Monthly Archives: June 2012

Ecuadorians on the Move: Money on the Mind

There are many things on the Ecuadorian mind here in Spain.  For many, their first and foremost reason for immigrating to Spain has been influenced by the economy or lack thereof in their home country.  Whether they are sending money back to their families in Ecuador or simply saving their money for their future, past assurances of jobs and wealth have brought them to Spain over the years.

Now the current economic crisis in Spain is causing large sectors of the population to return to Ecuador.  From my conversations, Ecuadorians that are leaving seem to be bringing everything with them, which would indicate that they are planning to return to Ecuador for good.  One man brought 23 suitcases with him to the airport, while another brought 12 suitcases and two dogs.  Surely, this is in part influenced by “Plan Bienvenidos a Casa,” but has also led me to question the relationship between immigrants and their host country. Continue reading

Rollenspel

Noach - Cuba - Exposicion

Tentoonstelling ‘Una exposición sin espectadores’

Tegenwoordig worden hevige discussies gevoerd over de vraag wat de betekenis is van participatie in de kunst. In dergelijke debatten spreekt men geregeld over een democratische kunstpraktijk; eentje waarin de grenzen tussen kunstenaar en publiek vervagen, en waarin een overlap plaatsvindt tussen producent en toeschouwer. Sommige theoretici gaan zelfs zo ver door te stellen dat de  traditionele kunstenaar niet meer bestaat, en dat het kunstpubliek zijn rol op zich heeft genomen. Het is duidelijk dat participatieve kunst heeft geleid tot een ingrijpend rollenspel in de tentoonstellingsruimte, waarin de kunstenaar steeds een beetje meer de identiteit van het kunstpubliek overneemt, terwijl het kunstpubliek steeds meer naar de kant van de kunstenaar neigt. Maar wat zegt die overlap tussen kunstenaar en publiek, tussen professioneel en amateur ook over de samenleving in zijn geheel? Deze vraag wordt nog interessanter wanneer men hem stelt binnen de Cubaanse context. Het is geen nieuws dat de Cubaanse burger over steeds meer vrijheden beschikt. Zo kunnen zij nu makkelijker hun eigen bedrijfjes openen en zijn zij in toenemende mate in staat om spullen te verkopen. Ik vraag me af of er een verband bestaat tussen de groeiende belangrijkheid van het kunstpubliek en de  toenemende vrijheid van de Cubaanse burger. Met dit uitgangspunt heb ik ook de tentoonstelling ‘Una exposición sin espectadores’  gecureerd. Buiten dat de tentoonstelling experimenteerde met verschillende vormen van toeschouwershap, bood hij tentoonstelling ook een podium voor mensen om samen te komen en sociale banden met elkaar aan te gaan. Beide aspecten zouden als controversieel kunnen worden beschouwd binnen het socialistische Cuba. In de eerste plaats omdat de tentoonstelling de mogelijkheid gaf voor toeschouwers om zich actiever op te stellen, om hun stem te laten gelden, en niet langer de onbetwistbare autoriteit van de kunstenaar te aanvaarden. In de twee plaats omdat grote groepen mensen zich verenigde in een sociale ruimte.

Posted by Stephanie Noach – MA Candidate at CLACS at NYU

“The Beautiful Game” in Buenos Aires: Transnationalism through Sport

One of the things that I love the most about my thesis topic is the reaction I get to the inevitable “so, what are you writing your thesis on?” question. When this question is asked by a professor or fellow grad student, I have a slightly longer response prepared, but when it’s asked by a casual acquaintance, my first answer is simply: “Soccer.”

I first started playing soccer when I was three years old; while I was never the fastest (by far) or the most skilled at footwork, I continued to play and love the sport through high school and onto college (and grad school!) intramural teams. I attended the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, obsessively follow Spain as a national team and Barcelona as a club, and yet had never really considered studying fútbol in a more academic way until I started at NYU. As it turns out, soccer is heavily studied by various academic fields – sociology, anthropology, history, ethnic studies, and even mathematics (statistical analysis), economics (the sport brings in billions of dollars worldwide), and science (does heading a soccer ball damage your brain? Are successful soccer players better thinkers than non-players?). For a sport that originated in mid 19th century Britain, it has spread across the world remarkably, and it would be hard to imagine modern-day Spain, Brazil, or Argentina without also picturing their fervent dedication to club teams, national teams, and the sport at large.

The research I’m doing while in Buenos Aires, then, somehow managed to work its way from “I want to go to South America and talk about soccer” to my current working research question: “With full awareness of the implications of the intersection of race, nationality, identity, and soccer within the Bolivian community in Buenos Aires, how and to what extent does this particular immigrant population use soccer to either negotiate integration into the local society or to sustain their distinct ethnic identity?” In brief, I hope to use soccer as a lens to understand the issues of transnationalism, migration, and discrimination that inevitably arise in this context. Continue reading

The Politics of Empowerment in Buenos Aires

philips - argentina - poster

A poster describing how to enroll in AUH.

