Globalization, Nation, and Culture in Latin America

(Challenges and strategies for preserving cultural diversity)

Bernardo Subercaseaux S.

Prepared byBernardo Subercaseaux

for the Cultural Program of the Unit for Social Development and Education

Santiago, ChileMarch, 2002

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Contents

- From economy to culture....................................................................... 3

- Globalization and cultural dynamics...................................................... 4

- Nation-state, cultural density, and public policy.................................. 11

- Actor, agents, and sectors..................................................................... 17

- The indigenous question...................................................................... 19

- From here and from there.................................................................... 24

- Intercultural education........................................................................ 27

- Cultural industries: the Achilles heel.................................................... 30

- Closing reflection................................................................................. 36

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Globalization or internationalization: from economy to culture

Globalization—or internationalization—is the expression of a capitalist phase characterized by the free circulation of financial flows and economic goods. It is also the expression of a new situation in which the logic of the market has spread to the entire the planet. In this process, the incessant development of new communication and information technologies have broken down barriers of time and space, creating what some call a world-market and others a global village. Globalization entails increasing interdependence in all aspects of life and among all societies on the planet, and this has led to an unprecedented transnationalization of historic processes. Nation-states have lost their sovereignty in managing economic activity, as market liberalization exposes each country to growing interconnectedness and chain reactions. In this context, hegemonies and contra-hegemonies—or, if you will, safeguards—are exercised based on the strength of the economy itself or through pacts and subregional and regional markets.

Some academics would argue that this new economic scenario is the continuation of historic processes in the course of Western modernization: the internationalization that began with the transoceanic voyages of the fifteenth century and the transnationalization and capital expansion of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Other academics view it as an essentially self-perpetuating process of capitalist development. It could be compared to a coral formation, devoid of any aspirations of power or hegemony: the coral grows because it is inherently designed to proliferate, because that is its way of life. Still others view globalization as an essentially asymmetrical phenomenon involving the globalizers, the globalized, and even the excluded. Some people use the term “northamericanization” synonymously with globalization. They assert that “the influence of the North American mass media is on the rise in every country of the world, particularly television: movies from the United States, news stations, CNN, NBC, television series, music stations, advertisements of major U.S. brand names.”1

Empire of opportunity, empire of inequity, and empire of the United States. Each of these positions—which to an extent are contradictory—tend to wield reasonable data and arguments. This is an indication to us that globalization is a highly complex phenomenon with multiple variables and therefore we should be caution us against simplistic viewpoints or ideological or 1 . Guillermo de la Dehesa Comprender la globalización, Barcelona, España, 2000.

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fundamentalist conceptions. The latter would include those adamantly in favor of globalization, idealizing it as the new panacea, as well as those that condemn it completely, demonizing or blaming it for all ills past and future.

The complexity of globalization resides in the fact that, while its origins and primary scope are in the economic sphere, it is a phenomenon that simultaneously has a political, social, and cultural dimension. In the social sphere, for example, studies by ECLAC and the UNDP have shown that globalization and its attendant dynamics of integration coexist with a logic of inequality and chronic poverty and social disintegration, particularly in Latin America and Africa. The most persistent concerns, however, have to do with the cultural consequences of globalization. To begin with, there is a new adaptation of national time and historic time: these are now “globalized times.” And secondly, the reality of encountering the same vidioclip, the same cable channel, the same fast food, the same music, in such far-flung areas as Katmandu, Sao Paolo, Belfast, Monterrey, and Santiago, has prompted references to a stereotypical culture and transnational cultural standardization, a homogenizing trend that diminishes each nation’s idiosyncrasies and identity. It is a proven reality that the new cultural milieu in which we live, regardless of the country, is dominated by “massmedia-ization,” internationalization, and an audiovisual cultural organization. The “entertainment culture” rules this terrain, controlled by transnational cultural industries which, in the case of Latin America, are based in Miami. To limit our discussion to this one dimension, however, would be simplistic in that it would neglect other dynamics induced by globalization.

Globalization and cultural dynamics

Cultural density based on ethnic or demographic origin (native peoples, indigenous peoples, black populations, European and Middle Eastern migration) or on distinct social groups and lifestyles (peasant cultural, grassroots cultures, youth culture) is at the core of the cultural diversity found in different regions of Latin America. This density colors the map of cultural diversity on the continent and it works like mortar: it is a phenomenon of social cohesion and an identifying appellation at the same time. Globalization creates dynamics that may affect this mortar in a negative and undesirable way—by causing it to erode—or in a positive and desirable way—by affirming it. It is worthwhile, then, to examine some examples of each case, drawn from

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the reality in Chile, Colombia and Brazil. These cases are emblematic in that similar ones could occur in any country on the continent.

Miss Pelarco: Pelarco is a rural town near Talca, located in region VII in central Chile. Most of its 15,108 inhabitants are peasant farmers living in modest adobe houses, on irrigated or dry land, in a setting rife with vineyards, corn, and pastures criss-crossed by rows of poplars. The town mayor, a former television diva married to a local farmer, spent much of her first year in office organizing an event that would attract national media attention: the Miss Pelarco pageant. The Mayor obtained the approval of different sectors and the event was held in the gymnasium. However, it adopted an audiovisual format taken from one of the highest rated audiovisual programs in the entertainment industry: the Miss Universe pageant. There was a host in a smoking jacket, and shy young peasant girls more accustomed to feeding corn to the chickens suddenly parading around in bikinis or glamorous silk gowns. There were cameras, a fairly well known host asking contestants the usual (previously rehearsed) questions, the finalists’ anticipation, the familiar sobbing during the coronation, and even the first and second “runner-ups” (which the young peasant girls in the contest mispronounced since they did not even know what it meant). The event achieved the municipal leader’s objectives: to instill in the imaginations of these simple girls from Pelarco the dream of a globalized night; the chance to feel like Miss Universe or to be like Claudia Schiffer (the winner, an 18-year- old girl, was awarded a course at a small modeling school in Santiago). Moreover, the mayor successfully put Pelarco on the map by attracting the attention of the national media. An open television channel did a program on the event and several newspapers from the capital interviewed the nice peasant girl disguised as Miss Pelarco.

Culturally speaking, the imposition of audiovisual parameters and the entertainment culture in a rural town in Central Chile illustrates a homogenizing dynamic. It creates an isochrony among local, national, and international time. It is, however, a dynamic with undesirable and in some ways extremely negative effects for the survival and development of local cultural density. Many, certainly including the Mayor in question, might argue that our viewpoint is merely a product intellectual purity; that there is nothing wrong with opening up job opportunities to a humble peasant girl from the area, or with placing on the news radar screen a heretofore virtually nonexistent town (precisely because it had never before had a space in the mass media culture). It is worth noting, however, that at the personal level,

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María Magdalena Arenas, the real name of Miss Pelarco, most likely will return to her hometown disillusioned by her stay in the capital or, even more distressing, that she would be forced to adopt a morally unacceptable lifestyle in order to prolong her night of glamour. It is, however, a collective and social issue, rather than a matter of one individual’s fate. This event, with all of its trappings, will further debilitate local peasant culture, already weakened by growing urbanization and the modernity that predominates in the audiovisual mass media. The subliminal message is clear: peasant identity and traditions are things that the community of Pelarco should disguise and cover up. Tradition is eroded rather than affirmed and defended (just as this same Mayor had been contributing to its erosion by encouraging the children of Pelarco to celebrate Halloween). At the same time, because the town succeeded in becoming national news, it is quite probable that other towns will imitate the event. Thus, in the years to come, we will have Miss So-and-So pageants, all competing to fit into the parameters of the audiovisual event that serves as their model.

In this way, the market standardizes imagination, consumption patterns, lifestyles, and even cultural practices. Because of the mass media, urban life has transcended city limits, pervading and often smothering rural areas. Eroding cultural identity contributes to a decline in confidence and autonomy, which are essential for community development, even in economic terms. Indeed, as a result of such erosion and the loss of cultural identity, communities lose touch with the values, traditions and perspectives that give meaning to life. This can lead to a sense of alienation that jeopardizes the very development of the town. It also should be recalled that precisely because of the homogenizing dynamics associated with globalization, distinctive local cultures have become an economic resource, a value added, particularly for the tourism industry.

