Latin Americanism in the Music of Rubén Blades

AbstractThis article focuses on three recent manifestations of cumbia in Buenos Aires, Argentina: digital cumbia released by ZZK Records; retro cumbia orchestras; and a newer strand of digital cumbia, música turra. The first two are identified with the middle class, whereas the third emerged from the clases populares (‘popular classes’). Música turra is underpinned by government policies towards digital inclusion, while middle-class incursions into the traditionally working-class sphere of cumbia, too, suggest increasing social cohesion. However, the digital fascination of música turra contrasts with an embrace of the analogue and acoustic in middle-class cumbia. These developments point to the emergence of a post-digital ethos and a shift from a digital to a post-digital divide, also running along class lines, analysed here through a Bourdieusian lens of taste and distinction. While transnational in nature, the post-digital ethos appears in Buenos Aires in a distinctive local form, articulated to growing Latin Americanism and post-neoliberalism on the part of the middle class.

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Utopian Latin Americanism: Arielism and Mestizofilia

An Introduction to Latin American Philosophy ◽

10.1017/9781107705562.008 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 152-172

Keyword(s):

Latin Americanism

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Crossing over with Rubén Blades

Journal of the American Musicological Society ◽

10.2307/831606 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 301-323 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Don Michael Randel

Keyword(s):

Puerto Rico ◽

Popular Music ◽

English Language ◽

Crossing Over ◽

Hollywood Films ◽

Ways Of Thinking ◽

American Popular Music ◽

Ruben Blades ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship

Having won two Grammy Awards, attracted considerable attention in the English-language media, and appeared in several Hollywood films, Latin popular singer Rubén Blades has been much discussed as a crossover, that is, as an artist who, with a well-defined audience (in this case Hispanic), produces work that appeals in addition to another audience (here the audience for mainstream American popular music). El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, in contrast, continues to appeal to its traditional Hispanic audience and remains the undisputed leader in popularity with that audience. A comparison of a piece by El Gran Combo with one by Blades suggests ways of thinking about the relationship of both to their audiences and to each other and ways in which musicology might approach such questions in specifically musical terms. Blades is seen not to be crossing over from one audience to another but to represent transformations in his Hispanic audience, which is itself crossing over to become increasingly imbued with Anglo culture while remaining rooted in its own traditions.

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Postcolonial theory and its Impact upon modern historical-anthropological research of Latin America

Исторический журнал научные исследования ◽

10.7256/2454-0609.2021.4.36489 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 61-69

Author(s):

Irina Veselova

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Latin American ◽

Postcolonial Theory ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Comparative Method ◽

Wide Range ◽

Anthropological Research ◽

Special Challenge ◽

The Subject ◽

Latin Americanism

The object of this research is the postcolonial theory, while the subject is its impact upon the historical, and namely, historical-anthropological research of Latin America. The author examines such peculiarities of post-colonialism as the problem of identification, the “oppressed”, the importance of linguistic component of scientific description, as well as the political bias of this direction. Attention is turned to the process of adaptation of postcolonial theory to Latin American scientific foundation; emphasis is placed on the fact that the region has its own tradition of interpretation of the colonial past that results in occurrence of the so-called phenomenon of decolonial turn within the Latin American humanities. Based on the comparative method and qualitative content analysis of the works dedicated to postcolonial theory, the author demonstrates the presence of a wide range of opinions of Latin American researchers on such concepts as “colonialism: and “Latin Americanism”. The conclusion is made that the intense discussion on the theoretical aspects of colonial and decolonial theory may underlie the new vector in the historical studies of Latin America.  At the same time, decolonial turn alongside postcolonial theory, raise a number of questions, the solution of which is vital for the development of accurate methodology for further scientific research. For the Russian Latin American scholars, the new trends turn into a special challenge that should be considered in carrying out historical and anthropological research.

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