Wednesday, July 6 2005
Fuego in Tu Ciudad
Two Latino magazines take very different approaches to capturing and expressing the complexity of Latinidad.
Wednesday, April 27 2005
Rock Tonic
Latinos keep changing things up on US radio stations, messing with that format... and it's working.
Wednesday, April 6 2005
Easy Lover: Calculating the Upside of Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes is not quite white enough to require protection from lingering fears of black men's virility, not so black as to alienate audiences, and just exotic enough to be titillating. Her casting clearly indicates that Hollywood still won't handle interracial romance.
Wednesday, March 2 2005
Culture as Art: Willie Herrón’s HerróthiCa
The view from Herrón's City Terrace looks something like this: elements reminiscent of the Catholic Baroque combine with visual cues from Chicano aesthetics, such as skulls and wrestling masks, to evoke a sense of presence that is as lovely as it is tough. And the view has a sound. And that sound has a history.
Wednesday, January 12 2005
Tamales y Champurrado
Despite the abundance of Mexican restaurants all over the globe, they are rarely placed in the same category as fine French or Japanese establishments. Burritos, tacos, fajitas, guacamole, quesadillas, salsa, tortilla chips and so forth have become so ubiquitous that what passes for Mexican food outside of Mexico is a poor approximation of what the country's diverse regions actually have to offer.
Wednesday, December 1 2004
Topping Corpus: On Sex and Life Across Cultures
A half century after Kinsey, Corpus' challenge is to take HIV/AIDS discourse back from medical abstraction, and reintroduce the intimate.
Wednesday, October 27 2004
Cuban-American Freedom? On Pitbull and Guantanamo
Pitbull comes across as a clever guy, attuned to the interplay of social, political, and economic dynamics. He insists that he can weave some heavy stuff in among the booty music, but he's still prone to broad clichés.
Wednesday, October 6 2004
Let’s Talk @!#?%!# Politics
Should a celebrity's pointed comments on political issues slip past the censors, it's worth listening.
Wednesday, September 8 2004
Latin Explosion versus Latin Continuity: Nights in the Life of the LAMC
The new Latin alternative sound is an interweaving of languages, styles, and rhythms that is nothing short of exciting.
Wednesday, July 28 2004
¡Comprendes, Senor Ferrell?
Is it necessary that Latinos represent Latinos? Or is it sufficient that Latinos be represented regardless of who plays them? How does one judge the quality of the representations on offer?
Wednesday, June 30 2004
San Ronald: The Trouble With Heroes
Designating someone a "hero" involves an underlying claim about what is good in this world and for whom it is good... The question when it comes to Reagan is quite simple. Who was he good for?
Wednesday, June 2 2004
Letting Yourself Go
With the privileges that create, sustain, and idealize physical beauty in mind, Cruz argues that although attention to weight-related health risks in racialized populations is necessary, the violence of such racialization, and the gender inequity, class discrimination, and poverty that frequently accompany such attention, have direct repercussions on mortality for those people who are considered 'less than ideal'.
Wednesday, May 5 2004
What’s a Puerto Rican doing in Germany?
Ambient Latinidad is the recognition of Latino geographies, writes Cruz. Conquests, migrations, and memories of home give rise to the Latinidad sensibility; a sensibility that is felt virtually everywhere, even if it is not always seen and heard.
