University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 5-13-2011 Mojarra Aesthetics in Piolin Por La Ma?ana: A Time and Space for the Dislocated J. Luis Loya Garcia University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Garcia, J. Luis Loya, "Mojarra Aesthetics in Piolin Por La Ma?ana: A Time and Space for the Dislocated" (2011). Open Access Dissertations. 383. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/383 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MOJARRA AESTHETICS IN PIOLÍN POR LA MAÑANA: A TIME AND SPACE FOR THE DISLOCATED A Dissertation Presented by J. LUIS LOYA GARCÍA Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2011 Hispanic Literatures and Linguistics © Copyright by J. Luis Loya García 2011 All Rights Reserved MOJARRA AESTHETICS IN PIOLÍN POR LA MAÑANA: A TIME AND SPACE FOR THE DISLOCATED A Dissertation Presented by J. LUIS LOYA GARCÍA Approved as to style and content by: ___________________________________________ Luis A. Marentes, Chair ___________________________________________ Ilán Stavans, Member ___________________________________________ Barbara Zecchi, Member ___________________________________________ Mari Castañeda, Member ________________________________________ Luis A. Marentes, Program Director Hispanic Literatures and Linguistics Program Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures ________________________________________ William Moebius, Chair Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures DEDICATORIA Pa John Emilio Vincent y toda la cuadrilla: mojarras, tlacuaches, nopales, nacos y nacas, pelados y peladas, comadres, compas, carnales y carnalas, hocicones y hociconas, valemadristas y en especial pa Chela. Pa ella oro: Santa cerveza que estás en el hielo, bien refrescante suena tu nombre, venga a mi vaso tu cuerpo, hazme sentir el sabor del encuentro, hágase tu presencia en la mesa como en el suelo, no nos dejes caer en la cirrosis y líbranos de la resaca porque mañana trabajamos. Salud. Te quiero Carmela In honor of my fellow dreamers. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have enormous appreciation for those who have contributed in the realization of this dissertation: Professor Luis A. Marentes, my advisor, and the rest of my committee members. Professor Barbara Zecchi, Ilán Stavans, and Mari Castañeda. I admire you all for being great professionals, mentors, and more importantly, for your human quality. But this dissertation has the collaboration of many more wonderful people for whom I have a great sense of gratitude. People who by pure generosity have touched my life in ways I will never forget. They have motivated me, inspired me and challenged me. Dr. Maryann Biggers, thank you for feeding me and hosting me in your house when I had nothing. Dr. Rose-Marie Kuhn, merci pour ta générosité, l‘inspiration, la protection, et ta présence magique. Tu seras toujours ma fée marraine. Dr. Margarite Mahler, merci pour la patience, et la dévotion pédagogique. Dr. Irma López, gracias por guiarme. Tus clases me alentaron a seguir en el doctorado. My profound appreciation reaches those who I love because they are just great people. Nigel, thank you for sharing your house. Larry and Euri, for letting me take care of Gypsy. Heidi, for being my sister. Carmen, for making me laugh. Amy, for your divine presence. John, for your unconditional support. Mamá, porque hiciste lo mejor que pudiste. v ABSTRACT MOJARRA AESTHETICS IN PIOLÍN POR LA MAÑANA: A TIME AND SPACE FOR THE DISLOCATED MAY 2011 J. LUIS LOYA GARCÍA, BA., CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO M.A., WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Luis A. Marentes This dissertation is a cultural analysis of Piolín por la Mañana, a Spanish- language radio talk show conducted by Eduardo Piolín Sotelo and broadcast from Los Angeles. The program expands the boundaries of the performing arts as well as the reach and elasticity of literary tropes and study. It connects often geographically disparate ―imagined communities‖ of working class Latino/as by revisiting traditional Mexican theater, joke delivery style, literary genre (e.g., magical realism and the picaresque), and taxonomies of everyday personalities. Central to my discussion of Piolín is listener participation, which stages community formation within the radio-text. The introduction and the first chapter present the trope of the Mojarra, a person that crossed the U.S. border as a mojado/a (an undocumented immigrant), usually swimming or forging a river. Mojarras suffer el Síndrome de la Mojarra, the condition of feeling persecuted, believing that their freedom depends on the ability to evade capture. Mojarra Aesthetics revolves around the representational needs of the persecuted vi immigrant community; this aesthetic is comprised of artistic techniques that use humor and in particular explosive laughter and mitote. The second chapter explores how Piolín is a medium that connects, as well as creates, Latino communities through radio; it maps ―nonce taxonomies‖ of recognizable immigrant personalities. What follows, explores how Piolín encourages new ways of making and analyzing art, including the use of cantinfleadas and albures as central elements of oral folklore, comprising connections to traditional Mexican joke delivery (e.g., colmos, parecidos, que le dijo, telones, and bombas). The program, via this tradition, includes cultural tropes such as the mojarra, tlacuaches, nopales, nacos, nacas, among others. At the center of this dissertation is the carnival and, relatively new on the scene, the radio carnival. The radio program produces a Mojarra Difrasismo, deconstructing entrenched binaries and creating a new reality, forcing new critical thinking about what reality is or could be in relation to the immigrant experience and the immigrant body. vii PREFACE: METHODOLOGY This dissertation deals with Piolín por la Mañana, a Spanish-language radio program broadcast from Los Angeles to the rest of the United States—and via Internet to the whole world. The majority of its listeners are working class Hispanic immigrants. I became deeply interested in this show when I was doing my Master‘s degree in Michigan. I was far away from my Hispanic community in California and wanted to feel at home. The Internet allowed me to be in touch with California‘s Hispanics; I appreciated the human connection of people that shared similar experiences and who also balanced their struggles through the power of humor. This dissertation is a tribute to the working class Hispanic immigrant community that lives and works in the United States. They are the heroes and heroines of my dissertation. Their desire for a better life resonates in my heart when I laugh. Humor, in my life, has been a powerful strategy to deal with problems. It allows me to soften hardships and to keep going. One of the factors that got my attention while listening to Piolín por la Mañana was audience participation; people from New York, Texas, Chicago, California, and the most hidden places with Hispanic immigrant workers, were verbally present in the show. They listened to the show at the same time they worked, and often participated in the midst of labor. In this era of controversial politics against Hispanic immigrants, this lively and joyous discourse really got my attention. My dissertation presents sometimes overwhelming linguistic complexities. It has jokes in Spanish, English, and/or Spanglish. My hope is not to complicate life for readers whose understanding of one or the other of these forms of communication is limited. My viii apologies to you should you find these translation issues impossibly difficult. I‘ve done the best I can to communicate; either by translating or by explaining what I think is important about jokes. There is a language that deserves my whole attention; that is the language of my community, the working class Hispanic immigrant community in the US. It might seem improper, dislocated, impolite or even vulgar at times. But one must understand that this language often runs its finger along the very rough edge of very rough lives. These are people who aren‘t treated properly, politely, and/or respectfully— they often are dehumanized. Vulgarity helps them to forget about class, social, and economic, status. This is how they struggle with class consciousness. The vulgar and humorous content of my analysis requires some familiarity or training in ―street culture,‖ which is not taught in books, but in real life. I hope that any vulgarity in this dissertation earns its keep. Vulgarity is crucial to the community about which I am writing. I am a part of them. Piolín por la Mañana is produced and broadcast by Univisión. This is the largest Hispanic media network in the United States. The corporate nature of Univisión revolves around marketing strategies that are very important to how Hispanic communities negotiate their lives with media in this digitalized and globalized era. However, for the purpose of this dissertation, my analysis