Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila: Working-Class Filipinos and Popular Culture, 1920s-1950s (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780231115933)

In this new work, Linda Espa-Maram analyzes the politics of popular culture in the lives of Filipino laborers in Los Angeles's Little Manila, from the 1920s to the 1940s. The Filipinos' participation in leisure activities, including the thrills of Chinatown's gambling dens, boxing matches, and the sensual pleasures of dancing with white women in taxi dance halls sent legislators, reformers, and police forces scurrying to contain public displays of Filipino virility. But as Espa-Maram argues, Filipino workers, by flaunting "improper" behavior, established niches of autonomy where they could defy racist attitudes and shape an immigrant identity based on youth, ethnicity, and notions of heterosexual masculinity within the confines of a working class.

Espa-Maram takes this history one step further by examining the relationships among Filipinos and other Angelenos of color, including the Chinese, Mexican Americans, and African Americans. Drawing on oral histories and previously untapped archival records, Espa-Maram provides an innovative and engaging perspective on Filipino immigrant experiences.

Author: Linda Espa-Maram
ISBN-10: 0231115938
ISBN-13: 9780231115933
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/25/2006
Pages: 280
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.08w x 0.59d