OK, so I’m sitting the the Mexican McDonalds here and listening to the overly loud spanish music being played and I begin to ponder where this music originates from most likely.
Spanish and English are the two languages spoken in the most varied countries so I figured it was probably not likely that all or most of the music played in the States is necessarily Mexican, or even Mexican at all.
I got to extending this thought to all of pop culture. Being a Red-Blooded, not-so-God-fearing American I naturally have a slanted view of where popular media comes from, since 90% of what I see and hear is local.
The only real analogy in English is in music since a fairly significant ratio of pop music comes from Britain and Canada. I presume that unless there is a Spanish equivalent of Hollywood that the parity in TV, music, video, print, and movies is more clear in spanish speaking nations.
I figured that Spain and Brazil seem to likely be the strongest economically of the spanish speaking countries, and therefore perhaps the bulk of pop media in the Spanish language comes out of there. Is this true?
Anyways, in my roundabout way I’m trying to ask if, unlike here in the US, media in a given Spanish speaking country is of a decidely multinational origin, or if one Spanish speaking country dominates the industry like the US does in English speaking countries?
Well, let me first just say that when you talk about Spanish-speaking pop culture/media you are talking of a vast geographic area where it would be hard to talk about one sole provider of media culture for a vast population and geography. Now, to answer this question, now, are you talking about a McDonald’s in Mexico or a McDonalds in a predominantly Mexican American community? If it’s in Mexico, in all likelyhood, about 95% of the pop music you are listening to comes from within Mexico. Other pop music you would hear would come from bands in Spain, Argentina, Chile, and Central America.
It depends on what region of the US you are talking about. Music along the TX-Mexico border is made up of Tejano bands, Mexican bands, and a tiny minority from bands from Central and Sout America. Yet, Spanish speaking music in Miami, I would guess is predominantly from Puerto Rico, Republica Dominicana, and Cuban-American bands.
OK, speaking from personal experience (born and raised in Mexico), in Mexico the whole popular media, of Spanish-speaking origing, is solely based from Mexico. Spain and Brazil have no media presence in Mexico. Mexico has it’s own media monopolies that feed our pop media such as the two major tv networks that also have ownership in radio, music records, magazines, and movies and they are TeleVisa and TVAzteca. TeleVisa is the oldest monopoly (and for almost 30 to 40 years, it was sole source of tv media). Where other Spanish-speaking countries have been able to break into the Mexican market has been in music. Argentina and Spain have been able to export rock bands into Mexico with success. I have no personal experience with media in Central America and South America, but from what I have read it does seem TeleVisa has been able to export programs into Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Columbia, Chile, Central America, etc. such as “El Chabo del Ocho” and soap operas. Aside from Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Columbia have been big exporters of soap operas and “variety shows” (Sabado Gigante, El Gordo Porcel, etc).
Regargind Brazil:
I agree with Terminus Est. Brazilian media, at least in Mexico and in the US Spanish-speaking population, has a hard time cracking the $$$ since it’s all produced in Brazilian Portuguese which very, very few non-Brazilians speaks. Still, there are exceptions: futbol and soap operas. With soccer, you don’t need to know Portuguese. Brazil produces racy soap operas that become hits such as “Xica”.
Finally, Spanish-speaking media in the US is another ball of wax. TeleMundo, Galavision, and Univision have a real “melting pot” programing, but most of their programs originate from either Miami, New York, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, Argentina, and Brazil.
XicanoreX
Yes, about the Mexican McDonalds, I was refering to the one near my office here in Chicago which is notable in that it is one of the few MickeyDs I’ve seen with bilingual menus and a whole staff whose first language is likely Mexican Spanish. In Chicago its not really accurate to call it “a predominantly Mexican Community”, according to the Tribune Chicago now ranks second behind Los Angeles in Mexican American residents recently surpassing San Antonio and Houston. There are a large number of Mexicans in this neighborhood, but I’d hardly call it “a Mexican community” when one considers the diverse make up of it. Just a little FYI.
I agree, and this is what seeded my question. I presume when you say provider, you don’t mean one specific company. I’m trying to draw an analogy between Hollywood (made up of a fairly close knit but distinct collection of production and marketing companies). There is a vast area of countries which speak English as well, however the very large majority of the media content is derived from one place, Hollywood.
