LAS 470 Homework and Reflections

This piece explores an issue that is important but one that I haven't really thought about: tourism for the purposes of sex. I found the most interesting parts of the article to be her discussions on Cuban identities, state sponsorship and control of certain representations, and how her status as a researcher limited her ability to follow "the book" of research methods. On page 15, Daigle provides four roles that Cubans are allowed to play in society: "the black/animalistic man, the white/masculine man, the white/virtuous woman, and the black/sensualized woman. The culture of jineterisma and jinteras  stereotypically, by Daigle's account, fall into the fourth category, but that concept is much more fluid. She does call the division of these social dynamics into quadrants an oversimplification, since the nature of "sexual-affective relationships" is quite hard to categorize. The spectrum could include everything from prostitution to long-lasting romant...

This article focuses on a common metaphorical trope in American rhetoric throughout modern American history: relating immigrants to disease. The article focuses on "three periods of immigration history" 1880-1924 (when the National Origins Act was passed and racially based quotas were enacted, the "era of retrenchment and exclusion from 1924 to 1965 when far fewer immigrants entered" and "1965 to the present, when family reunification laws became the centerpiece of immigration policy" (Markel and Stern 757). During all these periods, immigrants were associated with the invasive destruction of disease, both physically and metaphorically, and this association affected their time in America from the moment they landed. Stories from Ellis Island abound where immigrants "passed through an elaborate set of medical and psychological criteria that were quite real and frightening" (762). All of this happened on a racial basis in line with the stereotypes ...

As I'm trying to make sense of this and its connection to our course, I think of the war metaphor and how it motivates so many facets of our society. War is synonymous with victory, with patriotism and nationalism, and with the struggle against invasive "evil." Sontag's piece brings these associations into question by unpacking the assumptions or pretenses that underlie them. She begins by referencing the Aristotelian definition of metaphor: giving the thing a name that belongs to something else. Are the people of Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Chavez's Venezuela, or Castro's Cuba evil because of the actions and consequences provoke negative consequences around the world? No, but metaphors like "the Axis of Evil" that associate an entire country of people with a leader with violent tendencies brings unwarranted stigma to all people from that country. Further, the association of disease like HIV, syphilis or COVID-19 with objective evil ignores the f...

We have said in this class that every decision made in film is intentional, from casting, to costumes, to the individual choices actors make, and the ones that their directors and producers impose upon them. Therefore, when a theme is repeated in a film, it should receive extra attention. Let’s explore the casting decisions first, beginning with the infamous protagonist, Tony Montana. First, why cast Al Pacino? He’s an Italian-American, and Tony Montana is Cuban. As far as I’m aware, Al Pacino has no connection to Cubano culture; his main acting shtick is as an Italian mob man, so they likely casted him as Montana to emphasize connection to organized crime, since he is a drug kingpin. This plays right into the contemporary political narratives, such as the war on drugs and the persistent race tensions following the Mariel boat-lift, which brought some of the first non-white Cuban exiles.  However, as O’Brien points out in her analysis, Pacino’s “ridiculous accent” and his “brown...

 The case study of Chile provides interesting analysis of Latin American consumption in media. Historically, media’s influence in the overthrow of Salvador Allende and the coup of Pinochet is undeniable, illuminating the voracious desire for colonial consumption by the US and the willingness of the Chilean elite to welcome it. No newspaper was more influential than El Mercurio . This newspaper, according to the Pinochet file, had direct ties to the exploits of Kissinger and the CIA in its efforts to negatively propagandize Allende and bring about his overthrow. In this way, the consumption of Latin America, by readers of El Mercurio  both domestically and abroad, was skewed and biased toward US interests. The New York Times article chronicles the blatant denial of human rights abuses during the Pinochet regime, which are now widely known and documented. I was surprised by the acknowledgement of the connection of the Edwards family to the NYT, and I appreciated the transparency...

The film The Three Caballeros  provides an interesting take on early 1900s conceptions of Latin America, and Latin Americans. Almost all of the "neighbors" were the idealized conception of Latin Americans from the "American" (meaning United States citizen/resident) point of view. They were attractive, fit, mestizo and dressed in traditional clothes that mainly the wealthy could afford. These conceptions were meant to portray a sense of opulence in Latin America that would make it attractive to United States investment, both economically, culturally, and familially. None of the actresses represented indigenous culture, it was all Spanish roots. Americans consume,, traditionally and currently, only the best of Latin America: from the best land, to the best food, to the best women, to the best culture (best being the most similar and understandable without empathy), etc. Therefore, idealized conceptions of Latin America increase the desire, particularly in white, wealt...