. This is a crucial part of why hard-and-fast borders of aesthetic appreciation are often counterproductive.

NPR piece on Narcocorridos

For my cultural outing, I attended the on-campus presentation "Indigenismo, Order and the Nation- The Transnational Circulation of Mexican Independence During the 1910 Centennial" given by Raul Ramos, Associate Professor at the University of Houston. Throughout his 90 minute presentation, he explored the role of celebrating the Mexican Independence in the United States and the effects of transnationality, specifically focusing on the 1910 Mexican centennial parade and the process of organizing it on the US side of the border.

Prof. Ramos displayed an array of archived photos from the 19th century and from the 1910 Mexico City celebration. His contextualization of the region made it apparent that the borderlands during that period were divisive; Mexican identity as well as American identity were difficult to articulate given that the Mexican Revolution was brewing in 1910 and the Texas revolution of 1835 was still fresh on the minds of many borderland Americans. This was an area whose peoples were not complacent to be sedentary.

The presentation made me think back to our lecture focusing on how to represent chicanismo and exploring how memory operates in terms of place and people. Surely it was strange for some living north of the Rio Grande to one day celebrate Mexican Independence and later fight against Mexico in the Mexican American War. Even more curios is how the 1910 Mexico centennial celebration was largely a commemoration of the indigenous as a strong and successful people, yet within Mexico at that period- and sadly, continuing today- any full blooded Aztec or Mayan was more than likely extremely impoverished. The cultural image perpetuated at that time clashed with the reality of the situation. Why?

Prof. Ramos notes that the celebration had a principal aim of attracting foreign investment by presenting to the world a united Mexico that was politically stable; electricity, for example, immediately became available in Mexico City specifically for the foreign dignitaries visiting the parade. However, "juntas patrioticas" were springing up frequently throughout the countryside as discontent swirled amongst the common people. Clearly this was attempt to distract the naysayers with the recent jewel of technology- electricity- from the campesinos organizing in arms outside of Mexico City.

This discordant atmosphere has many implications today in the chicanismo movement. Language, for example, is no longer the dividing line between American and Mexican. The modern day "mestizo" is perhaps most visible in language; Tex-Mex and Spanglish are examples of the ever evolving borderlands identities. Indeed, as in the 1910 centennial parade demonstrated, the cultural images and icons used to allude to a once powerful people indirectly highlights the great chasm from what they were remembered for compared to what they are today. What will the use of proper Spanish allude to in the future in light of the evolving combination of Spanish and English frequently used in the borderlands? What memories does Nahautl, the language of the Aztecs, conjure?

Week 8: Music

After discussing drug cartels at length, watching Sin nombre, reading the first few pages of "Narcocorridos and the Cultural Persona of the Narcotrafficker," and reading the below comparisons to US rap and hip hop, I felt fairly prepared for the audio clips we listened to, and fairly sure of my preconception of what they would sound like. I was so wrong!

The way the Narcocorrido/Hip Hop Parallel appears to me is that both musical forms arose out of a subculture with a need to augment an establishing image. (Maybe this is not far off from what Edberg, and Christine below, discusses about creating what they sell.) For the American urban poor, and particularly a subculture within that centers around gangs and drug culture, the establishing image was one of informal, but very real power over and in opposition to legitimate authorities. Rap and hip hop developed along with a need to justify (we grew up poor and society treated us badly) and exert (we have guns and we've never been afraid to use them) this authority. Not only do the lyrics explain this perspective, but the sound of the music is usually aggressive and tough.

So how, when it seems that the narcotraficante culture has such a similar image to augment, does their music come out so radically differently?

Narcocorridos v. American Hip-Hop?

While reading the article about Narcocorridos and their social stratification in (particularly northern) Mexico, I was immediately reminded of the stories of American hip-hop artists and the place they have within lower-class, urban society. While in Mexico, the narcocorridos are revered by "the rural, regional, and subaltern identity" aka "people with less education, rural people, and migrants," in the U.S. we see the hip-hop artists representing the collective consciousness of the lower-class, urban youth living in the projects or other rough neighborhoods. In both cases, the "heroes" in question are often connected to the drug trade or a gang system of some sort. As Edberg states representative of a "symbolic faddism of rebelliousness, edginess, and danger." Both groups use their music to challenge the "system" and blatantly celebrate their illegal activities of drugs, gang violence, and other politically sensitive topics. They are both clearly defined within their roles and have a sort of power about them because of their ability to so easily disregard the political powers. They say what they want (or rather sing/rap what they want) and are seen as heroes in societies that rarely get their voices heard. My question becomes is this a good thing? Are these groups helping those that look up to them by challenging the powers? Or are their incentives selfish ones? Ones of power and greed and aggression?

Week 8 - February 28th

In the text, the drug traffickers are thought of as heroes because they start from humble beginnings and become wealthy. How is this different than the American Dream? Yes, it manifests itself in negative addition to a community, but the idea of being just as likely as anyone else to become wealthy is essentially the same. Is this want an indication of a new movement for better living and equality in the Mexican population?

