Carmen made its debut in the Spanish Americas when the local networks of opera were at their apex, with a constant stream of singers from Europe and a desire for new repertoires outside the main staples of Italian opera. In this chapter, considering sources from across the region, we discuss four layers of Carmen’s reception in the Americas. First, the reception of the opera beyond the stage, in the form of vocal scores, arrangements for military bands and isolated numbers. Second, the perception of Carmen as a French opera, and the way it served as a vehicle for French opera companies in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Third, the idea of Carmen as Spanish, and how different countries considered that hispanicity as part of their own culture and theatrical expectations. Finally, we discuss how the habanera in Carmen was perceived as part of a larger contemporary debate on the transatlantic popularity of the habanera as a musical genre, its origins, ethnicity and its moral and musical character.

As an industrial revolution booms in Chile, the country’s air has been flooded by toxic emissions. Cities face the worst of the pollution, as factories are booming and urban centres are growing. Cars are one of the main contributors towards the accumulation of PM2.5. Sharing trips may help reduce the number of private and public vehicles on the road and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions, travel time, and cost to individuals. In this study, I apply the concept of shareability networks to a survey of 113 591 trips taken in the city of Santiago in Chile, showing that with increasing but still relatively low passenger discomfort, cumulative trip length can be cut by 50 percent or more. I quantify the benefit of ride sharing in terms of traffic and emission reduction. I finally show that the ride-sharing potential is substantial, with nearly 100 percent of the trips shareable with current public transportation trip demand.