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Module 12: LatinX Sports, Saints, and Secular Spirituality

I really liked the definition of popular that Juan Flores gave. He said popular is usually understood as “the traditions and everyday life of communities and their resistance to social domination”. Popular serves as an alternative to the mainstream. This way the needs and desires of the community that is silenced. The Latina/o theater has a large number of theater collectives that can perform this kind of work. Some examples like Los Angeles Aids and Teatro VIVA. The Los Angeles based-Aids had spread information about HIV prevention and performed in perfomance on stage, in non traditional places, and the Bronx based-Pregones Theater. This theater also happens to produce theatrical work about a Puerto rican experience in New York. They also talked about the definition of popular. Which is that “in order to distinguish it from the local and often more politically-minded theater described above-overlaps with the mainstream to which popular theater opposes itself”. I feel like thisi is a harder definition to understand. The chapter later on talks about how Flores says that in the tweniteht century popular culture has been increasing and has aslo been linked to “the domain of the mass media, the ‘mass culture’ of technical reproduction and industrial commercialization”. Thenrelation with the market is mainly one reason why scholars usually snub pop culture. The commercial investments are viewed as compromising asthetic aspirations. There was a lot of interesting things happening in this chapter. I thought it was awesome to see the different views and definitions they had.

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Module 11: Rasquachismx and Razabilly

In this chapter writer Beth Brant’s stats out by talking about how in her article “The Good Red Road '' she recognized native women’s ancient and or cultural consciousness to be formed by the memory of history, culture, land, and nation. She says how the indeigneous consciousness and framework for all creative work. She then later talks about indigenious arties and ceremonial traditions have always been a huge part of her life. Later in the chapter it talks about how performing mestizaje cna represent cultural production by exhibiting indigenious identities in the Latina/o cultures mainly through body and language practices, exhibiting transformation to explain mestiza and indigenious spirituality, and partcicipating to promote indigenious celebrations and rituals using mythology and symbolism. She uses this way to analyze indigenious performances for the future. She explores all the possibilities on how Latina/os include Perofminrg Metizaje for audiences to create new models and ways to perform indigenious identities and cultures for popular culture. She is trying to achieve the goal of learning integrated notions of indigeneity in popular culture spaces. I think that that is such an interesting thing to explore. She argues that Latina/o cultures have created what they call an “Indian fantasy” which are traditions of indegenious dances. I enjoyed reading this hcapter mainly becuase it talked about native women. I think the reason that i enjoyed it was because I myself am a native american so it was interesting to read about something that I am a part of.

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Module 10: Day of the Dead/ Die de los Muetros

Something I noticed that caught my attention right away was the robot bartender from Rivera’s film “A Robot Walks into a Bar”. A robot replaced the job of a bartender known as Dolores. It's crazy to think that our world is improving with technology everyday and that it's improving so fast to the point where we are being replaced with robots to do our jobs. So because of this the robot was shut down which then led to other robots who work in different parts of the economy. It's scary to think that eventually robots could just take over us. Later on in the chapter it talks about how Rivera’s films “A Robot Walks into a Bar” and “Sleep Dealer” makes use of pop culture references. There was also a reference to Star Wars when they were talking about the lightsaber being from “2001: A Space Odyssey''. What I thought was interesting was the fact that in “A Robot Walks into a Bar” they reference from the past different robots from science fiction. By doing this it shows how hte future is impacted by technology on the Latina/o communities. What the Latina/o cast show in the film is labor in the future and showing how it would be for Latina/o workers that will be replaced by robots. This film also has other science fiction work of Latina/o where robots appear to be in. Technology is improving fast and before we know it robots are going to be working everywhere.

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Module 9: Lowriders, Quinces, and Cultura Joteria

In this chapter it talks about how latino studies are in science fiction and also in the future. Latina/o actors and actresses have participated a lot more in science fiction films. As well as television shows that are produced by non latina/os. The connection between Latina/o and the science fiction genre is not quite there yet. So because of this other Latina/o scholars have come up with ideas that came from the analysis of science fiction. Something that caught my attention was the part where it talks about how Charles Ramierz Berg was questioning the role of the “alien” in science fiction. He was suggesting that it was a stereotypical argument about Latina/os saying that they are aliens in society. I have heard people refer to Latina/os as “aliens” before so I understand what they mean by “alien”. Charles goes on to talk about how the movie Alien symbolzies now real life aliens, so documented and undocumented immigrants that have entered in to the United States. I personally think that “aliens” is not the right word to refer to immigrants. I enjoyed reading about Rivera’s film and how it focuses on and explains the constant pressure that is affecting many of the poor who are searching for a better life. To be able to have the opportunity to have a better life or to give a better life for your children. I think that film really shows the struggle that immigrants are going through.

