Art Within Differing Cultures

           Marcela Toledo and I did a power-point project about the differences in modern art and architecture in the United States and Mexico. We also discussed how Latin rhythms have influenced music in America, particularly through Carlos Santana’s rendition of “Oye Como Va”. Carlos Santana is an immigrant to the United States from Mexico. His father was an accomplished vocalist and Carlos began learning to play the guitar at age eight. Later he would practice his skills playing in clubs where he would mimic the musical style of many early American blues and rock artists like Little Richard and Ray Charles. Later he and his family moved to San Francisco where Santana was exposed to Jazz and other types of folk music common to the hippie movement centered in San Francisco. Santana decided to make music his professional career and formed the Santana Blues Band with some of his fellow musicians.

            I would say that Carlos Santana’s music has had a big impact on the style of music listened to in the United States. As far as pushing the envelope and changing the style and face of popular music in America, I think Santana played a huge roll. Music has a lot to do with culture obviously, so I would say that he played a big roll. He wasn’t an artist who really pushed social norms or fought against established social injustices or anything, but in his own way he affected the face of music in America.

            “Oye Como Va” is a prime example of the Latin/Rock fused style that defined Santana’s blues band. Latin beats were relatively unused within popular American music of the time, but Santana found a way to introduce them to the public through the use of the electric guitar. By using an instrument that was familiar to American ears, he successfully exposed Americans to Latin style music without them really knowing they were being exposed to it probably. From there we see the influence this song had on other popular rock and roll songs of the time like War’s “Spill the Wine” for example. I think this is really significant for Latin artists in the United States especially when we consider Santana’s routes in Mexico, the country with more immigrants in the United States than any other country by far.

            The bigger part of our slide show had to do with modern architecture and art, which in addition to the music is a topic of great interest to me. I personally love the Latin culture because I served my mission among people mostly from Mexico. As I searched for modern style architecture in Mexico and the U. S. I was able to see parts of their culture and ways of thinking come out in their art. It was interesting to see how within a specific art movement, there is room for differences in culture and also for similarities between cultures. I loved to see how Carlos Santana was able to help bring Latin music into the United States through his song “Oye Como Va”. Before doing this project I didn’t really like modernist art and architecture that much. But after searching through different pictures of modern style buildings trying to find the right ones for our slide show I have a heightened respect for the level of talent it must take to create and design modern style buildings.