Pee BY Ee OF f — Par — _ CTCL ttad CU Wem ea een En recuerdo de Maria Guerra, que mutid de cancer el 27 de abil de 193:‘5 MEK: COMMON UBUEETS ANU COSMAPHLTAN ACTIONS This not intended asart criticism. Rather, itis an attempt at shedding light on a social sensiiity that is a5 common as its i-defined, and ‘that | wil term, for now, “Gonzalez Global Culture.” It has litle to do “with common traits that can be traces to specific works, fort consists ‘ofa sprt whose manifestations are so diverse they could actually be tonsidered antagonistic. In essence itis the ability to transform certain ammonolaces nto sources of subjective sophistication. It does not matter that the example | use here is “Mexican” Gonzélex Global Culture, this finer and more raritied taste, is endemic among ‘moderniced people A WEAKNESS FOR DISTORTING MIRRORS In 1999, | was invited to participate in a conference on ‘contemporary Latin American art at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts. The conference, organized by a group ot young South American artists had @ title that, in the topographical imagery f globalization, sounded to me like a project forthe reconstruction “The Neighboring Shore’"La orila que se apraxia.” In the introductory statement of the meeting | was faced with a question that was symptomatic of a kind of antiety that, with the thrashing persistence ofa wildfire in the global disccursa, echoes in {aricus tones and accents: “Is it possible to sidestep Latin American Cultural stereotypes, both positive and negative ones, trom ine tomantic/vtopian to the openly racist ones?”! “Sidestep": to elude, tiptoe around, circumvent, leave of Pangea aside, not touch, get around, bypass, skirt, hedge; that is, avoid something hurtful, sticky, isgusting and pemaps senseless. Perhaps even to “dodge” 2 responsiblity, to pass up the chance to address it. In any case, it was clear to me that the question in itself suggested only a binary option: “accepting” or “sidestepping” the stereotype. But Now about: critiquing, sabotaging, eroding, fegaining, transiiterating, perverting, deciphering, simulating, {ab)using, parodying, performing, deconstructing or saturating it? Of course, | was not intrigued by the discomforts of those who suffer (or those of us who suffer) the daly experience ot Cultural prejudice, What troubled me was the inability to differentiate between that will to de-specify and something like the return to the Este texto no es critica de arte, Mas bien es un intento por elucider una sensibiidad social tan ditundida como informe cue provisionalmente llamaré “Cuttural Giobal Gonzalez". Esta tiene poco que ver con una comunidad de caractetisticas quo pudiera rastroarse en obres especticas, pues consiste en un espirtu cuyas apariiones son tan varladas que bien podrian pasar por antagonicas. En esencia, es la hablidad ce convertir ciertos lugares comunes en fuentes de sofisticacién subjetiva, Poco importa que el ejemplo al que me refiero aqui es “mexicano”: la Cultura Global Gonzélez, este gusto superior y enrarecido, es endémica entre los mademizados, UIVA DEBILIDAD POR LOS ESPEJOS DEFORMES: En 1999 se me invité a participar en una conferencia sobre arte latinoamericano contemporaneo en el Institue of Contemporary Arts de Londres. Organizada por un grupo ce jovenes atstas suamericanos, la conferencia tenia un ttulo que, en el imaginario topogrético de la lobalizecién, se me antojaba como un proyecto de reconsttucion de la Pangea: The Neighbouring Shore, “Lz ori que se aproxima’. En la sinopsis preparatoria de la reunidn me topé con una pregunta por demés sintomética de una ansiedad que se expresa en varias voces y acentes, con la insistencia martileante de un incendio en el ciscurso lobal: “ZEs posible esquivar (sidestep) los estereotipos culturales latinoamericancs, tanto 10s positvos como los negativs, de tos oménticlut6picos a los que son abiertamente racistas?” “Sidestop esquiver,regatear, cccundar, eludi, dejar de lado, no tocar: to get around, bypass, skit, hedge... Es decir evitar algo lastimero,resbaleso, nauseabundo, y quiza sin sentido. Qua incluso sacarle el, bulto ("to dadge") a una responsabilidad, y desdefiar a oportunidad de. responder. En todo caso, me quédata claro que la pregunta misma sugeria una posibildad merarente binaria: “aceptar” © “esquivar” @ estereotipo. :Qué tal: erticar, sabotear. erosionar, recuperar,translitera,pervertr,desctar, simular, (2bjuser, parodia, protagoniza, deconstruiro