Modernization and Social Change: The many Faces of Ednita Nazario

    Modernization inevitably brings about social change.  It is commonsensical to merely state that the way we do things on a day to day basis will affect who we are as a society.  If you walk to buy groceries at the nearest 'colmado' or drive to a national supermarket chain's store a couple of miles away, this will inevitable alter not only the urban structure but the character of a society.  It is interesting to note that these changes are also reflected in the images artists project over the years. In this particular case, we might look at the well known Ednita Nazario.  In the photo below we may note the drastic contrast.  The first image shows a young woman beginning her artistic career and reflecting the many values of her immediate society.  Her dress and attitude are demure and conservative.  In a more recent photo, this fifty-some year old woman appears as a sexual symbol, with the full trappings of lust to draw the male audience.   As a young woman, it is likely that the venues of her singing were small and limited (Caribe Hilton salon); she directly interacted with her audience.  As the years progressed, and she reached stardom, she appeared in huge stage-scenes with probably very little interaction with the payees (Agrelot Stadium).  The appeal to sex, so commonly seen in modern advertising, is simply the appeal to the lowest common denominator, in the absence of genuine intimacy and authenticity.  Ednita becomes a prepackaged case and looses her identity in the process: a figure everyone desires but who is loved by no one.  Are the suicide-deaths of divas like Marilyn Monroe merely a physical reflection of emotional losses long since suffered?