I was also confused if the text was saying that the narcocorridos are so popular because they so closely resemble regular corridos which are popular, or if they are popular because of their "street" origins which makes them edgier and more appealing?

Cultural Outing- Dr. Marquez

I too had the privilege to attend Dr. Marquez’ talk, “Latinos as the Living Dead: The Necropolitics of Immigration.” He began by raising awareness of just how many people have been seeping through our borders in the last few decades, with the economic crisis of 2008 being the only factor that has really halted immigration, and even that only briefly.  He discussed the simultaneous opening of the border for trade and commerce (NAFTA) with the closing of the border to people. But I was most intrigued by his ideas on the role of mythology in transforming Latinos into serious threats in the minds of Americans.

He broke down these myths into three meta-rules, as he called them. First, was the idea that the US manifests crises of sovereignty in order to establish authority. This is an accusation that has been made over and over. Marquez suggests that American people have bought into these created “catastrophes” and fallen right into our government’s trap as we rely on them to save us. His second rule was that US nationalism is being regenerated through state-sanctioned violence, such as what we’re seeing along the US-Mexico border with the guards essentially authorized to kill anyone who pisses them off.  The use of force is completely disproportionate to the threat. Finally, Marquez points to the testimonies of victims who clearly recognize what is happening to them. They are not stupid. The Latinos understand what’s going on and have created their own subjectivity/consciousness in response.

I was really fascinated by the role of myth in this whole controversy. We perpetuate clever nomenclatures, such as the “war on crime” or the “war on gangs” or the “war on drugs” to justify doing unthinkable violence towards anyone who might somehow fall under those categories. The government makes the border about hot-button issues like the environment rather than the lives that are being lost. Marquez hit it straight on the head when he said, “We care more about protecting rare species than human lives”.

This lecture had a great deal to do with the many intricate and complex layers surrounding this whole issue that we’ve been unpacking in class. Marquez referred to the borderlands as “Deathworld”; an appropriate nickname that I think a lot of our Chicano artists (Margolles, Moraga) would also adopt.  At the end, Marquez brought sexuality into the conversation. He mentioned that it has been the mothers that are pushed to the forefront of these issues. The phrase he’s heard over and over again: “I want to know the name of the guy who shot my son.” The namelessness of the perpetrators is difficult to combat; these guards are merely acting on behalf of our country. This sense of anonymity has often been addressed or challenged in the artistic works we’ve examined. Margolles expresses the anonymity in death, the bodies on top of bodies, completely separate from their identities other than that which makes them the enemy. I think of Asco’s work, tagging their names on the museum; fighting this spirit of exclusion, desperate to be heard. Marquez brought many of these seemingly disparate pieces together in a very compelling, unified way that helped me to understand how all of these emotions, reactions, and lies are tied up in the same issue.

Week 8

The readings this week talked a lot about the narkotrafficker persona. In some ways, these performas remind me of mafias here in the United States. They also remind me of the Mexican folk hero, Zorro. In what ways do these personas exist in other areas of the United States? How has the border persona also exist within our own culture? Who is the American Zorro? Within music as well. The article briefly mentioned how narcocorridos are similar to our hip-hop rap culture. Ever since rap developed in the 1980s, there has been an edge as well as a freedom to this art form. This is a medium where controversial and dangerous topics can be brought to light and into discussion. So while this narcocorridos may be seen as threatening to the upper class, how can they also be educational, inspiring, and enlightening? In what ways could they be a positive influence, especially when acting as a powerful voice for the poor and disenfranchised?

Week 8

1. Music is an enduring art form that has transcended centuries in cultures around the globe. Every country has traditional music that is based in that country's specific history. How do the clips to which we listened fit specifically to the culture and history of Mexico? For example, how do Mexican myths affect the musical art form? How was Mexican music avoided Americanization and how has the border affected the culturally rooted music heard throughout the country of Mexico? While Edberg and Cameron compare the Narcocorridos with urban hip hop and rap music in the United States, the sounds and musical styles are extremely different. I think it would be important to discuss what the similarities are and this could give light to musical and thus cultural differences across the border.

2. What role does music play in Mexican nationalism? Do the messages in the Narcocorridos encourage the drug trade that is destroying Mexico's economy and forcing illegal immigration into the United States? What is the political role of the musical art form in a world where Mexico must struggle to survive?

