ReOrienting the West through Latin American Media

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ReOrienting the West through Latin American
Media

• Presentation by
• Dr. Celeste González de Bustamante
• Developing and Assessing Intercultural Competence
  Conference
• October 10-11, 2008
• Tucson, Arizona

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• The nations of contemporary Asia, Latin America,
  and Africa are politically independent but in
  many ways are as dominated and dependent as they
  were when ruled directly by European powers.
• Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism

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Three-Fold Purpose

• Answer How do media in Latin America portray the
  West?
• Discuss examples of Latin American media and how
  they relate to the highly industrialized world
• Offer some tools for analyzing media

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What is the West?

• Western Civilization?
• Western Europe?
• Western Hemisphere?
• Industrialized nations?
• Brazil, 9th largest economy
• Mexico, 13th largest economy

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(No Transcript)
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The idea of the West

• Is a historical fabrication of Western European
  Powers and the United States
• Social and political theories since 1800 have
  privileged the West
• Modernization theory
• Dependency theory
• World Systems (core-periphery)
• All explain why the West won

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• The West the developed world, industrialized
  nations, World economic powers (excluding the
  Americas, south of the United States Middle
  East the East)
• Lets settle on highly industrialized nations

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What is Latin America?
A geographical region that includes two
continents, 17 countries, 18 including Puerto
Rico and much of the rest of the Caribbean
excluding Belize, Guyana, Suriname, French
Guyana, U.S. Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Haiti, and
Bahamas
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Defining Latin America

• Latin America is a 19th century French invention
• Culturally extremely different
• Linguistically Spanish, Portuguese
• Historically colonized, but different

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Latin American Media

• How are highly industrialized nations such as the
  United States visible in Latin American media?
• It depends on the historical period
• Generally two camps
• Reaffirms industrialized model of modernity
• Resists or critiques industrialized model of
  modernity

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Reaffirming the model of modernity

• Television news in Brazil
• Jornal Nacional http//jornalnacional.globo.com/
• Television news in Mexico
• Televisa News http//www2.esmas.com/noticierostele
  visa/mexico/
• Entertainment in Brazil
• Paraiso Tropical http//www.youtube.com/watch?vL
  LdJZvqgb3gfeaturerelated
• Entertainment in Mexico
• Maria del Barrio http//www.youtube.com/watch?vLL
  dJZvqgb3gfeaturerelated

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Observations

• Consumer, upper-middle class values celebrated
• Indigenous groups are Orientalized and/or
  excluded
• Afro-Mexicans excluded
• Afro-Brazilians highly sexualized

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Resistance to or critiques of the model of
modernity (industrialized nations)

• Print News Media

Friendships. I help him, I help him not, I help
him, I help him not Lifesaver Rescue package
for 40 billion dollars. Source El Norte
(Monterrey) January 27, 1995. In Stephen Morris,
Gringolandia.
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Resistance to or critiques of the model of
modernity (industrialized nations) (2)
Partners. Source El Excelsior (Mexico City),
January 30, 1995. In Stephen Morris, Gringolandia.
The gringos are going to invade us in 2003!
Going to? Source Ocho Columnas (Guadalajara),
November 14, 1996. In Stephen Morris,
Gringolandia.
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Resistance to or critiques of the model of
modernity (industrialized nations) (3)
Source El Fisgon, Those wetbacks! La Jornada,
1995. In Stephen Morris, Gringolandia.
Source El Norte (Monterrey), January 17, 1995.
In Stephen Morris, Gringolandia.
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Resistance to or critiques of the model of
modernity (industrialized nations) (4)
El Ahuizotl cartoons equate Spaniards and gringos
as a means of suggesting a new conquest.
Christopher Columbus recruits marines for the
colonization of the New World using Uncle Sams
slogan I WANT YOU! Source Rocha. In Carrie
Chorba, Mexico, From Mestizo to Multicultural.
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Resistance to or critiques of the model of
modernity (industrialized nations) (5)

• Hugo Chavez, Vayanse al carajo!
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vtoKXMcwfOBYfeature
  related
• Evo Morales, Speech at UN General Assembly,
  September 23, 2008
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vADPa-Ewqt7w

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Observations

• U.S. and industrialized world as threat to the
  nation
• Re-conquest, Neo-colonialism

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Analyzing the Media
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Production

• Who controls production?
• How is the image (report, movie) produced?
• For what end?

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Content

• What was the focus?
• What images/voices were included?
• What images were excluded?
• What is/are the message(s)?
• Who plays a prominent role in the film, report?
• How are various groups portrayed?

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Interpretations

• How was the report/program received?
• By the public?
• By the individual?
• Possible political, social, cultural change as a
  result of the reports?

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Conclusions

• Latin America occupies a peculiar space
• Media produced reaffirm and resist industrialized
  model of modernity
• Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Mexican
  voices often excluded or Orientalized in
  mainstream media
• Three level analysis production, content,
  interpretations useful in understanding the
  diverse perspectives that emerge from Latin
  America

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• A whole range of people in the so-called
  Western or metropolitan world, as well as their
  counterparts in the Third or formerly colonized
  world, share a sense that the era of high or
  classical imperialism, which came to a climax in
  what the historian Eric Hobsbawm has so
  interestingly described as the age of empire
  and more or less formally ended with the
  dismantling of the great colonial structures
  after World War II, has in one way or another
  continued to exert considerable cultural
  influence in the present.-Edward Said, Culture
  and Imperialism

celesteg_at_email.arizona.edu