The Political Dimension of Visual Culture in Latin America

Visual culture in Latin America, like visual culture everywhere, is shaped and influenced by the social and political histories that define the realities of the place. The interaction of local traditions with outside cultural influences is instrumental in the formation of social reality.  When considering the elements of visual culture: art and photography, film and television, news and advertising, architecture, fashion, design, and the very look of contemporary life itself, the integration of these images is what constructs social, political and cultural meaning in the creation of identity. 

In the varied nations that constitute Latin America, manifestations of visual culture are inextricably bound to a history of colonization and military dictatorship.  Throughout each nation’s struggle for independence, civil war and the horrors of state imposed terror have (to staggering degrees and at varying periods during the twentieth century) informed visual culture with a uniquely political dimension.  The belief that art…