#celluloid-divide Chicana/o

[gmaldona-blog]

PART 2

From Code to Codex Tricksterizing the Digital Divide in Ernest Hogan’s Smoking Mirror Blues 

by Daoine S. Bachran 

Part 2 of the book continued the discussion of cyborgs, networks, and post humanism. This article was the first one of part 2 and it stuck out to me because it described further on how there is a sharp class gap in access to digital technologies, tools, literacies, the codes and assumptions behind the design choices, etc... Although I do recognize how technology has helped the Chicana/o population, there is still a large amount of Latinos all over who struggle immensely with technology and are not encouraged or have the tools to learn. Consequently, like the book says, “the digital divide leaves Latina/os in digital behind as both creators and users of digital spaces” and are criticized as being lazy and uneducated. 

The defeat of capitalism through technology is described through Ernest Hogan’s novel, Smoking Mirror in this excerpt as well. The novel highlights the future’s dependence on mass media for culture as he creates space for Chicana/o techno-signification. Hogan seeks to recover mass media while simultaneously recovering Chicana/o histories from Aztec myths and zoos suit riots, revitalizing and claiming Chicano nationalist practices in modern/ future times. As I read all these creative sci-fi stories, my mind was blown because I had never connected sci-fi with the stories I was told as a child of la llorona or el chupacabra with political aspects of what was going on with Mexico. 

Another subject that hit close to home was the explanation of the digital divide being in film as well. I was disappointed to find out that once audio TV came out, lots of women of color (especially Latinas) were moved to the margins due to their “ethnic accents’. It was also disappointing to read how Latinas/os roles changed to more whiter characters. Let’s not forget that darker complexioned latinos/as are depicted as evil or seductive malicious characters.