The cultural production of Mexican identity in the United States: an examination of the Mexican threat narrative

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 695-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adalberto Aguirre ◽  
Edgar Rodriguez ◽  
Jennifer K. Simmers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Identity

Morrissey as Latina/o Literary and Cultural Icon

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa M. Hidalgo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Fourth Decade ◽  
The World ◽  
United States Mexico ◽  
North And South America

Morrissey is a singer and songwriter from Manchester, England. He rose to prominence as a popular-music icon as the lead singer for the Manchester band The Smiths (1982–1987). After the breakup of The Smiths, Morrissey launched his solo career in 1988. In his fourth decade as a popular singer, Morrissey continues to tour the world and sell out shows in venues throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, Asia and Australia, and across North and South America. Although Morrissey enjoys a fiercely loyal global fan base and inspires fans all over the world, his largest and most creatively expressive fans, arguably, are Latinas/os in the United States and Latin America. He is especially popular in Mexico and with Chicanas/os from Los Angeles, California, to San Antonio, Texas. How does a white singer and pop icon from England become an important cultural figure for Latinas/os? This entry provides an overview of Morrissey’s musical and cultural importance to fans in the United States–Mexico borderlands. It introduces Morrissey, examines the rise of Latina/o Morrissey and Smiths fandom starting in the 1980s and 1990s, and offers a survey of the fan-produced literature and other cultural production that pay tribute to the indie-music star. The body of fiction, films, plays, poetry, and fans’ cultural production at the center of this entry collectively represent of Morrissey’s significance as a dynamic and iconic cultural figure for Latinas/os.

scholarly journals Corridos, Tequila (and others), and Mexican/Chicano Masculinity

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-41
Author(s):  
Amaia Ibarraran-Bigalondo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Symbol ◽  
Life Issues ◽  
Mexican Identity

The Mexican corrido is one of the most popular cultural manifestations both in the United States and Mexico. From its origins in the mid-nineteenth century, the corrido has dealt with “people’s stuff,” such as war, love, honor, immigration and/or belonging to a land, among other everyday life issues. The corrido is, in short, a symbol of identity and belonging, and can be considered a marker of the Mexican identity on both sides of the border. In this sense, it is to be expected that the corrido, as an expression of “people’s stuff,” voices the relevance of a “national” symbol. In the same way, tequila is regarded, at least internationally, as directly related to “lo mexicano/chicano,” and in many cases also to Mexican/Chicano masculinity. Starting from this premise, the aim of this article is to observe the presence of tequila and its significance as a symbol of “lo mexicano/chicano” in the work of Los Tigres del Norte, one of the most prominent corrido bands, both locally and internationally.

scholarly journals Flags, Totem Bodies, and the Meanings of 9/11: A Durkheimian Tour of a September 11th Ceremony at the Flight 93 Chapel

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Riley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Civil Religion ◽  
The United States ◽  
September 11Th ◽  
American Civil Religion ◽  
National Hero ◽  
American Flag

Some four miles as the crow flies from the site at which United 93, which was the fourth plane involved in the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on the United States, struck ground, there sits a small chapel dedicated to the passengers and crew. The Thunder on the Mountain Chapel is considerably less well known than the Parks Department memorial a few hundred yards from the crash site, but it is, arguably at least, equally important in the cultural production of the Flight 93 myth. This article draws from Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life as well as other theoretical sources to look closely at the chapel. I argue that what is going on at the Chapel contributes to a totemic myth that turns the American flag into a representation of the dead national hero and then places the totem object into the beliefs and rituals of an American civil religion.

Border Culture, Mexican Identity, Class, And Media Consumption: A Look Into “Fresa” High School Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (26) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Continuous Exposure ◽  
School Students ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Mexican Identity

The border strip between the south of the United States and the north of Mexico provide an excellent opportunity to study the effects of the flow of media productions from the United States to Mexico. Many communication theories have attempted to explain the reception of transnational media flows to Latin American countries. Scholars from the cultural imperialism camp argue that the flow of culture is unidirectional from capitalist or First World countries (mainly the United States) to developing countries (also know as the Global South); other theories claim there is an asymmetrical dependence between developed and underdeveloped countries (Fejes, 1981). However, recent arguments claim audiences tend to prefer content closely related to their own cultural values (Straubhaar, 1991). Audience research has concluded there is no evidence to support the loss of cultural identity in some Latin American countries and regions according to their media preference (Straubhaar, 1991 Lozano, 1992). Nonetheless, those studies have also found that regardless of the geographical or cultural proximity to the United States or Europe, upper and middle class audiences tend to prefer to a certain degree US media content or international programming over domestic programming. Combining those two theoretical propositions, the purpose of this study is to look at the media consumption preferences of high school students in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and find a relation between the cultural products they consume, their sense of Mexican identity, and nationalism. Using both methodological approaches, quantitative and qualitative, a survey was conducted with students from three different private high schools in Nuevo Laredo and a total of 22 participants were interviewed in separate focus groups. One of the most important findings of this study is that upper-middle and upper class students from Nuevo Laredo are not worried about losing their Mexican identity as a consequence of continuous exposure to American media. It could be argued that they are more afraid of not being able to attain the best from what their privileged geographical location has to offer in terms of cultural capital. They recognize that one of the biggest advantages of living in the border with the United States is the ability to practice while learning English and to have access to American products.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Alberto Varon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multilingual Approach

This introduction reframes Mexican American cultural production within the United States away from immigration and calls for a longer historical and multilingual approach to Latinos in U.S. culture. It argues for the importance of Mexican American manhood in understanding gender in the United States and describes some of the prevailing forms that Mexican American manhood took.

Coda

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Harford Vargas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Central America ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Mission District ◽  
Day Of The Dead ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Music Film

The coda examines how cultural producers contribute to the Latina/o counter-dictatorial imaginary using non-print-based artistic forms. It focuses in depth on the murals in Balmy Alley in San Francisco’s Mission District, examining how their depiction of authoritarian repression in Central America coexists alongside representations of other forms of oppression in the United States. The murals generate linked histories of violence and are material testaments to interracial solidarity and a collective struggle for social justice. The coda’s analysis of the palimpsests of paint and the visual polyphony across the walls of Balmy Alley adds another texture and layer to the counter-dictatorial imaginary traced in the preceding chapters. It ends by suggesting that other forms of Latina/o cultural production such as music, film, and Day of the Dead altars work together with the murals and the novel to capture the afterlives of the dictatorial past and current dictatorial forms of oppression.

“The Transparency of Democracy”: The Production of Washington’s Nationals Park as a Late Capitalist Space

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Government ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
The Us ◽  
Baseball Team ◽  
The City

Following the trend of cities throughout the United States subsidizing new baseball stadiums within their economic redevelopment strategies, in 2005, the city government of Washington, D.C. agreed to subsidize the construction of Nationals Park for the use of the Washington Nationals baseball team. In its design of the stadium, HOK Sport architects sought to represent the “transparency of democracy” as they were inspired by the democratic image and iconography of the US Capital city. Using a perspective based in Lefebvre’s (1991b) production of space, I explore the power relations produced and reproduced within spatial and cultural production. I argue that instead of creating an inclusive space, architects designed a space that exemplifies the late capitalist moment in its focus on consumption, social control, and aesthetic production. Nationals Park, thus, excludes people by class, privileges visitors over residents, and provides an unrealistic view of the city that marginalizes less powerful groups.

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