The Commodification of narco-violence through popular culture and tourism in medellin, colombia

Abstract

Although tourism is already flourishing in some regions of Colombia, the country is still struggling to achieve peace. On 2 October 2016, just over half of the Columbian population rejected the peace deal negotiated by President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Two months later the nation's Congress finally ratified a renegotiated peace deal between the government and the largest guerrilla group of the country. After more than a half century of armed conflict, peace has never been so close, yet many Colombians are still reluctant to see former war actors such as the FARCs reintegrate civilian and political life. In the context of this long-lasting war, violence is memorialized in diverse and fragmented ways. Since the establishment of a national law for victims and the displaced in 2011, various memorial projects related to the armed conflict involving the Colombian army, paramilitaries and guerrillas have been cropping up all over the country. This marks a change, as memorial issues were not previously prevalent; most of the victims still felt vulnerable and consequently did not want to participate in any memorial processes. The law for victims and the displaced thus provided a more secure and favourable context for the emergence of memorial initiatives. The state has been active in the field of memory by supporting the construction of museums and documentary projects on the war, involving victims, academics and NGOs, the National Centre for Historical Memory being the principal example in this context. In parallel, alternative memorial productions relating to the war and the 'narcoheritage' (Naef, 2015) have started up. In Bogota and Medellin, both relatively tolerant environments regarding urban art, many murals flourish, illustrating themes associated with violence and social conflicts. These topics are also the focus of contemporary musical creations, from hip-hop to salsa, alternating between tributes to victims and narco-glorification. Moreover, while Mexico is famous for its narcocorridos (folk ballads focusing on the stories of drug smugglers), Colombia is also the cradle of many cultural productions, ranging from literature and narco-novelas (novels) to narco-soaps (soap operas). The cinema industry is similarly cashing in on this subject through the production of Colombian and international films, some of themlike Blow, featuring Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruzreaching a worldwide audience.

Two Tales of One City: Fantasy Proneness, Authenticity, and Loyalty of On-Screen Tourism Destinations

“…This is particularly important when the destination tells two tales (i.e., the on-screen tale and the real place tale). Apart from King’s Landing/Dubrovnik, other on-screen tourism destinations also show dual images, such as New Zealand and Middle-Earth in The Lord of the Rings films (Buchmann 2010), the vampire-inhabited Forks, USA, and the Twilight Saga film series (Larson, Lundberg, and Lexhagen 2013), and a violent and drug-infested Medellin, Columbia, and Netflix series Narcos (Naef 2018). Moreover, the findings of the study shed some light on the authenticity issues at other tourism destinations that reveal both a realistic place and an imagined place if the location is associated with other forms of popular culture such as novels, for example, Outlander in Scotland (Cateridge 2018) and computer or virtual reality games such Assassin’s Creed in Florence, Italy (Lamerichs 2018).…”

“…Research within the field, presented in the last two decades, has moved from focusing on specific cases (i.e., screen productions or destinations) to cross-case analysis and conceptual development (e.g., Beeton 2005; Larson, Lundberg, and Lexhagen 2013; Roesch 2009; Van Es and Reijnders 2016). Literature on on-screen tourism has used a destination approach, such as the commodification of place and place making (e.g., Naef 2018), destination images (e.g., Williams-Burnett, Skinner, and Fallon 2018), and impact (e.g., Li et al 2017), and a tourist-approach including tourists’ experiences, motivations, involvement, and decision making (e.g., Bowyer 2017; Lee et al 2018; Lundberg and Lexhagen 2012; Kim, Kim, and Petrick 2019), and flows (e.g., Kim et al 2007). The literature offers dynamic and multilayered interpretations by both stakeholders and tourists of on-screen productions, allowing the creation of new meanings, transformation of place, and perception of authentic experiences and products (Lundberg, Ziakas, and Morgan 2018).…”

Guest Editorial: Exploring the Popular Culture and Tourism Place making Nexus

“…The major challenge as regards popular culture sites is how to use them while maintaining them for tourism purposes. It is also about finding a balance between exploiting a place for the purposes of popular culture tourism and retaining the place's authenticity, such as its local history and identity (see, e.g., Buchmann et al.; Frost; Lamerichs; Lind and Kristensson Uggla; Naef). It is along these lines that research inquiry should investigate the interchange among fan pilgrimage, symbols, meaning, and placemaking.…”

Cenas públicas de uso de drogas e a produção do risco em cidades latino-americanas: consumo do espaço e efeitos sociais - aproximações entre São Paulo, Bogotá e Medellín

“…colombiana (Bowley, 2013 (Naef, 2018a). Características em torno da dinâmica das drogas apresentam-se ambíguas e peculiares, como por exemplo pacotes turísticos que promovem a visitação em zonas de cultivos ilícitos de coca 83 .…”

“…Histórias passadas sobre o mesmo solo que narram fatos e afetos sob diferentes óticas, criam uma fricção capaz de disparar produções culturais e compreensões sob duras controvérsias (Naef, 2018). A reflexão de Naef consiste na mercantilização de um cotidiano violento que atua como reforço para criação de mitos em torno do glamour Narco, e assim acaba banalizando a violência na cultura popular e na história de Medellín (Naef, 2018a).…”