Transculturation

Both readings took on the term transculturation to further describe it and to challenge how it is commonly used. Both readings were rather pessimistic to their approach of their term, and seemed to consider that the white European culture that the Spaniards brought to Latin America won out over the local, indigenous cultures. The readings argued that acculturation was not the correct term to use when describing the culture in Latin America, but that transculturation was a better representation of the cultural effects of the Spaniards arrival to the Americas. As Millington points out, the cultural phenomena occurring in Latin America cannot be completely described by transculturation. It seems an easy conclusion to reach that the cultural processes that took place in Latin America were more complex than any one word can summarize. More than anything Millington seems to be saying that people should be more critical of the processes that took place in Latin America; this is a job that hopefully most people will complete when trying to describe Latin America.

It is difficult to argue against or agree with the depictions presented by Ortiz and Millington. Ortiz’s comparison of the black and indigenous people’s treatment seemed to be a strange thing to discuss—saying that black slaves suffered more than the tainos appears to be an unfair way to compare the black and taino experience. Both groups faced struggles and hardships by the white Europeans, but neither group’s suffering should be wiped away because they did not “suffer” the same amount as another group. After coming across this section, it became nearly impossible to continue an unbiased reading of Ortiz’s work.

It was refreshing to see that Millington did not rank two discriminated groups’ experiences, but it seemed clear that Millington was not convinced that the indigenous or black population was able to be more culturally influential than the Spanish. Through Millington’s writings it appeared that the white Europeans had won, and that the cultures of the indigenous and black people had been successfully tamped down. This seemed to be the reason why Millington had a problem with using transculturation; to Millington the term did not effectively capture the continued hegemonic structures that exist in the varying Latin American cultures. But I would argue that the very fact that people are discussing the effects of the Spanish on Latin American culture is proof that people do not consider transculturation lightly. The indigenous and black people have not been forgotten, and their presence in the public’s mind means that they were not completely pushed aside by the Europeans.