Aneya: American Culture in Chile

It's quite prevalent, actually. I'm still surprised by the amount of American movies and music I see and hear everyday in Santiago. "Sherlock Holmes" and "It's Complicated" (or, Enamorado de mi ex, as it's called here. Ah foreign translations, how I've missed you!) both came out at the end of January, which is not far behind the December release date in the States. I've heard everything from Lady Gaga to Katy Perry, from Beyonce to the Beatles, I even heard Keisha's hit single "Tik Tok" the other day. Now, that's current! Most of these pop songs can be heard blasting through the speakers of some hip bar or club, or a high end fashion mall.

Now, the radio here is a different matter. I've heard everything from very traditional Latin music to old school American rock and roll. I even heard Carla Bruni's hit single "Quel qu'un m'a dit" (Miss Bruni, for all you non Francophiles, is the First Lady of France, as well as a recording artist, model, fashionista and all around badass.)

Lauren and I finally turned on our TV the other day, and we were slightly confused at what we saw. There was some crazy telanovella-like soap on, with the strangest looking people. All the men were old and ugly, all the women young and beautiful. The men always seemed to be yelling, the women, always crying. Neither of us could follow the story line, but there was lots of dramatic exits and hospital kisses. Very bizarre. The other channels were streaming music from some big concert, another channel had some dating show on (again, the people on these shows looked nothing like the people I see on the streets every day).

There's also a plethora of American fast food restaurants, which is both depressing and a sign of globalization at it's best. McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Subway, Starbucks. There's even a Ruby Tuesday's down here! That I found very odd. Everything at McDonald's has avocado on it (they love their palta here!) and I tried a "McNifica" which was quite good.

For some reason I figured American culture wouldn't follow us all the way to the end of the world. But, alas, it has. I bet I could find a Whopper in Antarctic, if I tried hard enough. If only the good things about the States could be shipped around the world, and not the bad. But what are you gonna do? People love their fast food, and we're more than happy to give it to them.

- Aneya