ABSTRACT
Manifestations of popular culture are the focus of this chapter. After examining some conceptual and methodological issues in defining popular culture, attention turns to sports, especially soccer and baseball. The significance of Carnaval is the focal point of the third section. Dance and music-tango, salsa, and reggae-are taken up in the fourth section. The powerful cultural role of mass media, in particular television and telenovelas (soap operas), is subsequently examined. One controversy related to dance and music-the relationship between tango and sexuality-is then raised. The final part of this chapter probes the meanings of the widely popular teenage ritual of the quinceañera-the celebration of a girl’s fifteenth birthday-in the United States.