saturar? Por supuesto, no me intrigaba fa ncomodidad que fos sufren (0 sutrimos) ante ia experiencia cotitiana dal prejuicio cutural. Me perturbaba no poder diferencier este anhelo de des-espectficacion de Algo asi el retorno del cosmopoltismo insipido de la cultura AcrMaMnenTo pom connurecdu:coAMNTEMOE MEDINA 135‘Ants MONIC: COMMON OBJECTS AND CosmOrOLTAN ACTIONS bland cultural cosmopolitanism of the Latin American middle class that lives the fantasy of escaping its context as if it were an Unforgivable stigma. Needless to say, the subaltem—illegal immigrants, “acculturated” indigenous peoples, and all kinds of social and cultural intruders—do not usually ponder this question Their whole lives consist of negotiating the projections of themselves as others. But my seaction was not merely a matter of criticism. It \was also a matter of “taste.” Allow me 10 make a confession. Every time | see a slightly insidious representation of “the Mexican” in an advertisement for beer or for money orders, | feel a twisted, ambiguous, and sell-deprecating fascination. Of couse, the basic ‘assumptions of these images of “the Mexican” are never particularly original: thay have to do with drinking a lot, sleeping 100 much, being horny, or just not being too bright or particularly sweet towards women. The attraction | felt surprised me, It was a kind of ‘ynical love for the wrong form of representation. There had to be a defense tor my feelings, and desperately, | found it in my memory, attributing it toa cortain artistic experience, | knew that my fondness for those stereotypes had to do with the way in which all those images of the Mexican were derived from @ form of paranoia—zs local as it was gringa—dating back to the early twentieth century. it was founded in the fear of a threat ‘worse than Boishevik revolution: an Indian-peasant uprising in the heartland of the Americas. The cultural stereotype of the Mexican as @ degraded peasant-rancher would not work if it did not exercise repression and sublimation of an effective historical subject. All of these caricatures. were convulsive hints, anamorphic historical reminders of social traumas that had to be set before a distorting mirror in order to be cecoded. | realized rignt away that it was not a matter of remedying the misinterpretations as much as appealing to the enlightening force of another misunderstanding. And the learning of al this | attributed to afm, an early classic that Ruben Orilz Torres made with Aaron Anish shortly atter Ortiz Torres migrated to Los Angeles, California, in 1991. The film, entitled How to Read Macho Mouse (1991) (Fig. 13), took as its subject the cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez. 186 HEFINENENT ay counuPrien: CuNUrTCMOE MeRINA latinoamericana de clase media, que vive en la fantasia de escapar a su Ccontexto como si fuera un estigma imperdonable.Esté por demas ced ‘Que los sutaternos (migrantes iegales,incigenas “aculturados”,y toda clase de intrusos sociales y culturales) no suelen plantearse este ilerra: su vida entera consist en tener que negociar con las prayecciones de fos otros Pero mi reecsion no era meramente cueston de crfca. Era también materia “gusto”. Permitanme una confesi6n. Cada que veo un nuncio comercial con una imagen ligeramente insidiosa de “el ‘mexicano,” en un anuncio de cerveza o de money orders, siento una epravada, ambigua y auto-deriorante fascinacion. Claro esti, tas Dresunciones fundamentals de esas imagenes de “el mexicano” jamis ‘on patticularmente originals: tenen que ver con tomar mucho, dormir demasiado, estar “caliente” simplemente no ser partcularmenie biante nl especiaimemte cuice con las mujeres. Esta atraccion me sorprend6, era algo asi como un amor cinioo por fa representation equivocada. Tenia que haber una dtensa, y desesperadamente la atribul ‘en mi memoria a una clerta experiencia artistica, Yo sabia que ei encarifamiento que sentia por estos estereotipas tenia que ver con saber que todas esas imégenes del ‘mexicano derivaban de la paranoia, lo mismo local que digames “gringa’, que desde principios del siglo XX generé la amenaza de algo peor que le revolucién boichevique: una revue indiavcampesina en al corazon de las Américas. 