In the Disney movie Coco, we can see a beautiful depiction of Mexican culture, telling us about the Day of the Dead, portraying the hypercolored “alebrijes” or animal spirits that might guide us after death.
Likewise, in the Bond movie Spectre, in the opening scene we can see the extravagant parades of the same holiday, marching through the streets of Mexico City.
The only problem is, these things were a little different before those movies. There were no parades in the streets of Mexico City, and people had a very different conception of alebrijes, if they were aware of them.
Now these things are indeed part of Mexican culture. They do hold parades in the Zócalo, and vendors in night markets proudly display fluorescent statuettes of chimeras as shown in Coco.
On one level it might seem that this is an odd way for corporations to influence culture. If we look a little deeper we might say, this is not cultural manipulation, but cultural dialogue. The things that are displayed in the movie become part of the culture, because they resonate with the people. The people recognise some beauty and truth in them - some curious portrait of the magic that exists in Mexico.
When we do feel resonance, when we are moved, we can ask ourselves, what is true about this? What is truth, what is poetry, and what is both of those?
For the podcast: Truth is Resonant A Beautiful Thought
