Abundance in austerity (aka LA BUCHONA) ft Lorah Steichen
Her albums is here for you: Solange. Take it as a gift and listen to all of it like you would a CD in the olden days: song by song. Or, hear something you like, google the lyrics, and embed them in yourself for the cold weekend ahead. What happened to liner notes, btw?
Wake up to that nigga, leave he behind
Get a presidential suite, leave with they linen
In the Rolls that's rented, windows tinted
If I may say so humbly, I amaze myself with my ability to make loose connections. I can't do math, have any savings, or keep a car windshield intact, but I can align a Mexican soap drama with the drying, wind-busted, undercapitalized neoliberal world. Is there a word for this kind of thinking? LMK, cause I should probably add it to my LinkedIn skills section.
la buchona: the lover or girlfriend of a Mexican Narco, known to employ styles like breast implants, false eyelashes, hair extensions, clothes that accentuate the waist, perfume
The economic image of la buchona is akin to Solange's high-low, balling on a budget swagger from Binz. Get a fancy hotel room, steal their sheets. Drive around in a flashy car, but it's a rental. This is luxury that's performed more than owned or lived. Luxeness for appearances sake and for how it makes you feel to sleep in that suite, to whip those tires.
Teachers say "learning edge" a lot: how far can you push a student before they're too uncomfortable and they disengage? Solange and las buchonas and so many of us conspicuous consumers are living on the "luxury edge." How much can we affordably buy or rent or imitate to look as fancy as possible before we go bankrupt?
A student from Chiapas Mexico admitted to me that he likes to watch soap series in his free time. I needled him to give me some titles and he recommended Las Buchonas. With help from a Spanish speaking friend, I went deeper into the term. Does it mean a butch woman? A chesty woman? A woman with too much cum in her mouth? Depending on the Spanish dialect, it could mean any of these things. The multiple meanings and old iterations add more depth to it. Like when you think about how so much of American English is militaristic and financial. Buchon (masc.) can mean a Sinaloan Narco or dudes that dress like they are narcos, so buchona is the female equivalent in that region. Buchonas are also a kind of chicken with the ability to puff out its chest to huge size. Buchonas: chickens, big tits, pride, and politics of display.
With her optimized hair, nails, breasts, and particular brand choices, la buchona writes herself wealthy. Likely, her lifestyle is subsidized by narco money: drug money, blood money, addiction money, corruption money. So, we could say that la buchona values her aesthetic and her particular comforts over the ethics of her income. Maybe she has few other pathways to living large. Capitalism makes this relationship regular for most of us. Did you see Sorry to Bother You?
To give you more context, and to show you that yes these women are real, I'll transcribe a few headlines about buchonas.
"She was a buchona, now she's a makeup influencer."
"The exorbitant and dangerous lives of the buchonas."
"These are the rules of the buchonas." PS: that woman's sign says: Chapo: have my baby!
I feel like I have to be clear about my interest in las buchonas. They stand out as a style tribe, a particular class position, a specific presentation of femininity. They look lavish but they probably didn't live lavishly their entire lives. They met a narco and gained a Lamborghini. They push plush abundance in an austere world. How austere? Chapo Guzman lord narco is often valorized by Mexicans for his tendency to give cash to the poor. Perhaps the practice of keeping a flock of buchonas is a kind of narco charity?
I've spoken to Mexican friends from the state of Michoacan who look at Chapo and his ilk with some kind of deference. They told me that even if he goes to jail his offspring will continue to run his empire. They rooted for him when he escaped prisons. They were giddy he was cabron enough to get away. They felt underserved by their government, but seen and energized by a figure like Chapo.
Not all Mexicans feel this way and there is a long history of protesting government and Narcos.
I currently teach immigrants and refugees. I see them in moments of abundance against the backdrop of an austere winter, low-wage work, and cultural barriers. Some days feel rich and loud and wide open, and some feel closed and hunched and fearful.
I overheard an academic in an informal interview in the coffeeshop today and I was grateful not to be in grad school for a second. He was well-dressed, well-cared for, halfway to a cushy liberal arts job but he was still pleading his case like he was begging for his life. He traced his academic career from graphic designer to PhD lecturer using lots of theory and "I statements." I felt exhausted by his show. Then, I thought: fuck. This man is impeccably educated, he has nice things, he has Friday afternoons free, he gets paid to talk about "innovation" and "populism," and yet he still feels the suctioning pull of austerity? Does it ever go away? Or does it just follow you up the ladder? Will it ever quiet for my students? Or will they find it on each new level they reach? Funny how the neoliberal right is afraid of socialists, but they made us.
Relatedly, our guest contributor Lorah Steichen is here with a superb graph: "Reclaiming Hick Culture for the Left." Another mind-twisting conflagration of class and style. Yet this time, we have dressing towards a lower status position: the lewks of the hick. You'll notice she has "a highly reinforced utility pant" as a key bullet on her hick culture map. I used to get mad when my fellow scholars at Whitman College wore Carhartts to class. Were they working in construction after class? No! They were running after barefoot women named for cities in Montana or punishing the sidewalks with loud longboards. Lorah, for good reasons I'm sure, wants to borrow hick culture for the left. Get more of Lorah.
Reply with your thoughts
Share with a friend (forward it)
Subscribe for someone else
But who am I?
Want to contribute? Email me.
xxxxxxx stay fluent <3
Foonotes:
https://lasillarota.com/nacion/era-buchona-ahora-influencer-del-maquillaje-sofia-aispuro-buchona-influencer-youtube/273211
https://larepublica.pe/mundo/1409786-mexico-buchonas-amantes-narcotraficantes-cambio-vida-lujos-redes-sociales
https://www.telemundo.com/shows/2019/02/15/la-vida-exhorbitante-y-peligrosa-de-las-buchonas
https://lasillarota.com/nacion/este-es-el-decalogo-de-las-buchonas-buchonas-whisky-buchanas-narco/273771
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/nyregion/el-chapo-wife.html
https://www.sdpnoticias.com/nacional/2015/06/22/que-significa-ser-una-buchona
http://samquinones.com/reporters-blog/2012/10/10/drugs-is-buchon-style-stay/