USTB AD Research of Visual Culture 02

视觉文化研究 / Research of Visual Culture周雯老师 / Professor Wen Zhou

作业2号 / Homework Nº2

Visual Chilean Culture reflected in Television Contents

丽芳 / Lai Guim2012年10月23日

University of Science and Technology Beijing

北京科技大学

视觉文化研究 / Research of Visual Culture 作业2号 / Homework Nº 2 - Page 2

Homework Nº2: Visual Chilean Culture reflected in Television Contents

INTRODUCTION

According a research made in 2012 by the National Council of Television, in the country of Chile cultural TV shows occupy only a 2,4% of the total contents offered by open TV program. One that it is known for its good quality production and contributions to the national culture it is the show called “Tierra Adentro”, which in english mean “Inside the Land“, “Inside the Countryside“.

“Tierra Adentro” is a cultural TV show that was created in 1999 for chilean open TV signal, transmited every saturday afternoon almost without interruption since its creation. It is one of the few cultural TV shows that mantain high rating since its start. With a duration of 50 minutes, the show it is transmmited every sunday at 16:00 and it is focused in familiar audience as main target.

The objective of the show it is to rescue chilean traditions developed in small towns and cities away from big developed cities, in order to discover the inmense diversity of lifestyles around the different landscapes that Chile posses, taking the audience outside their homes through the screen and travel inside the show to see and understand local communities and their lifes in the countryside.

The team behind the show travels to specific communities, where interviews groups of people dedicated to sustainable production of natural resources offered by the geography of the place, as well as representatives of specific culture around the craft, the manual arts, popular singing, music and local customs, with great attention to human emotions and motivations.



TIERRA ADENTRO CHAPTER: HERITAGE OF THE COLLECTIVE: TRILLAS, MINGAS AND RETURNS OF FAVORS

In the first part of this chapter, Paul Landon, the host of the show, explains to the audience the roots of two traditional community activities developed in the countryside: the “Trilla” and the “Minga”.

The one known as the “Trilla” is the event of harvesting land at the end of the summer season, with the particularity that it is the whole community that gets organized to harvest the property of each landlord, without any economical payment as part of the deal. Landon explains that before the existance of technological machinery capable to do this labor in a more efficient way, all the work was hand made by the owners of the land. This huge task required a lot of hours of hard labour, but every family agreed to help their neighbours in exchange to recieve the same help. Each family cooperates lending both man and animals to participate in the Trilla, while woman take care of their man by preparing food and drinks, singing to cheer the hard labour and children are running around watching the process. Trillas are representative of the center part of Chile, specially in valleys where agronomy is the main economical activity.



The second costume the shows reveal to the audience in this chapter is an activity called “Minga” which is also a community arrangement to achieve something that requires a lot of physical effort, objective that it is impossible to reach with the participation of just one family. In this chapter, the “Minga” is to carry a boat from the land to a lake. The procces is to push the boat over a line made out of tree trunks, while the boat it is also being pulled using animal force. The heavy tree trunks are being moved to the front of the line once the boat already passed the plot, while everyone around is encouraging the effort of all the people in the hardworking. Again, London explain to the audience that in this arrangement of colective cooperation there is no payment assigned. He explains that the motivation to participate in this activity it is the feeling of being part of a community, considered as a huge family among villagers, every single person aware that by helping in this action will bring prosperity to the family who needs help. Mingas are a typical sample of the culture in the southern part of Chile, where the weather is rainy and cold in a landscape constituted mainly by forests.



PERSONAL OPINION

I introduce this television show to the course Research in Visual Culture because it is representative of the specific culture of my country, Chile, and also because the concept this specific chapter transmitts about community spirit and actions it is being sort of lost inside the context of the main big cities. The birth and sense of our traditions are being lost inside the modern lifestyle and the beautiful understanding of Life behind this particular costumes it is vanishing as well.

This TV show works both levels: first in a national scale, to allow us chileans to understand and remember our own cultural heritage; and secondly in an international context, where chilean traditions can be introduced to other cultures as an example of humankind diversity of lifestyles and values.

FULL VIDEO: Tierra Adentro, Heritage of the Collective: Trillas, Mingas and Returns of Favorshttp://www.mega.cl/programas/tierra-adentro/capitulos/tierra-adentro:-patrimonio-de-lo-colectivo,-trillas,-mingas-y-vueltas-de-manos-html

REFERENCES

LANDON, Paul. Tierra Adentro: Editorial [online][Consulted: 19 october 2012]http://www.tierra-adentro.cl/archivos/tier.php?tier_id=1

MONTENEGRO, Sebastián; POLIDURA, José Ignacio. STATISTICAL YEARBOOK, Offer and

Consumption of Open TV Programming [online].Santiago de Chile, Chile. 2012. p.36.[Consulted: 19 october 2012]http://www.cntv.cl/anuario-estadistico-oferta-y-consumo-de-programacion-tv-abierta-2011/prontus_cntv/2012-05-14/095957.html

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USTB AD Research of Visual Culture 02