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Customer Reviews (3)

A must read for those interested in caribbean prehistory
I had the honor to work with Jose on the Batey del Vivi excavations in Utuado Puerto Rico. Undisputably, he is an authority in caribbean prehistory. This book is the result of his hardwork and relentless pursuit in the understanding of our prehistoric ancestors.

A Taino treasure
I am currently doing research on Taino art and found this book a tremendous aid in understanding the sculpture as it relates to Taino culture and myths. I haven't read a better, or a more current book that gave me such clear understanding of the Taino people and their art. This is a must read.

An excelent contribution to Taino culture history
Jose Oliver's recent work on Taino iconography and symbolism is by far the most serious handling of the subject in many decades. Fully bi-lingual, knowledgeable in the ethnohistory and archaeological sources at hand, and with good years of experience in Puerto Rican indigenous past he now enters the realm of Hatian (Haity-Quisqueya)early history and culture to compare, contrast and critically reflect on the paradigms of the past. He has fresh new insights andpertinent knowledge of the work of other colleages to excite into new search for meanings and simbolic associations. We might differ in details and approaches which must not distract us from a work well done. The combination of ethnohistory and archaeology as well as a clear geographic-historical sense are some of the keys to serious reconstructions of the past. ... Read more

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"Important, timely, and innovative, Boricua Pop is a stellar addition to a body of work that grows in importance over time. Negrón-Muntaner's book is eagerly anticipated.

"Boricua Pop" is a foundational text in American, Latino/a, Queer, Performance, and Cultural Studies."
—Alberto Sandoval-Sánchez, Mount Holyoke College

Boricua Pop is the first book solely devoted to Puerto Rican visibility, cultural impact, and identity formation in the U.S. and at home. Frances Negrón-Muntaner explores everything from the beloved American musical West Side Story to the phenomenon of singer/actress/ fashion designer Jennifer Lopez, from the faux historical chronicle Seva to the creation of Puerto Rican Barbie, from novelist Rosario Ferré to performer Holly Woodlawn, and from painter provocateur Andy Warhol to the seemingly overnight success story of Ricky Martin. Negrón-Muntaner traces some of the many possible itineraries of exchange between American and Puerto Rican cultures, including the commodification of Puerto Rican cultural practices such as voguing, graffiti, and the Latinization of pop music. Drawing from literature, film, painting, and popular culture, and including both the normative and the odd, the canonized authors and the misfits, the island and its diaspora, Boricua Pop is a fascinating blend of low life and high culture: a highly original, challenging, and lucid new work by one of our most talented cultural critics.

Customer Reviews (3)

Boricua Pop is Sensational
Few books interrogate the legacy of colonialism and the politics of Puerto Rican "shame" in and out of the island from such an informed and deeply felt sense of conviction born of intellectual aptitude and intellectual passion. Frances Negrón Muntaner is to be commended for this. A fantastic and necessary book for anyone wanting to learn about Puerto Rico and it's various post 1898 afterlives.

Wonderfully written and sophisticated book!
It boggles my mind how anyone could think that this book is spiteful and useless. I have read this book cover to cover and find it to be a wonderfully written and sophisticated book, even humbling to most who read it. Also, after you read the book, you understand that the cover is about an important moment for Puerto Ricans in American culture, not about Ricky Martin as an individual. Yet, one thing is for sure: This book is not for die-hard fans but for people who want to think about Latino culture.Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and American Culture (Sexual Cultures)

Ricky Martin Fans, Don't Buy this Book
Although there is an attempt to sell this book to Ricky's fans by putting Ricky's picture on the cover, if you are a Ricky Martin fan, don't buy this book.The author clearly hates and envies Ricky and the chapter on him is insulting and extremely negative.The rest of the book contains nothing to redeem it. I am sorry that I spent any money on this spiteful, useless book. ... Read more

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None of the Above is a state-of-the-art volume about current debates regarding Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, both in the United States and on the Island. The title simultaneously refers to the results of a non-binding 1998 plebiscite held in San Juan to determine the Island's political status, the ambiguities that have historically characterized Puerto Rican political agency, and the complexities of Puerto Rican ethnic, national, and cultural identifications.
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Portrays the complex politics of gender, sex, class, and race in Puerto Rican salsa music. ... Read more

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Uses social commentary from other sources to analyze salsa while failing to analyze the musical concepts
I strongly disagree with the other reviewers.Some research was done in writing this book, but the writer lacks in depth knowledge of salsa culture.Also too much analysis is drawn from other genres such as the bolero, danza and plena and the conclusions applied to salsa too liberally.

The author is happy to mention that black innovators Ismael Rivera and Cortijo they pushed black Puerto Rican culture into every household in the island.But rather than rejoice in this success, she destroys it by commenting that the contributions of light skinned latinos have "whitewashed" and diluted the music.Tito Puente, Ismael Miranda, Hector Lavoe and even the non-hispanic Larry Harlow were all light skinned innovators in the hard salsa scene of the 60s and 70s.

Her second point of contention is the relationship in which salsa music deals with and portrays women.As the vast majority of musicians, singers and songwriters are men, it should be no surprise that salsa offers a mostly male point of view.But it is problematic that she chose to use a study of a Tex-Mex nightclub to make inferences about salsa when those genres never come together, and Mexican culture differs significantly from the Puerto Rican she focuses.

Finally these two lines join together into a conclusion about Puerto Rican males and their view of women in relationships, white as wives, black as prostitute lovers.And hence she goes on to explain that in salsa lyrics when they sing about "mi negrita" or "mi mulata", all they are talking about is their prostitute lovers.The problem is that all salseros, including her black heroes, use those terms.

