Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780813548814)

Dance and the Hollywood Latina asks why every Latina star in Hollywood history, from Dolores Del Rio in the 1920s to Jennifer Lopez in the 2000s, began as a dancer or danced onscreen. While cinematic depictions of women and minorities have seemingly improved, a century of representing brown women as natural dancers has popularized the notion that Latinas are inherently passionate and promiscuous. Yet some Latina actresses became stars by embracing and manipulating these stereotypical fantasies.

Introducing the concepts of "inbetween-ness" and "racial mobility" to further illuminate how racialized sexuality and the dancing female body operate in film, Priscilla Pe a Ovalle focuses on the careers of Dolores Del Rio, Rita Hayworth, Carmen Miranda, Rita Moreno, and Jennifer Lopez. Dance and the Hollywood Latina helps readers better understand how the United States grapples with race, gender, and sexuality through dancing bodies on screen.

Author: Priscilla Peña Ovalle
ISBN-10: 0813548810
ISBN-13: 9780813548814
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/25/2010
Pages: 194
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.12w x 0.48d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2011