A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan by Araceli Tinajero

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan by Araceli Tinajero David I. Saldaña Moncada A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan Palgrave MacMillan, 2021 By Araceli Tinajero The study of Asian cultures has evolved considerably since Edward Said published Orientalism in 1975, in an attempt to denounce the hegemony of political, economic, military and, above all, discursive practices of Europe and the United States towards the Asian continent, which was reduced to the comfortable notion of the "Orient." The field of cultural studies emerged to a large extent from the debate initiated by Said, and today, works are not only [End Page 198] focused on denouncing hegemonic powers but also on understanding the nature of these hegemonies, the structures that sustain them and how they feedback, while at the same time posing problems in intercultural relations, even between actors of different origins within the same society. It is common to find books devoted to the literature and culture of a particular Asian country, as well as social and historical studies dedicated to a specific topic of this vast region. But few are conceived as a fusion between interest in the artistic and the social, and even fewer do so with the fluency, rigor and deep respect as Araceli Tinajero shows in the pages of A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan. This volume was initially published in Spanish in 2019 by Editorial Escribana, and in 2021 Palgrave MacMillan presents it to English-language readers in a translation by Veronica Karpoich, who manages to maintain the endearing tone of the original. Already in 2004, with her book Orientalismo en el modernismo hispanoamericano, Tinajero had been interested in the question of discourses on Asia in the context of Hispanic literature of the late nineteenth century. In 2010 she ventured into the study of reading and cultural practices with El Lector: A History of the Cigar Factory Reader, a study focused on community readings in tobacco factories in Cuba. Similarly, in 2012 she published Kokoro: una mexicana en Japón, a travel chronicle that gives an account of her direct knowledge of Japanese culture. All these critical tributaries converge in A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan. In the complex interaction between the countries belonging to the orbit of "Western modernity" and the countries of the Asian continent, the relationship between Japan and Latin America has proven to be one of the most dynamic at the cultural level. Japan, considered a successful country, with an impressive economic development in the second half of the twentieth century, and capable of fusing modernity and tradition, has maintained fraternal ties with countries of the so-called Global South, such as Peru, Mexico and Argentina, with a constant economic exchange, parallel to a migratory phenomenon to both sides of the Pacific. In this swaying of individuals and goods, social problems, economic, intellectual and artistic interests also come together, giving rise to encounters and misunderstandings that form the different ways in which these two cultural blocs dialogue. Araceli Tinajero's book studies the presence of Spanish speakers in Japan by investigating how syncretisms are created, to what extent the migrant adapts or marginalizes himself in Japanese territory and what are the forms of expression in this new context, beyond the initiatives of Japanese universities to get to know the Hispanic world: Instead, this book centers on the cultural history of Spanish speakers in Japan in the last three decades. By Spanish speakers, I refer to the Latin Americans and Spanish that in the present live or have lived in the country for long periods of time within that frame. (3) The time frame is relevant, as well as the long permanence in the Asian country is a factor to be taken into account since both allow, on the one hand, to identify actors from different cultural spheres and, on the other hand, to evaluate the emergence of spaces or activities of various kinds that result in the creation of community ties among Spanish speakers, with foreigners from other countries and with the Japanese themselves. A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan is composed of six chapters, which reflect the cultural...