#with the whole thing of people making Encanto about queer issues when it actually is about latinamerican culture | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

head---ache · 2 years

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We all agree that Knuckles is black coded. We all see it, we are all aware of this fact, it's something that a big part of the community agrees on and cares about, because, you know, representation's important and all that. However, even if I completely agree with this statement, I feel like a lot of people are ignoring another important fact about this character.

I feel like a lot of the times, when this topic about Knuckles comes up, people either ignore or flat out just forget the fact that Knuckles and his culture take a lot of inspiration from Mesoamerican cultures, specifically from Central and South América.

It's not much in his appearence, but mostly in his background as a character. We all know Knuckles comes from the Echidna Tribe, and Echidna culture takes a lot from latinamerican culture.

For starters, this is the Echidna Tribe in different Sonic media.

And these are Azteca and Maya representations.

You see the resemblance, right? And it's not just a coincidence. The developers of Sonic Adventure visited Central and South América during the development of the game to study the culture and create the Echidna Tribe!

Second point, this is Tikal.

And this is also Tikal, in Guatemala.

They literally named her after a Maya temple!

The same case here. This is Pachacamac.

And this is also Pachacamac, a peruvian sanctuary.

Another echidna named after a latinamerican temple.

Third point, this is Mystic Ruins, from Sonic Adventure.

And these are Aztec and Mayan temples.

Fourth, just this:

So yeah. I absolutely agree that more people should be made aware of the fact that Knuckles' black coded, but I wish more people were also aware of the importance that Mesoamerican cultures have on not only Knuckles but also his background and the environment he comes from. Being latinamerican myself, it really bums me out to see my culture and others' being erased and mocked (because you have no idea how many racist fanart I found of both Knuckles and Tikal when searching for the photos I used above).

That's all I have to say, I'm probably just rambling, but I really wish this came up more in conversation, because it's important to me and I believe it also is for other latinamerican people, and I really would love to see this part of such a popular character being recognized more often.

#he can be afrolatino✌️#idk maybe im making no sense but like #im just tired of seeing so much latinamerican erasure and mockery #with the whole thing of people making Encanto about queer issues when it actually is about latinamerican culture #and our representation only being fucking racist caricatures of mexican culture for the longest time #and now people only talking about Knuckles being black coded and completely ignoring the latinamerican part #it's kind of annoying #anyways!!!!#on a happier note!!!! yay!!! latinamerican knuckles!!!#latinamerican culture being important for Knuckles' character fuck yeah!!!!!#knuckles the echidna #tikal the echidna #mystic ruins #sonic adventure

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wastingoxygensince1983 · 2 years

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hey, i just saw what you said about encanto and the irony. my family and i are all white and something we agreed on is we probably missed a whole load of context for things, etc., because we aren't part of columbian culture/aren't familiar with anything more than the basics of spanish familial structure. it was really cool to watch encanto (and coco, too, actually, tho obviously that's about mexico).

Hey Hello! Thank you for reaching.

Glad you like Encanto and Coco. And thank you for your comment about my post.

The thing is that, this is technically the first movie that has it roots in Colombia that doesn't involve Narcos, or the violence and it focus more in showing that there's way more things that makes us, well us. Or at least, how the trauma of that violence touch and affects families after generations that we lived it(and spoiler, things like what happened to Alma and Pedro are still happening right now).

So a movie that focus in things like this are such an important part, and I think most of Colombians would think the same.

And I get how it doesn't fit the format of other movies when there's a villain, but for a lot of use there kind of things are way more importance.

That's why I roll my eyes when I see complains that the movie lack villains, or people headcanon Bruno as a villain. And each to everyone to do. But it would be even more important to when they do, they research information about the country and our history.

Instead for the majority, is a copy paste for the characters that people simp to include in their narrative.

And I'm not having a problem with that, like I said every person can do what they want, but it bothers me is when people push aside the growth of Alma and Isabela because they can't fit that part in their own traumas.

To tell you that in my own family I'm a mix of Mirabel and Bruno myself, and for personal experience I can tell you that if I was Mirabel or Bruno and hear people saying what I have read about Alma any of them would deck them.

We are fiercely strong about family, even if we have issues, even if we have trauma between us.

And I understand, most of the white/the US culture growths in family that is almost normal to leave their places around 18yo. When you still have homes in Colombia where different parts of the same family live together, and you have at minimum 4 generations of a family in the same house. People usually only leaves because they had to or they were forced too.

So our perceptions about family are different, and how close we are to that family too.

So what would be a little better is people do like you and reach to us, and ask. Like I said, If we don't have to talk about Pablo Escobar, most of us are thrill to share about our amazing country and culture.

Saying that I don't think the issues are about the sexual orientations or genders. Because queer Colombian and no binary Colombians exist in the country. Like I mentioned in a post before(that I'm not sure how to add in here, if you can check my posts about encanto), the problem is not per se the headcanon of their sexualities, is more the fact that people deliberately ignore what we are saying about the costumes.

So yeah, thank you for reaching.

A little advice if I may: is Colombia. not Columbia. Columbia is the state in the United States, Colombia is the country in South America.

Some Colombians are very resentful about that, and there's even merch(like t-shirts) that say "is Colombia, not Columbia".

Have a nice day!!

And what's your favorite part of the movie? Did you tear up?

#encanto disney #disney encanto #encanto #colombia

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