Is a “Unified Latino Culture” Coming?
An interesting phenomenon or perhaps more correctly phenomena has been occurring in the McAllen area lately which points to a cultural change. I know of several instances where clubs that play music are leaning away from either Tejano music or even Norteño music to play Reggaetón. Now don’t get me wrong, I think Reggaetón is a great addition to Latino culture as long as they respect women and avoid slang words but the content of it is not the issue. What interests me is whether it is a symptom of the “globalization of Latin culture”.
Today I was reading a political blog in the Washington Post by Marcela Sanchez who basically lumps all Hispanics into a homogenous group who will vote as a monolith. When you watch television in Spanish anywhere in the world more often than not everyone on it will be trying to speak Spanish like a Chilango which means like someone from Mexico City. If you search the internet, you will find lamentations about Tejano music losing airplay and radio stations to more popular Latino music. Are Mexican-Americans and other Latin groups losing their cultural identity to a “Unified Hispanic Culture”?
Certainly the history of Hispanic culture has always been a dynamic one. Before coming to the New World we were influenced by Arabic Tatars, Hebrews, Visigoths,Kelts,Germanics, Romans, Gypsies, and maybe even some Mongolians. Trade from Asia gave us a taste for spices and pasta. When we entered the New World we absorbed the native people’s genes, food, and culture into our own. The distance from our “native culture” made communication difficult so language and culture varied in each local by varying degrees. The Castillian “th” for ci sound is heard in Argentina and Spain but almost no where else for example. It is interesting and good in my opinion that an official Spanish language academy like the French have was never agreed upon.
As a young adult I lived in Miami for awhile and quickly learned that some words have very different meanings to Cubans and Mexicans such as the word in Spanish which means “to get”. For Cubans the word in slang can mean to “have sex with” so I quickly learned not to use it.
However, when I was growing up in the Rio Grande Valley we not just exposed to Mexican-American Hispanic culture alone. Although Tejano music developed in South Texas, it was influenced by East European immigrants teaching Hispanics their rhythms and instruments which they combined with traditional Spanish/Flamenco teachings. Cumbias, a popular Latin beat for dancing, for example had long before come to Mexico from South America. At that time there was not the international networks of major Spanish media that exist today so we were still somewhat isolated.
My children are Mexican-Cuban Americans which is another form of cultural unification that is inevitable. Maybe all this is Much Adoo About Nothing and we should just accept this globalization. However, at the same time, we need to keep the greater American community as well as our peers aware that we are a diverse group. Lumping all Hispanics together can lead to discriminatory stereotyping. Perhaps even more important is that we not lose our recognition of various parts of that culture that have come and gone along the way because they are a part of who we are. Lets not forget the contributions that South Texas has brought to the world like musica tejano.
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