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Module 8: LatinX Alternative Archives and Hemispheric Foodways

As a kid I dont think I have ever seen a Latina/o comic before. Something I thought was interesting was that the comic industry has been dominated by the superhero genre. I think that Latino/a comics should not have been dominated by superheroes. I think that Latina/o comics are important; they shoundt be pushed away and dominated. There was a Comics Code Authroity that was approved in 1958. The Comics code rule was to make the ednigns a happy ending, having a strong belief in American government, and to prevent the use of sexuality. Using this code has been a concern with children learning about taboo ideas like criminals and sexuality. However it was not created to regualte racist depctions of American ethnic groups. The Latina/o Mocevet for their civil rights in the 1960’s, which counter culture narratives are very influenced by Marxism that dealed with racial and ethnic segregation. A Latina/o artsit artsit that stood out to me was from the superheroes genre is Joe Quesada. He has been a big influential editor of Mrvel Comics. He did not only help the company from bankruptcy, but he also hired editors that came from a diverse cultural background. Joe pushed the company to have more multicultural and LGBT heroes. One examplel that I can relate to is the incorporation of having spiderman from “Spider-man into the Spiderverse” be a character with colored skin. I think slowly and slowly there are more colored skin characters being in superhero movies.

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Module 7: LatinX Pop Activism

I think that chapter 7 was a very interesting chapter to read. It talked about videogames and how they are becoming more and more popular. Video games are becoming one of the most influential forms of entertainment in a society. Something that caught my attention was how in 2004 the global games market was valued for less than 30 million dollars. The market is still behind a lot of other entertainment industries in the United States. The chapter then talks about how overtime the video game industry tripled in size within the last 10 years. I think it's interesting that videogames are becoming as popular as movies. Videogaems are the fastest selling media titles in recent years. It surprises me how fast videogames are becoming more and more popular. Like in the chapter it mentiomns that in 2004 2.38 million copies of Halo 2 were sold in 24 hours of the game being released. It's just crazy to think how fast certain games can become popular. Something that I related to from the chapter was when they were talking about how in most Hispanic households that have young children have an XBox, PlayStation, or Wii in their house. I thought that it was also very true that a lot of people like to buy new video games the day that they are released. Latina/os are still being seen as an underrepsresented group. However Latina/os have been included in most popular games. Games like Fifa and Call of Duty Grand Theft Auto.

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Module 6: Latinx Identity, Language, and Music

In this chapter it talked a lot about digital media, digital technology, and the rising of the internet. I think what really caught my attention was when it was talking about how Perez Hilton and Dulce Candy both show their Latina/o identities to be able to promote pictures of themselves like being family oriented. Something else I thought was interesting was how Hilton drew criticism to herself for seeming to belittle other celebrities of color. Hilton has also been critcized for some comments that hint that Homophobia is a lot worse than racism. He thinks that his gay identity is a lot more important than his Cuban American identity. Something else that I noticed was that Hilton said a slur to will.i.am because Hilton felt attacked by will.i.am's associate. Hilton thought that saying a homophobic slur was worse and more damaging than saying a racial slur. I just think that that now becuase of the things that HIlton has done people see him as “whitewashed.” He is just not with his Cuban American identity. As for Candy’s Youtube videos she moved away from a Mexican American style dress and speech. She has had people comment on her videos about how she is speaking less and less spanish. Some people even commented that she forgot how to speak her native language. I just think that you can not judge or say something about someone that you dont even know if it's true. Just because she doesn't speak Spanish a lot does not mean she forgot how to speak it.

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Module 5: Performing Brown Bodies

I thought that it was interesting how in chapter 5 they analyzed the movie “The Book of Life.” I personally loved The Book of Life. It really did go beyond the cultural restrictions in the movie. It's a movie all about Mexican culture. The movie also shows cultural boundaries by telling the story through a metanarrative. It's basically the Mexican central plot line in a story told within the narrative. They created the film to be a story within a story. Creating the movie this way they were able to use Mexican folklore to get the attention of youths who are overlooked. I think that it's interesting how creators would use Mexican folklore like that. However the author feels that there is a bigger problem with the situation of Latina/o children in education. Something that caught my attention was how the chapter talked about how the last line in the movie talked about how you can write your own story. That gave children hope. The message behind the last line is about how statistically speaking Latina/o youths have less of a chance to finish school than black or white children. Basically Latina/o children can overcome adversity and write their own life story. Something that the chapter talked about that I personally thought was amazing was that the movie really showed the Mexican culture within the children. The movie teaches you self acceptance, the values of life, and death. If you think about scenes in the movie you can really see where they show these examples. Overall I thought The Book of Life was a great movie.

