Drugs, Thugs, and Divas

CONTENTS

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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pp. ix-x

One. MELODRAMA AS AMBIGUOUS SIGNIFIER: Latin American Telenovelas and Narco-Dramas

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pp. 1-22

As a result of the postmodern turn, Latin America is more than ever a crossroads of local and global interaction. Many times it is difficult, or even impossible or irrelevant, to differentiate the local from he global. Yet, within this cultural problematic, what Garc�a Canclini (1992) refers to as a process of reconversion, incredibly vibrant and provocative identities are reworked...

PART I

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pp. 23-

Two. SEEING XICA AND THE MELODRAMATIC UNVEILING OF COLONIAL DESIRE

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pp. 25-45

As one of the characters in the Brazilian soap opera Xica declares prophetically, “The best way to forget about the past is to not mention it, to not even talk about it” (all translations are mine unless otherwise noted). This statement by the male patriarch of a well-to do family concerned with hiding the family’s Jewish ancestry could as easily be interpreted as an expression...

Three. PRODUCING THE GLOBAL WEST THROUGH LATIN TALES OF SEDUCTION AND ENVY

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pp. 46-66

In his soul-searching book on the geopolitics of colonial oppression, Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon (1966) elaborates on the difficulties of living within contested social, national, and personal identities. In one of the more personal accounts he declares that if his son’s fingernails (or skin, height, language, and physical disposition) were carefully examined to define...

Four. KAREN’S SEDUCTION: The Racial Politics of Appropriate Dinner Guests

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pp. 67-87

Colombian melodramatic production has seen a resurgence since the 1980s, evidenced in the manufacture and export to the rest of the continent of a myriad of successful telenovelas. Among the most popular are Pobre diablo (Poor devil), Adri�n est� de visita, and Pasi�n de gavilanes, all three of which were preceded by the overwhelming success of Betty la fea (see...

Five. A MOTHER’S WRATH AND THE COMPLEX DISJUNCTURING OF CLASS

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pp. 88-107

Pasión de gavilanes is the latest Colombian melodrama to find success throughout the continent. On the air in the early 2000s, it had strong production support from U.S. Latino media based in Miami. This support explains the telenovela’s more homogeneous Latin images and the strong Tex-Mex influence on its music...

PART II

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pp. 109-

Six. BEING NARCO: The Evolution of a Continental Sensibility

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pp. 111-131

This chapter and Chapters 7–9 engage with a unique form of Mexican melodrama, the narco-drama, and the cultural elements that they express not only in Mexico but throughout Latin America. My analysis of melodrama in Latin America dovetails with my interest in narco-drama, and not only the longer versions in the form of telenovelas. In many ways it was a narco-drama...

Seven. SAINTLY FIGURES AND ICONS: The Migration of a Continental Dream

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pp. 132-151

The landscape of Latin America is filled with icons embodying particularly powerful elements that spiritually secure the different communities’ survival and well-being. Saintly icons and spiritual protectors range geographically and culturally from the opulent cemetery in Buenos Aires’ upper-class neighborhood of La Recoleta, where thousands flock every year to pay their respects to Eva Perón, to the more humble grave site of Juan...

Eight. LA REINA DEL SUR: Gender, Racial, and National Contestations of Regional Identity

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pp. 152-170

Pérez-Reverte’s impressive novel about a female Mexican drug lord who, after having to flee her country, makes it big in southern Spain sets the stage for a provocative reassessment of the narco-genre in all its gender, racial, and national glory. The fact that Pérez-Reverte is a best-selling Spanish writer only makes more explicit the underlying and enormous tensions of Spain’s colonial...

Nine. SEX, DRUGS , AND CUMBIA: The Hybrid Nature of Culture

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pp. 171-190

Pérez-Reverte’s impressive novel about a female Mexican drug lord who, after having to flee her country, makes it big in southern Spain sets the stage for a provocative reassessment of the narco-genre in all its gender, racial, and national glory. The fact that Pérez-Reverte is a best-selling Spanish writer only makes more explicit the underlying and enormous tensions of Spain’s colonial...

Ten. CONCLUSION: The Postcolonial Politics of Melodrama

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pp. 191-210

In the mid-1980s, an interesting melodramatic scenario was expressed in the movie Misterio Estudio Q (Mystery Studio Q). Unlike other melodramas, it plays on the medium itself, questioning reality from the viewpoint of fantasy and the nature of melodramatic fantasy and social reality. The film opens when a second-rate telenovela actor finds himself unable to turn down...

Postscript. UGLY BETTY

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pp. 211-215

As I was writing this book, ABC began airing a new television series, Ugly Betty. The series is based on the Colombian telenovela Betty la fea and looks to further capitalize on the U.S. market that the original telenovela opened up. Ugly Betty thus joins other remakes of the melodrama, such as Mexico’s...

REFERENCES

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pp. 217-227

INDEX

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pp. 229-233