Resonances of El Chavo del Ocho in Latin American Childhood, Schooling and Societies

by Friedrich, Daniel; Colmenares, Erica; Friedrich, Daniel; Epstein, Irving; Carney, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9781474298902
• ISBN10: 1474298907
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-07-13
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

El Chavo del Ocho is one of the most influential pieces of popular culture to have hit Latin America in the last 50 years, having, at the peak of its popularity in the mid-1970s, reached an approximate audience of 350 million across the Americas. It is also a rare example of a cultural product has travelled through Latin America, leaving a lasting impact for several decades.
Resonances of El Chavo del Ocho in Latin American Childhood, Schooling and Societies analyses the phenomenon of El Chavo, and its images of schooling and childhood, Latin American-ness, class and experience. With contributions from scholars based in countries including Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Cuba and Venezuela, the book combines reflections from a variety of international perspectives without attempting to compare or reach consensus on any ultimate meanings of the work. The book explores themes such as images of schooling and childhood, romantization of poverty, the prevalence of non-traditional families and the bordering cynicism towards the economic structures and inequalities which, some argue, make the show transgressive and quite uniquely Latin American. Investigating the connection between visual culture studies and transcultural curriculum studies, this innovative title provides scholars with original new insights into conceptualizing childhood, schooling and society in Latin America.

Author Biography

Daniel Friedrich is Associate Professor of Curriculum at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. He is the author of Democractic Education as a Curricular Problem (2014) and co-editor of a special issue of Education Policy Analysis Archives on the global network Teach For All (with Rolf Straubhaar).

Erica Colmenares is a doctoral researcher in the Curriculum and Teaching department at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Daniel Friedrich (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA) and Erica Colmenares (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA)
Part I: El Chavo Encounters Latin American Education and Childhood
1. How is a Chavo Educated? Imaginaries of Latin American Schooling in El Chavo del Ocho, Nicolas Arata (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Daniel Friedrich (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA)
2. Conceptions of Childhood in the Vecindad, Victoria Parra-Moreno (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA)
3.'Here Comes El Chavo del Ocho! All Vigilant, Watching TV': Thinking about Otherness, Difference, Childhood and Education, Rita Frangella (University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Part II: El Chavo Encounters Other Latin American Cultural Artifacts
4. From the Picaresque Novel to El Chavo del 8, Carlos Aguasaco (City College of New York, USA)
5. Border-Crossing Chespirito: El Chavo del 8 Meets Pepito in Exile, Limarys Caraballo (Queens College of the City University of New York, USA)
Part III: El Chavo Encounters Latin American Societies
6. El Chavo del Ocho as 'Intimate Publics' in Venezuela: What Happened to the Good Life?, Erica Colmenares (Teachers College, Columbia University, USA)
7. Figures of Mexican State, Society and Subject in Chespirito's TV, Ernesto Treviño Ronzón (University of Veracruz, Mexico)
8. Media Education 'Sin Querer Queriendo', Dulce María Cabrera (Autonomous University of Chiapas, Mexico) and José Carbajal (Ministry of Public Education, Mexico)
Index