Molina-Guzman, Isabel. Symbolic colonization. 7 March 2011
From Driscollwiki
Critical Reflections on the Commodification of Latinidad
- Isabel Molina-Guzman
- U of Illinois, Dept of Media & Cinema Studies
- and Department of Latina/o Studies
- Author of Dangerous curves
Background
- Interested in journalism as undergrad
- Desired to work on race/ethnicity in nuanced fashion
- Transition to academia, observing a void in scholarship
Latino/a problematics
- Admittedly reductionist but useful for the present conversation
- Rooted in ethnic studies and grassroots
- Thinking comparatively within this group
- What does it mean to think in terms of a cohesive group
Ethnoracial difference in neoliberal era
- Self-regulation, self-discipline as a public policy
- Identity as commodity good
Symbolic colonization
- Normalizing gendered ethnoracial body
- Examining global MSM as disciplinary tech (in Fouc way)
- Producing "racial capital"
Why Latina/os?
- Major proportion of the population
- Growing
- Largest ethnoracial category in the 18-49 age group
- Target for commercial activity
Threat & Desire
- Racial ambiguity
- Incorporation into white sexuality
Racialization of Latinidad
- Other than black, white
- Simultaneously U.S. and foreign
Clip from Bring it on: Fight to the finish
Latina as Gendered Body
- Womanish construction
- Obscuring masculinity
- Women as dominant signifier
- Focus on heterosexual family
Elian, 1999-2000
- Most covered Latina/o news story (NAHJ)
- Elisabet
- Cuban
- Described as a good mother
- Gendered feminine
- Racialized ethnic white privilege by the exiled Cuban community
Symbolic colonization of Cuban exiles
Shift toward more critical coverage of Cuban community
- Elisabet transformed into an unstable radical
- This transformation applied to the community in general
Elvira Arellano, 2000
- Picked up in Chicago airport
- Contrast to non-Cuban cases
- Was read as duplicitous
Motherhood, families and Latina characters/actors
- Normalizing discourse
- Control over the economy of the body for latina actors
- Allows visibility, representational agency
- Commodification of their bodies
Frida, 2002
- Specific construction of "authentic" gendered Mexicana identity
- Foreground Khalo's indigenous culture
- Borrowing from Hayek's own heritage
- Focus also on the heterosexual love story
- Audiences read it as a queer narrative
- Received a GLAD award
Decentralizing panethnicity
Judy Reyes clip
Decentering Latina Normativity
Sen Graham confronting Sonia Sotomayor
- Sotomayor explains the "hot bench"
Queering Latinidad
Ugly Betty
- Fans focus on queer storylines
- Co-produced by Hayek
- Sylvia Orta
- Son eventually comes out during the course of the show
