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Nowhere does the give-and-take of transculturation appear so clearly as in Latin America's expressive culture. While transculturation has occurred over four centuries since the Encounter, Latin America's fine arts discovered it rather late. During the colonial period and throughout the 1800s, the region's artists and writers remained largely imitative of Europe rather than reflective of Latin American realities. The famous colonial "caste paintings," depicting the process of race mixing, are an exception in that regard. The dominant subjects by far, for colonial Latin American artists, were those of religious devotion, like saints' images. After independence, Paris became an artistic and literary beacon for generations among the Latin American elite. Not until the mid-1900s did indigenous and African influences gain pride of place under the aegis of cultural nationalism. Only then did Latin America become known in the world for its literary, artistic, and especially musical, creativity in a number of distinctive styles. Indigenista literature from Mexico, Guatemala, and the Andes constitutes an important example, and so does the hemispheric literary "Boom" of the 1960s and 1970s. Two others are international influences of (afro) Cuban music and the revolutionary "Nueva Canción," with its stirring themes of protest.
Research topics for students interested in arts and literature:
Research topics for students...
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