At first I thought it was kinda cool...

I've read or at least recognize the names of all of the authors contributing articles to the Abril-Junio, 2003 issue of Revista Iberoamericana, "Los estudios culturales latinoamericanos hacia el siglo XXI"!!* An examination of their Works Cited pages (called bibliographies in the journal) revealed that my wise advisor was right - "se citan entre sí..." (they all cite each other). In some ways it makes sense. Los estudios culturales latinoamericanos is a fairly small field and, yeah, it is cool that they all know each other and read each other's work.

Critic Carlos Monsiváis (and speaking of familiar names, look who came up 2nd on the Google Search I did so I could put this link for you to click to learn who is Monsiváis!)**

The tone of Monsiváis' article "De cómo vinieron los estudios culturales y a lo mejor se quedan" ("Of how cultural studies came to be and they're mostly likely to stay") is hard to capture in the first read. It is especially interesting to note that his article alone*** has no bibliography whatsoever (and yes, he can "get away with that") and he mentions not one of the Latin American Cult. Studs. studs (or studettes) by name. The absence of the big guns of the Cultural Studies canon in "Monsi's" article does not mean that he is anti-Cultural Studies. Nor am I, but I admit that his non-mention of any of the personalities or theories of the field is admirable and his seeing the applications of Cultural Studies to approaches to literature is personally appealing and encouraging. Carlos Monsiváis is probably "over-cited" himself, but I would argue that there's a good reason for that! Sort of like there's a good reason why places like the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite National Park and the Louvre are always packed with tourists. Those places are something to see, and Monsiváis has something to say. About everything and anything.

But back to the point of the post. I still do think it's kinda cool stumbling on serendipity, coincidences and interconnectedness when I research. In fact, it's usually what happens and is what keeps me so excited and LaLaLa about my schoolwork! But back to the issue at hand... It is to be expected that in that 2003 issue dedicated to, um, themselves, there'd be a lot of that intra-citing. And again, there's a reason for it. These are the pioneers, or if not, the developers and it's indispensable to read them. But I have to admit, I look forward to reading the more recent issues which are starting to get some contributions by newercomers to the scene like Edmundo Paz-Soldán (b. Bolivia 1967! Ph.D. UC Berkeley! Professor at Cornell University). He's probably better known for his novels (which are not bad, and have been translated, by the way), but his crítica is probably quite solid and some "new blood" is going to be key - the Cult. Stud. population is getting kinda inbred.

Edmundo Paz-Soldán. Perhaps a new author to discover.

*Trying hard not to say something bitchy like "nevermind that by Abril-Junio, 2003 we were already almost 4 years into the siglo XXI..." Oops. Just did.

**Egan es mi profesora.

***I can't count as an article Marc Zimmerman's "Estudios y procesos culturales latinoamericanos después del 11 de septiembre: un collage de anécdotas y meditaciones parciales" for precisely what follows the colon.