1 estereatina cultural del mexicana como ‘campesinoiranchero degradado, no operaria de no ser por ejercer una reprosin y sublimacin do un personaje histérico efecto. Todas esas caricaturas eran indicios convuisos, recordatorios histdrleos ‘anamnrticos de traumas sociales ante los cles era necesario poner un espejo distorsionado que los decadifcara. Reconoci de inmediato qua ante el tema del estereoipo de “lo moxicano” para mi noe trataba poner rere ala mala interpretacién tanto como de apela la fuera Uluminadora de oto malertencido, Y el aprendizale ce todo elo by atribuia yo a una pelicula, un clésico temprano que Rubén Ortiz Torres hizo, en colaboracién eon Aarén Anish, al poco tiempo de migrar a Angeles California en 1991. Su titulo era How fo read Macho, (Para leer al Macho Mouse) (1991) (Fig 13). Su tema era el pa ‘de dibujos animados Speedy GonzalezFig. 18 Ruben Ortz Torres and Aaron Anish, vdeo sil from How fo Read acho Musee viceo Para leer al Macho Mouse, 1981 BEYOND THE AESTHETICS OF RESISTANCE The ‘ile of the video was a homage to Ariel Dorfman and Armand Natelards's 1971 How to Read Donald Ouck: But the intention was not to fase theoretical barrier that would defend us from the imperialist propaganda of comic books or the damaging ideological effects of the capitalist cultural industry. On the contrary, by exoloring the Unconscious of the “Mexican” pseudo-ethnic identity In tne global Disneyland, How to Read Macho Mouse exposed the complexity of the Speedy Gonzéler construct, including not only a glimpse at the charactors geneelogy, but also suggesting the political potential ofits eciptering, It presented Speedy Goreélez as an element of Latin American revolutionary iconography In the Ortiz Torres and Anish video, Spoody Goneslez appears 43 & hybrid of Emiliano Zapata and Francisco Vila, forever teasing a walch-eat tt guards the cheese factory “on the other side of the border” Ws as if Speedy Gonzétez is eternally restaging Vil’s 1916 invasion of the New Mexico town of Columbus, A traumatizing event for the United States that led toa punitive expedition under the leadership of General John Pershing, who was sent into Mexican teritory to E108 COMUNE TAceIONES casmapoUrTAS (MAS ALLA DE LA ESTETICA DE LA RESISTENCIA, Aunque desde su titulo el video rendia homenaje a Pare leer al Pato Donati? de Arie! Dorfman y Armand Mettelard (1971), su intencién no era en absoluto levantar una barrera tebrca que nos defenciea ce la propaganda imperialsta de los comics 0 los efectos ideolégics perriciosos de ia industria cultural capitalist. Muy por el contrari, al exolorar el inconsciente de la identidad pseudo-étnica de “lo mexicano” ‘en la Disneylandia global, How to Read Macho Mouse ponka al descublerto la complejidad ce la construccién de Speedy Gonzalez, lo ‘que inclufa no sélo un atisbo de su genealogia, sino también sugerir el potencial politico de su desciframiento. Pues nos restituia a Speedy Gonzalez como un capitulo de la lconogratia revolucionaria latinoamericana En el video de Ortiz y Anish, Speedy Gonzalez se nos muestra como un hibriéo de Emiliano Zapata y Francisco Vila, eternamente burlando a un gato ouardian que culda a faoica de quesos “al otro lado" de la trontera. Es como si Speedy Gonzélez repitiera eternamante él trauma que los Estados Unidos sufrieron cuando Villa invadi6 el pueblo de Columbus, Nuevo México, en 1916 para después burlar ala expedicin punitiva que Pershing lider por varios meses en territorio ‘mexicano tratando de atrapar a ese terrorista/bandolero. Como afirma ‘el video en un subtitulo, tenemos aqui un repertorio donde “La fevolucién sale en la tele". Pero ese “Zapata/Villa/Speedy” legs a la Warner Brothers fitrado por ia histone cel at, Speedy, nos sefala Ortiz, no viste con ls elegans trajes de charro que usaba el caudillo revolucionario. Speedy viene siempre ataviado como él peor estereotipo del pein indigena: pantalon y camisa Ge mania y un enorme sombrero ce paia. Speedy, y ios ratones famélices que lo acompafian, usan huaraches, si es que no van descalzos. Ortiz vino a percatarse que en esa representacién comercial e Zapata lo que entraba en operacion es ri més ni menos que el esleteotipo muralsta cel lider revolucionario, pues tua Diego Rivera quien al pintar a Zapata en sus murales de Cuemavaca en los afios 30 {o transformé de caporal de hacienda en indigena desposeido. “La ‘similitud entre la imagen de Speedy Gorzalez y el Zapata de Rivera — ‘escribe Rubén Ortiz— no puede ser coincidencia.”