Book Presentation

Luis Fernando Brehm
Árbol con hojas
Wed, Dec 2, 7pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A 

(Spanish)

Culture is not exclusive

The politically correct thing to do is to admire “cultured” people, to venerate them, even though we may not understand them. Just as in the children’s tale, The Emperor’s New Clothing, we fear that public opinion will pronounce us ignorant.

A cultured person, so to speak, is someone who works at personal development, whose education brings the person to a higher level of being. Even though we pretend to admire this so-called cultured person, we may actually view this person with a certain pity when we are feeling generous, and as an irresponsible being when we have less patience.

The words “culture” and “mankind” currently are seen as belonging to opposing spheres. It is necessary to comprehend that culture and mankind are consequences of each other. Mankind’s response is that words can help us to understand something that should be completely obvious, that culture is humanity’s response to its environment. People respond to life with actions, and these actions are actually culture.

Árbol con hojas, edited by Luis Fernando Brehm, is an excellent tool in understanding the cultural circumstances that surround us. The essays in the book cover a wide range of subjects: literature, public spaces, theater, violence, music, business and libido—basically everything a human is. Starting out with more academic writing, the essays go on to cover human society with its authors aspiring to help us understand one thing—human action and thought are culture.