From the rest of what you’re saying it seems that Mexico may have a partial dominance in this market. While their media is almost solely local product (much like the US’ English media is almost all local), their product also makes a fairly strong presence in many of the other Spanish speaking nations (much like Hollywood’s does in the UK and Australia). Does this analogy hold up? While I’m sure in Spain their local programming and content plays a larger role than it does in Mexico (just as you would say about the UK and the BBC vs Hollywood) does Mexican media have a firm foothold there as well?
I guess the three possible situations I see here would be one like the norm in English language media where the US produces most of the content and it pervades nearly all English speaking nations. Ergo, Mexican media is common in nearly every Spanish speaking nation, while the reverse is not true. Another possibility is that every Spanish speaking country puts out media and every spanish speaking country broadcasts the other countries media along with their own. And finally a case where each spanish speaking country produces and airs primarily its own content.
I don’t know what’s the role that Hollywood plays in English culture, so I’m going to describe vaguely how does it works here.
If we speak about movies, forget national productions. There are local films, but they have far less impact than U.S. movies. I’m not complaining; after all, we have our little things (although is pretty much a mere Hollywood productions copy).
In the music aspect yes, we listen to Latin music mostly. I should say Spanish in fact, because very few songs came from Brazil. The styles are varied, but nothing strictly local: nowadays that kind of things (including tango) are listened by old people and good music lovers.
And finally TV. We watch a pretty crazy mixture of thing here. There are all kinds of local production, though all the high-rating channels are partially or completely owned by foreign companies (pretty much like half country… but that’s a politics deal). A considerable amount are U.S. channels in their Spanish version; for instance Cartoon Network, Fox, The History Channel (U.S. history, BTW), ESPN, etc, etc, etc. There is one Mexican channel in my city provider (don’t remember which one right now, and yes, there is only ONE provider), a Spaniard news one, and some other. In the capitol city there are hundred more, most of them foreign. And don’t forget Direct TV
Personally I have to thank Mexican media for the anime translation. They’re the ones that dub the Japanese animation for whole Latin America. And they do a great job.
You should watch some japanimation, you’ll be amazed
So, if the rest of Latin America is similar to Argentina (and I think it is, excepting perhaps Brazil, but they don’t speak Spanish anyway) I would say that no, there is no local Hollywood.
Well, that’s it, I hope it was useful someway.
Oh, one last thing: DO NOT WATCH “EL CHAVO DEL OCHO”
Okay, I remember, but to answer acurately I’d have to go into those long nitpicky replies (media type, country of origin, analysis of sets) that I’d scroll away from.
<hedging a bit> Hmmmm . . . eh . …sort of . …Strictly speaking from a Mexican point of view . . .sort of . . .There is no “place” that could be called “Hollywood” in Mexico. Let me be specific. In Mexico (as in most Latino cultures), we have a sense of centralism. In TV media you will hear announcers talk about Mexico (by which they mean “Mexico City” not Mexico) vs. “provincia” (“province”, i.e., the rest of Mexico). As such, the media economy reflects that mind set. Most, if not all, of the major TV, Movie, and Music companies are based in Mexico City. Recently, due to growing economies such as in the states of Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Guanajuato, etc.
Media in Mexico is still by far very monopolized by TeleVisa (movies, tv, music, radio, SKY, etc.). So, if there is a physical location that could be called Mexico’s Hollywood that would San Angel since that’s where they are located . The other major media outlet (at least their tv counterparts) is TVAzteca and they are located in Ajusco.
If you wanna know more about TeleVisa, you can visit their website at:
As far as I know, no. Spain has a very strong media economy. Though, Spain does export to Mexico, La Ligua soccer games, Mecano and their pop music ilk, and, oh yeah, Catholic movies like “Marcelino Pan y Vino” with the infamous Pablito Calvo.
I am not really that well versed with other Spanish-speaking countries, but as far as Mexico goes, the third possible situation is closest to our current media presence.
Sorry for not pointing that detail that Xicanorex notes: in Argentina we have an odd population distribution. Which translates into concentration of media, trade, technology, services, etc. Besides, I don’t handle English as he does, so you’ll have to excuse me.
Figure that nearly 95% of population lives across Parana river shore. And not all along, just from it’s mouth till barely passing Santa Fe. (Argentina map)
And the monopolizing media group definitely would be the Clarin Group.
My friends face me every time I dare to criticize “El Chavo”…