> Tenemos pues que ‘enel estarectipo de Speedy Gonzalez que el telavidente global consume. eIMAMENTO Pom COREUFEMN:COMUATENOE MERIA 137‘nts mee: CeMMMaN oBseETS AND COSMOPOLITAN ACTIONS capture the elusive tertoris/bandido. As stated in one ofthe subtitles of the video, this represents one of the occasions when “the revolution is televised.” Stil, this “Zepata/Vila’Spaedy” through the fiter of art history, Ortiz Torres points out that Speedy does not sport the elegant ‘charro outtts sported by the evolutionary lear, but is always outfitted in the fashion of the worst of stereotypes, the indigenous peasant: an luntucked cotton shirt andl pantalones, and a large straw sombrero. It thay ate not barefoot, Speedy and the famished mice that accompany him wear Mexican sandals called Auaraches, also typical of the peasants. Ortiz noticed that the operating element in this commercial ‘representation of Zapata was the stereotype of the revolutionary leader as presented by Diego Rivera who, in his depictions of Zapata for his 1990s Cuemavaca murals, transformed him from an hacienda corporal ino a dispossessed indigenous leader. “The similarity between the Image of Speedy Gonzalez and Rivere's Zapata,” Rubén Ortiz Torres writes, ‘cannot bea ceincidence."® We see, then, that in the stereotype of Speedy Gonzile, the global television viewer is consuming a pop derivative of mural painting iconography. its ably to chan invowves the disolacement, compression and transformation of a story of Poltcal and visval radicalism. We should not be surprised, as Ortiz Torras hes pointed out, that Subcomandante Marcos, leader of the Zepatsta guerilla movement in Chiapas, Mexico, identities with the Quick rodent and, rom time to time, uses an alias intended to mock the North's politcal and economic power: * The Sup Speedy Gonaélez’ also known asthe stone inthe shoe.’ "« The threat ofthe peasant revolution ‘rom the South survives inthe stereotype. How to Read Macho Mouse formulates a theory about the continuous and never-ending fux of symbols moving between pepular cultures, nationalist repertoires, commercial characters, avant-garde experiments, radical utopias, and subcuttural fashions that make any attempt at managing identities impossible, To top it al of, it presents this theory in the funniest terms possible. Before a landscape where the cultural is subjected to a brutal metamorphosis, Ortiz Torres developed a methodology that was simultaneously capable of repistering the aesthetic and mythological interference of the North American cultures, presenting the politicized nature of all forms of srved at Warner Brothers 134 AEFMEMERT BY CORRUPTION: CUAUITEWOE MEDIIA es un derivativo pop dela iconografia dole pintura mural, Su capacidad de encantamiento involucra el desplazat, condensary transforma una histora de radicalismo poltico y visual. No nes debe extrafar, como riz mismo ha sefalado, que ocasionalmente e| Subcomandante Marcos se haya identiticado con oste velocisime roedor en un alias que alude @ querer burlar al poder econdmico y pola del norte ‘Speedy Gonzalez’ o lo que ¢s lo mismo “a piedra ene! zapato” ‘amenaza dela revolucién campesina del sur sobrevive enelesterectipo, Es asi que How to Read Macho Mouse formule ura teo‘a, para colmo en los términos mis divertivos posibles, sobre el flujo continuo e inagctabie de simbolos entre culturas populares, repertoros racionalistas, personajes comerciales, experimentos vanguardistas, ‘utopias radicales y mods subculturales que hacen imposible cualquier intento de adminisracion de la ioentidad. Ante un palsle donde lo cultural esta sometido a una brutal metamortosis, Ortiz Torres desarrollé una _metodologia que al mismo tiempo registraba Je interforencia estética y mitolégica de las culturas de Norteamérica,y hacia presente el cardcter pollizado de toda forma de fantasia Interoultural. En un tiempo en que os signos de la integracién econdmica cultural de México y Estados Unidos. eran ya palpables, bras como How to Read Macho Mouse echaban por fa borda todo lamenio por la perdida de a diferencia, para mostrar que la “desmexicanizacicn”, “desamericanizaci6n” 0 “mexamericanizacén® brian una gama de posibilidedes eriticas inaccesibles tanto para la ‘estética de “resistencia” que habia prevalecido en la cutura de Latinoamérica de los aos 70 y 80. como para ta estetica mminimelropicaizada del “conceptualismo global’. Contra jos residuns dol “arielismo” que, desde principios de siglo, permitié a las elites Cclturales (incluso de iequierda) concebir a Latinoamérica como un tvaluarte