But the biggest problem is that a lot of her sources for explaining her viewpoints do not come from those same musicians, singers and songwriters who she is analyzing, so she makes basic mistakes.Regarding Cortijo's and Rafael Ithier's bands she claims that the "Combo", was a greater musical outlet than an "Orchestra".A problem arises when one considers that Puerto Ricans use the word "Orquesta" when referring to all salsa bands, regardless of whether it is a sonora (trumpets band), trombanga (trombones and flute band) or combo (trumpets and saxes band).

A scholarly, contemporary view of Salsa and gender
"Listening to Salsa" is a scholarly wake up call to anyone who is interested in this genre. After reading it, you will probably never listen to Salsa the same way and it is probably just as well! What I discovered by reading this book is that I was hearing the music but not really listening. "Listening to Salsa" will give you a deeper appreciation of the nuances, intricacies and gender issues that comprise Salsa.

As an aspiring writer on the subject, I know that I will be referring back to this book time and time again. Congratulations to the author and I look forward to reading and enjoying more of her work in the future!

An excellent book that will cause salseros pause
Frances Aparicio's work is a powerful blend of critical analysis of lyrics, styles of performance, and ethnography on the reception of listeners to salsa's meanings.She relies on an obvious and powerfultraining in literary analysis to consider the history and multiple uses ofsalsa as a form of expression, communication, and community formation. However, the most important contribution of this work is its concentrationon gender and on the ways in which desire, identity and language arenegotiatied upon music. It is clear that years of research went into theproduction of this monograph, especially since it manages to balancehistorical exploration with critical analysis.The benefit to thismultidisciplinary approach is that the book can serve a variety ofpurposes, from providing basic information, to offering complex textualanalyses.This makes the book useful for non-academic readers, as well asthe academics for whom it was intended.However, since the book doesn'tcome with a CD, those not well-versed in the songs discussed might need todo extra research. With the increasing popularity of Latin music, it isimperative that everyone who listens to salsa be involved in analyzing whywe like it, and what we do with the music we consume.This book can helplovers of salsa start to frame these questions. Hopefully, it will alsoencourage other listeners to write their own perceptions on salsa and howit connects with other aspects of daily life and with self-identity.It istime to value popular culture in terms other than dollars and cents, whichis what this project begins to do. Now, if only someone wrote a book onWest Coast salsa my library would be complete. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2537 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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Colección de artículos publicados por el autor en el periódico El Nuevo Día. Críticas y reflexiones sobre el arte y los artistas en Puerto Rico. Coedición con la Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico. ... Read more

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In this revised and expanded second edition of The Puerto Rican Woman, Acosta-Belen has collected the most current interdisciplinary studies covering a variety of perspectives on the status of the Puerto Rican woman. Among the areas examined are the socialization and educational processes in Puerto Rico and how they differ for men and women; statistical data focusing on the relationship of education to the placement of men and women in the Puerto Rican labor market; and the status of Puerto Rican women in the United States, their declining participation in the work force, and the increasing number of Puerto Rican families headed by women. ... Read more

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Puerto Ricans participate in elections at a far higher rate than voters in the United States, even though their election systems are similar. Why? Timely and intriguing, this study compares factors affecting voter turnout in both countries, offering lessons for political mobilization in the United States.

Puerto Rico has virtually the same voting institutions as the United States; furthermore, most of the island's constitutional and legal arrangements are hostile to voting turnout. Yet voting behavior in Puerto Rico is radically different from its mainland counterpart.

Combining both quantitative and qualitative analysis of data from the 1952-2000 electoral period, the author uncovers two important electoral differences that explain this bewildering phenomenon: the way political parties operate and the way people get involved in politics. He shows that Puerto Rican parties are stronger and more disciplined than American parties, with roots that go deeper into society. In addition, he says, "Puerto Rican culture apparently relates to elections with more passion and devotion than American culture. The campaign environment is much more 'carnivalesque' and festive than in the United States, thus adding to voting mobilization." His study casts doubts on the influence of some institutional and legal arrangements on voting turnout, and it highlights the importance of political parties and mobilization.

On a note of caution, he points out that voter participation in Puerto Rico has steadily decreased since 1976.This trend debunks some of the myths about the island’s voting turnout rate and could force Puerto Ricans to reevaluate their electoral system. He also predicts that the high level of electoral involvement of Puerto Rico may be coming to an end.

Both accessible and complex, the book will be of interest to the general public and political analysts; it will also be valuable to scholars studying voter turnout, Puerto Rican politics, or the politics of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos living on the U.S. mainland. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Black Music Research Journal, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2006. The length of the article is 12950 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The mulatta, the bishop, and dances in the Cathedral: race, music, and power relations in seventeenth-century Puerto Rico.(Fray Francisco Padilla)(Report)
Author: Noel Allende-Goitia
Publication: Black Music Research Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 26Issue: 2Page: 137(28)

Article Type: Report

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Thehistory of film in Puerto Rico begins with theUS invasion of the island in 1898. At that time, theAmerican soldiers brought cameras to record whatthey saw. It wasn't until the 1912 that PuertoRicans would begin to produce their own films. Afterthis, Puerto Rican cinema has developed at a slowpace. Despite this, the industry has producedseveral renowned actors and actresses, and so farone Academy Award nominated film (see List of PuertoRican Academy Award winners and nominees). In thelate 90s and during the new millennium, the PuertoRican film industry has seen a significant growthwith the amount of local productions increasing eachyear. ... Read more

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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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Tuning out blacness in Puerto Rico TV
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 ... Read more