Art and Culture

Desterritorializando el espacio sonoro: electrodomésticos y la crítica del milagro chileno

By Irene Depetris Chauvin
February 22, 2017

Considerando el período que se inicia con el golpe de estado de 1973, que puso fin al experimento socialista de Salvador Allende e inició la violenta dictadura de Augusto Pinochet, buena parte de los estudios sobre música popular chilena se ha focalizado de manera casi exclusiva en el estudio de la “canción de protesta”, música cuyas letras reflejan un explícito mensaje político y social.

Intoxicated Writing: Mexican Onda writers and the Drug Experience in 1960s Mexico

By Hugo M. Viera
February 1, 2017

In the late 1960s, as the Latin American Boom masters exported magic realist narratives to the international literary market, young Mexican Onda writers imported the international counterculture into their writing in an attempt to question paradigms of self, representation, and language. Among the signifiers that codified the 1960s counterculture, the drug experience, along with rock music, opened possibilities for social and literary experimentation.

The Marimba in Guatemala: The Once Muted Instrument is Heard Again

By Emily Hwang
January 27, 2017

Sweet sounds of a wooden instrument ringing throughout the airport caught my attention as I got off my flight in Guatemala City in the summer of 2016. As I turned the corner, I saw the source of this joyful music that breathed happiness being played on a large wooden xylophone-looking instrument, which I later learned was called a marimba, by a group of Guatemalan men underneath a large sign that said, “Bienvenidos a Guatemala” (Welcome to Guatemala).

Demystifying Santería, One of Cuba’s Liveliest Religions

By Erin Barton
January 26, 2017

Walking down the cracked sidewalks of a hot, palm frond-shaded street in Vedado, Havana’s western upper-middle class neighborhood, you pass two women. One of them, younger and taller, is dressed entirely in white—from her white umbrella and white hair wrap down to her white high-heeled shoes. When she notices you staring at her trailing white dress, she smiles and looks down. Her older companion speaks loudly and emphatically to her as they pass you by.

Telling the Story of the Favelas Through Art and Literature

By Emily Hwang
January 9, 2017

Favelas have long been known as the impoverished neighborhoods surrounding the cities of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city, is home to one of the oldest favelas, Providência, founded in 18971. The original favelas normally consisted of informal housing like shacks, usually made from scrap metal, woods, or other materials. They originated due to a lack of affordable housing, thus pushing poorer citizens to the outskirts of the cities.

Pages

Subscribe to Art and Culture