Cultural Politics in Colombia - Essay Example

The issue of social stratification or classism is an issue that has been in many cultures across the world. In Colombia, social stratification is adhered to strictly. Bogota has been divided into the rich and the poor. There are many differences between the rich and poor in Colombia. In the previous years, there was an extremely wide gap between the It is said that 45% of people in Colombia live in poverty. Research shows that 16.6% of Colombia’s population lives in abject poverty. This would mean that the gap between the rich and the poor has been reduced following many Colombians coming out of extreme poverty in 2009.

Poor people live in scanty houses where they do not have access to social amenities; hospitals and schools, they are poorly paid yet they work for long hours. These poor people are also exposed to disease from the poor environment they live in as a result of poor sanitation and sewerage. Peter Wade focuses on the issue of Race and Ethnicity in Latin America. He talks of the close association that race and ethnicity have on the social status of an individual in society. The rich are endowed with income drawn from ace employment and business opportunities which the poor do not enjoy.

The wealthy in Colombia consist of 6% of the whole population. This scenario of classism is depicted in the media which airs films and soaps with themes of poverty. Most impoverished people seen to try by all means to come out of their impoverished situation. Stuart Hall looks into the issue of racial prejudice and how the media brings out this aspect especially in Latin America. In the soap opera, Sin tetas no hay paraiso that aired in Televisa in 2008, a young girl Catalina opts for breast implants so that she can be voluptuous enough so as to venture into prostitution.

She is convinced that casual sex is her only ticket to get her family out of poverty. These call girls are used by a drug cartel to traffic drugs in the breast implants. The stratification in this case is seen where the rich people use the poor people to get richer than they already are. In Como el gato y el Raton, the unfair distribution of resources among the poor is brought out. The poor people had waited for electricity to be brought to their community. When electricity finally arrives illicit plots of stealing the electricity are put in place by malicious people considered well off.

This leads to the electrocution of the population in that community as a result of the faulty electric wires coming in contact with rain water. Social apartheid comes with social stratification. It is considered an act of impurity if people of certain classes come together. Therefore, all forms of contact between these classes are highly discouraged. Marriages or inter-class relationships are highly disregarded since the ‘mixture of bloods’ is considered an impure gesture. Private and public are meant for the rich and the poor children respectively.

Masi de Casanova looks into the stereotyping of Latinas in America. She analyzes the fact that people tend to label the lower class Latinas since they are believed to be lesser humans compared to the well off Latinas. The Spanish ascent is associated with the poor majority in Colombia. The poor are also seen to be drug users who use substance abuse as away of escaping their problems. Most of the poor people especially young men and women are used by drug