Latinindad in the Age of Globalization and Technology

Titles of the Individual Presentations in a Panel

"U.S. Immigration Policy's Humanitarian Potential: Refugees and Asylees of Cuba" (Theodora Light ) "Home is Only a Few Clicks Away: Latinidad in the Era of Digital-Nostalgia and Globalization" (Lukasz Pawelek)

Subject Area

Afro-Hispanic Studies

Abstract

# 1. U.S. Immigration Policy's Humanitarian Potential: Refugees and Asylees of Cuba

Immigration is perhaps the fundamental characteristic of the United States which exists today; as a great melting pot or destroyer of indigenous culture, no one aspect is more definitive to the country and citizenry’s identity. Further than just a means of populating the nation, immigration policy in the US has also provided some of its most substantial contributions to humanitarian causes. As a case study, this paper examines Cuban immigration to the United States as an example of a successfully implemented program of humanitarian policy, placed in the context of its overall reduced global participation in the human rights corpus. Many have argued that the Cuban protocols were simply the result of American politicians seeking to provide evidence for the failings of a socialist state aided by the infamous 90-mile proximity. This paper instead emphasizes the repressive and dangerous nature of Castro’s government, viewing the immigration policies proffered by the US as valuable counter-measures to escalating violence. While the United States official actions continue to draw further and further away from participation in an international humanitarian system in whose founding it had played a crucial role, American refugee and asylee policy, imperfect systems though they may be, are perhaps one of the most profoundly impactful structures implemented to aid foreign nations with the Cuban case being perfectly illustrative.

#2 Digital Latinx, Globalization and Technophobia

Nowadays diverse forms of worldwide madness resurface with regards to time and days past. Daily, people are creating colossal theaters of memory overflowing data servers. We are obsessively documenting ourselves, graphically, textually and visually, “nostalgia daily,” “golden 70s, 80s, 90s” appear on radios, social media and electronic blogs. When it comes intersection of globalization, popular music and nostalgia, a single tune may send peoples down YouTube channels rehearsing our youth experiences. One of those magical rhythms capable of awaking space of collective memories and nostalgia is the Latinx most known song in the world. “Despacito” (2017) counting over 6.4 billion views on YouTube in 2019, marks a millstone and testimony of Latinx popular music and Latinindad in global perspectives. This presentation rests theoretically in Appadurai's (2001) and Boym’s (2001) typology of nostalgia and examines its collective implications, cultural manifestations and urban signifiers within “Despacito”. Despite cultural fragmentation, uprooting and globetrotter Latinx experiences I regard Latinx popular music and technology as a vessel that mediates this much-desired notion of homeland and home that everyone longs for since we live in a world driven by effects of global capitalism. I consider the nexus of digital streaming technologies, globalization and nostalgia as imperative dimensions that shape longing for home and have an ability to create borderless homelands and sustain the urge for an imaginary home

Brief Bio Note

Theodora Light is a Spanish and History double major student at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Her research interest encompasses historical, social and political matters regarding fractured immigration policy, labor and civil rights. She is an exemplary student in prof. Pawelek's Polyphony Research Group and a recipient of awards. Theodora aspires to earn a Ph.D. and become a University Professor.

Lukasz D. Pawelek, (Ph.D. Wayne State University) is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and German in the Department of Humanities at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. His research interests encompass U.S. Latino and diasporic literature, literary representations of nostalgia, collective memory and globalization, and the evolving Latinx identity in the United States; a secondary field of interested: Post-Wall Ostalgie memoir and film. Dr. Pawelek is a co-founder and co-organizer of the annual Gateway to Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies Conference. He established Polyphony Research Group that engages students in undergraduate research, conference presentations and service in the Latino Community.

Keywords

Globalization, Latinx, pop culture, nostalgia, immigration policy, labor, asylum seeker

Presentation Year

October 2020

Start Date

10-22-2020 2:05 PM

End Date

10-22-2020 2:45 PM

Embargo

11-4-2019

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Oct 22nd, 2:05 PM Oct 22nd, 2:45 PM

Latinindad in the Age of Globalization and Technology

# 1. U.S. Immigration Policy's Humanitarian Potential: Refugees and Asylees of Cuba

Immigration is perhaps the fundamental characteristic of the United States which exists today; as a great melting pot or destroyer of indigenous culture, no one aspect is more definitive to the country and citizenry’s identity. Further than just a means of populating the nation, immigration policy in the US has also provided some of its most substantial contributions to humanitarian causes. As a case study, this paper examines Cuban immigration to the United States as an example of a successfully implemented program of humanitarian policy, placed in the context of its overall reduced global participation in the human rights corpus. Many have argued that the Cuban protocols were simply the result of American politicians seeking to provide evidence for the failings of a socialist state aided by the infamous 90-mile proximity. This paper instead emphasizes the repressive and dangerous nature of Castro’s government, viewing the immigration policies proffered by the US as valuable counter-measures to escalating violence. While the United States official actions continue to draw further and further away from participation in an international humanitarian system in whose founding it had played a crucial role, American refugee and asylee policy, imperfect systems though they may be, are perhaps one of the most profoundly impactful structures implemented to aid foreign nations with the Cuban case being perfectly illustrative.

#2 Digital Latinx, Globalization and Technophobia

Nowadays diverse forms of worldwide madness resurface with regards to time and days past. Daily, people are creating colossal theaters of memory overflowing data servers. We are obsessively documenting ourselves, graphically, textually and visually, “nostalgia daily,” “golden 70s, 80s, 90s” appear on radios, social media and electronic blogs. When it comes intersection of globalization, popular music and nostalgia, a single tune may send peoples down YouTube channels rehearsing our youth experiences. One of those magical rhythms capable of awaking space of collective memories and nostalgia is the Latinx most known song in the world. “Despacito” (2017) counting over 6.4 billion views on YouTube in 2019, marks a millstone and testimony of Latinx popular music and Latinindad in global perspectives. This presentation rests theoretically in Appadurai's (2001) and Boym’s (2001) typology of nostalgia and examines its collective implications, cultural manifestations and urban signifiers within “Despacito”. Despite cultural fragmentation, uprooting and globetrotter Latinx experiences I regard Latinx popular music and technology as a vessel that mediates this much-desired notion of homeland and home that everyone longs for since we live in a world driven by effects of global capitalism. I consider the nexus of digital streaming technologies, globalization and nostalgia as imperative dimensions that shape longing for home and have an ability to create borderless homelands and sustain the urge for an imaginary home