My work is on a social program in Argentina called, Asignación Universal por Hijo para la Protección Social (AUH), a conditional cash transfer (CCT) implemented by presidential decree in late 2009. Under the program, the government uses a portion of income tax and sales tax to provide monthly transfers to poor families that are unemployed, informally employed, or who do domestic work and make less than a livable wage. Families receive $160 pesos (roughly $40 USD) per child ages 0-18, for up to five children. The money is given directly to the mother each month and is received under the condition that the family verifies children’s school attendance and medical checkups. It is designed to incentivize education for the poor population and break the intergenerational cycle of poverty via human capital accumulation.

In addition to drastic inequality and high rates of poverty, Argentina has a high rate of domestic violence. My work is focusing on whether transferring the money directly to mothers is empowering to women by giving them more financial control, helping them leave abusive homes, etc. or limits female agency by reenforcing traditional gender roles and providing a point of contention between a husband and wife regarding household finances. If there are negative consequences associated with the distribution system of the grant, a change in the structure of the policy could reduce domestic violence and save the lives of women. If the current system empowers women, there could be good reason to continue and expand the program. It could also incentivize collaborative work on finding additional funding sources.  Continue reading

El Puente Inconsciente

Lazer - Mexico - Tlatelolco

Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco

My days are beset by the overlapping and intertwining of the tres culturas[1]. El Museo Nacional de Antropología: galleries teeming with the fearsome lithic remnants of the Toltec, Mexica[2], and Maya, arranged around a monumental interior courtyard not unlike the typical patio of a casa colonial, rendered in the clean geometries of the Mexican iteration of 1960’s international architectural modernism. A table of tres culturas: stewed beef (a meat introduced by the Spanish) in salsa de tomate (i.e. tomatillo[3]), with a bottle of tomato ketchup on the table (a probable result of the cultural influence on modern Mexico of the United States, where the sauce first gained popularity).

Mexicans are proud of their triplicate cultural heritage, but two of the three seem to take precedence. Streets, theaters, neighborhoods, metro stations, and businesses in Mexico City boast the names of great Mexica rulers – Cuauhtemoc, Nezahualcoyotl, Moctezuma – and of the heroes of Revolution and Independence – Juárez, Hidalgo, Madero, Carranza. The colonial period, however, seems to show itself more selectively. Pedro de Gante (a monk and one of the first artists in New Spain[4]) and Motolinía (Fray Toribio de Benavente, a16th century Franciscan chronicler) lend their names to thin thoroughfares a few blocks long in the historical center. Indeed, at times the colonial period only seems present in the ubiquity of Catholicism, a characteristic of both of the post-Conquest culturas. When I told Miguel, the owner of the hotel where I am staying, that I study the art of Viceregal Mexico, he very frankly told me that the era represents a hueco. Children in elementary schools, he said, aren’t taught about the 300-year period that forms un puente inconsciente que se cruza diariamente[5]. My research this summer will examine some of the most stubborn and, to all outward appearances, unremarkable struts of that puente.

Continue reading

The Perks of Interviewing

Bintrim - Brazil - Interview

Maria Helena’s Family and Me

While sitting down with practically complete strangers and asking them to share intimate details about their life story makes me a bit anxious, as I found out this weekend it does have its perks.  This week I conducted my first interview with Maria Helena, a Brazilian woman raised in Rio de Janeiro who moved to Miami and was back in Brazil for a month to visit her family.  The interview took place on a Sunday, a prime barbeque day, which meant my work was rewarded by a delicious meal and warm hospitality.

I had the luck of meeting Maria Helena’s sister, Eunice, while filming in the favela Morro dos Prazeres.  Eunice works at a kiosk at the favela with her husband and through casual conversation over a café media I discovered that Eunice had a sister living in the United States and that her sister would be coming to visit in only a few days.  Immediately I asked if Eunice thought her sister would be willing to partake in an interview and Eunice agreed to meet with me a few days later to take me to interview her sister.