Cultural Outing Post

On Wednesday, I attended the seminar titled, “Latinos as the Living Dead: The Necropolitics of U.S. Immigration Policy,” led by Doctor John Márquez. He offered some personal information including the fact that his mother spent the first 25 years of her life as an undocumented immigrant, which already made his story relevant to what we’ve been discussing in class. Much of the lecture surrounded race identity and the role of racial violence in immigration policy. His main objective seemed to be revealing the shocking “death toll” aspect of the militarized border, and how the United States has justified these deaths by their residual effect of deterring illegal immigrants from usurping the jobs of American citizens in a struggling economy. Like many of the readings we’ve examined in the class, Dr. Márquez exposed some of the fallacy and hypocrisy in U.S. justification for the border control policy, such as the notion that certain pundits claimed the increase in violence resulted from the attacks of 9/11 despite the fact that the death toll was high before 9/11. He discussed Rahm Emanuel’s “Battle Plan” of pushing immigrants towards desolate terrain where they would be more likely to dies from strategies of head, cold, and hunger, a type of veiled extermination. He mentioned that the agenda of U.S. officials was to perpetuate of decrease in number of immigrants by essentially warning Mexican immigrants that crossing the border could lead to their death. He pointed out the irony of the border patrol protecting rattlesnakes and skunks from the “immigrant footprint” while allowing immigrants themselves to die in large numbers. His points surrounding U.S. xenophobia and the growing death toll would not have left as lasting an impression had he not highlighted a few specific individuals and their stories. By mentioning the story of Ezekial Hernandez, a Mexican-American youth, born and raised in the U.S., who was mistakenly identified and as a drug muggier and gunned down and killed by a Marine sniper, Dr. Márquez was able to personalize and bring a face to a topic that a lecture that could have seemed dry and redundant. The fact that the Marine who murdered Ezekial Hernanadez was defended at the Pentagon for protecting his nation only increased the validity of Dr. Márquez’ lecture.

Week 8

In part of chapter 4 in Mark Cameron Edberg's book, he compares the narcotrafficker persona to the urban dealer persona in the U.S. Edberg points to a few things: the two personae share an emphasis on "performance, on establishing a reputation and carrying out a daily performance that validates the performer" (116); both simultaneously "contest and accept dominant group meanings with respect to the criteria for establishing oneself as a 'significant' or admire person" (117); and for both personae, "death is not the ending but the 'launching' of an individual into a timeless existence as an iteration of the persona whose life will float in the popular imaginary" (117).

What Edberg doesn't address what I feel is another important parallel. Just as the narcotrafficker persona is made famous through narcocorridos, the urban dealer persona receives a good bit of attention in modern U.S. rap and hip-hop music. One specific example came to mind when I read the following sentence in Edberg's book: "Sell narcocorridos, make money, be powerful — no matter what your humble roots" (109). This reminded me of Kanye West, an artist many dub a "poser" because he purportedly grew up outside of the world he sings about so frequently. Although he has little to no lived experience in the urban dealer environment, he releases songs like "We Don't Care," with lyrics about "drug dealing just to get by." And then? He sells them. For lots of money.

Kanye West is HUGE, and it's because he sings about what everybody wants to hear — the thug life — although he never lived it. Then it got me thinking: In what other ways does U.S. pop culture in general (or in specific) follow the narcocorrido model of creating what sells? Isn't it true that this idea is necessarily part of every piece of mainstream pop cultural art — artists see what their audiences find appealing, then present it to them? In what way do modern narcocorridos differ from this?

Edberg also writes that "corridos are often tales of how someone died, as a way of saying who they were..." (113). He further says that Icelanders were obsessed with honor, esteem and reputation and that Mexicans are said to share that characteristic. Often with people in Mexico (especially narcotraffickers), their honor, esteem and reputation were revealed by and commemorated after death. This made me think back to Margolles' work (jury's still out on whether it's called "art") with the dead bodies. In the "self-portraits" where she's holding or standing next to the bodies in the morgue, is that Margolles' way of saying, "Where are the corridos for these people? Who's singing about how this man died?"

My question back to Margolles would be: What do their lives mean if their death is disrespected by some lady taking gross pictures with them? OR is that the point? Does taking the pictures and displaying them to the public commemorate these people's lives in a way which they wouldn't otherwise receive? If so, why does Margolles strive to do this? How do corridos differ from this and other ways of commemorating a life (or a death)?

Dr. John Marquez – Latinos as the Living Dead

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. John Marquez presented a lecture entited “Latinos as the Living Dead – The Necropolitics of US Immigration Policy.” In his lecture, Dr. Marquez focused primarily on how the US concept of sovereignty does not allow for any grey area along the border, and how border militarization is incredibly unfair to Mexican nationals. His lecture was fascinating, albeit incredibly fast paced (sometimes so much so that it was hard to understand!). He began by explaining border militarization and its detriments. I was particularly moved by his claim that the borders that divide first and third world countries are the most volatile, as in the US/Mexico border and the Spain/Africa divide. This makes complete sense to me, though I never thought of it in that way. The immediate difference in wealth and quality of life is stark and provoking, which I of course understood, but the way Dr. Marquez explained it made it much clearer and direct. He referred to the border as a “death world,” which at first seemed too strong a term, but as he continued with the lecture, became totally appropriate in my mind.

