Today, I have decided to talk about one of the most well-known singers in Latin America and among Latino population in the United States.
His name is Elmer Figueroa Arce... better known as Chayanne. He was born in Puerto Rico and he has had one of the most successful careers in show business for more than 25 years. Chayanne is an award nominated and winner of many recognitions including the Latin Grammy Awards. His music is a mix of romantic pop rhythms, tropical, and dance rhythms.
In recent years along with his music he has been working as a soap opera's actor in Argentina. He is very popular there and has a huge fan base. While in Buenos Aires he decided to film the video of the song "Torero". This is a love song like much of his music and is danceable too.
The video is very useful to show the beautiful Buenos Aires, it starts in the widest avenue in the world, the 9th of July or Independence Avenue. 9 of July of 1816 is the day of the Independence in Argentina. It has 7 lanes South to North and 7 North to South with two streets on each side with additional 4 lanes. It is about 1 km long and it has in the middle the monument to the independence "El Obelisco" main point of reference in Buenos Aires.
You can talk about how big Buenos Aires is (12 million people) and the fact that the city is the principal port of the country on the Atlantic coast. It was the entrance to all the immigrants who made up 97% of the population in Argentina. In the video you can see images of the down town with its European style of Architecture. Many cities in Latin America have an English, Spanish, and sometimes French style neighborhood.
There is a scene in which a man is seen selling bread in a basket riding a bike. You could talk about the importance of fresh bread and bakeries in the Latin American culture. Why they would never see anything like that in the U.S. People eat fresh bread made daily for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. The bakeries start working very early in the morning around 3:00 am sometimes to have the bread ready to sell for breakfast. If you go to a bakery late in the evening, around 9:00 or so, you will not find much bread, only the pastries would be left. Supermarket bread in plastic bags is sold mostly for sandwiches. This could lead to a future discussion about meals, snacks, coffee, hot chocolate, and many other aspects of the "food culture" of Latin America.
"Torero" serves also as a good introduction to the bullfighting issue. You can explore how deep in the heart of Hispanic culture bullfighting is; and how now there are many movements, inspired by animal rights and led mainly by young Hispanics, proponents of putting and end to the tradition of so many years that some people consider an Art form. Bullfighting has been prohibited in Catalunya, for example.
Almost every main city in Latin America, has a bullfighting arena and a bullfighting season "Temporada de toros" that, as part of regional festivities and celebrations. attracts a large segment of the population.
The music and the rhythms Chayanne dances and performs to are also a surprise for most of the students who have preconceived ideas about Hispanic or Latin music in general. Pop and Dance music is actually very popular in Latin America.
Here it's the video and lyrics of the song. And also Chayanne's web site.
I hope you can incorporate this song into your classes and the culture discussion results interesting and beneficial for you and your students.
Thank you! ¡Nos leemos luego!
Paola
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