Now many will argue that, in the contemporary scene, identities are not only associated with social integration factors based on ethnicity, demographics or lifestyle. Identities also form around sports figures and the mass media, particularly television. According to a recent study, “it is possible to envisage the essential functions of social cohesion and adaptation of subjects to a modern environment occurring through the ‘soccerization’ of public space. Soccer would provide the “we” that might not develop in other areas of social activity. It would fill the needs for belonging and participation otherwise hard to find in an atomized, individualized society. Besides, in terms of the adaptation of subjects in a competitive atmosphere, soccer would

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offer idols epitomizing, in a virtual landscape, the desire for fame and success which are imposed as goals, yet denied in fact to most people.”2. A similar reflection might be made with regard to television series or certain programs on open television such as the Miss Universe pageant. While social cohesion and identities created by the media or sports do indeed constitute a collective “we,” in terms of durability, cohesion, and cultural density, they are identities with a different pathos, and they are short-lived relative to those based on ethnicity, demography, or lifestyle. It is no coincidence that the first cultural identities are known as “nomadic” or “prophylactic,” and later ones as stable identities. The latter identities stressed a sense of belonging to a historical plan, thereby fostering and preserving cultural diversity. Grassroots cultures born of the very living conditions of the working classes, whether rural or urban, historically have nourished each country’s identity and artistic culture. And the continual erosion of the latter, as it succumbs to globalization, diminishes the one and impoverishes the other.

Huila, in southern Colombian region: the department of Huila, in southern Colombia, is a traditionally indigenous, agrarian, and very isolated area. Its agenda for worldwide connectivity and integration is emblematic of how technological developments and modernization redefine and complicate regional cultural identity.3 Huila first broke out of its internal, national, and international isolation with the advent of the train, the daily newspaper, the radio, and the movies in the thirties; the establishment of local radio stations in the forties; the highway to Bogota in the fifties; the installation of T.V. relay towers in the sixties; and, thanks to satellite access, cellular telephones and the Internet in the nineties. Until, the sixties, the modernization process and link with the outside world entailed changes that did not interfere greatly with the survival of local culture. In fact, such changes—the radio for example—offered an outlet for cultural expression and development. The arrival in Huila department of electronic-digital culture, however, represented a departure from the earlier logic, from the established notions of time, space, and different forms of expression. The mass media that entered with this last wave redefined the way in which different sectors of the Department perceived, felt and understood, upsetting longstanding social distinctions and cultural orders. As we have pointed out, because of the media and mass culture, the urban imagery of the city spilled over into countryside. The supply of international television led to the de-territorialization of culture, and 2 Gisselle Munizaga La pantalla delirante. Los nuevos escenarios de la comunicación en Chile, Carlos Ossa (editor), Santiago, Chile, 1999.3 W.F.Torres “¿Qué sujetos formar en la periferia para enfrentar la globalización? El caso de Huila” in Cultura y globalización, editado por J. M.. Barbero, F. López y Jaime E. Jaramillo, Bogotá, Colombia, 1999.

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raised impossible expectations and ambitions among the local youth that exceeded the narrow confines of the Huila region. Many Huilans today suffer from low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, and a strong need for social recognition. “During the past decade it has become increasingly evident that social processes in the southern Colombian region are governed by patronage, drug trafficking, guerrillas, and militarism.”4. The region’s cultural identity has been undermined. In this context, as youth become entrenched in a global audiovisual cultural, there is little the government or civil society can do to support oral or local cultures. The homogenizing dynamic, therefore, operates with no counterbalance, nourished by a complex and anomalous political history inclined toward corruption and social disintegration. As in the case of Pelarco, the presence of a global audiovisual culture in Huila likewise represents an homogenizing dynamic with negative effects. It should be noted that we do not regard “homogenizing dynamic” and “negative effects” as synonymous, since not all dynamics associated with globalization necessarily have negative effects. For example, a homogenizing dynamic that, from some perspectives, has positive effects in terms of cultural diversity is mass access to certain new communication and information technologies. Thanks to the cellular telephone, the Machis, or Mapuche healers, using this technology—very useful in rural areas—, have broadened their sphere of influence and cultural traditions. The Internet contains more current and plentiful information on Native American peoples than traditional forms of media. Néstor García Canclini offers myriad examples of how Guatemalan, Mexican, and Brazilian peasants transmit reports of human rights violations by fax to international entities. And indigenous peoples in many countries use videos, cellular telephones, and electronic mail to transmit their defense of alternative culture and lifestyles.5 These experiences illustrate how new technologies that may adversely affect cultural diversity from some perspectives, also contribute to cultural dialogue and communication. In this way, they facilitate the expression of cultural diversity, and make it visible. Indeed a cultural difference that is encapsulated, ghettoized, and invisible is no longer part of cultural diversity.

In addition to the dynamics of cultural homogenization, globalization also engenders certain heterogenizing dynamics. These dynamics frequently emerge as antibodies to former logics. And this is also true because, in the

4 . W.F.Torres, op.cit.5 Néstor García Canclini Consumidores y ciudadanos. Conflictos multiculturales de la globalización, México, 1995.

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contemporary scene, culture and cultural idiosyncrasies have become an economic resource and value added, again due to globalization.

The Toro Pullay Festival: Tierra Amarilla is a town of 15,264 inhabitants located near Copiapo, in Chile’s northern desert and mining region. For some time, the Toro Pullay festival has been held there in February or March of each year. This Andean carnival, with influences from southern Bolivia and northeastern Argentina, celebrates the changing season in keeping with the agricultural traditions of the valleys of the cordillera. The carnival features dances, costumes, floats, street musicians, the Andean cueca [traditional dance], and masked processions, culminating in the burning of the Pullay in the town plaza. A wooden bull representing brute force runs the streets and participants drink Pullay Punch, white wine made with rotten plantain. The entire community of Tierra Amarilla participates, with the youth and neighboring organizations playing a protagonist role. Beginning in the nineties, the municipal government has organized and sponsored the festival. It does so in order to strengthen local identity and traditions and preserve the town’s cultural heritage from the threat of globalized mass culture. Interestingly, the festival, which uses ancient carnival traditions found throughout the Andean region, is an open festival, a living tradition. For example, homosexuals and transvestites from the town and surrounding area participate in costumes and the children pummel them with their bags, thereby injecting a new element into the tradition. What supposedly has happened in an African country has not occurred in Tierra Amarilla: they say that the government pays members of the Massai people to preserve their dress and prohibits them from combining it with others. This is an example of frozen, rather than living cultural preservation, for the benefit of tourism; it is somewhat artificial and calls to mind the way in which a zoo is managed.

Now the Toro Pullay festival and the support it receives from the authorities and civil society is not an isolated event. For several years now, the Ministry of Education’s [MINEDUC] Culture Division has been preparing a Cultural Cartography of the country, recording local cultures and simultaneously promoting cultural events and town meetings.6 This is clearly a response to the homogenizing dynamics of globalization. It is also a way of recognizing that governments cannot, and must not, remain neutral. Together with civil society, they must contribute to the protection and advancement of cultural patrimony and diversity.

6 . Cartografía Cultural de Chile. Atlas, Santiago, Chile, 1999.

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Ollodum, Bahía, in Brazil: the last example has to do, paradoxically, with the cultural industry. We say “paradoxically” because the cultural industry is widely known as the war-horse of globalization and its homogenizing dynamics. Nonetheless, George Yúdice offers several Brazilian examples that demonstrate how the logic of the cultural industry also serves to promote civic and cultural diversity projects.7 This case has to do with Ollodum and Afro Reggae, two bands that play a role in civil society in addition to playing music. They have promoted reAfricanization and fought for social and ethnocultural rights. Ollodum, an Afro-Brazilian cultural group from Bahía, internationally renown as a leader in “World Music,” has adopted the logic of the cultural industry: it produces records, CDs, t-shirts, and hats with logos and tourist items that are sold by a chain of boutiques modeled after Spike Lee’s store. Ollodum works against racial discrimination, fosters self-esteem and pride among Afro-Brazilians, and fights for and defends the civil and cultural rights of the excluded. Ollodum likewise played a leading role in the recovery of the Pelourinho neighborhood, in San Salvador8, Bahía. Its members are, simultaneously, cultural entrepreneurs and activists in civil society and for civil rights. They represent a curious amalgam that combines defense of cultural diversity with the logic of the cultural industry, a logic that in this particular case, contributes to the preservation and defense of one’s own.

