Ch 9

Juan Guevara
Popular culture and intercultural communicartions

I remember growing up as a child and watching my mother watch a popular Hispanic show called “Sabado Gigante,” which roughly translates as Spectacular Saturday. The show, which aired on Saturday’s was like a ritual- every Saturday this show would be on. It was fun to watch. There is plenty of jokes and games and they would spontaneously begin to dance. Think, Ellen Degeneres formula, used by Mexico, in the ’80s, hosted by a fatherly looking Hispanic. It was great. This popular culture (Martin 2018, pg. 367) was watched by many and it was common for relatives or friends to talk about the show during coffee.

The show was powerful. So many people watched it and approved of it. Something I noticed was that there was an unusual amount of attractive women on the show. Perhaps not so kid-friendly. But regardless, if you were Hispanic, and it was Saturday evening, odds were you were watching it.

What was interesting was as I grew up, I transitioned from this Hispanic popular culture to US culture. I enjoy some high culture (Martin 2018, pg. 366), Phantom of the Opera is amazing. I could not get into the routine of watching a show like Sabado Gigante again, not only because I lost interest, but the same reason why I cannot watch American Idol and shows like The Bachelor.

Martin, J. (2018). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.









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