humanista enfrentado al Caliban del _materilisma. ‘norteamericano y de la cultura de masas, Ortiz Torres demostraba que los fujos culturalas son suficientemente incontrolables para que #0 ppodamos concebirles como bajo el concepto simple de la “absorcion” En lugar de lamentar la supuesta nomogeneizacion cultural, las obras. de Ortiz Torres delineaban Ia emergencia de una “Cultura Glotl Gonzilea" consisterte en el perpetuo robo y transvestimo simbélign Este serd el territoriortrontera que més en extenso Ori y Jesse Lernerinerutural fantasy. At a time when the effets of economic and Cultural integration between Mexico and the United States were already felt, works such as How to Read Macho Mouse threw overboard any angers forthe loss of cultural citterences. “de-Mexicanzation” and opened a broad aray of critical possibilties that were nt accessible to the aesthetic of *tesistance® prevalent inthe Latin American culture of the 1970s and 80s, such as the minimaUtropicalized aesthetics ot “global onceptuasm.” Against the remnants of an “Areismo” that from the begining of the century had allowed Latin American cultura elites (even those on the let) to conceive Latin America as a humanist banner thfore the Caliban of North American materialism and mass culture Oriz Torres showed that cultural thuwes are too unbridled to be Understood simply by the simple notion of “adsorption Tamenting what was considered cultural homogenization, the works of Orie Torres outined the emergence ofa "Gonzalez Giobal Culture" that Consisted of the constant robbing and transvesting of the symbolic This would be the tertory/border that Ortiz Tores and Jesse Lerner would explore in ther 1995 full-length fim FronterandiaFromteriang (0.14): North America, or the Americas, asa territory where history is projected onto an infinite progression of mirrors beyond any nation ot authenticity Itisin these works thatthe Latino/American isthe incessant Progression that transforms what is revolutionary inlo something Commercial that whichis mediatic into something ethnic, that which is popular into avant-garde, that which fs subcultural into something Global, and the otter way around in al its possible permutations, *de-Americanization,” or “Mexico-Americanization, Instead of ‘TRANSCULTURAL CREATIVITY Here itis important to lay out a fundamental distinction. Works such as that of Ortiz Torres—his early videos as much as his politcal multimedia fantasy projects such as Alien Toy (1998) (Fig. 15) or his Zamba de| Chevy (Chevy Zamba) (2001)—are the opposite ot an ‘exercise in multicultural policy. The development ofthe new cultural and political chaos they advocate is not intended to contribute to the ‘ation of an orderly catalog of communities identified by the relativism oftheir values and tastes. On the contrary, they suggest the Impossibility of arriving at any kind of “iconological justice,” where ‘is Went: BJET08 COMUNES ¥ACCIOWESCOSMOPOLITAS Fig. 14 Rubén Ortiz Torres and Jesse Lerner, vdeo stil fom ‘Fronterandla/Fromierland del vdeo FronteriandiaFronterand, 1995, habrin de explorar en su largometraje Fronterlandia/Fronterland (Fig. 14) de 1995. Una imagen de Norteamérica, 0 las Américas, como Un territorio donde la historia se proyecta en una progresion ininita de espejos, més alld de cualquier nocién de autenticidad. Pues en estas ‘obras 10 latino/americano es la progresién incesante que transforma 10 Fevoluclonario en comercial, lo mediatico en étnico, 1o popular en Vanguardista, fo subcultural en global, y viceversa més todas sus mutaciones posibles, ‘CREATIVIDAD TRANSCULTUR) Conviene aqui trazar una distincién por demés imprescindible Obras como la de Ortiz Torres (Io mismo sus videos tempranos, que sus proyectos multimedia de fantasia politica como Alien Toy (1998) (Fig. 15) © su Zamba dei Chevy (2001) son todo lo contrario del ejercicio de una poltica multicultural. La activacién del nuevo caos cultural y politico que proponen, no pretende en ningin momento Contribuir a formular un catélogo ordenado de comunidades marcadas or el relativismo de sus valores y oustos. Por el contrario, sugieren la imposibilidad de arripar a una especie de “justiciaiconol6gica”, donde los diversos puntos de vista y tradiciones inconmensurables convivan amparados en el respeto a la diferencia, Tampoco es apropiado pensar ‘KFMieNT POR CORRUPIOH:COAURTEME MEDINA 128,‘AMIE MENEO: ENN OBSECTS A COSMUPALTAN ACTIONS Fig, 19 Fubén One