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Module #4 LatinX Creators of Comics and Science Fiction LatinX Futurisms

In chapter four it still talks about kids tv shows but it specifically talks about Dora the Explorer. It also talks about another kids show called Juan Bobo. When I was smaller I don't remember watching Juan Bobo because my parents never really introduced me to that tv show or character. In the chapter there is a private of Dora the Explorer and Juan Bobo together, and everytime I look at the prictur I feel like I have seen Juan Bobo like he looks familiar. I thought it was interesting that they talked about how Dora and Juan both serve a different purpose. Dora is known for problem solving and teaching Spanish words. However Juan Bobo is known for his behavior being silly and innocent. Something that really stood out to me was when in the chapter it talks about how in a specific episode of Dora she helps King Bobo get his crown back before his mom's birthday. The reading changed the way I saw things. The fact that Dora has to help a grown man that acts more of a child than she does is helping him look for his crown. Also she is responsible for the care of irresponsible and lost men. Just reading that made me think differently and it opened my eyes and made me realize that really all kids tv shows have stories behind them as to why they were created. Of course they were created for children but in some shows they have a deeper purpose as to why the show exists.

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Module #3 LatinX Representation in Animation and Digital Media

I enjoyed reading chapter three of The Routledge Companion to Latina/o Popular Culture because it was about children's tv shows and when I was a child I loved to watch children shows. Especially Sesame Street, which was my favorite show when I was younger. Something that I didn't know that I read about in this chapter about Sesame Street was that the shows tried to attempt to target working class communities of color by showing a multicultural cast. That really surprised me. I had no idea that the cast consisted of many different cultures. I even searched up the cast and I was mind blown. It was awesome to see all the different people that came together to make a kids tv show. I also didn't know that the show was created with the help of funding by the government. Also it was very interesting where Banet-Weiser talks about how the show was made to address the problem of racism in the United States. She goes on to say that creators of children tv shows try to create characters that are animals but also characters that are aliens. Doing this helped with the problematic issue of racial representation. I thought that it was sad how the purpose of the show was to provide educational media to the colored working class, but it is now limited to cable or it is limited to HBO streaming. Some people can't afford to get HBO and many can not afford cable to watch Sesame Street.

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Module #2 LatinX Film and Children’s Tv

Something that stood out to me was how in chapter two when it talks about Cesar Chavez and him emerging into a social consciousness man and he is very aware of the struggle that migrant workers go through and how a system cares and values havig profit more than caring for human dignity. That was really interesting to me because in one of my classes that I had last semester we talked about how Migrant workers are not treated fairly. The fact that our system cares more about profit than about the actual workers. We talked about all the different things that migrant workers have to go through. I think it's awesome that Cesar Chavez has devoted his life to help raise migrant workers and create social change. Cesar Chavez helping people is an awesome thing to do. I know that a lot of people struggle at the border just to cross the border and have a better life. I think that everyone deserves a chance at a good life. Some people get lucky and are able to make it across the border and others don't get lucky and they get separated from families. Something else that caught my attention was how the documentary talks about the struggle that women go through to work and still maintain a household. And how one woman talks about a river that runs through the neighborhood and turns different colors and emits fumes. When she was a kid other kids would swim in it. 

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Project 1: Routledge Reader Reflection Blog

Something that really stood out to me and caught my attention was in chapter one when the reading talks about how in that era you would find Latina/o characters in the genre of Western tv. Also how many of the tv shows were about cowboys and Mexican criminals that had broken English. I can make a connection from one of my other classes that I'm taking. We talked about how Latina/o characters are being stereotyped. There are many tv shows out there that show stereotypes. One tv show that this reminds me of is Family Guy. In Family Guy there is a housemaid and her name is Consuela. Consulea is a Latina. In the show they portray her as a maid who speaks broken Spanish, who cleans very badly, and is not smart. They created this character that is full of negative things. 

Something else that stood out to me was in the reading when it talks about the 2000’s and how the numbers were rising in how many people kept watching Latinas/os on television. At this point in time people would like to watch television, specifically watch Latin people. What I found interesting was that back then it seemed like a lot of people liked to watch shows with Latina/o characters and now Latina/o characters are being portrayed as lazy and not intelligent. I think it's just such a crazy thing to see the world change in so many different ways. I thought that this reading had important ideas and points about Latina/o shows and characters.