By Aurea Bazaez – International Relations student

There are those who affirm that in this globalized world we are moving towards cultural standardization, which is why the national identities of the countries would be at stake, and, by endangering these, national sovereignty would also be in danger. What importance shall we attribute to the forecast that soon there will be a single "universal" culture, that countries are "Americanizing", that the different national cultures will have to irretrievably disappear or that in the end the cultural is subordinate to nothing else than to the laws of supply and demand of the market? All of the above is not foreign to the American continent (Stavenhagen, 2014)

During the early 1920s, The United States established its position in the world of communications, news services and radio. However, the most important agent of Americanization was the Hollywood industry, they became international blockbusters. Even though Latin American countries have had cinematography since 1985 (De la Garza Arregui, 2020) still to this day there is a great gap in numbers, production and followers. Regarding access to commercial rooms, the seventh art is like an uneven boxing match. In one corner is the industrial cinema of Hollywood, which would be like an athlete who develops in the category of heavyweights, and Latin American cinema would be the representative of the featherweight. When the two face off after the ringing of the bell that announces the first round, Hollywood runs as the favorite of the contest and in the end, generally, wins the fight (Silva, 2016).

Today we have franchises and American gastronomic offerings, our young get tattoos with texts in English and their work includes many words of the North American language. The language present in expressions and words popularized through movies and music are seen as elements of Americanization (Stavenhagen, 2014). American English has had an important influence on Spanish, and therefore most Latin-American countries have adopted many words. For example, the expression OK, champú (Shampoo), bistec. Furthermore, all Latin American governments insist that we be a bilingual, but only with English; and most of the premises and businesses are decorated and distributed to feel like in the USA.

But from a critical perspective it is widely spoken of "McDonaldization" or "Cocacolonization" synonymous of "Americanization," still, none of these terms are an essential part of North American culture. In the United States, no one is "Americanized" by consuming those products, as well as the north Americans are “Mexicanized" for celebrating "Cinco de Mayo” or drinking Mexican beers, widely consumed in north América, while enjoying a baseball, Basket, football games. (Laguna-Díaz, 2012).

The consumption of products of western origin (American) and adoption of certain aspects of their culture could, perhaps, westernize certain uses in a superficial way in Latin América but from there to think that these uses in many countries indicate that all Latin American countries are moving towards a “global culture”, we still have a long of distance.

 

MOXIE es el Canal de ULACIT (www.ulacit.ac.cr), producido por y para los estudiantes universitarios, en alianza con el medio periodístico independiente Delfino.cr, con el propósito de brindarles un espacio para generar y difundir sus ideas.  Se llama Moxie - que en inglés urbano significa tener la capacidad de enfrentar las dificultades con inteligencia, audacia y valentía - en honor a nuestros alumnos, cuyo “moxie” los caracteriza.

References:
  • De la Garza Arregui, B. (2020). La llegada del cine a la Ciudad de México. MXCITY, págs. 1-3.
  • Laguna-Díaz, E. (2012). Globalization, Civilization and Americanization: Loose Ends. New Jersey: Historiografías.
  • Silva, J. (2016). ¿Por qué Hollywood aplasta a Latinoamérica en las salas de cine? RT España, 1-4.
  • Stavenhagen, R. (2014). La diversidad Cultural en el Desarrollo de las Américas Los pueblos indígenas y los estados nacionales en Hispanoamérica. Washington: OEA.