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vii Acknowledgments The main ideas for this book grew out of my regular graduate seminar on culture and consumption, and I thank the students who have participated in this course throughout the years, especially Johana Londoño and Jan Padios, for the inspiring exchanges that led to the overall conceptualization of this book. Each chapter, however, has its own trajectory and its respective number of collaborators, all of whom deserve my deepest appreciation. Marisol LeBrón, Louis-Philippe Michel Romer, Victor Torres-Vélez, Elizabeth Chin, and Maureen O’Dougherty provided useful comments to chapter 1. Foremost, thanks are due to Jocelyn Géliga Vargas , who prompted me to write this chapter through her generous invitation to provide a keynote at the Caribbean Cultural Studies Association conference in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. I also thank the organizers of the conference, where I presented this work as well, and the editors of the volume , Blowing Up the Brand: Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture, where an earlier version of this chapter was previously published. Chapter 2 was made possible by the many artisans who welcomed me back to the Puerto Rican folk art circuit after a decade’s absence. Learning about their trajectory as cultural workers throughout a challenging economic decade was inspiring and enlightening of the love and passion that fuel artisans’ continued participation in this sector. Finally, thanks are due to my sister María de los Angeles Dávila and my niece Diego Gabriel Dávila for their generous hospitality during my stays in Puerto Rico and to my parents, Diego Dávila and Laura Feliciano, for their consistent support throughout the years and for their company while I finished the manuscript during the last month of my teaching leave. I could not have written chapters 3 to 5 without the active collaboration of my inspiring friend, the genius art historian and curator Yasmin Ramirez. Her knowledge and commitment to uncovering the hidden stories of the Nuyorican experience have always been an inspiration to my work. Thanks are also due to Randy Martin and Andrew Ross for inviting viii  Acknowledgments me to present some of this work at the Cultural Studies Association conference and to Paul DiMaggio and Patricia Fernández-Kelly for the invitation to speak at Princeton’s Cultural Policy Workshop. Finally, my longtime colleague Karen Davalos provided important insights and contacts for chapters 4 and 5. It was also an honor to have had the help of Miguel Luciano, who was a great supporter of the entire book even before his work became central to one of the chapters. The chapters set in Buenos Aires were foremost assisted by Alejandro Grimson, who was a generous colleague and mentor during my stay there. He introduced me to three very talented research assistants: Laura Benas, Juan Felipe Castaño Quintero, and Ana Fabarón, who made my stay more productive and enjoyable than I could have ever imagined. Thanks are also due to Maria Carozzi for her nuanced introduction to the performance and politics of tango dancing, to urban anthropologist Maria Carman for her help and introduction to key scholars working on issues of cultural policy and creative industries, and to Judith Stacey, my tanguera colleague, who read and commented on these chapters. Yet it is to my milonguero friends to whom I am most indebted, especially to the generous and brilliant tanguera Viviana Parra and to the immigration lawyer Christian Rubilar, who shared my interest in the expat community and read and commented on this work. My conceptualization of expats’ role in the global economy was also assisted by my discussions with Judith Freidenberg and Cotten Seiler, and with my longtime friend, the talented geographer Beverley Mullings, whose work with Jamaican expats provided a helpful comparative perspective. My New York City tanguero friends also offered much help and support, especially Linda and Jim Gucciardo, whose phone kept me connected during my fieldwork. Two travel research awards from NYU’s Center for Latin American Studies, supported by grants from the Dean of the Social Sciences, provided travel support. Colleagues and friends at NYU were also central to this work, especially David Privler and Marty Correia, who assisted with the illustrations and the preparation of the manuscript. Neil Brenner, Fred Myers, Jonathan Rosa, Yarimar Bonilla, Junot Díaz, Maritza Stanchich, Daniel Nieves, Marisol LeBrón, Carlos Vazquez, Johana Londoño, and Jan Padios helped me maintain a joyous approach to my scholarship and helped renew my inspiration when...

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