Today our bus took us from Cuetzalan to the city of Puebla. We made a brief stop at the 5 de Mayo Battle site and continued on to the University of the Americas in Cholula, a suburb of Puebla. While at the University we heard a lecture from Dr. Alison Lee on Mexican Identity and migration. While I don’t have incredible pictures from today’s lecture, my mind is full of new ideas, questions and connections. Here are just a few thoughts.
What connections did I make?
Dr. Lee talked a lot about the ways that different ethnicities and classes have been portrayed in Mexico over time. She showed us casta (caste) paintings created in the 17th and 18th century that depicted pictures of the way people of different social rankings looked or were “supposed” to look. She then showed us a painting of the post revolution era that depicted the idea of a Cosmic race which was the idea of the mixing of ethnicities to make a perfect group of people. The problem with a Cosmic race is that there is still an elimination of diversity. It’s interesting that this was happening the same time that the idea of a “pure” race was happening in Europe and America. Anyway, she went on to talk about how this class system is still alive in visual representations like the media today in Mexico. All of that being said, I couldn’t help but think about the media literacy unit that we teach in seventh grade Language Arts at our school. The visual representations and exclusion of ethnicities and classes is something that we talk about in my class in Minnesota. While I know that there are differences between the source of the messages and even the specific media messages differ, I think the struggle to find the meaning of identity within media is interesting to think about across the board.
What questions do I have?
I teach my students about media literacy so that they are aware of the power of media. I understand that lack of understanding and a desire for power or a sense of nationalism can be the source of the idea of defining societal roles. However, I have to go back to the question: How did these ideas of ethnic, gender, and class roles permeate a society at the time? What were the means of sending that message? Who was questioning that message as it was being sent?
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| The site of the battle of 5 de Mayo had a lot of graffiti. I found the cactus graffiti to be creative. |
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| Site of the battle of Cinco de Mayo (not Mexican Independence day) where the Mexican army defeated the much larger French army. The defeat didn't last long; the French military came back to defeat the Mexican army the following year. |
