Embodying Difference: Scripting Social Images of the Female Body in Latina Theater by Linda Saborío (review)

In the introduction to her new book on Latina Theater, Linda Saborío provides a clue to her methodology when she quotes a character in Linda Nieves-Powell's Yo soy Latina, who says to the other women, "We come in too many colors, too many different backgrounds, from the ghetto and the suburbs. Unity ain't happening here" (xi). By using concrete examples from different Latina playwrights, Saborío finds a commonality through the staging of Latina bodies, starting with icons like the "Brazilian Bombshell" Carmen Miranda and later Jennifer López, that is, women with "larger curvaceous bodies" or beauty queens with a Latin twist delivered as merchandise in a global market. Saborío points out that if the Hispanic Barbie doll—premiered in 1983—were a real woman, her measurements would be 18-18-34, she would be six feet tall, weigh 100 pounds, and wear a size 4. And to paraphrase Honest Sancho, a character from Luis Valdez's Los Vendidos, "this model came in various shades of brown, including Naugahyde."

Saborío uses Latina body types—different shapes, colors, sexualities—as a means of "celebration and empowerment." The dramatists explored in the book are a pantheon of Latina writers spanning generations, including Dolores Prida (Beautiful Señoritas), who parodies social images of Latina bodies, Milcha Sánchez-Scott (Latina) and the struggles of being a "brown" actress on a white stage, and Cherríe Moraga's "queer mestizo" in Watsonville. She also discusses Josefina Lopez's immensely popular Real Women Have Curves, whose plus-sized bodies contrast sharply with the dresses made for skinny, rich, white women, and performance artists Nao Bustamante and Coco Fusco (Stuff), whose work exposes "cleverly packaged […] exotic beings easily consumed by foreign customers" (143). Religious objectification is covered in Anne Garcia-Romero's engaging play, Santa Concepción, which "defies formalized religion as male entitlement" (143).

There is also a thought-provoking discussion of Latina artists and the Virgen de Guadalupe and their portrayal as fighters, icons, and symbols of cultural resistance. It is no coincidence that artists like Yolanda Lopez, who graduated with a Master's degree from UC San Diego in the early 1980's, came out at the same time as many playwrights, like Prida and Moraga, were writing their groundbreaking plays. The seven Latina dramatists featured in the book are the embodiment of our mothers, sisters, and wives.

As someone teaching U.S. Latino theater at a Hispanic-serving university, I regularly use Josefina Lopez's Real Women Have Curves and Dolores Prida's Beautiful Señoritas as examples of not only good playwriting, but work that educates and enlightens. Embodying Difference is a welcome addition that compliments the work of previous historians and critics, such as Yolanda Broyles-González, Jorge Huerta, Alicia Arrizón, and Alberto Sandoval Sánchez. I certainly intend to use this informative book in my classes.