Contesting Empire: Media and Culture in Puerto Rico

• In Event: The Long Life Span of U.S. Media Empire

Abstract

The anomaly of Puerto Rico’s neocolonial status was framed through logics that were contextual characteristics of a developing territory in the Cold War era. When examined through the history of the live-music entertainment industry in relation to the neocolonial state, the case of Puerto Rico can help us to expand our understanding of comparable historic-cultural accounts about Puerto Rico within the Latin America and the Caribbean region, and of the legacy of colonial and neocolonial hegemony over cultural policy, cultural production, and national culture in Puerto Rico. My presentation will analyze the fact that live-music entertainment in Puerto Rico developed as a practice without state regulation, which fostered an atmosphere for contesting both the neocolonial state and US Empire in Puerto Rico. This fact will be contrasted with the case of local broadcasting and its limits under US Federal regulation and impact of international business in the same era.

Author

• Anilyn Diaz-Hernandez, U of Puerto Rico at Arecibo