Continue reading

Los Tres Santos Reyes juntos a Castro

Garcia - Puerto Rico - Revolutionary Flag

Puerto Rican Revolutionary Flag in Río Piedras

Around Christmas time it’s a tradition in Puerto Rico to go from door to door until the wee hours of the morning singing and playing music—with guitars, trumpets, and panderos often accompanied by instruments of the pot and pan variety—until your friends open the door and give you food and refreshments. One of the most known songs chronicling this Puerto Rican style caroling, known as a parranda is about the host giving the group of singers, or the trulla, an adult beverage or else they will cry. One of the lines in this song goes, “Los Tres Santos Reyes juntos a Santa Claus (2x) Tienen en Las Vegas montado un night club (2x). Or “The Three Wise Men along with Santa Claus/Have a nightclub set up in Las Vegas.” This has to be one of the best examples of the hybrid nature of Puerto Rican culture.  Like most Latin American countries, Three Kings Day, also known as the day of the Epiphany, is the most celebrated Christmas related holiday. While Christmas Eve is time for food, singing, dancing, and getting together with the family, Three Kings Day was historically the day children received presents, one from each King if they left some grass for the Kings’ camels of course. With the attempted Americanization of the island came Santa Claus and the importance of cookies and Christmas day, although the lack of chimneys on a Caribbean island often caused logistical problems in the story—my grandparents told my mother he slipped in through the front door, pretty stealthy guy that Santa—Christmas did indeed become a major day, second only to Three Kings Day. Like creolization and syncretism of the indigenous populations once the Spanish imposed their culture in the “New World”, Puerto Rican culture didn’t disappear with the introduction of American culture, but rather the latter was absorbed and became part of the celebration, along with Las Vegas and night clubs apparently. I’ll get to what this has to do with Castro in a bit.
Continue reading

Nación: la deriva léxica de un término

Velayos -Peru- DiccionariosMi interés por los registros lexicográficos del término “nación” me ha llevado a desempolvar  un repertorio de diccionarios que empieza con el célebre “Tesoro de la lengua castellana” (1611) de Sebastían de Covarrubias y termina con una de las ediciones del diccionario oficial de la lengua española hacia finales del siglo XIX.  Mi objetivo era corroborar una aserción común en la historiografía sobre el período de la Independencia y el siglo XIX, según la cual en el Antiguo Régimen el término era usado para nombrar una de las comunidades étnicas de las provincias y reinos que conformaban la monarquía. Lo que me sorprendió, empero,  fue encontrar en el “Tesoro” de Covarrubias una definición territorial del término: para él nación significa “reyno o provincia estentida, como la nación española” (823). Esta acepción, que registra un uso oficial en el Antiguo Régimen, tiene una acepción marcadamente territorial, espacial, y no demográfica.

En contraste, en el Diccionario de Autoridades de 1791, nación registra tres sentidos, pero ninguno es equivalente a una territorialidad (la connotación espacial no desaparece, pero está más matizada al ser puesta en relación con las colectividades que habitan tales espacios). En primer lugar, nación es definida como “el acto de nacer. En este sentido se usa en el modo de hablar de NACION, en lugar de nacimiento”. Este sentido recupera la etimología latina del término y es la manera que se deben entender ciertas expresiones como “ciego de nación”. Si bien el texto no ofrece una indagación detenida sobre este sentido etimológico, una mirada al “Diccionario etimológico” de Corominas puede ser ilustradora. La raíz etimológica del término (natío) no solo recupera el significado de nacimiento, sino que se abre los campos semánticos de “raza…, gentil, pagano”. De tal manera, etimológicamente, “nación” apela no solo a la idea de nacimiento en un sentido general; sino que también asocia a este nacimiento una marca de diferencia ligada a un colectivo étnico o cultural. En segundo lugar, el siguiente sentido sentido que registra el Diccionario de Autoridades se refiere a “la colección de los habitantes en algunas provincia, país o reyno”. En esta acepción se ligan estrechamente la territorialidad que connota el término con la colectividad ala que refiere. Finalmente, el tercer sentido hace más marcado el carácter de diferencia que contiene la acepción etimológica, nación también “se usa frecuentemente para significar cualquier extranjero”.

En las acepciones de 1791 no desaparece el horizonte territorial del campo semántico de la palabra, pero tampoco aparece la denotación espacial como una acepción específica. En las ediciones posteriores los sentidos territoriales, culturales y étnicos de la palabra se irán registrando en diferentes combinaciones y con distintos matices. Así, ya hacia finales del XIX, el término significará “[1] Conjunto de los habitantes de un país regido por el mismo gobierno. [2] Territorio de ese mismo país . . . [3] Cualquier extranjero . . . [4] De nación. Loc. con que se da a entender la naturaleza de uno, o de donde se es natural” (686). En estas acepciones la demarcación territorial ha adquirido una acepción especial por la consolidación del estado-nación en el siglo XIX. Aquí  la categoría ambigua de “reyno” o “provincia” ya no sirve para demarcar la pertenencia a la comunidad nacional, sino el hecho de que los habitantes compartan el mismo gobierno. Si bien la denotación territorial del término aparece en la segunda acepción y las acepciones subsiguientes afirman matices culturales, en el primer sentido ya aparece claramente la idea de una comunidad gubernamentalmente imaginada. Más que lazos de fraternidad o un imaginario común (rasgos que señala Anderson), lo que compartía los miembros de la nación es que están sometidos a la soberanía de un gobierno.