Tores, instalation view of Alen Tyita de instaacion {> Alien Toy, 1938 Gifforent poin's of view and immeasurable traditions can coexist Shrouded in respect for cfference. Neither is it propriate to think of the materials ensuing trom this budding culture as the result of “syncretism” As attist Eduardo Abaroa recently pointed out to me, "Genzdler Global Culture” can only be called “hybrid” in terms of its etymological disarray or courter-natural character: the Greck furs. It | amutation, an un-arrangement, a Dionysian monstrosity, opposed to ‘Apollonian codes of essentialism, modernism, or nationalsm, To be precise, the intaraction introduced in the 19906 by artists such as Ortiz Torres or Guilermo Gémez Pefa, has never been @ Civilized cohabitation oF a dialogical exercise. It Is the viokent cultural transformation suttered by groups and individuals living under reccolonial and commercial relations that generates a baroque and surcharged visual environment that corresponds to the aesthetics of Constant crisis, The proper word for this kind of tastes “ranscultura ‘When Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz Getined the transculturation process in the 1940s he spate of the axperiance of ‘those above and those below, living together in the same atmosphere of terror and ‘oppression, the oppressed in terror of punishment, the oppressor in terror of reprisals, all beside justice, beside adjustment, beside 160 REFPUMENT BY Connon; CuRURTEeNOG MEU el material de esta cultura naciente como el resultado de un “sincretismo”. Como recientomente me sefiasba e! artista Eduardo ‘Abaroa, a la cultura “global Gonzalez” sélo se Je puede larmar “hirida en términos de la “desmesura” y “antinatura’ de su etimologia: a ‘ubris griega. ES un desarreglo, una mutaciéa, una monstruosidad dionisiaca, opuesta a todo cédigo apolineo del esoncialismo, ‘modernismo 0 nacianasmo, ‘Siendo precisos, la ineracci6n a la que en los alos noverta ‘os introdujeron artistas como Ortiz Torres, 0 en otra forma Guillermo Gomez Pefa, nunca es una convivencia civllzada ni un ejercicio ialdgico. Es el volento cambio cuitural que viven grupos e individuos sometidos a relaciones neocoloniales y comerciales, que geneva una visualidad bartoca y sobrecargada que corresponde a la estética de una crisis permanente. La palabra apropizda para esta clase de gusto 2s “transeultural’. Cuando Fernando Ortiz, el antrépologo cubano, éetnié ‘en os afos 40 el praceso de transculturacién, hablaba precisamente de {a experiencia del vivir “arriba o abajo, en un mismo ambiente de terror ¥ de fuerza; terror de oprimido por el castigo, terror del opresor por la revancha; todos fuera de justicia, fuera de ajuste, fuera desi” 5 Es dec, ‘una sensibilidad que se dosarrola ante la experiancia de la desigualded y [8 posiblidad de violencia, donde ta invensién cultural ocurre (‘ambién) alimentada por la descontianza y e desasosiego, Lo que ‘uizé es vido para cuaiquler sensibiicad contempordnea, enla medida en que es siempre el producto de esas oleedas de cambio sibito que amamos modomizacién. Obras como el video de Rubén Ortiz son una proposiciin de ‘gusto que hace subjetive to que la teoria (luego) poor postwar: a ‘eciprocidd paranoica que constituye fa nueva cultura de las Américas. Resonacerse en How to read Macho Mouse implicaba admitir que todos yyahablamos hecho la ruta "From Mayas to Disney” y de regreso, para paratrasear el titulo profético de un bro de Jean Charlot Para leer al ‘Macho Mouse centenia hasta en su titulo una pedagogia sensible: enseflarnos a emprender la lectura erudita, astuta,estrtificada, aud, veloz eirénlea de las historias culturales de México y Estados Unidos, ‘como relaciones hechas a partir de fa constante mala intespretaciin reativa, fa resistencia osu fracaso, el mestizale abortado, la hioridacin eternamente inconclusa, fa exclusién colaboratva, y la detormaciénthemselves."