Shows
Popular Culture in the AmericasIt's called Futbol!This episode explores the history of futbol and its relevance for immigrant communities, rituals, and families. This episode has an interactive and audiovisual study guide available at www.melthestorydoc.com. In them, I also share personal photos (archives.) Additionally, this episode has interactive and audiovisual study guides available at www.melthestorydoc.com. In them, I also share personal photos (archives.), I reconsidered my fieldwork during my dissertation in 2014 and shared some of my favorite futbol (soccer) memories...especially the 2022 World Cup finale.2023-04-2720 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasMemory and the Politics of RememberingThis episode examines the relationship between memory and culture. Additionally, I explore the ways in which popular culture works to keep the world from forgetting. I consider the tensions between folk culture and popular culture as it relates to understanding the people, culture, and politics of the Americas.2023-04-1935 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasCuir (queer) DiasporasThis episode highlights how sexual identity throughout the regions can (still) be criminalized, demonized, weaponized, and put you "at risk" of violence. I posit how popular culture illuminates queer lives and experiences, providing references. Also, I question the future of "inclusive" Spanish and consider how language can shape self and health. Study Guide available at www.melthestorydoc.com2023-04-1145 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasFood - on appetite, diets, and ritualsThis episode explores the importance of food in our community, focusing on how it shapes our sense of health and self. I also discuss how geography and our sense of place influence our palettes. Additionally, I share my insights into a good "piña colada" and one of my favorite 3-ingredient recipes and food memories.... "sambumbia!"2023-04-0450 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasImagining the NEW LATINO GANGThis episode engages with the imagined "Real Latino Gang" to evoke how activism, art, and academia intersect when studying popular culture in the Americas. I reflect on the value of "looking back" in order to "move forward." and ask, "what type of activist do you want to be?"2023-03-2842 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasImagining Justice: Gritos Latinos and Sonic Escraches This episode explores the concepts of truth and justice in a post-dictatorial society. Additionally, I focus on the value of performance studies for understanding and engaging with popular culture (art) that seeks to reconcile self, community, nation, and history. The relationship between youth, art, and resistance comes into focus through restorative justice practices and collective activism throughout the region, over and over again.Study guide available on my website.2023-03-071h 01
Popular Culture in the AmericasNew Song and Rock Nacional (Sounds of Resistance)This episode discusses the history and legacies of the Dirty Wars in Chile and Argentina. Additionally, I discuss the counter-movements to the repression of the dictatorships as seen in New Song (Chile) and Rock Nacional (Argentina.) I highlight how racial and historical trauma provides a lens to understand the legacy of this era and how it shifted the dynamics between the US and the Americas because of Operation Condor. Please find the study guide for this episode and more at www.melthestorydoc.com/PopularCultureintheAmericas2023-02-2849 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasBrasil and Imagination: Dismantling Systems (Dictating Resistance)This episode explores what makes Brazil unique but also similar to its neighbors. I discuss the racial history and politics concerning Samba and Afro-Brasilian rap. Additionally, I engage with two of the most influential thinkers in Latin America who greatly impacted my work, Augusto Boal (Theater of the Oppressed) and Paulo Freyre (Pedagogy of the Oppressed.) I reflect on these tools of liberation.2023-02-2148 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasWindows and MirrorsThis episode explores popular culture, specifically telenovelas, and film, using the theory of "windows" and "mirrors." I explore some common thematic tropes (violence, romance, etc.) and consider the relationship between globalization and media when teaching about the world and each other,2023-02-1454 min
Popular Culture in the AmericasGender and the Politics of (Mis)RepresentationThis episode examines the “roles” prescribed to Latina women and the relationship of these roles to power, visibility, and the (social, political, and physical) body.*This episode has an interactive study guide. Download Here2023-02-071h 09
Popular Culture in the AmericasEpisode 1 - Histories and El PuebloThis episodes asks, "Why Study Popular Culture in the Americas?"2023-02-0153 min