From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture

Abstract

In this eclectic volume, editor Myra Mendible has selected essays that examine Latinas and bodies across international lines. Mendible, like many of the contributors, expresses frustration with the continual stereotyping of the “Latina body” as a single type, one that leads Latina actresses and singers to be cast as “spicy,” sexual, emotional beings. These stereotypes go back generations in U.S. – Latin American relations, perhaps most famously with Brazilian actress Carmen Miranda taking on an iconic “Good Neighbor” role in Hollywood and, similarly, her image morphing into Chiquita Banana, the feminized banana cartoon icon of the United Fruit Company. Mendible explains that “‘the Latina body’ refers generally to an amalgam, of exoticized, racialized tropes about Latinas that inform U.S. popular culture” (p. 3). While most of the contributing scholars touch upon the lives of real-life Latinas, the focus here is on iconic figures of varying notoriety, for example, Lorena Bobbitt, Salma Hayek, Hispanic Barbie, and Shakira; Lupe Vélez and Jennifer Lopez each earn two essays. This interdisciplinary volume draws heavily on cultural studies and feminist approaches, frequently citing work by Judith Butler and Arlene Dávila.The volume’s 14 essays waver in the degree of attention to the body, as promised in the title. Essays on Jennifer Lopez and Celia Cruz place significant focus on their bodies, appearance, and clothing. Likewise, a focus on the body is central to Isabel Molina Guzmán’s compelling analysis of the women central to the Elián González case and its coverage in the media. More generally, the essays examine constructs of female latinidad, or Latina image/identity. Viviana Rojas, for example, writes about the Spanish-language television talk shows El show de Cristina and Laura en América. She argues that these shows provide “a very narrow definition of women’s behavior” that is “moralistic, conservative, and provide prescriptive endorsements of Latin American upper-and middle-class values” (p. 285). By considering how a range of Latina viewers react to these popular shows, Rojas offers a thoughtful, multilayered analysis of how public/popular images often contrast with personal realities and perceptions of Latina womanhood.Historians will especially appreciate two essays. Rosa Linda Fregoso offers a portrait of the early film star Lupe Vélez. Fregoso rehabilitates the “Mexican Spitfire” with a nuanced discussion that considers the actress within both Mexican-American and Mexican contexts. Frances Negrón-Muntaner provides a similarly transnational, historically informed understanding of Cuban singer Celia Cruz. She recounts Cruz’s biography and career in detail, with attention to her coiffure, wardrobe, and especially footwear. Negrón-Muntaner carefully reads those details in the context of slavery’s legacy, race, class, and gender in Cuba, rendering a winning interpretation of the Queen of Salsa’s sensational shoes. The many photos in these essays (and throughout the volume) are well chosen and essential for a broad readership to familiarize themselves with these iconic figures.From Bananas to Buttocks features clear writing, with some forays into theory-laden jargon that may put off some readers. Historians may question much of the source material that underlies these essays, such as popular magazines, advertisements, movie reviews, and web posts. (One essay is based largely on analysis of just four magazine covers and advertisements that feature Jennifer Lopez and Penélope Cruz. While such work may be deemed useful in the sphere of media studies, this historian is not convinced.) Overall, the volume will interest students and scholars of popular culture, gender, and media. While the volume concentrates on these issues in the United States, many essays provide a solid Latin American grounding for these topics that are, ultimately, transnational in scope.