13 - Amores Invisibles: The Politics of Gender in the Colombian Cultural Industry

Summary

Para mi primo E.

Ahora que por fin eres libre y con tanto amor alrededor, tus amores invisibles, tus petalos sin color, tus capsulas rosadas llenas de corazones son analgesicos que solo dejan dolor.

[For my cousin E.

Now that you're finally free and with so much love around, invisible your loves, your petals without color, your pink capsules filled with hearts are analgesics leaving only pain.]

—“Amores invisibles,” Ciegossordomudos

In the realm of the Colombian music industry, gender politics is not a common topic. Aside from latent critiques of established gender roles in the work of rocker Andrea Echeverri (the vocalist for the band Aterciopelados), Bomba Estereo lead singer and phenom of the neotropical sound Liliana Saumet, and global pop star Shakira, who embraced a confessional tone in her initial compositions, gradually maturing to a more assertive position, little has been accomplished. By and large, musical production that is critical of Colombian gender politics has not circulated widely. For the most part, the problematization of gender has focused on discrimination toward women, sanctioning a socially acceptable, or heterosexist, reading of Colombia. For instance, in connection with the work of Shakira, Maria Elena Cepeda alludes to themes of adultery, betrayal, and the balance of power between men and women in “La tortura” (The torture), the first video from Fijación oral, vol. 1, highlighting the role of the senses (e.g., scopophilia) in the definition of socially constructed power (Cepeda 235–52). On the other hand, despite bearing out and processing many of her nation's traumas, Echeverri has been remarkably heteronormative in her critiques of gender constructs within Colombia's society (Morello 38–53). In fact, Echeverri's first solo album is an ode to motherhood, in which she muses about the impact of the experience in a very sympathetic fashion (Norris). In this sense, despite some hits suggestive of a more progressive stance, when it comes to critiques of gender, the rocker's conservative politics stand in stark contrast to Shakira's more permissive views. Saumet strikes a slightly different tone in “La nina rica” (Rich girl), the eighth track from the blockbuster album Estalla.