The Blogger Union has partnered with CreativeMornings/Miami for a collaborative storytelling marathon. Tune in to read the story of our city told by local creatives, bloggers and entrepreneurs. Each week, a different member of CreativeMornings will take over to post what inspires them about South Florida. Do you want to take over the CreativeMornings/Miami blog and share your take on our community? Email Paola at info@thebloggerunion and we’ll get working on it!

About Josie Urbistondo: Hi! My name is Josie. I have been teaching writing and literature and writing myself for about a decade now. Currently, I teach at the University of Miami and mentor high school dual enrollment faculty for Florida International University. It wasn’t until I had my daughter that I yearned for a new space to exercise creative freedom that captured all facets of my identity. Our blog, www.doubtsanddesires.com, I co-author with a dear, long-time friend, Linjen Neogi, became just that. We broker content we find valuable, fun and enriching.

We strive to be a stop for the brainy, hungry, traveling, all around contemporary mami – we hope to provide meditations on life, love, motherhood and the spaces in between. We are here for the constant reader or the casual glance. Working around nap schedules, board meetings and all around beautiful chaos.

This article was originally published on Doubts & Desires.      

Farewell American Idol – [As a Latina] What I Will Remember

With the American Idol series finale in early April, I think back to what I will remember most.

We have old school memories - how Paula Abdul clapped and painfully honest remarks from Simon Cowell; however, as a Latina I will remember most the performance that syncretized Yoruban, Afro-Caribbean religion with the American popular stage.

youtube via MartinOldiesTapes, FOX

For the two-hour long Season Ten’s American Idol finale (2011), there was no shortage of artists performing. They ranged from Lady Gaga and Carrie Underwood to Steven Tyler and Jack Black; however, none as socio-politically charged as the Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez performance of “Aguanile.” In case you don’t recall, here’s the cliffsnotes version - Ryan Seacrest introduced Marc Anthony alone. Drums and trumpets intensified as he ascended from below and began singing, holding the first “Aguanile.” There was a cabaret feel on stage. Once the music began, there was a clear shot of the background screen which depicted a myriad of red lit candles. They resembled prayer candles usually found below saints’ altars in Catholic churches. The incomparable Sheila E was on the timbales, and she maintained a soft percussion background for his introduction.

At about two minutes, as Anthony sang the line, “Que La Tierra Va Ha Temblar (because the Earth is going to tremble), the backup dancers joined their feather fans and then parted them to introduce La Lopez who had her back to the audience. Lopez wore a white frilly one piece with nude stockings, red lipstick and tousled wavy hair. In keeping with the sacred menu, she reminded me of Dominican Vodou lwa, Erzulie, who assumes multiple personas but one of her most cherished is a sensual, coquettish goddess, Erzulie Freda. With her back to the audience, Lopez took a few steps down stage then seductively turned around and danced on either side of Marc Anthony.

Why is this amazingly and awesomely crazy, you may ask?…

Both the song and performance signal a Santeria spiritual cleansing and religious ritual which stand in stark contrast to contemporary U.S. ideals of secularism within the public space. While the song is mostly in Spanish it has Yoruban/ Lukumi and pre-christian Greek phrases (for more on the translation of the lyrics, please see Oscar Palacios.) *Just a quick FYI, Lukumi is the language of Santeria. It is derived from Yoruban culture which originated in Nigeria, West Africa.

Still thinking about Beyonce’s “Formation” performance for the Fiftieth Super Bowl and the backlash she received regarding how political her performance was, which nowadays political seems to be synonymous with raced and therefore inappropriate, I am still surprised with how little scrutiny this performance garnered.

The performance’s reception in popular news sources praised the talented duo while the blogosphere condemned their either lack of talent or gall for being too provocative on a family show.  Comments were as follows –

◾Sheknows.com claimed that “American Idol went Idolo Americano on Wednesday night’s finale when lovebirds Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez teamed up to perform Aguanile from the movie they did together, El Cantante.”

◾Alexandra Gratereaux from Fox News Latino stated “American Idol: Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony & Sheila E. Put the Salsa in Season 10 Finale” with “¡WEPA! The salsa beats were in full swing as Marc Anthony took the stage…”

◾One negative blog post that stood out for me was on Softpedia.com (no longer exists) when “taco” posted “check their green cards!!!!!” It almost seems irrelevant to mention that both Lopez and Anthony were born in the U.S.; however, the immediate jump from otherness to foreignness when having to do with Latino culture is all too prevalent in contemporary culture wars.

And yet nothing on the content of the song nor the markers of religious symbolism on stage. I will add a caveat to this rant and that is that I am a shameless JLo and Marc Anthony fan. I do empathize with the concerned parents who thought this may not have been appropriate TV. Honestly, I was not a parent then and now my daughter really only watches cartoons, but I do play “Aguanile” for her, both the Hector Lavoe original and the Marc Anthony cover.

This moment of sacred subversion does not stand alone. Pitbull’s 2013 and 2014 Rockin Eve performances of “Echa pa’lla" (Manos Pa’rriba), calls into question how much the American imaginary knows or cares to know about Latino culture in the U.S.

So, final thought…is it because the lyrics were mostly in Spanish and so not worth figuring out what was sung? For whatever the reason, there is an opportunity here for us to have a conversation about Latinidad. I am not saying we use the song lyrics as a how to manual, everyone let’s not raid your local botanica, but we have commonality in the symbols we understand (religious and secular) that non-Latino Americans just translate as noise. What should we do with this language?

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In the movie, El Cantante (2006), where Marc Anthony plays Hector Lavoe (70’s salsa sensation and the song’s original composer, with Willie Colon, I think…), the performance of “Aguanile” is juxtaposed with Lavoe’s participation in a Santeria ritual. The two scenes blend together where at one point the audience seems to be celebrating his spiritual cleanse and not his singing. Below you have the El Cantante clip -