Reframing Latin America: A Cultural Theory Reading ... - BGSU Blogs

chapter 1
Post What?! (Not) An Abbreviated
Introduction
The image of an attractive young woman (Fig. 1.1) appears on the cover of
a recently published book about El Salvador. The book provides a nonfi ctional
survey of the people, culture, and history of El Salvador for Englishspeaking
readers. Its intended readership is university students or the
general public looking for an overview. We think the book is quite good.
The author expresses strong regard for the people of El Salvador, and the
content of the book demonstrates his extensive knowledge of the country
and its customs. We can only assume that the image chosen for the
cover is meant to express the author’s intention of providing a factual and
sympathetic overview. But to what extent does this photograph accomplish
its task? Does it present a vision of Salvadoran reality?
On the one hand, these questions are easy to answer. The image is
a photograph of a real Salvadoran woman and real fl owers. Indeed, this scene
is ubiquitous in El Salvador. The country’s tropical climate allows fl owers
to grow easily, and many young women can be found carrying bunches
of them, often because they sell them in public markets. In this sense, the
photograph does offer us a slice of El Salvadoran reality.
But the image contains multiple meanings, which the author and
publisher may or may not have been aware of when they chose it. This
visual representation of El Salvador is part of a long and complicated
history in which the lands and peoples of Latin America have been depicted
as female, especially in images intended for North American and European
audiences. Such images depict Latin America and relations between it
and North America/Europe through a historic lens of gendered power
relations.