ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a variety of examples that illustrate the complex processes of transculturation. The postcolonial notion of hybridity has been adopted by a number of disciplines, from art to literature to popular culture. Cornejo Polar himself favored the term "heterogeneity" to describe the multiple configurations of cultural confrontations that distinguish Latin American texts from literature published within the "hegemonic circle". The very emergence of literature aimed specifically at children in Spanish America was deeply intertwined with the processes of independence on the one hand and neocolonialist thought on the other. The problem for children everywhere, not just in Latin America, is to assimilate and internalize a host of adult conventions and expectations. This process becomes even more complex when those conventions and expectations reflect confusing cultural contradictions and conflicting cultural practice, as they often do in Latin America.