® That fs, a sensibly that develops in the face of the perience of inequality and the possiblity of violence, where the tulturl invention is also fueled by mistrust and unease. Al this may ‘poly to any contemporary sensibility inasmuch 2s itis always the oduct of these waves of sudden transiormation that we call modernization. Works such as Ortiz Torras's videos are & “proposition in ‘aste" that makes subjective that which theory (ater) would be able to state: the paranoid reciprocity that shapes the new culture of the Americas. To see onesett in How to Read Maciio Mouse implies ‘admiting that we have all waked the path “trom Nayas to Disney" and batkagain, to paraphrase the proohetic ttle of a book by Jean Chari ven in its title, How fo Reed Macho Mouse included a sensibie edanogy. One that teaches us to undertake an erudite, shrewd strated, daring, quick, and ironic reading of the cukural histories of Mexico and the United States as relations buit from constant creative misinterprettion, resistance—or its fallure—aborted miscegenation, ‘an eternaly unfinished hybridization, collaborative exclusion, and fpoprocal distortion. In order to access this type of taste, stereotypes tad to be deconstructed, allowing us to distinguish the elements of ‘expression of that cross-cultural duel madness they contained. What could be better than to leave aside al postive affirnations of identity, hich are inevitably intertwined withthe ideological construction ofthe ration state, and learn the interfingua that emerges from the exploration of cultural projudica? At least this promised enjoyment of the contemporary cultural chaos wll make our next vist tothe supemmarket ‘melancholy experience, albeit a more informed and sophisticated one. For these forms of ertcal culture are aesthetic attudes The academy can frame them within a certain political discourse, but the complexity of their subject or the search for new discursive topologies should not veil the vay in which they produce in us expanded modes of what | will alia “superior and raid tate.” To put it simply: the appreciation of transzulturation is a theoretical position that belongs in itself tothe field of the marvelous, Ariist-theor'sis such as Ortiz Torres offer modernized subjects @ chance 10 move forward in the increasingly paradoxical landscape they must confront inthe current stage of capitalism. it gives ‘ts mEICo: ObJETHS Conunes 1 ASCIONES cosMorOUTHS reciproca, Para accede a esa forma de gusto, habia que deconstruir estaraotipes, para explorar lo que tienen de expresion de la locura a chio entre culturas. Qué mejor que hacer a un lado toda atirracion, positiva de identided, inevtablemente enazada con la construccién Ieol6gica del estado nacién, en favor del aprencizaje interingua ‘urgido dela exploacién de los projuicos culturales? Pues al menos ‘prometia un cisfruts del caos cultural contemporéneo, que promete hacer de nuestra proxima vista al supermercado una experiencia ‘melancbtica mas intormada y sofisticada Pues las formas de la cultura erica son actitudes asteticas. La academia puede encuadrarlas en un cierto discurso poitca, pero la Complejidad de sus temas, © la basqueca de nuevas topologies discursivas, no debe osultar e modo en que las formas de cultura critica provoran en nosotros también modalidades expandidas de algo que llamaré un gusto superior y enrarecida. Para decilo en una palabra: la aprecacién del transculturalismio es una posicion tedrica que pertenece de suyo ala especie de io maraviloso, Lo que los artistastedricos como Ortiz Torres han vaniGo escudindo proveca un crecimiento en las capacidades estéticas dol sujeto modernizado para desemperarse frente al palsoje cade vez parad6jca que tlene que controntar en ta fase actual cel capitaismo, hhaciéndola capaz de consumir con el mismo refinamiento que antes ‘empleaba en, cigames, la pntura abstracts el sublime desbordante do a bultura global. Dal misme modo que Duchemp o Picebia hicieron la nueva Verus de Milo de la ociada maquina modzma, las gusias corruptos ae ‘modernizaco jcalvan su matera prima en el Apocalipsis sense del cambio abrupto @ indeseado. Sin logratfo del todo John Cage traté de vvencor su abominacién por la desarmonia del ruido de la modernidad eovorguina obligéndose a abrir los oidos al sonido indeterminado 0 al ‘montage involurtario del muzak. Los. modesrizados contempordneos Podemos deslerar sin modestia alguna nuestro triunfo en habernos lanzado en esta extraordinaria espral de la subjetvided cada vez més ‘nrarecida consistente en estraer alguna reciprocidad estética con una realidad cada vez més insoportable. Gracas a ura operacion de gusto ‘ecundario, un proceso que hubiera de ser mera erosién (daculturacién, ecidentalizacion, meroentiizacién de les relociones sociales, telonovelizacién de la vida cotifiana) se vuelve nutrient ‘CrRVACT Pou ConnePEG:conguréac eA 161Anis Mena: Common obsters Axo cas TAN ACTIONS them the opportunity to consume the subjime of the