One can infer, from the examples provided, that the logic of globalization includes two dynamics that coexist in a permanent state of tension: a homogenizing dynamic and a heterogenizing dynamic through which transnational and local phenomena can coexist.9 Recognition of this confluence has led some to coin the neologism “glocalization.” Both dynamics penetrate the cultural, political, social, and even economic spheres in a highly interdependent relationship, which makes it difficult to analyze them independently. For precisely this reason, a Manichean approach to the issue of globalization and cultural should be avoided. Any analysis must take all the variables into account in order to navigate the issue more effectively. Now then, “navigate globalization more effectively” means defending against or managing its negative effects while taking advantage of the positive. Or, put another way: to effectively navigate globalization so that Latin America

7 .George Yúdice “Redes de gestión social y cultural en tiempos de globalización” en J.M. Barbero, F. López de la Roche y J.Ed. Jaramillo (eds.) Cultura y Globalización, Bogotá, Colombia, 1999.8 George Yúdice, op. cit.9 . Guadalupe Ruiz Gimenez “Las dinámicas de la globalización” en América Latina: un espacio cultural en el mundo globalizado, (editor) M. Antonio Garreton, Convenio Andrés Bello, Bogotá, Colombia, 1999.

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can develop and modernize, while simultaneously preserving, and even advancing, cultural idiosyncrasies, identity, and diversity.

Nation-state, cultural density and public policy

The dynamics accompanying globalization do not operate on a blank slate or in an empty vessel. To the contrary, in Latin America, they operate in a group of very diverse nations that were formed as such essentially during the nineteenth century. Following Independence, in order to exercise sovereignty, and in the context of the prevailing enlightened ideology, emergent States and elites undertook the task of building a nation of citizens, that is to say a nation whose members were united under a single culture and a set of shared beliefs, values, and traditions. This homogenizing approach viewed cultural idiosyncrasies and differences as an impediment and, in some nations, the enlightened elite, under the banner of liberal ideology, set out to exterminate indigenous cultures while promoting the import and settlement of European migrants. The assimilationist ideal of the nation-states of the nineteenth century tended to reject cultural differences, and actually converted them into a disadvantage. The construction of Latin American nations was informed, then, by a highly homogenizing and monocultural dynamic. To a large extent, rather than articulate and recognize cultural differences, these Latin American nation-states and the elites subordinated them to centralism in order to crush them. José Martí protested this reality in his famous work, Nuestra América (1891), in which he demanded recognition for the Indian, the black, and the peasant, and ridiculed the mestizos mounted on horseback in books, and ashamed of the Indian apron worn by their mothers. It was no accident that José Carlos Mariategui gave his essays the curious title, Let us Peruvanize Peru [Peruanicemos el Perú]. And Juan Luis Mejía, a high-level official in the Colombian Institute of Culture, pointed out with stupefaction “that upon reviewing the assets classified as patrimony, in other words, legitimized by the State as part of the official memory, one realizes that more than 95% of the list comprises religious edifices from the colonial period and buildings of Republican officialdom. That pertaining to indigenous peoples, blacks, peasants, and the mestizo are not represented in the official memory. It is as if these expressions never existed or belonged to another country.”10. In synthesis, the nation-states of the continent fail the cultural diversity test and have a large share of the responsibility for the

10 Juan Luis Mejía “Estado-cultura: viejas relaciones, nuevos retos” in Jesús Martín Barbero, Fabio López y Jaime E. Jaramillo Cultura y globalización, Bogotá, Colombia, 1999.

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situation of native peoples which, with the no doubt laudable goal of civilizing them, were subjugated, exterminated and condemned to silence and invisibility. The Socialist states of the continent also fail the test; one should recall the conflict between the Cuban revolution and the Yoruba traditions and Santeria culture, or the Sandinista government against the Miskito Indians.

While the construction of Latin American nations occurred over more than a century with an homogenizing approach that viewed diversity as a barrier to the construction of “cultured and civilized republics,” the reality shows us that there are enormous differences across the continent with regard to socially circulating cultural density and cultural diversity. Until recently, one could live one’s whole life in Santiago and never hear or meet a Mapuche, even though the indigenous population is not insignificant relative to the total population (5% to 9%). In contrast to other countries in the region, in Chile the physical mix with indigenous peoples that has occurred since colonial times did not evolve into an active process of interculturality. Rather, it can be said that the Mapuche culture (understood from the standpoint of language, customs, world view, and artistic expression) has been a ghetto and its cultural presence and reach in the greater society, in other words its weight in the national identity, has been weak or virtually nonexistent. This includes everything from language to lifestyles and artistic styles (apart from certain sporadic and recent exceptions in the literary sphere).11.

In contrast to the Chilean case, which represents an extreme case of homogenization and lack of socially circulating cultural density12 (the English myth of Latin America is no coincidence), Paraguay is a country in which ethnic cultural diversity has achieved a national profile. In that country, the Guaraní people, while representing only a small percentage of the population (currently less than 3%), has enormous, widespread cultural stature throughout the country. Of the approximately 5,496,000 inhabitants13 nearly 50% of the population is bilingual and 39% speak Guaraní as their first language14. In Paraguay, radio stations and even a television channel broadcast programs in Guaraní. In ABC Color, the most traditional newspaper in the

11 Bernardo Subercaseaux Chile o una loca historia, Santiago, Chile, 1999.12 It is not that there is no cultural density and diversity; there is. The problem is that because of the way the society is structured, this diversity does not circulate and remains largely isolated.13 According to ECLAC’s Statistical Yearbook and statistics from the Inter-American Indigenous Institute, in 2000, Paraguay had a population of 5,496,000 inhabitants and an indigenous population of 159,384 or nearly 3% of the total population. Data on indigenous populations in Latin America must be analyzed with caution, however, as there are no accurate, reliable census data, given the enormous difficulty involved.14 . Grazziela Corvalán ¿Qué es el bilingüismo en el Paraguay?, Centro Paraguayo de Estudios Sociológicos, Asunción, Paraguay, 1998.

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country, a Guaraní phrase or saying can often be found in the editorial pages. Augusto Roa Bastos, Paraguay’s foremost contemporary author, clearly is an intercultural writer, in the style of Miguel Ángel Asturias in Guatemala, José María Arguedas in Peru, and Jorge Amado in Brazil.

Besides Paraguay, the cases of Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Brazil can be cited as comparative examples. With regard to Mexico, it is enough to recall its cuisine and the richness of its arts and crafts to become aware of the presence and circulation of cultural density and diversity in that country. Regarding Brazil, the northeastern Afrobahian culture can be said to permeate the entire country, with a strong dose of national identity: the ethnic and demographic components of the Afrobahian culture influence the samba, the bossa nova, the macumbas, and religious syncretism, as well as Jorge Amado and the Carnaval. Brazil is clearly a country where cultural particularisms (mostly rooted in the black slave culture) strongly infuse all strata of society and, above and beyond political and social practice, cement the cultural image and national identity of the country.

There are also enormous differences with regard to immigration. In some countries, European or Middle Eastern migrants remain hidden and ghettoized, or have become subsumed and invisible in the national culture. Elsewhere, such as in the Rio de la Plata countries and particularly Argentina, the national cultural panorama and identity, even the language, were radically altered by massive, non-selective immigration dating back to the early twentieth century. One can refer, then, to a cultural density of a demographic nature formed out of the European migrations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This density is expressed in various ways from the tango to certain unparalleled works in Argentine and Uruguayan literature.