Dr. Marquez then gave two examples of innocent children whose lives had been taken by border violence. The first was a young Mexican-American girl whose Arizona house had been stormed by minutemen, shooting her to death in the process. The second was the story of Sergio Hernandez Guereca who was caught trying to throw rocks at border patrol from quite some distance and was shot in the face after causing no physical harm to the patrol officers. Both of these stories were heartbreaking—to see how Mexican and Mexican-American families alike are affected by the border violence is shocking and disheartening. Dr. Marquez then explained that the border militarization and death toll are often blamed on 9/11, while this increase in border violence actually predates 9/11 by approximately ten years.

Dr. Marquez then explained the efforts of a group called No More Deaths, who strive to make life easier for those attempting to get across the border alive. They drop off water jugs in the middle of the desert that makes up the border where hundreds of Mexican bodies are found every year, having died of heat exposure or dehydration. This reminded me of the Brinco shoes from the inSITE exhibition. Though No More Deaths was not an artistic organization, their attempt to help those attempting to cross the border by providing supplies in a covert way was equally meaningful in its message. Sadly, the No More Deaths water jugs were ruled environmentally dangerous by the US 9th Circuit Court. The court ruled that the unobtrusive plastic jugs were distressing for the native animals of the region. This rejection of a blatant (and safe) expression of help and outreach does not paint the US Judicial system in a good light.

Though I did not always understand what Dr. Marquez was talking about, the passion with which he spoke was moving. To hear the stories of Latino struggles from someone who has studied it so extensively and is the child of an illegal immigrant himself was quite moving. Though Dr. Marquez was unable to finish his lecture due to time constraints, he ended on an emotional note, explaining how mothers of those killed on the border have come to the forefront of those fighting for a decrease in militarization of the border. The mothers are unafraid to fight to end the violence, and as Dr. Marquez noted, all they really want to know is the name of the man who killed their son. These mothers will likely never get their wish, however, as the border patrol officers (when on duty) are not acting as individuals, but rather as a part of the state, and so their names are irrelevant. This idea of anonymity on the part of the US in the border dispute was particularly jarring for me and I am still thinking about it to this day. Dr. Marquez painted a picture of family and love on the Mexican side and ruthless machination on the US side.

"Latinos as the 'Living Dead'

On Wednesday February 23rd, I attended a talk sponsored by the MSA were Professor John Marquez read an excerpt from his soon to be published book "Latinos as the 'Living Dead': The 'Necropolitics of U.S. Immigration Policy." Although not heavily discussed in class Professor Marquez talked in depth about border militarization and the fact that the US government implemented this plan as a deterrent for immigration. Basically, by militarizing the border, the government expected to use force and stop immigration; death, fear and violence as effective measures. This is a human rights issue as much as it is an immigration one. In attempts to protect borders, the government has enacted plans veneered an environmental issues (various human rights groups have placed water bottle in desert areas, which are also national parks to help those crossing) to stop and demonize immigrants.

In the realm of performance, Marquez's excerpt alluded to images of death, musical performance and identity transformation. First, images of death. In addition to deterring immigration by militarizing the border, the border patrol, if I remember correctly, would go into border cities and post pictures of dead immigrants, roting corpses and the such, to stop immigration. As an activist, Marquez and others would tear down these horrific images. While the images did portray a truth, the fact that it is a truth perpetuated by those posting the pictures is ironic. On the border, the humanity of border patrol officers and the immigrants they needlessly kill are lost. In order to protect and enforce sovereignty, that is being "threatened' by this mass influx of low wage workers, the border patrol working in the name of the government and US citizens, kills many innocent and unarmed people. (Additionally Marquez discussed that border patrol officers feel threatened when people on the other side of the border through rocks at them. These may not even be Mexicans immigrating, but that is not the point. The point is that they feel threatened by a rock and retaliate by shooting bullets. This is a "disproportionate use of force" and result in unnecessary deaths.)

Musical performance as a reaction to death in the border region is inherently linked to the reading for this week. Marquez mentioned a corrido written for a young man killed by La Migra. Sergio Hernandez Guereca was on the other side of the Rio Grande and apparently threw rocks at the border patrol and was shot in the face. His senseless death caused a friend of his to write a song about him stating that the "border patrol assassinated a child" and "without power I have nothing. " Having a corrido be the song of choice implies an antagonist nature to the song, protesting hardships, power struggle and an use vs them mentality. Corridos as explained in this week's reading are considered a lower class art form. Although I know nothing about Sergio, I can assume that he was lower class and without the power that comes with being upper class, he died because of a rock.

Lastly, Marquez discussed afterwards, the mothers that take action and become voices for their dead children, almost exclusively sons. This public display of grief and putting oneself in the spotlight to shine a light on the depravity of the border region, allows these women to become more than that. They become victims in a way, losing a child way before his time. They enhance the tragedy. They ask to know who killed their children and are met with silence.

Marquez's book and subsequent Q&A session were informative and disheartening. Informative because it sheds light on the little known , to me anyway, history of border militarization and Chicago's mayor elect involvement with it, along with the rocks vs. gun situation.

