Latin American Icons: Fame Across Borders

by Dianna C. Niebylski (Editor), Patrick O'Connor (Editor)

Overview

The faces of Che, Frida, Evita, Carmen Miranda, and other icons represent Latin America both to a global public that sees these faces constantly reproduced, and to Latin Americans themselves. With equal parts idolatry and iconoclasm, Latin American Icons recognizes and interrogates those Latin Americans who have become larger than life. In trying to understand the meaning of iconic figures in modern Latin America, this volume ranges across every realm of political and cultural life—populist politicos, jet-setting ambassador-playboys, soccer players, and superstars—to examine the complex forces at work in the making and remaking of celebrities within and across national borders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826519290
Publisher:	Vanderbilt University Press
Publication date:	02/21/2014
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dianna Niebylski is Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of Humoring Resistance.

Patrick O'Connor is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College and author of Latin American Fictions and the Narratives of the Perverse.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Reflections on Iconicity, Celebrity, and Cultural Crossings Patrick O'Connor and Dianna C. Niebylski

Pancho Villa: Icon of Insurgency Brian Gollnick

Eva Peron: Excerpts from The Passion and the Exception Beatriz Sarlo

From Korda's Guerrillero Heroico to Global Brand: Ernesto "Che" Guevara J.P. Spicer-Escalante

Joaquin Murrieta and Lola Casanova: Shapeshifting Icons of the Contact Zone Robert McKee Irwin

Tango International: Carlos Gardel and the Breaking of Sound Barriers Rielle Navitski

Lupe Velez Before Hollywood: Mexico's First Iconic 'Modern Girl' Kristy Rawson

From Hollywood and Back: Dolores Del Rio, a Trans(National) Star Ana M. Lopez

Carmen Miranda as Cultural Icon David William Foster

Porfirio Rubirosa: Masculinity, Race, and the Jet-Setting Latin Male Lizabeth Paravasini-Gebert and Eva Woods-Peiro

The Face of a Nation: Norma Aleandro as Argentina's Post-Dictatorial Middle Class Icon Janis Breckenridge and Becquer Medak-Seguin

The Neoliberal Stars: Salma Hayek, Gael Garcia Bernal, and the Post-Mexican Film Icon Ignacio M. Sanchez Prado

Diego Armando Maradona: Life, Death and Resurrection (with One Act to Follow) Juan Villoro

Fetishizing Frida Margaret Lindauer

Afterword. The Afterlife of Icons and the Future of Iconology

Editorial Reviews

"Marked by a solid group of essays produced primarily by literary and film studies scholars, this volume offers some important opportunities to examine key representations of Latin American icons. Perhaps more significantly, it frames these representations within the context of the cults of celebrity that have so often over-determined our understandings of these individuals, both past and present."
—Maria Elena Cepeda, Williams College, author of Musical ImagiNation

"The icons under study—some familiar to us, other not—come alive on the pages."
—Kathryn Sloan, University of Arkansas, author of Women's Roles in Latin America and the Caribbean

From the Publisher