From the above, one can infer that despite the homogenizing approach to the construction of Latin American nations, there are significant differences across the continent in terms of circulating cultural density based on ethnicity or demographics. Some countries present a serious deficit in this regard an aborted interculturality, as is the case with Chile (at the negative extreme of the spectrum), while countries such as Paraguay, Mexico, and Brazil, have a pluralistic tradition in which ethnic or demographically-based cultural diversity is clearly present and traditionally has contributed to national identity. These differences, however, cannot be attributed to explicit, planned public or cultural policies and to the country. Rather they exist despite

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governments and are attributable to certain historical circumstances and situations, some dating back a long time. In the case of Paraguay, for example, interculturality with the Guaraní and bilingualism date back to colonial times with the Jesuit missions and the appreciation and development that they represented for indigenous cultures. In Mexico, the 1910 revolution played a significant role, with its symbolic vindication of the indigenous and cultural diversity that, with Vasconcelos in the lead, opened up the national culture to a phenomenon of osmosis with indigenous and grassroots cultures. This phenomenon would later find expression in Mexican crafts, murals, painting, and music, and in the work of individual artists of Frida Kahlo’s caliber.

Variations between nations in terms of cultural density and intercultural scale are factors that mitigate the impact of globalization’s homogenizing dynamics. These dynamics play out very differently in a country with substantial cultural density—such as Mexico, Paraguay, or Brazil--, compared to a country that is weaker in that regard, such as Chile.15

Anglo music disseminated by transnational music companies will not achieve the same prominence in the country of the tango, the vallenato, cumbia, samba and bossa nova, as it will in a country whose national dance—the cueca—is barely a question of once a year on patriotic holidays. This dance lacks symbolic importance among the population and clearly is losing ground—even during national holidays—to the cumbia, the salsa, and the merengue. In terms of the cultural industry, it is no coincidence that only Mexico and Brazil offer any counterbalance to the major transnational music companies dominating the Latin American market (we are referring to BMG, Emi, PolyGram, Universal, Sony Music, and Warner Music). In both of these countries, national record companies have attained high profiles and a significant market segment (Musart and Fonovisa in Mexico and Sigla, a subsidiary of Globo, in Brazil). In other countries the majors 16 control the market and constantly broaden their domain by absorbing national record companies and acquiring repertoire catalogues that continue to produce royalties.17 Undoubtedly, in addition to their sizeable national markets (98 and 170 million people respectively), Mexico and Brazil are exceptions to this rule because their substantial cultural density influences the potential market for music rooted in local tradition and an identifying appellation.

15 . When referring to this weakness and Chile’s compulsive tendency toward imitation, Nicanor Parra said that “Chile is not a country, it’s a landscape”.16 . This is how the specialized literature refers to the big transnational corporations in the music industry.17 . Néstor García Canclini and Carlos Moneta Las industrias culturales en la integración latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999.

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It could be argued that if ethnic or demographic cultural density—and ultimately cultural diversity—are strengthened in some countries and weakened in others not because of explicit public policies, but rather due to dynamics arising from a particular course of history and shaped over long periods of time, would that not be reason enough to avoid having public policies in this area that does not lend itself to cultural planning? Is cultural engineering possible? Is it possible to influence the social and cultural fabric? Would it be possible to regulate cultural identity or create incentives for it through public policy? The notion that in the area of culture and communications the best policy is no policy at all, means leaving the door open to the historic event of the moment: the market. This approach would lead to several of the negative effects described earlier.

Many examples, however, demonstrate the public policies in this field are necessary and important. Examples indicating that certain dynamics relating to identity and culture are a result of public policy, even a purely administrative policy. Here we can cite the case of Europe. The policies of the economic community have created a common European cultural space. There are also examples of public policies that reinforce and open the door to local and regional cultural density and identities. This occurred in Spain, for instance, thanks to the consensual agreement to strengthen regional autonomous communities and governments. Canada’s multicultural policies serve as yet another example.

Some critics of multiculturalism, such as Francisco Colom of Spain, argue that it is a fad, a “politically correct” ideology lacking in structure and substance.18 He gives the example of the Canadian Mounties, who may wear, as part of their uniform, a hat or cap reflecting their ethnic background (Jewish, Arab, Canadian, or Hindu). He regards this as an aspect of multiculturalism that is all form and no substance, since it does not guarantee that these Mounties will genuinely respect each other and cultural diversity. Colom regards this as an external framework, a mere formality. “The conversion of multiculturalism into an ideological resource for the languages of ethnicity, gender, or sexual identity entails the added risk,” according to the Spanish academic, “of hypostasizing culture as an independent variable of other social, political, and economic circumstances.” While we do not share Colom’s critique (since the line between form and substance is often blurred) his analysis leads us to ask ourselves about the deeper, substantive meaning of

18 . Francisco Colom González Razones de identidad. Pluralismo cultural e integración política, Anthropos, Madrid, Spain, not dated

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cultural diversity. It is true that multiculturalism and cultural diversity increasingly are in vogue as the contemporary utopia, not unlike the nineteenth century notion that the indigenous were uncivilized and enemies of progress. The important thing, however, is that cultural diversity must be linked to deepening democracy, an aspiration stemming from the current dissatisfaction with democracy understood only in the political sense, as a voting democracy. Out of this disillusionment, comes the need to broaden democracy in the cultural, social and communications spheres, to encompass citizenship understood as the capacity for self-determination, to represent interests and demands at all levels, from political to cultural, from the environmental to gender and age-based sectors. Moreover, drawing on the hand and glove metaphor, every country has several different fingers, or cultural sectors. If they are all thrust into the same mitten—as the State did in the constructing the nation—the hand will be left virtually disabled and will never be able to move freely. However, if each finger is acknowledged and given its own space, the hand has greater mobility and each finger its own self worth and dignity as a protagonist. There is no question that cultural diversity, and its acknowledgment, enables those involved to strengthen their identity, to have a sense of belonging, that they can do more; as a result, they are able be more fulfilled as human and social beings. These are the substantive aspects of cultural diversity. They are indicative of whether or not the achievements—and the underlying policies—are mere formalities.

Actors, agents and sectors

What we have developed up until now can be understood as an argument, with certain degree of historical depth, in favor of considering and designing strategies and policies that contribute to cultural diversity. Strategies and policies that enable Latin American countries to navigate in the context of globalization, enhancing its positive effects, and minimizing the negative. Besides the private sector, we can distinguish four actors or political agents: governments or states; international or supranational entities; civil society, and global civil society. It has been argued to death that globalization has caused national governments to lose relevance and the capacity they had during the nation-building period. Politically speaking, this perspective relegates the nation-state to impotence, leaving it an empty shell in terms of sovereignty. There is a large dose of globalized ideology in this viewpoint, since the reality reveals the contrary: while the opening up of economies entails a certain weakening of national governments, governments and states are far from floundering. For better or for worse, they continue to play a leading role in

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economic, cultural, and social policy. The recent crisis in Argentina illustrates this, among other things. Governments and supranational entities (UNESCO, OAS, Andrés Bello Agreement, SELA, MERCOSUR), to the extent that they represent public interests, may also contribute to placing commercial interactions involving cultural goods and services in a context that includes other social interactions that cannot be reduced to the market, such as aesthetic innovation, preservation of patrimony, and national and social contexts. Government and supranational entities can operate as a team of actors that recognizes, above and beyond the market, the cultural rights and demands of the majorities and the minorities.19 Civil society, comprising NGOs, professional and artists associations, and all types of groups, are, in some zones, primary actors in the cultural industry or vis-à-vis indigenous peoples. And lastly, there is global civil society, consisting of networks and international organizations of organizations that take positions on globalization. This global civil society includes Davos and the World Economic Forum, and the World Social forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Global civil society is also present at international meetings that no longer are limited to States or Governments; an example is the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. In sum, at a series of forums on the environment, indigenous peoples, and women, global civil society has been present and has challenged or influenced the positions of government delegations.

In the context of globalization, meanwhile, we can distinguish four sectors that are vulnerable or susceptible to strategies and policies to preserve diversity and reaffirm cultural identities, whether at the local, regional, or national levels: the sector comprising native or indigenous peoples, the sector associated with migrations, the education sector, and the cultural industry sector.

The indigenous question

In recent decades, ethnic conflicts and indigenous peoples have achieved unprecedented presence and visibility in Latin America. In Mexico the indigenous movement in Chiapas has become a neuralgic point in national policy. In Ecuador, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of

19 Néstor García Canclini y Carlos Moneta Las industrias culturales en la integración latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999.

