GLOBALIZED MACHETE--A look at Hybridization in globalized Media

The various nations of the world are no longer separate entities. Cultures, languages, and traditions have fused over time and have created a new kind of culture, a hybrid one. We now live in an age where technology enables us to "know what's on the other side" and as our knowledge of other parts of the world has increased, so has our assimilation of its various cultures. This interconnectedness can be easily explained through the concept of GLOBALIZATION: The increase of convergence between the people, cultures, and places of the world throughout a period of time as facilitated by the development of factors such as technology.

Globalization plays a vital role in HYBRIDIZATION: The product of combining the elements of of different cultures. An example of hybridization is the combination between the Mexican and American culture so evident throughout the US, especially Texas. This combination is evident practically everywhere. Examples of this hybridization are the following:

• CULINARY: A mixture between Mexican and American recipes in restaurants such as Chuy's, Taco Cabana, Taco Bell, Güeros, Chipotle etc. Also know as TexMex food. 
• URBAN: Streets around the US such as (Austin examples) Guadalupe, San Jacinto, etc. 
• MEDIA: Movies such as The Mexican, Once Upon a  Time in Mexico, Nacho Libre, etc. 
• CLOTHING: Brands such as Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch are manufactured in Mexico. 
• CULTURE: Americans celebrate Mexican holidays such as Cinco de Mayo just like Mexicans celebrate American holidays like Halloween

The example that I am going to focus on is on the hybridization on Mexican-American media as exemplified by Robert Rodriguez's movie, "Machete". Take a look:

The plot revolves around Machete, a former Mexican Federal who is double crossed by his own chief. Machete immigrates illegally to Texas where he gets caught in the middle of an immigration scandal. The public is lead to believe (by the Texan Senate) that Machete is an enraged illegal immigrant out to kill a Texas senator, thus strengthening the senator's position that illegal immigrants should be sent back to Mexico for good. After some very Robert Rodriguez-esque action sequences, the truth is revealed, and Machete triumphs as he is offered legal papers to live in the United States. 

The movie does a fantastic job at exemplifying Hybridization because:

• 1)Made by a Mexican-American director, 

• 2)Shot in the United States and Mexico, 

• 3) Employed Mexican, American, and Mexican-American actors and crew, 

• 4)Deals with issues such as illegal immigration in the US. 

The movie portrays the hybridization fn the Mexican and American cultures through the combination of language, traditions, culture, people and places. There are the hybrid instances exemplified in the trailer:

• CULTURAL ISSUES: 
• Arizona Immigrant Law: Machete is clearly meant to be a crusader for Mexican immigrants' rights.
• Mexican immigrants being forced out of the United States by the American government (as exemplified by Senator De Niro)
• Mexicans (specifically Machete) viewed as violent, likely to have committed murder at some point in their lives
• Mexicans portrayed as overtly religious
• HYBRID LANGUAGE:
• "There's nothing  I'd like more than to see that Mexican dance the bolero at the end of the rope"
• "Well this cucaracha has AK-47s and he's laying waste to everything that gets in his f***ing path"
• The title istelf "Machete" is understood both in English and Spanish.

• PEOPLE:
• Hybrid cast as exemplified by Danny Trejo (Machete, Mexican-American), Robert DeNiro (Senator, American of Italian descent), Jessica Alba (Immigration officer, American, Mexican-American parent), etc. 

• PLACES:
• The movie was shot both in Mexico and Texas.

Essentially, Machete combines the American and Mexican cultures while criticizing some people's attempt to prevent such hybridization. The end product is a movie portraying the Tex-Mex culture now so prominent throughout the United States, thus exemplifying Globalization. The media, in this case the movie industry, is the medium through which cultures converge and through which these hybridized cultures are made visible to the rest of the world. 

Image from Google Images
Video from Youtube