Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and The Latinization of Americal Culture [Paperback]

Frances Negr--n-Muntaner (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0814758185 | ISBN-13: 978-0814758182 | Publication Date: June 1, 2004

Boricua Pop is the first book solely devoted to Puerto Rican visibility, cultural impact, and identity formation in the U.S. and at home. Frances Negrón-Muntaner explores everything from the beloved American musical West Side Story to the phenomenon of singer/actress/ fashion designer Jennifer Lopez, from the faux historical chronicle Seva to the creation of Puerto Rican Barbie, from novelist Rosario Ferré to performer Holly Woodlawn, and from painter provocateur Andy Warhol to the seemingly overnight success story of Ricky Martin. Negrón-Muntaner traces some of the many possible itineraries of exchange between American and Puerto Rican cultures, including the commodification of Puerto Rican cultural practices such as voguing, graffiti, and the Latinization of pop music. Drawing from literature, film, painting, and popular culture, and including both the normative and the odd, the canonized authors and the misfits, the island and its diaspora, Boricua Pop is a fascinating blend of low life and high culture: a highly original, challenging, and lucid new work by one of our most talented cultural critics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A brilliant intervention in the culture and politics of Latinos in the United States. Important, timely, and innovative, Boricua Pop is a stellar addition to a body of work that grows in importance over time. Negr--n-Muntaner's book is eagerly anticipated."

-José Quiroga,author of Tropics of Desire

"Frances Negr--n-Muntaner is a challenging and provocative scholar whose multi-focal positionings turn the Puerto Rican process of colonization and migration into a fascinating transcultural hologram. Boricua Pop is a foundational text in American, Latino/a, Queer, Performance, and Cultural Studies."

-Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez,Mount Holyoke College

"A perspicacious new book and one of the most intellectually exciting works of recent years, Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the latinization of American Culture gives new meaning to the idea of the pleasure of the text.

-QBR,

"Provocative and broad-ranging . . . This eclectic, always interesting work will be certain to elicit discussion among faculty and students of ethnic studies, US popular culture, and Puerto Rican and Latino studies."

-Choice,

"Mixing the down and dirty with high culture to come up with good look at the transculture effects of it all."

-San Juan Star,

About the Author

Frances Negr--n-Muntaneris an award-winning filmmaker, writer, journalist, and cultural critic. She is the co-editor of Puerto Rican Jam and author of Anatomy of a Smile. She currently teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814758185
• ISBN-13: 978-0814758182
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #941,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #90 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Current Events > Mass Media

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boricua Pop is Sensational, September 15, 2007

By 

Lazaro Lima - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and The Latinization of Americal Culture (Paperback)

Few books interrogate the legacy of colonialism and the politics of Puerto Rican "shame" in and out of the island from such an informed and deeply felt sense of conviction born of intellectual aptitude and intellectual passion. Frances Negrón Muntaner is to be commended for this. A fantastic and necessary book for anyone wanting to learn about Puerto Rico and it's various post 1898 afterlives.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully written and sophisticated book!, June 30, 2007

By 

Lupita - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and The Latinization of Americal Culture (Paperback)

It boggles my mind how anyone could think that this book is spiteful and useless. I have read this book cover to cover and find it to be a wonderfully written and sophisticated book, even humbling to most who read it. Also, after you read the book, you understand that the cover is about an important moment for Puerto Ricans in American culture, not about Ricky Martin as an individual. Yet, one thing is for sure: This book is not for die-hard fans but for people who want to think about Latino culture.Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and American Culture (Sexual Cultures)

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ricky Martin Fans, Don't Buy this Book, June 29, 2007

By 

S. M. Hyde (NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and The Latinization of Americal Culture (Paperback)

Although there is an attempt to sell this book to Ricky's fans by putting Ricky's picture on the cover, if you are a Ricky Martin fan, don't buy this book. The author clearly hates and envies Ricky and the chapter on him is insulting and extremely negative. The rest of the book contains nothing to redeem it. I am sorry that I spent any money on this spiteful, useless book.