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Ecuador [Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador--CONAIE] at the forefront of a broadbased social movement, provoked the resignation of President Jamil Mahuad. The Vice President of the Paz Zamora government in Bolivia (1993-1997) was Katarist indigenous leader Víctor Hugo Cárdenas, who asserted that his service was motivated by the challenge of being Indian and modern at the same time. In recent years, major indigenous rebellions have occurred in both Guatemala and Bolivia while, in southern Chile, Mapuche demands for land restitution have led to successive conflicts featuring land takeovers and confrontations. Concurrently, in the area of nonconfrontational action, some indigenous consortiums or sectors have organized and have won important victories in terms of access to public services and participation in civil society. This has been true of Quechua communities in Otavalo, in northern Ecuador and the Tawahka in Honduras.20

The profile and visibility of the indigenous question during the past decade is a sign that the Latin American movement has left off being a minor actor to become an increasingly important agent of civil society. As pointed out in a recent study: native peoples have become the new political subject.21

Some account for this phenomenon by saying that globalization has brought with it a situation of cultural entropy: cultures are acquiring common traits because of communication (homogenizing dynamics). But at the same time, the opposite is occurring: regional differences, cultural diversities, what Octavio Paz called the “revenge of particularisms.” Modernity and globalization are creating, together with a progressive trend toward incessant change, a retro and archaizing trend.22 Moreover, we already have pointed out the importance—even economically—that culture and ethno-cultural particularisms have acquired in the contemporary milieu.

But going beyond the explanations, it is worth asking, Who comprises this potentially new political subject? Who comprises the Latin American indigenous population at the beginning of the twenty-first century? It is a difficult question, given the operational difficulties of determining by census who is indigenous and who is not. What defines a person’s status? Their ancestry, purity of lineage, adherence to cultural traditions? Or is a

20 Tanya Korovkin “Reinventing the Communal Tradition: Indigenous Peoples, Civil Society and Democratization in Andean Ecuador” LAAR, 36,3, 2001.21 . Agueda Gómez “Nuevos actores frente al fenómeno de la globalización: los movimientos indígenas en América Latina” Cuadernos Americanos, 89, 2001, 188-197.22 . José Sánchez Parga “Tampoco la cultura será lo que había sido”, Revista Identidades, 19, Quito, Ecuador, 1997.

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person indigenous simply by claiming to be so?23 Because of this, statistics on the indigenous population of Latin America—based on conservative figures—varies between 33 and 41 million out of a total 515 million inhabitants, in other words between 6.4% and 8% of the total population. Nearly 90% of the indigenous population is distributed among five countries: 27% in Peru, 26% in Mexico, 15% in Guatemala, 12% in Bolivia, and 8% in Ecuador.24 The following table is based on statistics on indigenous populations reported by the Inter-American Indigenous Institute—which tend to be more generous—:

Indigenous Population (estimated) Latin America, 2000

Country Inhabitants Indigenous %Guatemala 11,385,000 7,514,000 66 %Bolivia 8,329,000 5,247,000 63 %Peru 25,662,000 10,264,000 40 %Ecuador 12,646,000 5,058,000 40 %Belize 241,000 45,790 19 % Honduras 6,485,000 778,000 12 %Mexico 98,881,000 8,899,929 9 %El Salvador 6,276,000 439,000 7 %Guyana 861,000 51,600 6 %Chile 15,211,000 912,000 6 %Panama 2,856,000 142.800 5 %Nicaragua 5,074,000 253,000 5 %Paraguay 5,496,000 159,384 2.9 %Venezuela 24,170,000 483,400 2 %Colombia 42,321,000 634,000 1.5 %Argentina 37,032,000 370,000 1 %Costa Rica 4,023,000 402,300 1 %Brazil 170,693,000 340,000 0.2 %

All Latin American countries, with the exception of Uruguay, report indigenous populations. An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 direct descendents of indigenous peoples live on the Caribbean islands. Based on

23 Anne Deruyttere, Chief of the IDB’s Indigenous Peoples and Community Development Unit “Native People by the Numbers.” IDB America, Website, Inter-American Development Bank.24 Data from the Inter-American Indigenous Institute.

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this table, the indigenous population approaches 41 million inhabitants and comprises 400 distinct ethnic groups. Each group has its own language, social organization, cosmovision, economic system, and a mode of production in some way adapted to its ecosystem.25 This constitutes, then, an extraordinary reserve of patrimony and cultural diversity that must be protected and empowered. And it is precisely this task that gives rise to difficulties and challenges.

The difficulties and challenges can be synthesized in three areas: the first has to do with the problem of poverty alleviation. Experts report a strong correlation between rural poverty and ethnic traits. The vast majority of indigenous peoples in Latin America, approximately 80%, representing between 26 and 32 million people, are poor, and half of these live in extreme poverty.26 The rural poor, indigenous and non-indigenous, are generally landless workers or owners of small plots in areas of low productivity and marketing levels. Under these circumstances, and recalling the cultural idiosyncrasy of indigenous peoples, poverty alleviation entails training, loans, capital inflows, and even retraining of the labor force and giving up certain farming and agricultural traditions. A challenge of such proportions—which in and of itself requires countless efforts and funds—becomes even more complex and difficult when accompanied by retrospective and future political demands. In effect, the second aspect has to do with addressing and solving—even partially—certain historic grievances of native peoples. Grievances ranging from past land claims and dispossession to the struggle for cultural dignity, language (bilingual education), customs, ecosystem conservation, and the right to one’s own culture and cosmovision. Lastly, and related to the previous point, is a demand for the future: Attaining political and cultural autonomy as a community and the ability to participate in a plurinational government or otherwise become a relevant actor in civil society. To further complicate the issue, these three demands and challenges are interconnected. The conflicts of recent decades indicate, for example, that it is virtually impossible for a country to address successfully the matter of indigenous poverty independently of the other two demands. Moreover, failure to address these demands—in conjunction with the interested parties and their organizations—leads to an increasingly confrontational situation.

25 . Anne Deruyttere, véase op.cit.26 . Alberto Valdés y Tom Wiens Pobreza rural en América Latina y el Caribe, Internet, publicaciones electrónicas/encuentro.

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Statistics on indigenous populations show variations within Latin America. While in some countries, indigenous peoples account for over 40% of the population, or even the majority, in others the indigenous population represents a lesser society within the greater, non-indigenous society. In the first instance, indigenous representatives have obtained, or can obtain important positions in the national government (such as vice-president or president of the Republic) or may lead a civil society coalition positioned to be a relevant actor on the national scene. This has occurred, for example, in Bolivia and Ecuador. It is no coincidence that President Alejandro Toledo’s inauguration ceremony was held in Machu Pichu and was very “Indianized” if you will. In this context, native peoples’ interests are represented directly, in the center of government and political power. This government, then, will have a dual task: first, to improve access of indigenous sectors to public services, development, and well-being and, second, to see that these sectors are able to merge the old with the new, thereby preserving their organizations, traditions, collective consciousness, and cultural idiosyncrasies.

In the latter scenario, when indigenous populations are a minority, the lesser society has to negotiate with the greater society to arrive at a formula for political and cultural autonomy, or it may remain a lesser society in a sort of patronage arrangement. Two paths emerge here: one is patronage, which is what has happened in Chile with regard to the Mapuches. In this situation, the State—representing the greater society—has confined its actions to keeping the Mapuche movement—or lesser society—within ethnic limits, increasing public services (land funds, scholarships, homes for Mapuche students, etc.), and creating a governmental commission to formulate proposals for integrating the Mapuche people into national society.27

According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy [R.A.E.], patronage is defined as “the protection and favors through which the powerful sponsor their adherents”. To date, however, this path has failed and has led in practice to increasing confrontation. And it has failed because it has not addressed the three demands we described, particularly the third, which in this day and age is the most important to the organized indigenous movement.

