Coco Cultural Anthropology

The article I chose is called, “Coco is the movie Latinos have been waiting for” written by Raul A. Reyes. It was published on November 28, 2017 by CNN. The article talks about the film ‘Coco’ and how it connected with the audience. As well as, the positive reactions it received due to the cultural accuracy the film represented of the Mexican culture. This film is important to society because it teaches people a different perspective about Latino culture, family, and strength. Which is important because we are currently going through a time where there is a lot of discrimination towards people who have immigrated to the United States, particularly Latinos. My purpose is to explain this article through both cultural and linguistic anthropology.

The textbook defines cultural anthropology as,“the study of human thoughts, behavior, and lifeways that are learned rather than genetically transmitted and that are typical of groups and people”(Nanda, 2017).

The film shows the audience how Miguel (the main character) is being taught the importance of the Day of the Dead by his family. The film also shows how these traditions were being passed down from generation to generation. The film also shows the audience typical Mexican foods, customs, and rituals. Examples mentioned in the article include, “the Rivera family's ofrenda (offering) and the pan dulce (sweet bread) laid out as welcoming gifts to their ancestors. The genius of "Coco" is that it's rich with such culturally appropriate touches, from a cameo by the famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to its depiction of spirit animals known as alebrijes.”

The second subdivision of anthropology I picked is linguistic anthropology. The reason I chose this is because in the film ‘Coco’ even though the movie is mainly in English for the audience it still includes some Spanish words and phrases, like “no manches” or “mi’jo, etc.” I believe that it includes some of these phrases because it is such a important part of both Mexican and Latino culture. It gave the movie a more authentic feel. Most importantly, they’re aren’t just any Spanish words they are words and phrases used years ago in Mexico and that are still used

today.
Out of the two theories that I chose, the one that appears to be the best to analyze this article is cultural anthropology. It’s best analyzed by cultural anthropology because the article points out the things the film got right about Mexican culture. Such as their behavior and lifeways, which is what cultural anthropology is about. This article can relate to our present society and humanity as a whole because at the the end of the day we are all the same, we all have families, traditions, and cultures. It’s not necessary to be Latino to understand why this film had such positive impact. As the article states, “the themes are universal…The Mexican characters are simply people, defined by their humanity instead of their ethnicity.” Which is how people should be defined, but because of the recent remarks from the President there has been a lot of hatred and unfair assumptions made about Mexicans.