overflowing global culture with the same refinement they used before to consume, let us say, abstract painting. In the same manner Duchamp or Picabia transformed the loathed modern machine into the new Venus de Milo, the corrupted taste of modernized people craws its raw materials from that apocalypse of sensibility found in abrupt and unwanted change. ‘Without really achieving it, John Cage tried to overcome his hatred of the disharmony of the nose of New York's modernity by forcing himself to open tis ears to random sounds, or to the involuntary ‘mortage of Muzak. Similarly, contemporary modernized subjects can immodestly declare our triumph for having jumped into that spiral ot an increasingly rarfied subjectivity that consists of extracting some kindof aesthetic reciprocity from an over more unbearable reality Thanks to an operation in secondary taste, a process that should consist merely of erosion—deoulturation, Westemization, commercialization of social relations, soap opera contamination of everyday life—becomes a nourishing force You sop, beyond being a generalized politcal fact, cultural exchange based on global misunderstanding is an acquired taste. in order to develop that global anxiety, one must have experienced the collapse ofthat consistent cultural anachronism that involves displaying an extreme natioral identity achieved through the presentation of ‘something called “interational art.” The cotrupted glotal good taste we mention can only emerge when one is equally ashamed of what is national and what is cosmopolitan. For all these reasons, corrupt global 00d taste seems most adequate fora place like Latin America, ‘81 AFHINEMENT oy counseriew:cuqueTimne NenINA Pues, verin e} intercambio cultural basado en el ‘malentendido global, mas allé ce ser un hecho poltico generaizado, ln gusto 2dguiido, Para que esa ansiedad global se desarrale, uno ‘debe venir del colapso ese anacronismo cultural (consistonte) en salir avante con un desplegue extremo de identidad nacional obienido ‘mediante la presentaclén de algo denominado “arta interracional’. EL buen gusto corrupto global dal que hablamos sblo puede emerger ‘cuando uno se avergienza en la misma modida de lo nacional y lo ‘cosmopalta. Por todo ello, e! buen gusto corrupio global pereciea el ‘mas apropiado para un lugar como LatinoaméricaZamudio 3 1959, Tijuana: lives in New York) io is an art historian, critic, and independent curator. He was Awarded te 1998-1999 Helena ‘Ruoenstein Fellowship in Crtical ‘Studies from the Whitney independent study program of the Whitney Museum ot American Art, New York. His recent essays have appeared in The Encyclopedia of Sculpture (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearbom, 2002), The 5 James Guide to Hispanic Anists (Detroit: St James Press, 2003), as Nill as in museum and galery exhibition catalogues, He is currently a ostoral candidate in art history at the Graduate Center, City University Of New York. Zemudio has curated several exhibitions, most notably, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice Nikolai Fine Art, Now York, 2002), lost ia Space (Gary Tatintsian, New York, 2001-2002), Rayuela Hopscotch) (Kean Unversity, New Jersey, 2001) and Loompanies {White Box, New York, 2001), proitic witer, ne reqularty contributes attcles to Art Nexus, Flash Art, and Toma Celesio. ‘Anis MENCO:oBaETOs CHMUNES ¥AcciONES CusMOPOLTAS Rati Zamudio (Tijuana, México, 1959; vive en tlueva York) Zamudi es un historiador del ane, critco y eurador independiente, En 1993- 99 recbi el Helena Rubenstsin Folowship in Critical Studies del programa de «siudios independientes del Whitney Museum of American Art en Nueva York. Sus ensayos més recientes han aparecido en The Encyolopedie of Sculpture, (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2002). The St James Guide to Hispanic Artists (Ostia: St. James Press, 2002), asi como en catélogos de exposicién en Mus20s y galeras. Es cancidato al doctoraco en historia del arte por el Graduate Conter de fa Universidad de la Ciudad de Nueva York. Zarmuo ha ‘ido curador de varies exposiciones, entre las que destacan Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice (Nicolei Fine Ar, Nueva York, 2002), Lost in Space (Nueva York, 2001-2002), Rayuela, (Elizabeth, New Jersey, 2001) y Loompanies en White Box (Nueva York, 2001). ES un eserior proiico y contribuye frecuentemente a Art Nos, Flash Arty Toma Coleete smocnarins 155