Disheartening because the border patrol seems to kill people indiscriminately, even shooting American citizen on this side of the border (not that this fact makes it any worse. People are people, regardless of nationality). It is obvious after listening to Marquez that to effectively curb immigration, humanitarian and non-militarized methods need to taken, while also giving border crosses the humanity and respect they deserve.

*Also, video of Sergio being shot is all over the web. I don't plan on watching it.

Cultural Outing - Dr. John Marquez

Yesterday afternoon, several of us in class got the opportunity to listen to Dr. John Marquez speak from his newest paper "WetBlacks and Brown Panters: Foundational Blackness and Latino Politics in the Gulf South". The discussion that ensued mostly revolved around the topics from his paper: the concept of sovereignty as a tool to compare the U.S./Mexico border and the southern border of Spain. His main focus was on the concept of sovereignty in the US and how that affects how it treats its southern border. Beyond economic effects (including the fact that both the US and Mexico rely on the border to be relatively porous for economic reasons), he went right to the center of the issue: the unconstitutionality of the border and the practices there. The death toll on the US/Mexico border is higher than any other in the world. Thousands die every single year, and the way things have been going, those numbers are not expected to diminish any time soon. The fact that it is a deadly area isn't the heart of the issue though. The real problem that Marquez has with the exorbitant death toll is that it is seemingly being used as a strategy to attempt to deter illegal immigration.
Marquez argues that not only does the US actively make the border more deadly than it needs to be, but does it in a way that is entirely unconstitutional. Despite popular belief that the enforcing of the border has come on since 9/11, many of these practices of violence predate 9/11 by almost a decade. Marquez pegs the date of border militarization in the early Clinton regime (ca. 1996). In his research, he has discovered that militarizing the border was not just a benign side-effect of increased national security, but an active strategy to kill more immigrants. By militarizing the urban entry points (ie San Diego, Laredo, Juarez), the US government is purposely forcing immigrants into the more desolate landscape of the American southwest. By forcing immigrants to go that way, the US government is hoping that more of them will die while crossing and thus deter future people from attempting to cross.
This argument is then extended and exposed for what it really does to the border patrol who are on the border: legitimizing the use of lethal force against Mexican nationals for no reason other than the fact that they are Mexican. Marquez showed images and told oral histories of several Mexican nationals (some not even trying to cross the border), and Mexican Americans (full American citizens) shot and killed in proximity to the border for attempting to throw rocks at border patrol officers. THROW ROCKS! Subsequently, the US government backs up those officers, allowing and even encouraging their use of deadly force.

I felt that Marquez's talk was extremely enlightening and in every way tied to this course. His portrayal of the US relationship to its southern border, albeit biased, was still very well-researched and supported with real fact. Facts so stunning and blatantly racist that it would be impossible to make them up it seems. Pardon me for sounding informal, but the fact that Mexican nationals are being shot IN THE BACK while RUNNING AWAY FROM BORDER AGENTS are killed and no discipline is brought down on the shooters is ridiculous. Even in an actual wartime scenario, that is a cowardly thing to do to someone, how much more then is it in a situation of immigration. According to the US Constitution, ALL PEOPLES within our borders are supposed to be allotted the same basic civil and human rights regarded to citizens: fair trial, innocent until proven guilty, and NOT SHOT AT IN THE BACK. Additionally, in order to discharge a firearm against another person (use of deadly force), both police and border patrolmen are supposedly held accountable to only resorting to that level of violence when their own or others' lives are in imminent danger and the use of deadly force is the only other resort. Someone running away from you is clearly not a lethal threat unless they have guns attached to their back and can shoot you while facing the other direction.
It really surprises me that our country can be so seemingly corrupt. We constantly look at the global south and the third world as sort-of being stuck in their own plights until they can fix their internal corruption and get their economies up to snuff. But how can we as a nation say that when we're the ones in trillions of dollars of debt and apparently give men the power to shoot Mexicans on sight whether they pose a threat or not. How is that first world behavior?

As far as direct connections to class, this seems to me to be exactly what the entire Chicano movement was fighting against. That if you look Mexican and live close enough to the border (even if you're on the US side), you are still regarded as shoot-able and an invader. One other aspect of Marquez's discussion of US sovereignty was the rhetoric, or myth as he more aptly put it, of calling Mexican immigration an "invasion". Due to this rhetoric and the increasing militarization of the border gives it the impression of a "war zone". This is where the shooting and police brutality comes from. Now, imagine that you're a Chicano. You've lived your whole lifke in the US. You've never committed a single crime in your life. But still, somehow, you are viewed as the enemy, as the invader, as the alien in your own land. Compounded with that, you aren't actually Mexican, so going south of the border, you still find yourself ridiculed for not speaking Spanish and not being Mexican enough. Where are you supposed to go? Once again, forgive my informal writing, but I think putting yourself in their shoes gives a glimpse into what they actually have to deal with.
It is no surprise then that people like Bustamente, Fusco, and Gomez-Peña do the performances that they do. How else can they attempt to explain such blatant racism and rhetoric of hate against their people? Whether or not you agree with those artists repetoire or count it as effective or not, you cannot argue that it is topical and in direct response to real-life issues.
Additionally, Dr. Marquez played a corrido written to commemorate the death of a 15-year-old boy shot and killed by a border patrolman. This goes right along with Kun's piece on the border as an aural space. (Which could be argued to be a whole other border and could comment on the discussion a few blog posts down about the tunnels into the US from Mexico). This corrido really shared the pain and hurt put on an entire community after this boy's death and directly supports Kun's argument that the border is not only physical, but aural as well. The physical border brought about this boy's physical death, but the corrido, by creating and discoursing with the aural border, was definitely a part of that border experience.

