I generally don't bother listing out subtitles, but you'll see it below for this book. In this case I found it a quite helpful summary for the main theme of this 1995 work. In these essays, Fusco examines both the theory and reality of how race and culture interact, with the focus mostly on the minority perspective. Although section 2 didn't resonate much with me ("Artists and their work"), I enjoyed the various insights from the rest of the work, and I reread "Pan-American Postnationalism". I also noted how the radio segment transcribed in the final section had the feel of one of George Saunders's satirical short stories, reinforcing how artists can find a way to convey a particular sentiment or observation through a full range of creative mediums.
English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas by Coco Fusco (October 2021)
One example Fusco highlights as common to anyone of a minority race is being described under one term or expression, which lumps people together with others who may not share all that much with them in terms of cultural background. When English is Broken Here explores this idea, it's done so with an emphasis on the Hispanic or Latino experience, which I think fits with Fusco's Cuban-American background. From my perspective, using Asian to lump me into a broad category isn't something I consider a major problem, but I think it does create challenges for people who are lazy with assumptions to understand how I might relate to another Asian person's experience.
To put it another way, there is nothing that seems more quintessentially American than the idea of an "Asian fusion" restaurant. Again, this isn't to suggest that I see any kind of problem - I've found the food at many of these establishments to be quite good - but someone who walks away with a sense of having enjoyed a multi-cultural "experience" probably also considers a nature documentary as a reasonable substitute for some quality outdoors time. There is, I suspect, a certain confusion regarding the distinction between experience and entertainment, with the latter responsible for maintaining the illusion that one is the other, perhaps by implying that ignoring differences is the same as relating across them, or by suggesting that one can grow without the growing pains.
I think this leads to how Fusco points out at various times throughout the work that America has a certain history of removing culture from its context as a way of creating entertainment, particularly in the sense of how it allows mass culture to reinforce existing power dynamics. This could be in the sense of appropriation (which Fusco notes as the process of erasing authorship as work transfers across cultural lines) or in examples of misrepresentation (such as casting white actors to play a minority character). In these instances (among others), the process of removing context in order to create entertainment whose source comes from outside cultures implies a symbolic violence, where creators lose credit for work while economic and political power continues to accumulate in a systemically unjust fashion.
As I wrap up my thoughts, I have two final comments to highlight, both of which I'm sure will stick around in my mind. The first mentioned a perspective that the US-Mexico border is a necessary protection to prevent the US from invading again; the second anointed Columbus as America's first illegal alien.
TOA Rating: Three cultures out of one