The other path is to recognize the ethnosocial and cultural demands of the lesser society and proceed on the assumption that the country is multinational and multicultural. To this end, a formula is sought to legally grant indigenous peoples certain political autonomy as a community, while not jeopardizing

27 . Gilda Waldman “Estado, legislación y resurgimiento indígena mapuche en Chile”, Cuadernos Americanos, 89, Mexico, 2001.

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national unity. This has occurred, for example, in Honduras with the Tawahka people.28 Another successful example along these lines is found outside of Latin America, in Canada. There, following several decades of dialogue, consensus was reached on a formula that legally recognizes the autonomy and capacity for self-government of the indigenous communities. When such an eminently political solution is reached, the relationship between the lesser society and the greater society shifted from one of confrontation and clashing to one of dialogue, lobby, and self-governance. Clearly, in order to preserve and empower the cultural diversity embodied by Latin American native peoples and their descendents, it is essential to address the political platform raised by the indigenous movement. This platform has resounded throughout the globalized world and, thanks to the Internet and new communication technologies, has found unprecedented resonance. The political solution relates to the third demand. By all indications, only once it is achieved will progress be possible in the other two.

Progress in the indigenous peoples issue and the potential creation of multicultural nations will also make it possible to reaffirm regional identities. Regionalization processes in Latin America have been markedly administrative and bureaucratic in nature, and therefore have neglected the cultural dimension. Reaffirming indigenous identities at the national level will lead to reaffirmation of regional identities in provinces or departments where these peoples are rooted.

These are slow processes. As described earlier, it took decades in Canada. Meanwhile, the current visibility of the indigenous question has led significant sectors of non-indigenous civil society to make it their own or to take an interest in native customs and cultures. From this standpoint, the indigenous question affects not only indigenous people, but has acquired a higher profile to the extent that it is a test of the multifocal deepening of democracy and its capacity to accept pluralism and diversity. At the same time, there is a sector to which indigenous cultures are tremendously vulnerable. We refer to cultural industries, one of the war-horses of globalization, and particularly the movie, audiovisual, and music industries. Native peoples are virtually nonexistent in the goods and services offered by these industries, except for a few products such as “Pocahontas” produced, ironically, in other latitudes. The cultural density and diversity of indigenous peoples is totally nonexistent in the market-driven logic governing the cultural

28 . Agueda Gómez, op.cit.

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industries. However, let us leave this point for later, when we discuss those industries.

From here and from there

Highlighting cultural traditions of all kinds is a defense mechanism against the homogenizing dynamics that accompany globalization. From this standpoint, the presence in Latin America of cultural traditions linked to population clusters that emigrated from other continents (or other countries) represents a rich and varied patrimony. The presence of this sector also provides an opportunity to practice tolerance and respect for other cultural and religious traditions. Ecumenicism, without question, is a form of humanism.

Mass migrations to Latin America began in the nineteenth century. From 1846 to 1930, 52 million people left Europe: of these 72 % went to the United States, 21 % to Latin America, and 1% to Australia. 29 Of the Europeans who traveled to Latin America, 38% were Italian, 28 % were Spanish, and 11 % Portuguese. The majority of these migrants chose Argentina, followed by Brazil, Uruguay, and Mexico. The Argentine population grew by 40% and the Brazilian population by 15% due to the influx of immigrants between 1840-1940.30

In addition to European immigration, there was significant migration from the Arab world to the entire continent, from Central America to Chile. These immigrants were mainly Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, and Palestinians.31 Pioneering emigrants from the Ottoman Empire arrived between 1860 to 1900 and were followed by mass Arab migration from 1900 to 1914. Argentina’s 1914 census reveals the presence of 741,154 Spaniards, 669,193 Italians, and 52,562 Arabs. From 1914 to 1946, the relatives of the earlier Arab migration arrived in Latin America followed, especially from 1948 to 1973, by more people who arrived due to successive conflicts in the Near East. In addition to these figures, there has been Croatian, Japanese, Jewish, Chinese, Korean, and German immigration to the Continent.

29 .Néstor García Canclini La globalización imaginada, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 199930 . Elda González Martínea “Españoles en América e iberoamericanos en España.cara y cruz de un fenómeno”, Arbor, 154, Madrid, Spain, 1996.31 . Juan Sakalka Elías Arabes en América Latina, Valparaíso, Chile, 1997.

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Significantly, today there is a fluid migratory movement within Latin America itself: hundreds of thousands of Chileans, mainly from Chiloé, have settled in Argentine Patagonia and, in the past five years, 60,000 Peruvians have emigrated to Chile for economic reasons. All of these movements have been plagued by a high level of intolerance, discrimination, whether positive or negative, and even—as manifest in Chile with regard to the Peruvians—a racism that borders on xenophobia (on the part of certain sectors of society, not the government). These migrant populations have made contributions ranging from customs, artistic styles, religious creeds, and linguistic forms, to food traditions. Today, the globalized landscape has led to a revival of these cultures of origin. Thanks to the Internet and new technologies, it is possible for these sectors to communicate and keep in permanent touch with their places of origin. Indeed, the world has shrunk geographically to the point where it fits on a “chip.”

Two main policy areas are associated with immigrant cultures: the first has to do with the support of the government, local authorities, and civil society—in conjunction with groups of foreign extraction and their descendents—for the reaffirmation, preservation and recovery of ancestral cultures. Proposals of this nature probably will elicit concerns over national identities. In effect, if we were to color in a map of Latin American countries using a different color for each indigenous culture and nucleus of migrant culture, the outcome would be a heterogeneous array of colors that would probably obscure the “national.” History has proven, however, that this danger does not exist. The United States and Canada are nations of immigrants modeled on a mosaic rather than a “melting pot.” This strengthens, rather than precludes nationalistic sentiments. Immigrants in general have an extraordinary degree of loyalty to the country and culture that receive them. And honoring different cultures or cultural origins does not mean fostering aseptic relativism (a form of suspending judgment). For example, a child or adult who is dirty as a result of his cultural heritage must be taught the value of cleanliness. Acknowledging cultural differences should not lead to exaggerating or glorifying them. It is worth noting too, that identities are multiple rather than exclusive: it is possible to be Catalan, Spanish and European at once, just as it is possible to be Brazilian, of Arab descent, and Latin American, without diminishing any one of these identities. Finally, cultural heterogeneity will always be offset by national holidays and rituals, shared history, the stock index, and what is at least, if not more important these days: the tennis player or soccer team of the moment. History shows us also that extreme nationalism is unhealthy for society. “Mentally,”

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said J. L. Borges, “Nazism is nothing more than an exacerbation of a prejudice shared by all men: the certainty that their country, their language, their religion, and their blood are superior to everyone else’s.” The second area of action concerning cultures of foreign descent has to do with the need to teach respect for others, to combat as a society racial or cultural prejudices, and to work in the schools, and from early childhood, to foster intercultural dialogue and respect.

Intercultural Education

Over the past decade, a wave of educational reforms has swept the continent. In the past, governments were mainly concerned with expanding educational coverage at the primary and intermediate levels. Now that most countries have made considerable progress in that regard, however, the focus has shifted from educational coverage to educational quality32 and to adapting education to the new communications, technological, and cultural context. Constructivism is the predominant theoretical approach in this wave of reforms: the view is that the student must create his or her own knowledge and the teacher’s role is that of mediator or facilitator. The goal is an education that is more formative than informative, stressing dialogue and interaction over hierarchy and authoritarianism. While in the past, under the aegis of the nation-state, the system was premised on the notion that unity in a country hinged on the cultural uniformity of its citizens, today we are moving in a different, if not the opposite, direction. Within a common general framework, emphasis is placed on promoting local and regional educational projects, or even projects unique to a particular establishment. The underlying premise is that educational project must take into account the cultural differences of the students, since this cultural uniqueness is the cornerstone of the teaching-learning process.

Intercultural education is situated in this context. Under the aegis of contemporary reforms, this educational approach aims to overcome the indifference or contempt towards other cultures found in the old system, and replace it with cultural appreciation in the educational process. “One school: different cultures” is the catchphrase that became the title for a recent book on

32 . According to UNICEF figures for 1990-1996, net primary school enrollment for boys and girls in Latin American and the Caribbean reached 89% and 90% respectively, compared to 98% male and female enrollment in industrialized countries.

