Date: Sun, 01 Nov 1998 12:24:49 -0500 To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com From: SITBOL <sitbol at albatros.cnb.net> Subject: Re: Vous avez le tropique ! In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19981101050611.006a3c14 at pop.openlink.com.br> References: <1.5.4.32.19981031030923.00a5a548 at albatros.cnb.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
"emilio" notes:
>In case you accept my excuses and rectifications I would like to continue
>our debate with unarmed spirits.
>
>I have a special curiosity in debating the commercial agreements for
>purchase of Bolivian natural gaz and other subjects you showed
>interlineations.
Cool. But if by spirits you mean drink, why unarm them? :-)
A point on the "latinity/patria grande" stuff. Roberto, your paisano, did a pretty good job with that. I'd just like to add this: there is so much first world in the third, and third in the first that those old distictions now obscure more than they ever (might have) revealed. And as Proyect and Craven are excellent at indicating, there is a 4th world on the move all over, and offering much to challenge us regarding our ideas, projects, actions.
"Latinity" certainly exists. Miami and LA are the production centers (at least for Spanish speaking "latinity"). This "latinity" is the commercialized otherness of brown people Made in USA. For example, when my wife goes to the US, she is no longer Bolivian, rather "latin" (though some people in the US still say dumb stuff like "...isn't she just the nicest Spanish girl!"). Examples of such "latinity" include Sabado Gigante (directed by a shrewd Chilean fool), el Show de Cristina (directed by an exuberant Cuban reactionary, with [relatively] ok sexual politics*). (For list members who don't watch "latin" tv, get cable and look at Univsion, etc. You'll get to see "latinity" in the making!)
This is hegemonic "latinity" today, and it's purpose is to sell shit. Along the way, it DOES produce a peculiar "latinity" (by design? by accident? with potentially subversive sub-texts? Let's have at it you cultural studies folks!!). I know this is not what you had in mind, and I honestly don't mean this as provocation. Rather, I'm just pointing to one dominant "latinity" -- a social/economic/cultural "fact" -- as it exists today. And it is not, I feel, a banner under which I'm going to look to build solidarities.
In this end of century mish-mash, I feel we will have to find and cultivate friendships and solidarities all over. Others will have to be invented, and will doubtless come in shapes we can't as yet imagine. This is an urgent necessity. For example, and very concretely, how will the sale of natural gas from Bolivia to the mega-markets of the Brazilian coast connect you and me? I warmly accept your invitation to explore the implications of this new linkage, and I sincerely hope that while the pipeline was conceived and constructed for profit, around it we -- those who do NOT profit from it's operation -- can also construct solidarity.
To build the pipeline regulations were re-written, industries in Bolivia were privatized, public finances leveraged, the lands of indigenous people were trod upon, etc. Many of the gas fields are in the Chapare area, where coca, the raw material for cocaine, is grown. Thus, one can understand better the Bolivian government's hurried "drug war" violence in that region, aimed at making it "safe for investment". And my final note -- sorry I can't just "agree to disagree" regarding Pinochet's arrest -- it is Banzer, Pinochet's old ally, who is spilling campesino blood in the Chapare to make it "safe for investment". The challenge to Pinochet's impunity for crimes past is concrete, palpable support for our challenge to Banzer's crimes in the present.
Tom
-------- * On a recent show, Cristina was interviewing a Puerto Rican drag queen who did a bitchin' impersonation of Laura Leon. The show started out a bit rough for the queen, but things warmed up as the show progressed. Finally Cristina got to the good stuff, like how long it takes to get made up, etc.
The drag queen answered "about 2 hours." Cristina responded with a complicit smile, "It takes me about two hours to become 'Cristina' too." Love it! She also routinely has gay and lesbian guests, with ok but mixed results.
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