Blog #5: New Spain and Globalization - Ode to Brenner

As I was reading the chapter from Anita Brenner's book "Idols Behind Altars" I was struck by the historical narrative she produced so elegantly in very few pages. Sometimes I felt as if it was a symphony of words expressing the dance of time filled with people - lives encountering each other caught in the wild currents of time. She is very descriptive in a rich and poetic language as she unfolds the rich cultural history of Mexico. At times her narrative is extremely dense in her unfolding of life. In an early portion of the chapter she depicts the numerous connections New Spain was making with the rest of the world at the time. She speaks of materials reaching the area all the way from China (tiles and laquers, bronzes, and shawls) used in the local craft. People of different disciplines, oppression and motivation (architects, philosophers, slaves from Africa, merchants, adventurers, Jews expelled from Spain) arrived from Europe and Africa. Truly she is depicting a new world boiling in cultural influences and goods providing a foundation for a shift in viewing the world from both a social and artistic viewpoint. The passage made me think about our current time as globalization has been a pertinent and trendy topic of discussion over the last decade. Just like New Spain (at least in the cities and ports) was a focus for the blending of cultures, art, and trade goods we now experience a similar phenomenon on a global scale. The era of New Spain led to a new culture incorporating two major paths into one in a process of acculturation that is still taking place. I wonder if our time has given rise to something similar all across the world - cultures, people and languages are blending on a global scale. What will all these focal points of blending give rise to? Conflicts, harmony, understanding, war, a revolution in the arts and sciences, disease and mayhem, a new global culture? Only time will tell, but the world has become smaller and just like New Spain we are now experiencing the ripples and quakes of the blending contact of different cultural and economic currents. May it be for the better....