Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad

by Frances R. Aparicio (Editor), Susana Chavez-Silverman (Editor)

Tropicalization, as the editors define it, "means to trope, to imbue a particular space, geography, group, or nation with a set of traits, images, and values" that are circulated and perpetuated through official texts, history, literature, and the media. With bold strokes, this collection outlines how dominant Anglo cultures have, through traditional colonizing discourses, constructed Latin American and Latinas/os in the US. It also examines how Latina/o writers and artists have internalized, appropriated, and transformed these hegemonic definitions. Focusing on literary and aesthetic production, essays explore topics such as the imbalance of power in the trans-cultural relationship, gender-based myths about Latin America and Latina/o sexuality, tensions inherent in contact zones between cultures, and the tropicalization of Cuba from within the US.

238 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

Reviews

[sdw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book draws on Said's Orientalism to define Tropicalism. The collection of essays not only identify how Tropicalism operates as an oppressive force but how authors can employ it as an oppositional strategy .

What is Tropicalism?
"Clearly indebted to Said's 'orientalism,' the etymological correlative wtihin the Latino context would be 'tropicalism,' the system of ideological fictions (Said 321) with which the dominant (Anglo and European) cultures trope Latin American and U.S. Latino/a identities and cultures" (1).

Tropicalizations, according to the author are "overdetermined" for the Caribbean and must also be applied to Mexico, Latin America, and the United States.

By using tropicalizationS rather than tropicalization, the text foregrounds the multiple ways the trope can be employed and the agency of "subaltern subjects."

The collection pays particular attention to gender and sexuality.