Posted by Emmanuel Velayos – Ph.D. candidate in Spanish at NYU

Street Food in Mexico City: The Dirty, The Clean, The Tasty

Hayden - Mexico - Fruit juice stand in Mexico City

Fruit Juice Stand in Mexico City

One of the first impressions that I had of Mexico City upon coming here for the first time, seven years ago was that the metropolis was saturated with food.  In addition to grocery stores, restaurants, and cafes of all types, the streets themselves teem with places to eat. White metal stands line the sidewalks near major and minor thoroughfares, selling sandwiches, fresh fruits and juices, tacos, and antojitos (corn-based snacks such as quesadillas and tostadas).  Other vendors come early in the morning and set up tarps, coal-fired griddles, and a few plastic stools on street corners in residential and commercial areas, where they sell tacos, antojitos, and tamales.  Still other vendors are fully mobile, pushing carts, riding bicycles, or carrying baskets to ply their wares, often yelling out the types of products they have on offer (churros, roasted sweet potatoes, sandwiches, tamales, corn on the cob, sweet breads, tacos de canasta) as they weave their way through the city.  Street food, or comida callejera, certainly exists in other countries, but in Mexico it is particularly vibrant, omnipresent, and embraced as a part of the national identity.  People from most walks of life frequent street food stands, at least periodically, and many people depend on their products for affordable, nutritious daily meals.  Yet the majority of street food vendors, despite their iconic status and importance in the urban food landscape, exist precariously in the informal sector, where they are regularly declared to be problems by politicians and city residents alike.  Vendedores ambulantes (or mobile vendors) are commonly criticized in terms of public health, waste disposal, tax evasion, corruption, use of public space, or quality of life.  As an anthropologist, I am interested in the implications of these contradictory rhetorics and practices around street food for Mexicans, as consumers, vendors, and political actors. Continue reading

Juan Esteban Fassio. Orígenes de la ‘Patafísica porteña ['Pp] – Parte primera [Pp]*

Cadenas Canon - Argentina - 'PataphysicsPermítaseme vincular, a modo de conclusión, la Patafísica con el budismo Zen. Si se le preguntara a un maestro zen-patafísico “¿cuál es el verdadero sentido de la frase sobre el cocodrilo?”, se echaría a reír y nos golpearía varias veces con su bastón de física. No existe verdad fuera de la experiencia patafísica.

Juan Esteban Fassio, Creador-Fundador del IAEPBA, Regente de trabajos prácticos rousselianos, Proveedor Propagador de los Países platenses de Mesembrinesia Americana, Administrador Antártico y Gran Competente de la Orden de la Gran Guidouille [o espanziral].

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La historia es así: un joven argentino, más bien solitario, lee un día de principios de los 50 o finales de los 40, en la Nouvelle Revue Française, un artículo sobre la fundación, en París, del Collège de ‘Pataphysique. El joven, que además de ser francófono es, entre otras muchas cosas, dibujante, se empieza a interesar por esa sociedad de pensadores de la que nadie en Buenos Aires ha oído hablar hasta entonces. Su nombre es Juan Esteban Fassio, “inventor, imaginero, ensayista, dibujante, traductor, compilador, patafísico, bibliófilo y pensador heterodoxo”, y es, aún hoy, una figura más bien desconocida en el panorama cultural argentino. Salvo, claro está, entre los lectores de Julio Cortázar, que le dedica su “De otra máquina célibe”, con foto incluida en la primera edición de La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos.

A Jarry ya se lo había leído en Buenos Aires: lo muestra un artículo en Martín Fierro, en enero de 1925. Pero para Fassio, como buen patafísico, Jarry no es más que una excusa para hablar de “la ciencia” y hacer que otros lean sobre ella. Así, en 1954, aparece en Letra y línea, revista de corte surrealista dirigida por Aldo Pellegrini, su “Alfred Jarry y el Colegio de ‘Patafísica”. Y el artículo no empieza con Jarry, sino con otro raro, sin duda más cercano al Río de la Plata: “Hay obras que desafían todo ‘ensayo de explicación’, que resultan incómodas de ubicar en las historias de la literatura. El tomo que lleva el título Obras completas de Lautréamont, con sus dos partes todavía contradictorias para la crítica […], constituye una constante provocación”. Lautréamont será una constante en la ‘Pp [recordemos: 'Patafísica porteña]: años después, otras dos figuras clave, Albano Rodríguez y Eva García, se mudarán a Montevideo para realizar una investigación sobre el escritor franco uruguayo. Fruto de esa investigación será la biografía Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont, firmada por otro ilustre del Collège, François Caradec, “avec la collaboration de Albano Rodríguez”. A fin de cuentas, no es de extrañar: entre los 27 volúmenes de la bibioteca del Doctor Faustroll, Jarry había incluido, nada menos que en el número 13, Los cantos de Maldoror. Continue reading