The other night, I went with my host parents to a small family gathering at their daughter’s house. When we arrived, my host dad, Jaime, ushered me to a couch in the family room. He immediately drew my attention to the music playing in the background. To me it sounded a little outdated, but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be listening for, so I just remained quiet. I could hear a few guitars playing to a calm but lively tempo. Each song always had more than one singer, generally a man and a woman, who like the guitars, harmonized their melodies.
Jaime began to tell me that this is traditional music of the Ecuadorian sierra. He then told me about the different dances that accompanied each song. In the middle of my music lesson, his grandson, Matteo, who is thirteen, entered the room. With iPod in hand, Matteo’s face wrinkled in disgust to the music coming from the stereo.
“Ew, turn this music off,” he said to his grandfather as he hit play on his iPod. Maroon 5’s “Moves like Jagger” started to play over the traditional music.
Annoyed, Jaime asked, “Why don’t you like this music? It’s the music of your country!”
Matteo scoffed, “Who cares! It’s old and boring. Besides, you can’t dance to it!” Matteo began to dance like he was in a club showing off his “moves like Jagger.” When his grandmother, Rita, heard this blasphemy, she entered the conversation. “You can dance to this music. Watch!” Rita began to dance a traditional dance to the rhythm of the song in the background.
“That dancing is more boring than the music,” Matteo retorted.
Angered, Jaime said, “This is the music of your country. You listen to that other music, but it’s all in English. You don’t even know what they are saying! How could you like that more?”
Matteo stared at him blankly for a moment and simply replied, “This music is for old people,” and walked away singing Maroon 5.
Filled with mixed emotions of humor and awkwardness, I sat there in pensive silence as I reflected on what I just witnessed. My initial reaction was I had gone back to a time when rock ‘n roll was the music of the devil, except the devil music was American pop. However, this was so much more than just a generational disagreement. Jaime didn’t fear that his grandson was living in sin by dancing like an American (although why anyone would want to do that by choice is beyond me). Jaime, a traditional Cuencan man of sixty plus years, saw a serious lack of patriotism in his grandson.
The world is shrinking, and with that, cultures are being overcome by one overarching global culture. Some have even coined it American cultural imperialism. Ideas, music, and fads are shared on a global scale, hence, Matteo’s obsession with Maroon 5. While he is only thirteen, his blatant disregard for his country’s historical culture is not uncommon in developing countries like Ecuador. The older generations see their culture disappearing and they want to protect it as much as possible, at the risk of segregating themselves from the rest of the world. Younger generations wholeheartedly embrace other cultures, but at the same time forget their own.
It’s a tricky situation, both arguments have consequences. Only time will tell what the outcome of a globalized world will be. While I do enjoy a good Maroon 5 song just as much as Matteo, the thought that one day the culturally rich music of the Ecuadorian sierra could be forgotten is really disheartening. I don’t think it’s bad that Matteo loves Maroon 5; I think it’s great that he is able to have access to American music. However, although American’s also have access to other cultures, how many American’s enjoy music from countries like Ecuador? Sharing ideas on a global scale has the potential to be so powerful, but only if information is shared both ways.
