Cultural Immersion project Part 2. Social Sciences. Research Paper

Cultural Immersion Project Part 2
Name
Institutional Affiliate
Cultural Immersion Project Part 2
Introduction
Scholarly articles, movies or films, and documentaries alike make for some of the platforms that play a significant role in promoting cultural immersion, which functions to promote cultural diversity around the world. The analysis of the scholarly articles on Colombian culture in part 1 of the cultural immersion project, for instance, provided an overview of some of the country's cultural elements across the social, political, and economic domains. Findings from the scholarly articles reviewed include the fact that the Colombian culture is mainly patriarchal and deems women as second rate citizens reserved for domesticity and companionship for their male counterparts. -the second part of the project, herein provided, seeks to validate the findings of part 1 and provide theoretical elaborations for the same based on the different perceptions following the evaluation and deductions from recent events I attended.
Events Attended.
The second part of the cultural immersion project required my participation in events highlighting the characteristic features or elements of the Colombian culture for an informed understanding of the same. The cultural immersion events involved watching two videos or films showcasing different Colombian cultural attributes and engaging in a detailed discussion of both videos with other individuals through virtual online platforms. One of the movies that I chose to watch was Zoe Saldana’s Colombiana, which highlights some of the scary stereotypical perceptions of the Colombian culture. The movie builds around the main character’s quest for justice for the murder of her parents by a rival gang cartel in Bogota, Colombia. Zoe Saldana stars as a Cataleya, a 9-year old girl who witnesses the death of her parents and manages to find her way into the United States from where she stages her revenge on the criminal gang CITATION Oli11 \l 1033 (Megaton, 2011). The character’s name is representative of a perceived national flower that grows in Colombia and thus also reflecting the nation’s identity CITATION Oli11 \l 1033 (Megaton, 2011). The film’s narrative, however, raises controversies with the Colombian nationals as it portrays a culture of violence and organized crime. The young girl is set on becoming a killer under the guardianship of her uncle with whom she reconciles upon getting into the United States. The ensuing violence leads to the loss of her immediate family in the U.S. following the gang’s retaliatory attacks and Cateleya’s killing of the criminal mastermind behind the death of her entire family CITATION Oli11 \l 1033 (Megaton, 2011). The film, Land and Shade, makes for the other cultural immersion event that I attended and that which provided more insight into different dimensions of the Colombian culture. Directed by Cesar Avecedo, the film builds around the return of a man to his rural home to be with his family as they attend to their ailing son CITATION Ces15 \l 1033 (Avecedo, 2015). Alfonso is a man who escaped the harsh living conditions of his rural home by abandoning his wife, Alicia, and their young son, Gerardo. The home is now surrounded by sugarcane plantations and whose farming activities render the place inhabitable. However, Alicia holds on to her cultural heritage by refusing to move away from the place despite pleas from her dying son and the estranged husband. Gerardo dies in the unfolding events and his father gets to bond with Manuel, his grandson, in the effort to make up for his absence. The harsh living conditions expose the family to uncertainty concerning their future as they have to move from the place to survive and but seem to be afraid of what the unknown future holds for them.
Comparison with Expectations
The outlined events showcased different cultural attributes of the Colombian culture. The first film, Colombiana, depicts the Colombian culture as that of violence, drug trafficking, and organized crime. Such depictions often create a misleading perception of the country’s culture as they only function to paint Colombians as people who share a strong affiliation to such vices CITATION Oli11 \l 1033 (Megaton, 2011). The films Land and Shape, on the other hand, highlight both the social and economic cultural elements of the Colombian culture. The film excels in creating a vivid picture of the way of life in Colombia’s rural areas and its subsequent influence on the sacred institution of family or kinship. Both movies make for some interesting revelations about the Colombian culture that further provide an excellent framework for comparison with part 1 of the project’s findings. According to part 1, for instance, the Colombian culture comes across as that which encourages domestication of women, inequality against women, and a strong attachment to its cultural practices and traditions such as celebrations, dancing, and partying. However, interview discussions with my peers on their take on the elements of Colombian culture from the two events reveal some disparities with the expectations set on the same in part 1 of the project. In response to Colombiana, for instance, the respondent reiterated on the misleading perception of the Columbian culture embraced by most Hollywood films. He recognized the fact that most films tend to portray Colombians as aggressive individuals with close affiliation with organized crime, violence, and drug dealing. Such depictions are often a perpetuation of the stereotypical perception of the Colombian culture based on the country’s historical events concerning political instability and social disorder from the drug cartels that dominated the nation’s past. Films such as Colombiana posits the respondent, showcase the cultural transition among the Colombian women who refuse the confines of culture to pursue their dreams across the socio-cultural, political, and economic dimensions of society. Cataleya’s quest for justice for her family is representative of the emerging trend in Colombia where women such as Sofia Vergara rise to the occasion to put the nation on the global; map in the acting and film industry CITATION Val20 \l 1033 (Valdivia, 2020). Women are no longer second rate citiz...