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the subject.33 In recent decades, most Latin American governments have opened the door to, or at least provided a space for, intercultural bilingual education. In national school systems, this has become a sort of special education for a special group, indigenous peoples. The idea of intercultural bilingual education is to incorporate into the teaching process the language and culture of the student belonging to a national minority; and the emphasis has been on indigenous peoples. Likewise, the plan is to accept and appreciate the different languages and cultures that coexist in multiethnic, multicultural countries. Mexico and Peru have pioneered this line of educational thought. In contrast to traditional bilingual education, intercultural education rejects the compensatory vision of the indigenous education issue: indigenous languages and cultures are no longer regarded as deficits or shortcomings. This rejects the perception of bilingual education as a tool to “civilize” the students and to ensure that they fulfill the requirements imposed by a western style, Spanish-speaking school system.34

Even when developed mostly in the context of work with indigenous cultures, intercultural education does not plan to stop there. Its underlying theme, in fact, is intercultural relations. “Intercultural education must spread throughout the entire school system, inasmuch as interculturality,” pluralism, and respect between cultures constitute one of the main challenges in globalized times.35 The goals contained in the intercultural proposal raise it to the level of an overall proposal for education, or even an education for democracy proposal for our times. Intercultural education has to do with the practice of cultural diversity. Its main spheres of interest are the children’s cultures of origin (the unique features of each one and the relationships between them), and educating these children to be citizens in a pluricultural and globalized world. Thus, from a constructivist approach, the child’s culture becomes an educational resource. In this way, the intercultural approach promotes identity and defends the specific rights of ethnic groups or national minorities. It likewise aims to identify forms of non-assimilationist interethnic integration. Its unique perspective is to inform the dialogue between different cultures and to prepare new generations to relate to worlds different than their own. In broader terms it seeks to contribute, from the standpoint of education, to developing an ethic of pluralism and respect for others. Because of these aims, the intercultural education proposal is actually an education for democracy proposal in its broadest sense. An education that 33 Francisco Chiodi y Miguel Bahamondes Una escuela, diferentes culturas, Santiago, Chile, 2001. This section draws heavily from the book by Chiodi and Bahamondes. 34 Francisco Chiodi y Miguel Bahamondes, op.cit.35 Francisco Chiodi y Miguel Bahamondes, op.cit.

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is wholly functional in terms of what we discussed earlier in this essay: appreciation of cultural diversity and strengthening the identity of indigenous sectors and population groups of foreign descent.

Now this essentially has to do with ideas (or, if you prefer, with ideals) articulated in the proposal for multicultural curricula; ideas or goals that inform most of the educational reforms underway in Latin America. In operational terms, some pilot intercultural education projects are operating in different countries, and curriculum outlines and textbooks incorporating these ideas gradually are being used in schools operating in zones with large indigenous populations in Mexico and Peru, as well as in Guatemala, Bolivia, and southern Chile. Moreover, governments, with the help of some supranational organizations, have commissioned studies on the advancement and implementation of intercultural education. Nonetheless, reform processes are sluggish and stumble in various ways. The education budget and spending in most countries of the region remain insufficient and far from what developed countries allocate for this area. Moreover, educational reforms, including the proposal for intercultural education, have essentially been in the hands of “experts” or “specialists” often lacking in classroom experience. Their proposals, therefore, have yet to take root in the teaching profession. In fact, a criticism of the reform process underway in several countries is that it has been too superstructural and not very participatory and that much, almost everything, remains to be done in terms of improving the teaching profession. Other shortcomings have to do with new technologies and the productivity of educational information technology.

There is no doubt, however, that the underlying purpose of these new educational proposals is to preserve cultural diversity, to strengthen identities, and to navigate in a globalized world. From this perspective, some of the various agents we have discussed: governments, supranational organizations, and civil society, must join forces to promote educational reforms and to convert these new proposals into reality.

Cultural industries: the Achilles heel

Cultural industries are the war-horses of globalization and the Achilles heel (or Bermuda Triangle) of cultural diversity. Cultural industries are understood as the entire sector of cultural goods and services produced based on industrial and commercial criteria, in other words, mass produced, using an economy of scale. They include the music industry, the

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movie and audiovisual industry, the publishing industry, the press industry, and the television industry. On a global scale, cultural and communications industries today represent one of the most strategic economic sectors in terms of capital investments and show the highest growth rates in terms of employment. It is no accident, then, that certain U.S. based transnational corporations play a dominant role in virtually all of these industries in the international market. The cultural sector alone accounts for 6% of the U.S. GDP and employs 1,300,000 people36. Today the entertainment industry has replaced the defense department as the engine behind new technologies. Cultural industries have been recognized as one of the fastest growing megatrends today. Worldwide, statistics on cultural spending and consumption and the time spent on culture have risen exponentially. Transnationalization, the concentration of property, and the vertical integration of different types of companies are some of the trademarks of the cultural industries in the context of globalization. Cultural industries represent a significant sector in Latin America, exceeding 10 billion dollars a year from 1980-1992. However, a look at where the sector’s profits go reveals that they migrate toward the transnational corporations in control of the property and distribution rights and, consequently, the profits.37

In the music field, for example, a small number of transnational companies dominate the market. There are six, probably five by now since two of them are in the process of merging: BMG, Emi, PolyGram, Universal, Sony Music, and Warner Music. In Spain, these companies control 70% of the recording industry and in Latin America they are responsible for 80% of invoices. Music transnationals and their affiliates or subsidiaries produce 90% of the CDs, cassettes, and music videos legally circulating around the globe. Their annual sales hover around 2.6 billion dollars. Latin America accounts for 6.2 % of the international music market; while Europe accounts for 33.9 %, the United States 32.6%, and Asia, 22.7 %.

There are two basic trends in the music industry in Latin America:

1. Save for a few high profile national record companies (Musart and Fonovisa in Mexico and Sigla in Brazil), transnational companies control the

36 .Octavio Getino “Aproximación a un estudio de las industrias culturales en el Mercosur”, Working documento, International Seminar, Santiago, Chile, May, 2001. 37 . Néstor García Canclini Las industrias culturales en la integración latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999.

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market and constantly expand their domain by absorbing national record companies.

2. The markets, however, are still national, in the sense that they vary from country to country. For this reason, transnational companies are compelled to decentralize management and to work simultaneously for a regional market, from their base in Miami, the city that serves as the hub connecting the Latin American market with the U.S. market for Latino music.38

This industry, moreover, operates using all available marketing and mass culture techniques: video clips, billboards, the Grammy awards, the star system, etc. Aside from the problem of pirating, which has reached alarming levels in countries like Bolivia and Peru, music transnationals have been enormously successful in Latin America, which has become one of the fastest growing markets from year to year. In terms of diversity of musical expression, however, these companies exclude anything lacking a guaranteed niche or market; this includes sectors such as music with indigenous roots or identity appellations, and art/classical music [música docta] or alternative music by Latin American composers.

There are enormous imbalances between endogenous and foreign production in the movie and audiovisual. At a conference of the Cultural Professionals Associations held in Montreal in September, 2001, audiovisual professionals from the participating countries (including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, y Mexico) arrived at a common figure: 90% of the movie, TV, and video distribution market is devoted to North American audiovisual production. Each country’s own industry, then, must survive on the remaining 10% of the market share, which unquestionably hampers their development.39 In Mexico City, nearly 80% of the video supply in video clubs are North American films; European, including Spanish films, account for barely 10%, and Mexican and Latin American cinema the remaining 10%.40 In Chile, 225 films were premiered during the year 2000, 14 of which were Chilean (6%), 195 North American (87%), and 16 from other countries (7%). The 7% of films from other countries were mostly from Europe and are shown

38 . George Yúdice “La industria de la música en la integración América Latina-Estados Unidos” en Néstor García Canclini, Carlos Moneta (coordinadores) Las industrias culturales en la integración latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999.39. Documents from the Coalition pour la diversité culturelle, Montreal, Canada, 2001.40. Jesús Martín Barbero, “Las transformaciones del mapa: Identidades, industrias y culturas” in América Latina: un espacio cultural en el mundo globalizado, Manuel Antonio Garretón (coordinador), Bogotá, Colombia, 1999.

