The Gender of Latinidad Uses and Abuses of Hybridity

Presents innovative scholarship on Latina/o visibility in contemporary mainstream media 

Latina/os have seen increased visibility in the media in the past several years, especially in feature-length films, network television programs, and various digital platforms. The Gender of Latinidad: Uses and Abuses of Hybridity explores Latina/o visibility—analyzing presence, production, and interpretation throughout various media. An important contribution to the emerging field of Latina/o Media Studies, this unique volume brings together political economy and cultural studies to consider the limitations of cultural politics and explore current issues relevant to Latina/o cultural inclusion.

Author Angharad N. Valdivia addresses the concept of hybridity and applies it to contemporary Latinidad, in which hybrid Latina/os lead hybrid lives and consume hybrid media. The text explores strategies for gendered visibility in a range of popular culture media, using the concept of hybridity to connect Latina/o Studies to Feminist Media Studies, Gender Studies, and Ethnic Studies. Throughout the text, the author discusses the inclusion Latina/o scholars and audiences seek and considers if such inclusion is even achievable. Offering intersectional exploration of Latinidad in mainstream media, this volume:

• Explores the trope of the spitfire in the context of popular media
• Brings Disney Studies into Latina/o Studies
• Discusses the dynamic inclusion of Latinidad in awards ceremonies
• Assesses the implicit utopias of Latina/o representation
• Presents the only major academic treatment of Charo

Presenting an original perspective on Latina/os in media, The Gender of Latinidad: Uses and Abuses of Hybridity is an ideal text for students and scholars in areas including Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, and general Media and Feminist Media Studies.

ANGHARAD N. VALDIVIA is Research Professor, former Head of Media and Cinema Studies, and former Interim Director of the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois. She is author of several books including A Latina in the Land of Hollywood, Feminism, Multiculturalism and the Media, and editor of the seven-volume International Encyclopedia of Media Studies.

Acknowledgments ix

1 Continuities and Ruptures: The Gender of Latinidad 1

2 Spitfire Transition Tales: The Production of a Career 25

3 An Unambivalent Structure of Ambivalence: Disney’s Production of Latina Princesses 73

4 Latina/o Media Utopias: The Ideal Place or No Place 117

References 163

Index 183

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