I know that a few other people will be posting on this event, and I look forward to bringing it up in class and discussing this more on the blog as well.

Chicago's Mayoral Race...and Implications for Latino Voters

As many of you may now know, Rahm Emanuel has won the mayoral contest, beating out candidates such as Gery Chico, Miguel Del Valle, and Carol Moseley Braun. As yet there are few news agencies reporting on the consequences of this election - a turning-point for Chicago politics, or Daley III? - but one thing is clear: the Latino community will prove a decisive factor in Emanuel's development and maintenance of a strong constituency in the coming term. According to NPR, the Latino vote was divided in this election, and Emanuel garnered very little Latino support. Moreover, Emanuel has modeled his education policy on ex-Mayor Daley's, holding up charter schools like UNO as models - and yet, according to pundit and professor Maria de los Angeles Torres, these schools overtly discourage students from speaking more than one language. Although Torres did not specify which language was encouraged, we can assume it to be English.

How will Rahm fare against the Latino community (or rather, communities) and the unions? Stay tuned...

Extra Credit Current Event

Another way into the US from Mexico, through flash flood water tunnels. A view at the Border Patrol and what they have to put up with and how they characterize their work (contraband/drugs/illegals).

I found Josh Kun's argument that the official US cultural border has no narrative fascinating. He contends that the US government and its policies promote little more than intrusive surveillance, biased legislation, and, consequently, distrust amongst people on both sides of the border. The narrative comes from the various reactions to this experience. The border is articulated and expressed through the retellings of the daily performances and "rituals" of the borderland peoples.

The use of the word "ritual" made me sit back and think. Clearly, the word has a religious connotation, yet I believe that the inherent value it its use here is more indicative of a transcendent, communal experience closer to something a shaman would preach rather than a Catholic priest. How do the daily activities and "rituals" of the borderland people transcend the surface level of their actions? How are religious icons and portrayals used by both the borderland people and the US government to further their agenda (or lack of one)?

Eliminating the border through art

Much of the discussion and performance surrounding the border conflict and culture centers around the idea of effectively eliminating said border to perpetuate a greater sense of cultural intertwining and a lack of cross-cultural distinction. Josh Kun’s article titled “The Aural Border,” along with Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s articles on “La Pocha Nostra” and “The Multicultural Paradigm: An Open Letter to the National Arts Community,” reflect the need for the United States and Latino communicates to educates each other and share their artistic and culture identities to the point where the idea of a “border” is essentially obsolete. Gómez-Peña, in particular, discusses numerous misconceptions surrounding Latino culture and certain hypocrisies inherent in the juxtaposition of U.S. fascination with Latino culture and its resistance to the growing number of Latinos in U.S. communities. He stresses the need for “dialogue” between the communities and the importance of emphasizing the similarities between cultures. Josh Kun, in his article titled, “The Aural Border”, discusses the ways in which music and the “sounds of the border” can blur the media-contrived differences between Latin and Anglo-American cultures. Both authors also declare the need to unite intellectual and artistic sectors of the populations. The performance and artistic methods seem to range in their effectiveness, but the general message of the emerging border-art scene appears to suggest a desire and need to erase the concept of the “border” in order for the cultures at hand to coexist in a peaceful manner.

Week Seven: On Dialogue

In The Multicultural Paradigm, Gómez-Peña puts an enormous amount of emphasis on the use of dialogue as the tool for progress in inter/trans/multi-cultural relations:

"All we can aspire to is beginning a dialogue. This document is a humble contribution. I ask you to join in."

Elaine Peña then critiques and queries this proposal in Pedagogic Interventions, with a focus on how and among whom this dialogue ought to take place. I have a few more fundamental questions with regard to this proposal that, at the end of the day, are questions I have about theater and art in general. They include:

1. Is dialogue really the change we're seeking? And if it isn't the change in and of itself, is it really the vehicle for change? (Many revolutionaries throughout history have been unsatisfied with dialogue.)

2. Is dialogue within reach? Is it a possible goal? Gómez-Peña does argue that dialogue has never taken place between first and third world countries. (Side-note: do we agree with that?)

3. Is performance/theater/art the most useful vessel for dialogue? The most efficient? Is it worthwhile in its capacity as a dialogue-creator? And to that end, is all performance/theater/art capable and of equal value in the creation of dialogue or is there (as La Pocha Nostra seems to believe) a specific methodology for using those media to create dialogue?

