Jenifer Lopez...latin music expert

Ok, don't get me wrong I love Jennifer Lopez's music, but I like her English music that is. Now with the release of her new Spanish album, andit hitting number one on Latin music charts, well it is a bit unsettling. She was asked to go on American Idol for the master class in latin styled music. Now last time I remember these classes are taught by people who are "legends" and "experts" in their genre of music. How exactly does one become just that? Jennifer Lopez puts one Spanish CD out and now she is an expert in the style of music?

Where are the people who are still alive and still making Latin music? You know those people who continusouly put out records in Spanish and with some type of latin stylistics.

Jennifer your fusion of hip-hop, rap, and latin beats is great...but come on your not an expert just because you put out one CD and marry Marc Anthony. Oh well, such is the world of popular music.

weight issues

I was at my parents house the other day and we began talking about weight. My dad was upset that my older sister has put on a lot of weight after the baby, and he felt that she should lose it and be more like a woman. This alone made me giggle in my own mind. Only because well if my sister is happy what's it to us. Its not like she is obese. But it made me think, of what at least my parents thought was beautiful in a woman. Both of them believed that young girls should look "appropriate" and healthy, their version of course. But when it came to guys they didn't really have a say, though my mom makes it know that I have gained some pounds over the years. She always tells me I need to watch out because it isnt good for me. True it isn't good for me, but I think I am fine for my height. I am only 5'6", and weith 140 lbs. Compared to what I weighed out of high school up until 22, which was 115.

It was just interesting to hear what my parents had to say about what makes a girl beautiful.

hispanic sex opposed to...what?

Yeah I came upon this one day when I was looking at some sites. The quotes to this site were about "hispanic sex" and how it is different from other sex. It just made me think about how people view sex and attribute ethnicity to it...is it simply using the stereotype people assume of Latinos/as? Or is this some factuality to this claim?


Engaging in Hispanic sex? How is this different from other sex? Or is this just an eroticization of a certain ethnicity?

Do "hispanics," Latinos, or anyone really have sex differently then other men?

thought it was interesting...

From Velvet Barrios, in Gendered Bodies and Borders in Contemporary Chican@ Performance and Literature by Suzanne Chavez-Silverman:

"I live smack in the fissure between two worlds, in the infected wound...today, when they ask me for my nationality or ethnic identity, I can't respond with one word, since my "identity" possesses multiple repertoires: I am Mexican but I am also Chicano and Latin American. At the border they call me chilango; in Mexico City it's pocho; and in Europe its sudaca. The Anglos call me "Hispanic."...I walk amid the rubble of the tower of Babel of my American postmodernity."

--said by Guillermo Gomez-Pena about in-betweeness

What's in a name?

I remember when I was a kid I always wanted some accent on my name so that it was like the rest of the Mexican people I knew. So I remember I asked my mom if my name had any accent marks in it, to make it look more Mexican…she said yes there was, it was on the "a" of my last name. But she said there is no need to put it because it is understood. I remember I tried using it for awhile and my teachers always told me why did I put the accent mark, and that it wasn’t necessary, since then I took it off. (The reason I remembered this is because I am reading a book by Rigoberto Gonzalez [accent on the "a"], called Butterfly Boy.)

Funny and well random some of the things I remember...

Gloria Trevi

I thought this interesting and that I should write it down so that at some later point I can elaborate on it. I was writing a quick one page paper about how Gloria Trevi can be read through the notion of rasqauchismo and Chicano camp. Rasquache or that act of rasquachismo is making do with what one has. The bare essentials.

In an article by by Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, Rasquachismo:A Chicano sensibility, "to be rasquache is to posit a bawdy, spunky consciousness, to seek to subvert and turn ruling paradigms upside down. It is a witty, irreverent, and impertinent posture that recodes and moves outside established boundaries." Gloria Trevi encompasses these very things, though some may say she has made a brand for herself and her music and has become very famous for it, it is the fact that she has done this by never compromising who she is and by doing what she can with what she has.

By also looking at her through the idea of Chicano camp, she opens a new space where gender and sexual norms of Chicano culture can be contested. Not only does she sing about it but she makes sure her performances aknowledge these very notions by also including the gay latino community. For this I looked at Ramon Garcia's article, Against Rasquache:Chicano camp and the politics of identity in Los Angeles. Here Garcia describes camp, especially Chicano camp, as "more confrotational [than rasquachismo]; it presents the negativity of gender breakdown and sexual deviance..."

That is just some of what I wrote in my one page paper, but I feel that maybe more can be written about.

Chicano Queer Identity

This is one of the things we talk about in class today, how do we or people we know, formulate their thinking of being Chicano and gay.

Very difficult to understand or break down because everyone is different in this respect and how they define these terms and whether they intermingle or stay clear of one another. For me, it hasn't been the hardest road to allow these two identities to intersect. My family has never had a problem with my sexuality. Growing up I was allowed to do a lot of different things, from playing ith dolls, to learning music. My parents believed that I should explore what I like to do and what makes me happy, and for this I commend them. I often hear of many Latino parents who have a problem with their gay children. But what about people like me, what are their experiences. Are there any connections there?

Either way these two identities have often come into conflict with one another because of opposing ideologies, but I think we are living in a new time where these two ideas are coming together and formulating new identities...that is where the new work lies.

another day

I decided to create an account after doing some readings for my class in Chicano/Latino Pop Culture. There was a line in there about how voices are never heard if they are not spoken or written, and though this should be common knowledge, some of us are still held back to do so. Therefore I decided to begin posting on here about my experiences and to catch some of my friends that I don't see up-to-date with my life. A brief introduction is necessary:

My name is Daniel Gonzalez, or Deno (what my family calls me). I was born in Long Beach, CA, but raised in San Bernardino. I am currently 25 years old and attendting school at UC Irvine. I am majoring in Cultural Anthropology, with emphasis in Chicano/Latino studies. Most of my studies has dealt with nationality, sexuality, and representation. I am graduating this June and after that I am taking some time off and then going back into graduate school, where I will work to get my PhD.

At the moment I am living with my partner of 6 years, and our family of three cats, a cockatiel, a dog, and two toads. Not your average family, but it works fine for us.

For now I think this brief introduction is sufficient...so stay tuned to "mi espacio"