How Subjectivity Is Constructed and Put to Use Through Fiesta - Essay Example

How ivity Is Constructed and Put To Use Through Fiesta How ivity Is Constructed and Put To Use Through Fiesta Studies from a number of disciplines imply that the human being is not the eternal basis for human history rather, a historical and a cultural artifact (Horton, 2010). They point out to the different ways to historical and cultural specificity. In some societies, the self is dated as a naturally unique and a discrete entity, and boundaries enclosing as though an inner life exists in which are the experiences of an individual. Modern western societies are unusual in construing the self as a natural point of desires and even beliefs with abilities that are inherent in the evident origin of actions and choices made and as a phenomenon consistent across different times and societal contexts. Subjectivity is a social mode that comes about through many interactions within society. It is a process of individualization as well as of socialization as the individual is never isolated; rather they are endlessly engaging in interactions with the world. It is shaped by and shapes other things such as the economy and even communities. A common effect on an individual is whereby they experience culture shock, where subjectivity of the other culture is considered alien or hostile. Because society is based on group interactions, common meanings allow for common frames that they can refer to when communicating a given subject (Horton, 2010). They are derived from each person understanding their subjective experiences and providing many aspects of meaning. Since 1712, the residents of Santa Fe have remembered how they were ousted in the Pueblo Revolt but managed to make their way back. The settlers reestablished themselves and went back to their roots. Today, La Fiesta de Santa Fe is considered one of the oldest celebrations in the nation. Its roots date back to when a general negotiated with the Indians who occupied Santa Fe to allow Spanish settlers to return. He, being a religious man prayed by a small statute of Virgin Mary and promised that if the settlers were allowed back, they would never forget her intercession. For a while, the promise was not kept up until a Lieutenant Governor intervened. The Santa Fe Fiesta, Reinvented gives a new perspective to the controversial identity formation of the Mexico’s Hispanos. The book carefully gives attention to the symbolic action of the event and explores gender, time, genealogy and sexuality which are the basis of the cultural nationalism. As the Hispanos were largely minoritized in the Santa Fe, their elites continued to invent and re-create the foru cultural organizations that organize the Fiesta so as to lay claim to the disappearing homeland. These organizations made the Fiesta largely Hispanic in terms of the roles and content and usurped the role of De Vegas from the Anglos. They also made their claims sacred through the foregrounding the role of Hispanos ‘sacred mother’. The book documents the protest by the Hispanos to Anglo Imperialism and the transformation of the city into an Adobe Disneyland. Horton shows the icons, roles, performances and the players that make up the Santa Fe Fiesta, and how the popular festival has become an assertion of cultural nationalism responding to social and economic forces that are taking part in driving Hispanos from the core of the city (Horton, 2010). She demonstrates the power of modern traditions in expressing the spirit of the people when they are faced with the danger of being replaced. In the film ‘Gathering up again,’, the secret of any ritual is stumbled upon as the ritual reconciles oppositions that are irreconcilable. The risk is always to evoke expressions and feelings of hostility, anger or grief. In the film, the focus is a Native American, who has accepted the role of Cacique Domingo in a pageant that is reenacting the ‘Peaceful reconquest’ of Santa Fe by Spaniards in 1692. The ‘chief’ is offended by the caricature of plain Indian costumes and the paints of war that are shown by the Hispanics and Anglos in the pageant and tears run down his face as he contemplates the insensitivity of the Indians in the representation that is shown. In 1846 America went to war with the western half (many Mexicans lived there) and a peace treaty was signed in 2 years thus the birth of the Mexican American, a racial group that makes the largest minority group in the country. During this period, race relations particularly the slave trade were shaping the country, and the Mexican American identity was being formed (Mitchell, 2005). In Manifest Destinies, Laura Gomez sets out to write about the events that produced the first Mexican Americans (Horton, 2010). To her, it was not just a political idea that led to their being but one that endowed white Americans with a sense that entitled them to land and racial superiority over others. Colonialism is integral to the discussion as she argues that the Mexican Americans were colonized twice, as subjects of the Spaniards and the Americans. These colonizers brought racial hierarchy that continued to affect them even when the Mexicans became Americans. Key to her approach is the idea that Mexican Americans form a race and not an ethnicity (Mitchell, 2005). The difference lies in the social construction, so that instead of having significance that is inherent, race is historically contingent and is given meaning by the people, institutions, and the social processes that take place among them. According to Gomez, the Mexican-American identity results from legal definitions and social attitudes. She states that there was no adequate racial model for Mexicans. She notes that politicians and newspaper editors publicly wondered about the fate that awaited Mexicans wondering whether they were to be treated as Indians or Blacks (Horton, 2010). This ambiguity consequently led to the categorization into the two views adopted, the dominant view that considered them unfit for self-government and the progressive view that considered them a benign presence. Pablo Mitchell discusses the trials for sexual assault and the racialization of Hispanos. She introduces a broader discussion of elite Hispanos and how their presence, political and economic power prevents them from being labeled as dangerous and sexually violent (Mitchell, 2005). She examines cases and proves that the trials carried out in New Mexico were more than determination of guilt or innocence but were racial statements. Anglos who were wary of challenging elite Hispanos because of their power and social status used human bodies to provide answers to basic questions. The stories are not isolated cases nut are examples of how humans use their experiences to set for themselves familiar standards by which they can live and abide by. These standards provide a framework that is used to administer agreed upon (either by the people’s expectations or legal standards) consequences to those who are seen not to comply with these set standards or rules (Horton, 2010). The residents of Santa Fe, for instance, put in place the festival to commemorate an event that occurred a long time perhaps before any of them was born but affected them in ways beyond time. The film gathering up again demonstrates this concept and how it is viewed by the chief who represents those of his viewpoint. It shows how the world and the events of the film are viewed by him as informed by the subjective experiences he has had. They define to him what is acceptable and what is not, and present for him reality so intense that when those standards or reference that he expects the world to comply to are abused, he sheds tears. References Brodkin, K. (2006). Toward a unified Theory of Class Race and Gender. In In Feminist Anthropology (pp. 129-146). Ed. Lewin. Malden MA Blackwell Publishing. Haney-Lopez, I. (2010) Race on the 2010 Census: The incredibly shrinking white-majority. Daedalaus 134(1):42-52 Gathering up again [Motion picture]. (1992). Quotidian Independent Documentary Research. Laura G. (2008) Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race. New York: NYU Press Ch 1& 2 Horton, S. (2010). The Santa Fe Fiesta, reinvented: Staking ethno-nationalist claims to a disappearing homeland. Santa Fe, N.M.: School for Advanced Research Press. Mitchell, P. (2005). Carnal Knowledge: Racializing Hispanic Bodies in the Courts. In Coyote Nation: Sexuality, Racae, and Conquest in Modernizing, New Mexioc 1880-1920 pg 52 80    Read More