Furthermore, how successful is Gómez-Peña's writing in it's attempt to create dialogue? I personally found myself feeling much more invited into the ideas of these readings, as opposed to many past readings that (intentionally and unintentionally) alienated those of us who are white, non-Spanish-speaking, and so on.

Week 7

Guillermo Gomez-Pena's article, with its discussion of North/South vs. East/West and the nature of border culture, made me wonder about the role that globalization plays in defining cultural geography. For example, he describes the shift from an East/West mindset to one of North/South and how there are "hundreds of types of Latino American art in the United States. Each is aesthetically, socially, and politically specific" (21). This idea of how we define and categorize our views of the world and its cultures made me think about the idea of globalization, something we discussed in the first week. Many subscribe to the idea that new information and technology are "shrinking" the world, allowing a diverse range of people to communicate more closely than ever before. However, I wonder how this idea fits in with Gomez-Pena's ideas of geography. What does globalization do to borders? Shift them? Decrease their significance? Increase it? Similarly, how does it affect culture? Do cultures become more similar to each other, or do we get a wider range of subcultures like the ones that exist within Latino art?

Week 7

One similarity that I noticed in the readings this week was between the first article by Kun and Arrizon's article about Chicana Identity and performance. In what ways do these two articles relate about the hybridity of sound and the hybridity of language? In what ways are the aural sounds of the border and spanglish a hybrid? In what ways is the language and sounds/music their own individual entity?

La Pocha Nostra

La Pocha Nostra, the all encompassing arts initiative started by Guillero Gomez-Peña, uses shock value within the realm of human display to parody history. This display of the human body immediately brought to mind Saartjie Baartman, the "hotentot venus" who was put on display around Europe because of her body diverged from what Europeans were used to.

By altering a historical event, adjusting it to make it relevant to La Pocha Nostra and inviting audience participation, intercultural relations are able to take place. Using performance art as a medium to critique history seems like an effective method of bringing light to an underrepresented topic. But for those that are ignorant, is the meaning lost?

Additionally, because La Pocha Nostra is a multicultural organization that crosses multiple boundaries, it can be considered Chicano in the US and something else elsewhere. Does having this morphing ability, take away from La Pocha's message?

Week 7

This week, I was most taken with La Pocha Nostra's mission statement reading. Their structure is so defined and yet so unorganized. Seeing how their organization works from top to bottom was a very worthwhile experience. Their brand of performance art is one that I find more accessible than that of Bustamante or Fusco. I do have a couple of questions about Pocha, though. Who do they want in their audiences? Willing, fun people, clearly, but what ages do they target? Do they change the skeleton of their show based on where they are? Going beyond the "local ethnic kitsch" they require from the local venues they tour, how much does the show vary by location?

On a more concrete level, why did they move to be headquartered in San Francisco? I would think that LA would be closer to their target audience, considering they are rooted in a Mexican background, but San Francisco's art scene is more vibrant and alive with performance art.

Pocha Nostra represents a wide range of artistic expressions. Their show is just crazy enough to be endearing and the fact that they put so much trust in their audiences is thrilling. I must say, I do not usually like performance art, but the structure of the Pocha Nostra shows sound intriguing. This is audience participation to the extreme; Pocha literally puts the show in the audience's hands. I wonder why they chose to make such a drastic choice? What message are they trying to convey by having the audience create and dictate their performance experience?

Gomez-Pena's Negotiating Performance

Reading the Gomez-Pena piece regarding cultural performance and the movements of multi-cultural art I was struck by several of his points. One of the first things he said that really stuck with me was his ideas regarding culture and what that means. He says "We must realize that all cultures are open systems in constant process of transformation, redefinition, and re-contextualization. What we need is dialogue." I really like this idea that all cultures are in a constant state of flux, in the art and performance world we tend to label and classify things. Chicano art, Latino art, African art...culture becomes a definition. We regard it as a stable, unchanging, structured entity- it is the way that we define what we are seeing. The problem with this is just what Gomez-Pena points out, there is no modern culture that is unchanging. There is no way to define a culture, it is composed of too many parts and too many peoples to create a single defining aspect that we use as a label. The only way we will ever be able to "create a dialogue" is if we stop this arbitrary labeling and naming. It is human nature to categorize the things that we encounter but especially in the art world we need to create a multi-cultural/multi-national language that can be used without the judgments and standards imposed by a labeling something as from a specific culture or country. While this is obviously easier said than done I think that something like this has to start with the artists themselves. I often notice in the works that we read written by performers and artists that they tend to lay blame on their audience. They attack the public for labeling them, for not understanding them, for being ignorant. They blame the group as a whole for imposing a label upon them but in reality a lot of times the artists themselves creates their own classification. They self-identify in a certain way and they create art in that same vein. I liked Pena's point that we must create a new language and a new way of making art that will stop this from happening. If we can find a way to create an in-between of sorts, we might actually be able to separate our art from labels and allow it to be seen purely and completely.

