Porque la cultura importa: Políticas culturales en una polifonía de voces

Abstract

It matters because it explains life to us, our realities, giving support to both hegemonic projects of domination as well as local stories of transformation of power systems as long as it can be defined—always in a provisional, although strategic—like that: “repertoire of symbols and signs that are constitutive, in their discursive facet, of reality, [accounting for] what people think, feel, desire and imagine” (Garzón, 2018, p . 86). Political definition, without a doubt, that invites us to return to the analysis of daily life in relation to its various configurations of power, and in particular, to ask how collective stories are written, whose only function is to hope, with the aim of designing cultural policies that allow us to survive in this world lived as humans (Gutiérrez, 2017; Grossberg, 2009). And much more so in this current moment of infinite mourning after the SARSCoV-2 health crisis, which has cost thousands of lives and which implies renewed searches for meaning or, at least, the promise of dying fighting. In that sense, the statement that gives the title to this book that we present to you, with emotion and humility, is an accurate answer: Why does culture matter? Because culture matters. Accurate answer yes, although misleading since it is apparently presented as singular, although in reality it is plural since cultural politics is thought here from a polyphony of female voices, reflective experiences, places of enunciation, geopolitical coordinates and musical genres that one day become found to continue reflecting on the relationship between culture and politics.