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Chicano-Chicana Americana
Pop Culture Pluralism Starring Anthony Quinn, Katy Jurado, Robert Beltran, and Lupe Ontiveros
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Book Presentation:
Chicano-Chicana Americana is a cultural history of Mexican Americans in film, television, and theater. Through biographical sketches of performers such as Anthony Quinn, Katy Jurado, Robert Beltran, and Lupe Ontiveros, this work asserts Mexican Americans’ proper place in the national narratives of our collective imaginary. Conveying a multicentered, polycultural America, this book shows us intriguing performers in bit parts who steal the scene and redefine what it means to be American.
Each biographical chapter analyzes an underappreciated actor, revealing their artistic contributions to U.S. common culture. Their long-shot careers tell a tale of players taking action with agency and fighting for screen time and equal opportunity despite disadvantages and differential treatment in Hollywood. These dynamic and complex individuals altered cinematic representations—and audience expectations—by surpassing stereotypes.
The book explores American national character by showing how ethnic Mexicans attained social and cultural status through fair, open competition without a radical realignment of political or economic structures. Their creative achievements demanded dignity and earned respect. Anthony Macías argues that these performances demonstrated a pop culture pluralism that subtly changed mainstream America, transforming it from the mythological past of the Wild West to the speculative future of science fiction.
About the Author:
Anthony Macías is a scholar of twentieth-century cultural history. An associate professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Riverside, he is the author of the book Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968.
Press Reviews:
"The book is well researched and nicely argued, and its strength lies in Macías’s convincing exposition of how Chicana/o/x 'threads have been woven into the tapestry of Americana.' "—Ruben A. Arellano, The Western Historical Quarterly
"The book’s focus on a selection of often-overlooked Chicanx actors is a welcome addition to the literature on Latinxs within the larger body of scholarship on the history of film, television, and media. Macias’s monograph will interest students and scholars of Chicanx, Latinx, and Mexican histories: US film and media, and race and ethnicity."—Monique Flores Ulysses, Journal of American Ethnic History
See the publisher website: University of Arizona Press
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