Integrating voices

Many Latin American artists and authors have dedicated their works in unifying the Latin American people and talk of just one culture. We know that this culture is not unique; moreover, it is composed of a diverse spectrum of traditions, customs and histories.  This may be the reason why the Mexican murals don’t really mean anything to me and perhaps why, in the same way, Chilean art does not mean anything to them either. Why, then, do these artist strive so much to unite cultures that are so clearly different?

Nicolás Guillen through his work Sensemaya, and his other works reveal the influence of African Americans in Cuba with the intent to integrate it in the origins of the Hispanic American culture.  Pablo Neruda also attempts to be the spokesman for those who were victims in the history of the destruction of the Incan Empire through his work Las Alturas de Machu Picchu.  In both examples we find the authors trying to incorporate voices that help us to better understand where the Latin American identity comes from, uniting them through the various races which they are composed of.

Despite the efforts of these diverse artists, how many Latin Americans actually feel pride in their African or Incan roots?  The culture is so diverse that sometimes I have to ask myself in what Latin America I lived in that I do not know the one that is interpreted by the works of some artists and authors.

Perhaps the idea of unifying Latin America as only one culture through art isn’t more than just a political manifestation.  I don’t think that it is a coincidence that these artists who unite and create this idea of one Latin American culture also shared the same political socialistic ideals.  Guillen belonged to a communist party in Cuba, as did Neruda in Chile.

 So…what is Latin America?

Even today art tries to answer that question.