Salsa Crossings

Dancing Latinidad in Los Angeles

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Dance, Popular, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Anthropology
Cover of the book Salsa Crossings by Cindy García, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Cindy García ISBN: 9780822378297
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: June 18, 2013
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Cindy García
ISBN: 9780822378297
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: June 18, 2013
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In Los Angeles, night after night, the city's salsa clubs become social arenas where hierarchies of gender, race, and class, and of nationality, citizenship, and belonging are enacted on and off the dance floor. In an ethnography filled with dramatic narratives, Cindy García describes how local salseras/os gain social status by performing an exoticized L.A.–style salsa that distances them from club practices associated with Mexicanness. Many Latinos in Los Angeles try to avoid "dancing like a Mexican," attempting to rid their dancing of techniques that might suggest that they are migrants, poor, working-class, Mexican, or undocumented. In L.A. salsa clubs, social belonging and mobility depend on subtleties of technique and movement. With a well-timed dance-floor exit or the lift of a properly tweezed eyebrow, a dancer signals affiliation not only with a distinctive salsa style but also with a particular conceptualization of latinidad.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Los Angeles, night after night, the city's salsa clubs become social arenas where hierarchies of gender, race, and class, and of nationality, citizenship, and belonging are enacted on and off the dance floor. In an ethnography filled with dramatic narratives, Cindy García describes how local salseras/os gain social status by performing an exoticized L.A.–style salsa that distances them from club practices associated with Mexicanness. Many Latinos in Los Angeles try to avoid "dancing like a Mexican," attempting to rid their dancing of techniques that might suggest that they are migrants, poor, working-class, Mexican, or undocumented. In L.A. salsa clubs, social belonging and mobility depend on subtleties of technique and movement. With a well-timed dance-floor exit or the lift of a properly tweezed eyebrow, a dancer signals affiliation not only with a distinctive salsa style but also with a particular conceptualization of latinidad.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Manufacturing Confucianism by Cindy García
Cover of the book B Jenkins by Cindy García
Cover of the book New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Cindy García
Cover of the book Into the Archive by Cindy García
Cover of the book The Royal Treasuries of the Spanish Empire in America by Cindy García
Cover of the book Protecting American Health Care Consumers by Cindy García
Cover of the book Foundations of World Order by Cindy García
Cover of the book The Feeling of Kinship by Cindy García
Cover of the book Cooking Data by Cindy García
Cover of the book Margaret Mead Made Me Gay by Cindy García
Cover of the book Clothing and Difference by Cindy García
Cover of the book Reason and Democracy by Cindy García
Cover of the book Subcommander Marcos by Cindy García
Cover of the book Ethnography in Unstable Places by Cindy García
Cover of the book Ethnographies of U.S. Empire by Cindy García
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy