Dangerous Curves

Title Page

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pp. i-iii

Copyright

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pp. iv-

Contents

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pp. v-

Acknowledgments

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pp. vii-ix

I want to take this moment to thank Larry Gross for showing me how to ask good questions, engage in methodical analysis, and always speak with clarity and passion. It was his belief in me that provided the opportunity to work with New York University Press, and for that I will always be grateful to him. My deep thanks also go to Antonia Darder and Pat Gill. I would have held...

Introduction: Mapping the Place of Latinas in the U.S. Media

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pp. 1-21

If the 1980s was, as media marketing professionals declared, the decade of the Hispanics, then Latinas have so far owned the new century.¹ Demographic shifts along with the globalization of deregulated media markets have dramatically increased the number of Latina/o media outlets, advertising dollars, and focus on Latina/o audiences.² For instance, while...

1 Saving Eli�n: Cubana Motherhood, Latina Immigration, and the Nation

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pp. 23-49

I begin this book by examining the journalistic production of Latinidad in the mainstream and ethnic U.S. news media.¹ Although media scholars often pay attention to the social or political role of news in influencing attitudes and behavior, little attention is given to the cultural function news performs. Within the media landscape, news is the privileged site of...

2 Disciplining J.Lo: Booty Politics in Tabloid News

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pp. 51-86

The Elián controversy might be one of the most covered Latina/o news stories in U.S. history, but few Hollywood bodies are as anthologized in the academic and popular press as that of U.S.-born Puerto Rican actor/ singer/designer/restaurateur Jennifer Lopez.¹ In 2004, the New York Daily News noted Jennifer Lopez could win an “Editors’ Choice Award” for getting...

3 Becoming Frida: Latinidad and the Production of Latina Authenticity

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pp. 87-117

Central to mainstream media representations of Latinidad is the production of ethnic authenticity, of an authentic ethnic or panethnic identity often grounded in familiar and marketable characteristics. Furthermore, media produced by U.S. ethnic and racial minorities equally depend on a mode of “strategic essentialism” to produce authenticity. In the next two...

4 "Ugly” America Dreams the American Dream

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pp. 119-150

In 1997, then MTV Networks chairman Tom Freston was quoted as saying that the future of mainstream television programming was “the tale of two continents—the bringing together of North and South America.”¹ Spurred by the demographic explosion of the U.S. Latina/o television market throughout the past twenty years, U.S. media conglomerates are trying...

5 Maid in Hollywood: Maid in Hollywood: Producing Latina Labor in an Anti-immigration Imaginary

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pp. 151-174

Audiences in the United States are continually exposed to contradictory media narratives about Latinidad.¹ While evening news broadcasts remain fixated on the economic, demographic, and cultural invasion of Latina/o immigrants, such as news coverage about the Eli�n Gonz�lez case, contemporary film and television often provide more romantic stories about...

Conclusion: An Epilogue for Dangerous Curves

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pp. 175-181

In the decade since I began the research for this book, the visibility of Latinas in the global mediascape has proliferated. Latina/o immigration continues to occupy the evening news and political sphere. New Latina cover girls have arisen to capture our attention. America Ferrera and Eva Longoria are as likely to appear on the glossy pages of fashion magazines as more...

Notes

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pp. 183-216

Bibliography

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pp. 217-236

Index

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pp. 237-254

About the Author

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pp. 255-