Questions

In "The Aural Border", Josh D. Kun talks about all the different kinds of borders that are being formed. "Outside the grasp of the official border(s) yet informed by them, there arises a multiplicity of unofficial borders where borderness is voiced and rescued from the willful aphasia of official culture." This includes narrative, performative and aural borders. All these mediums are helping to draw lines in the sand but I wonder if Kun thinks they are drawing the same line? He speaks of so many types of cultural borders, but does he seem them all as separating the same two sides? Are they simply layered one on top of the other; expressing the same split through different artistic traditions?

In his address, Pena expresses frustration with the select few that have come to represent a Latin boom in American popular culture. "It is mainly the artists who voluntarily or unknowingly resemble the stereotypes who end up being selected by the fingers of the Latino boom..." How would he address the select group? What responsibility ought they bear on behalf of the Latino culture or would he rather they detach themselves entirely? Is it better to have (mis)representation or none at all?

UNdocumented at NU

To continue the conversation of the previous two posts, I am also going to speak about my experience at the Community Action Forum, Undocumented at NU. I, personally, have not had such an experience in getting involved in a movement from the beginning of such a large issue and I found it to be exciting and incredibly informative. While in class we only have a chance to skim over a lot of information about immigration and the issue at large here in the United States, the forum was helpful in delving into the topic even further.

Being a political science major, I was interested in learning the politics regarding the DREAM Act and what exactly it involved. As I was listening to the speakers, however, all I could think about was the clip we watched in class of an interview with Charles Bowden about ways to fix the tension over immigration over the US-Mexico border. Bowden spoke of the issue being not the responsibility of the United States but rather that of the international sphere. The problems surrounding immigration and undocumented persons in the US stem from NAFTA’s inability to accommodate a Third World country like Mexico. This made me wonder about the potential successes of a movement like that of Undocumented at NU. Maybe the issues to address first are international, the root of the problem, before looking at passing the DREAM Act. Perhaps the context of its proposal is not accommodating, what with the economic circumstances and political climate.

What was really exciting, however, was the presence of a representative from the Albany Theatre Project, which we have yet to study. He began by mentioning that in their youth theatre performances, there are currently 6 undocumented performers. He seemed to understand the necessity of the DREAM Act in educating undocumented students who had no say in their coming to America. He also understood the power of the arts in educating and informing the public about the issue. A project that the Theatre is working on now is called 9 digits, about a young person’s obstacles in graduating high school without a social security number. As we have seen in class, the use of the arts to convey a message is highly effective and I think that the tensions surrounding the DREAM Act would be well portrayed through theatrical arts, an opportunity to look at the individual effects on youth and being undocumented.

Ultimately, I learned a lot about the DREAM Act and its costs and benefits but also about the issue of immigration, itself, and its place in the artistic realm. Our class has truly opened my eyes to tensions and issues that I had not truly seen before, especially not through an artistic standpoint. I believe that theatre is a perfect means by which to educate the public to the effects on the youth and children of illegal immigrants who had no say as to whether they wanted to cross the border. Who can say how successful Undocumented at NU will be in gaining community support and sending a message about the DREAM Act but it is an issue that should be recognized and not left to go under the radar. Even if there are bigger issues at hand, community recognition that a problem exists is a good place to start and theatre, as the Albany Theatre Project has realized, is a great means by which to educate and inform.

Questions

1. According to Kun's "The Aural Border", he distiguishes music-making for aesthetic from a term he borrows from Christopher Small: "musicking". He goes on to define it as " 'the totality of a musical performance between the peoplw ho are taking part in whatever capacity in the performance,' whether it be through performing, listening, rehearsing...'Musicking' is not so much about music as sound, but music as social relationship" (Kun 11). Obviuosly, looking at music in this light is especially useful in his argument of an aural border, but is it accurate? I happen to think it is. Music, for me, does have the ability to transcend just pure noise or sound and enter in consciousness and discourse itself. But does it have that power everywhere? In the face of strict border control and il/legalization, does music really have a voice?

2. Gomez-Peña, in his essay "The Multicultural Paradigm..." argues that "The so-called dominant culture is no longer dominant. Dominant culture is a meta-reality that only exists in the virtual space of the mainstream media and in the ideaology and aesthetically controlled spaces of the more established cultural institutions" (Peña 19). Is this not an oxi-moron? Isn't the idea of a dominant culture really the culture that does penetrate through mass-media and established cultural institutions? How can he argue that there is no dominant culture in one sentence, and then say it is a meta-reality put out by the prevailing dominant culuture the next? This question isn't worded as well as I might like it to be, but I hope you understand my meaning. I agree with him that we do live in a diverse East/South-meets-West culture that is constant redefinition and evaluation, but I think there is still a dominant culture. If there weren't, Gomez-Peña himself would be out of a job and without a cause. If there is no dominant culuture, what is he fighting against?