Reviews for Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture

The average rating for Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-04-11 00:00:00 Stuart Lichten In Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture, Frances Negrón-Muntaner focus of this book is the exploration of the shame in the Puerto Rican culture and arguing that the cultural elements and artists that are presented to the Puerto Ricans tried to change the identity of the culture. Negrón-Muntaner begins the book and her argument with the columnist Taki Theodaracopulos and his comments about the Puerto Rican parade. Taki declared that "that 'Puerto Rican pride' was an oxymoron, only comparable with that of the city's other 'ghastly' community: gays". (xi) This identifies shame and labels the Puerto Rican culture, Negrón-Muntaner explores the reason of why and what has brought the culture to this point of shame. She even states that this "'shame' of being Puerto Rican, there would be no boricua identity". (xiii) The book further explores that this shame of the culture it comes from elements in the media which included a homosexuality identity of Puerto Ricans. The first chapter covers two points in the Puerto Rican culture that created the nation of shame. One of the events is the 1898 invasion of the island of Puerto Rico by the United States. "Fittingly, the trope that followed the late-nineteenth-century discourse of the 'humiliated culture' was dramatically synthesized in one word 'trauma'". (34) This trauma developed by the invasion and defeat the author shows that this created shame with the culture and with men being "as queer in the sense of both odd (nonnormative) and effeminate (weak, cowardly)". (13) In the next chapter the author covers the release of the novel Seva: Histroria de la primavera invasion norteamericana de las isla de Puerto Rico occurida en mayo 1898 (1983) by Luis López Nieves. "The inaccurate story was circulated for reason of military strategy, but Puerto Ricans in Seva actually do what neither the criollos nor the Spanish did in 1898: honorably defend their 'mother' to the end. (41) The effects of these moments according to the author created shame and the label of effeminate males resulted to instill in Puerto Rican pride. As the book continues the author examines a second historical event that fuels the way identity of Puerto Rico as being shameful. This event was the migration to the United States "nearly a million Islanders left for New York and other cities to relieve the Island's economy". 19) The shame was attributed to the classification of Puerto Ricans when in New York as nonwhite in the city's ethno-racial hierarchy. (20) Even further the authors explores that the shame was that Puerto Rican living in the states where considered phony Puerto Ricans labeling them AmeRícans. These explorations of shame show the extent the culture has endured due to these moments in History. The author continues this agenda with exploration of Puerto Rican cultural media and merchandise. Negrón-Muntaner after exploring the historical aspect continues in how Puerto Ricans where used by others the hide the own personal shame. This chapter covers the film West Side Story and explains that this film categorized Puerto Ricans due to a "queer film, in which the social and sexual desires of Jewish gay men were performed by means of boricua bodies". (xvi) She covers the "same-sex contact while displacing the possibility queer connotations of body movements". (71) The author covers that the film elements like the violence, campiness, and puns make suggest this film "a gay structure of feeling". (74) The producers of the film West Side Story while Jewish used the film to transfer their queerness to Puerto Rican bodies. While the film was an outlet for filmmakers; West Side Story has an immense affection in the Puerto Rican culture. This use of Puerto Rican bodies was transferred to the Warhol Factory with star Holly Woodland and pop icon Madonna. Holly Woodland was born in Puerto Rico but most of his life he identified as a white woman and the shame of his Puerto Rican body. (89) He started in the Warhol factory film Trash and was able to show the struggle the Puerto Rican women living in poverty in the United States (101). As well as Madonna the author argues that her status transcultural dominatrix would not have been possible without Puerto Ricans (147). As with Madonna during a concert in Puerto Rico, "'lowered' the Puerto Rican nation not only by wearing the flag on her genitals but by calling attention to the nation's own marginal subjects" (163). The explorations of Woodland and Madonna use of Puerto Rican bodies the author shows that shame and dignity is lost without knowing ones true self. In the rest of the book Negrón-Muntaner explores the way Puerto Ricans accepted media forms of their own values. She covers how Rosario Ferré raised "her cultural stock by writing in English" (181). This move to writing in English brought the author more praise and attention and added value to previous works. Negrón-Muntaner explores that the Ferré was seen as a traitor while many embraced the release of the Puerto Rican Barbie doll. The Barbie doll "reiterated for all to see that cultural reticulations of Puerto Rican national identifications are increasingly sponsored by American-made and/or distributed commodities, even when they feature "fake" Puerto Ricans (207). While the issues with Ferré "the Puerto Rican Barbie is more consistent with dominant discourses of puertorriqueñidad on the Island than many 'real' Puerto Rican produced art forms that have undergone different degrees of commodification, such as salsa or hip hop. In this sense, the Puerto Rican Barbie is the consummate 'nationalist' elite product bred by the contradictions of the commonwealth: a modern packaging (plastic) of a premodern essence (rural Puerto Rico) for postmodern nationalists (colonial survivors)" (216). Negrón-Muntaner argues that Puerto Rican people have opposing views when it comes to the culture acceptance in the public. Having a difference acceptance in the culture is something that occurs in many cultures similar to the United States accepting different forms of media due to the different cultures taste. The end of the book focuses on Jennifer Lopez's butt and Ricky Martin's hips, Negrón-Muntaner argues how their different bodies' types show the cultural elements that Puerto Ricans face. The author contends that Jennifer Lopez's darker skin tone and butt is how the beauty of Latinas can be regained. Negrón-Muntaner says "U.S. Boricua, the big rear end acts as an identification site for Latinas to reclaim their beauty" (240). She argues that Jennifer Lopez's personal life choices place the culture of Puerto Ricans into a shameful state. In the opposite spectrum with Ricky Martin the author argues that his light skin was the ability of his crossover success. "Rather than Americanized in the conventional sense, Martin represents the market potential of middle-class Island whites, for whom mainstream 'Western' culture, fluency in Spanish and English, and economic ambitions are constitutive values" (248). The author states that the success of Ricky Martin reduced the shame and his eventual queerness would destroy the image that he has represented. The outing of Ricky Martin did not affect the culture it helped it when he focused to create more traditional Island music with his 2015 release. In Boricua Pop, Negrón-Muntaner bring some new observations of the culture and the reason for the excessive national pride. She explores moments of History with West Side Story to the success of Ricky Martin and how the shame based on the historical elements has changed. The author proved the extent of the thesis presenting the views which are focused on sexual identity and shame. "Inevitably, Boricua everywhere will one day awaken to change in their economic, cultural, and political ties to the United States and no longer remember why" (278).

Review # 2 was written on 2014-04-23 00:00:00 Jim McPhail In the 1980s Paper magazine was published in New York City and was at the vanguard of the wild craziness of an exploding fashion scene. Even though I didn't live in NY, I usually bought a new copy of Paper when I saw it on a newsstand. The magazine felt both extravagantly hip and a little sleazy. This book is a retrospective of Paper's best work, especially its thought-provoking fashion photography. Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovitz pushed fashion in new directions through Paper, beyond the Valley of the Vogue and into the reality of the streets.