Comparing Carnaval and "Latinismo"

After watching the film and reading the article about Latinismo, I can see some differences between the two.

The film expressly said that the purpose of Carnaval was to have fun, to break from reality for five days out of the whole year while the article reported that the purpose of the Latin culture events was to bring unity in diversity. The article examined several events which had this purpose in mind and reported their level of success based on their "key scenarios."

So, on the one hand, we have a culture event based on fun while the other is founded on the basis of cultural unity and diversity, of finding a common interest and identity while maintaining each Latino country's pride and dignity, which is the tension between nationalism and panethnicity.

Also, the article reported the events in clear though general details and these events seemed to be well-organized events that celebrated this unity in diversity concept. Carnaval, on the other hand, seemed like one of our classmates confided, like "organized chaos." There was lots of dancing and noise and people in the middle of the streets and--at the end of the festival--lots of trash to clean up. Carnaval just seems like a huge event compared to the ones mentioned in the article.

Though I can say that Carnaval did represent all of Bahia's cultural heritages through their respective clubs. I cannot say that for many of the cultural events mentioned in the article, as Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday and other Hispanics try to celebrate it. The Mexicans have historically been the culturally dominant ethnic group in San Francisco. But the Berkeley Fiesta and the 24th Street Fair showed that Cinco de Mayo could represent more than one Latino country in bringing in group-specific music, dance and food.

Carnaval in Bahia seems to already have this unity in diversity concept in hand, though some culture events in San Francisco have some work to do to achieve this goal of Latinismo.