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preferentially in the artistic cinema circuit. Monopolies on distribution and circulation, however, constitute the most serious problem facing Latin American cinema. There is no shortage of good movies, what is lacking are distribution policies for the circulation of Latin American movies. It is absurd that one can see more Latin American films in San Francisco, Lyon, or Barcelona, than in Bogota, Caracas, or Santiago.

Increasingly, the language of audiovisuals and the screen inform our social existence and identity. The creation of a Latin American, Caribbean, or Central American “we,” or that of any other country on the continent, hinges on that language. From this standpoint, the movie and television industries are priorities in terms of identity. Moreover, they are industries in which Latin America has almost no presence, except for certain genre such as soap operas. The percentage of foreign production circulating on the television and movie screens is not even in the same category as the percentage of endogenous production. Audiovisual production involving Latin American themes, or in native languages, or set in Latin America, is almost nonexistent. This clearly influences our self-image as Latin Americans, as well as how we are perceived by others. Countries with more capacity to produce and market cultural products and services reaffirm the cultural identity and collective imaginations of their peoples, and also are better situated to influence other identities or imaginations. According to Octavio Getino, “U.S. images are so abundant in the global village that it seems like instead of people emigrating to North America, the latter is emigrating to the world, leading people from even the remotest countries to aspire to be a U.S. citizen.”41

Some Latin American academics likewise are concerned about the divide on the Internet and in the digital industry. According to Néstor García Canclini: “the asymmetry in access to culture between central and peripheral countries is exacerbated by cutting edge technologies. Based on figures from 1998, Internet networks, which some see as an opportunity to increase their social participation, contain over 20 million U.S. websites, while the most represented Latin American countries, Brazil and Mexico, have only 117,200 and 41,659 sites respectively. In the United States, 25% of the population uses the Net, while this figure does not even reach 2% in Latin America.”42 Estimates are that no more than 2% of documents available on the Internet are in Spanish.

4141. Octavio Getino, op.cit. 42 .Néstor García Canclini La globalización imaginada, op. cit.

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As noted by a participant at the Montreal Conference, it is not a matter of isolating oneself from international flows, “nor of closing borders or censoring outputs from other corners of the world in favor of local production. To the contrary. Those of us who promote cultural diversity do so in defense of preserving spaces for local creation as well as for creation from other latitudes, eschewing the United States’ or multinational corporations’ one-way street toward the rest of the world. It has to do with the freedom to view one’s own as well as that of others,” to “strike a balance that prevents internationalization from bombarding local and regional creation and identities without any counterbalance.”43

Now the cultural industries, besides being an extremely important sector of the globalized economy, must also be regarded, in the words of a German academic (with a certain tone from the Frankfort school): “industries of conscience.” The constant growth in the trade volume of these industries has led to the inflation of mass culture, of the “best seller,” of whatever has a guaranteed market niche, which usually follows prescribed formulas to the detriment of a fresher, more imaginative, or risk-taking brand of creativity. We believe that any thoughtful analysis will concur that in the today’s globalized landscape, any more elaborate or alternative artistic endeavor is in danger. For example, because of the dynamics of the publishing industry, artistic genres that are not mass-produced, such as poetry, run the risk of being excluded from circulation. The written word itself is threatened by the preponderance of audiovisual images, which always have a bigger market. It is a situation that to some extent impoverishes us culturally. Indeed, those of us working at the University have observed in coming generations a deteriorating command of the language and capacity for self-expression.

All of this points to the need to strengthen and develop cultural industries in Latin America. These cultural industries, while operating with business criteria would, at the same time, be guided by criteria of the public good and preservation of cultural and aesthetic diversity. It is a task that requires the collaboration of the State, professional associations, civil society, and the private sector, within each country and among the countries of the continent. The government is responsible, in the first instance, for data collection and compiling statistics on the different branches of cultural

43 . Paulo Slachevsky “La diversidad cultural en peligro. La cultura en los acuerdos de libre comercio” Rocinante, 41, Santiago, Chile, November, 2001.

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industry, which would be used to implement realistic and well-founded policies. Different governments also have a role—together with the private sector—in the development of national cultural industries, striking a balance between the private and public sectors, and economic interests and benefits and cultural interests and benefits. This role is particularly important in the movie industry, where surmounting the current divide is not possible without government support. Governments, therefore, are responsible for establishing legal frameworks conducive to the development of certain sectors of the cultural industries, as well as policies that are coherent and long-term. Civil society groups likewise have an important role to play in cultural policies: first, by exercising their rights to communication and culture and, second, by organizing and advocating, or working with other agents to pressure the government to exercise its regulatory powers for the common good. If filmmakers or audiovisual workers do not mobilize, it is quite possible that there will never be a government policy on audiovisuals such as the one described above. In general, Latin American governments have lacked public policies on cultural industries. This is true, in part, as Jesús Martín Barbero points out, because cultural policies have focused on preserving patrimony and promoting the elitist arts, while totally ignoring the critical role played by the audiovisual industries in the everyday culture of the majorities.44

Public policies in the cultural industry field are sector specific (for example, development policies in the publishing industry will differ from policies for film, music, etc.). But they share a common goal: to support the development of these industries and to provide incentives so that, in addition to making a legitimate profit, they can serve a social function: to be a vehicle for the diverse cultural and artistic expression of each country and of the continent.

Now in order to carry out this plan, there is an urgent need to address certain issues linked to trade liberalization and the economic negotiations and agreements currently in process. Two positions have emerged at various international meetings both in Europe and Latin America. The United States has let it be understood that it does not support excluding culture from the negotiations (to liberalize trade). By not excluding or creating an exception for culture, the United States is defending its economic interests, given that this sector is extremely important for the country and in employment terms. France, Canada, and some Latin American countries are troubled by this issue. They assert that culture plays a role in identity and 44 . Jesús Martín Barbero “Las transformaciones del mapa: identidades, industrias y culturas” op.cit.

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citizenship, that it is important to have access to a broad supply of cultural products and creations, but a cultural supply in which local products and creations are proportionate to foreign ones. In general, international trade agreements propose to liberalize trade to the maximum extent among the ratifying countries, eliminating all direct or indirect restrictions or barriers to access to markets of goods or products traded among those countries. It is expressly stipulated that foreign companies may not receive discriminatory treatment relative to domestic companies. In this context, it would be impossible, for example, to set aside quotas of screen time for the audiovisual production of the continent. The opposing view suggests the concept of the exceptionality of culture, based on the rationale that free market play alone cannot ensure cultural diversity, even less so in an era of globalization. For this reason, cultural policies are required that ensure this balance and are conducive to cultural diversity.

Additionally, regional and subregional trade agreements, such as MERCOSUR or the Central American Common Market, offer opportunities to create alliances and promote pacts that eliminate obstacles and produce a broad exchange of goods and services in the region. An exchange that includes the recording industry, theater production, copyrights and related rights, books and their circulation, audiovisuals, film and, most importantly, coproductions and distribution, trade and broadcast agreements. Giving the growing importance of cultural industries on which, for better or for worse, the contemporary cultural landscape depends, there is no question that much remains to be done in the area of public policy governing these industries, policies that contribute to restoring balances and safeguarding cultural diversity.

Final reflection

We have covered a lot of ground on the issue of globalization and the challenges it presents for Latin America. Rather than offer a set of specific recipes to address the impact of this confluence (a task that would have been both presumptuous and impossible) we have tried to socialize a language that helps us to discuss it. To share approaches, studies, reflections, and problems that can guide the design and implementation of strategies and policies to face the challenges posed by this new situation. We are aware that we have left out important issues, such as grassroots cultures and the culture

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of the masses. For reasons of space, we have only hinted at it here and there. With regard to the sectors that we have examined—native peoples, ancestral cultures, intercultural education and cultural industries—we have suggested strategies and courses of action, grounded in the conviction that public policies that are pro-culture and pro cultural diversity are possible, necessary and, in some cases, urgent. These policies must rise to the challenges posed by yet another phase in the construction of the nation, a phase involving a new adaptation of national time: that of a globalized world.

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