Tuning Out Blackness: Race and Nation in the History of Puerto Rican Television (Console-ing Passions) [Paperback]

Yeidy Rivero (Author)

Book Description

Series: Console-ing Passions | Publication Date: July 6, 2005

Tuning Out Blackness fills a glaring omission in U.S. and Latin American television studies by looking at the history of Puerto Rican television. In exploring the political and cultural dynamics that have shaped racial representations in Puerto Rico’s commercial media from the late 1940s to the 1990s, Yeidy M. Rivero advances critical discussions about race, ethnicity, and the media. She shows that televisual representations of race have belied the racial egalitarianism that allegedly pervades Puerto Rico’s national culture. White performers in blackface have often portrayed “blackness” in local television productions, while black actors have been largely excluded.

Drawing on interviews, participant observation, archival research, and textual analysis, Rivero considers representations of race in Puerto Rico, taking into account how they are intertwined with the island’s status as a U.S. commonwealth, its national culture, its relationship with Cuba before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and the massive influx of Cuban migrants after 1960. She focuses on locally produced radio and television shows, particular television events, and characters that became popular media icons—from the performer Ramón Rivero’s use of blackface and “black” voice in the 1940s and 1950s, to the battle between black actors and television industry officials over racism in the 1970s, to the creation, in the 1990s, of the first Puerto Rican situation comedy featuring a black family. As the twentieth century drew to a close, multinational corporations had purchased all Puerto Rican stations and threatened to wipe out locally produced programs. Tuning Out Blackness brings to the forefront the marginalization of nonwhite citizens in Puerto Rico’s media culture and raises important questions about the significance of local sites of television production.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Tuning Out Blackness offers an astute and very well informed analysis of Puerto Rico’s unique ‘racial’ programming, which in turn provides a valuable look at the deep ambivalence at the heart of the country’s sense of national identity in the shadow of U. S. ideological and cultural power.”—Juan Flores, author of From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity

“This book not only provides a cultural history of ‘blackness’ in Puerto Rican television, it also locates Puerto Rico as a critical blind spot in both Latin American and U. S. television studies, one that can offer new insights into the televisual representation of race, family, and nation.”—Chon Noriega, author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema

From the Publisher

"This book not only provides a cultural history of ‘blackness’ in Puerto Rican television, it also locates Puerto Rico as a critical blind spot in both Latin American and U.S. television studies, one that can offer new insights into the televisual representation of race, family, and nation."—Chon Noriega, author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema

"Tuning Out Blackness offers an astute and very well informed analysis of Puerto Rico’s unique ‘racial’ programming, which in turn provides a valuable look at the deep ambivalence at the heart of the country’s sense of national identity in the shadow of U.S. ideological and cultural power."—Juan Flores, author of From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (July 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822335433
• ISBN-13: 978-0822335436
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #957,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tuning out blacness in Puerto Rico TV, September 19, 2008

By 

Jaime Jaramillo (Miami, fl, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tuning Out Blackness: Race and Nation in the History of Puerto Rican Television (Console-ing Passions) (Paperback)

An excellent book dealing with taboo subject for many people. The author examines carefully the beginnings as well as the factors that contributed to racism in Puerto Rico TV and that could be said for most of latinamerican countries, a sad heritage from the same people who gave us TV and at the same time the seeds for the hated discrimination and a clear example was Amos n' Andy TV shows that took racism to the highest level that started with the movie "Birth of a nation".

We are deeply indebted to the author for this study and for letting us be aware of this malady that still persists more in our TV and less in american TV. It looks like our TV's czars were ready to embrace racism from the beginning and still that embrace is solid. Have you ever seen, for example, Colombia's TV through their main chains Caracol and RCN? Their anchors are white, blond youg women, the kind you see in the beauty pageants and the population itself is mostly a mix of indian, black and white.

By all means, buy this book and you'll learn a lot and take conscience of those who are feeding racism to our tv and maybe be selective and what you see and let's express our disagreement with those programs