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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywoodby Clara E Rodriguez
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Heroes, Lovers, and Others tells the fascinating history of Latinos in film, from the birth of the movies to the present, through a series of stories about Hollywood's most famous and enduring stars. The book features such Latino legends as Dolores del Rio, Rita Hayworth, Ramon Navarro, Desi Arnaz, Anthony Quinn, Raquel Welch, Selma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas. But this is much more than a just collection of celebrity stories. Clara E. Rodriguez shows how the careers of these stars were shaped by the temper of the times in which they lived and how they managed their own sense of personal and screen identities. The sparkling parade of Latino film stars presented against the backdrop of American social and cultural history changes the way we think of race and ethnicity in Hollywood and challenges us to reexamine conventional ways of viewing our past. Not least of all, Heroes, Lovers, and Others will inspire readers to watch old and new movies with a sharpened sense of the personal, artistic, and social dynamics underlying their history and, by telling the stories of several long-forgotten stars, make readers wish these stories themselves would be made into movies. Review:"Rodríguez's cultural and ethnic history traces the work of Latino actors in American film from the silent era to today. Although the Fordham University professor's specialty is sociology and her research is compiled from clip files and an assortment of secondary sources, her smooth writing and passion for the topic make this a worthy introduction to Latino film studies. Rodríguez breaks her study into five periods, showing how political and social conditions shaped the way Latinos were received in Hollywood and depicted onscreen. Interestingly, the past seems to be repeating itself. In the silent film and early talkie days, like in today's 'postmodern' era, Latinos were much in demand and often cast in a variety of roles regardless of their ethnicity. But in between there were many lean years, marked by invisibility and stereotyping. In the 'good neighbor' era of the 1940s, lighthearted and musical Latinos such as Cesar Romero and Carmen Miranda dominated. In the Cold War era of the '50s, despite movies such as West Side Story and Giant, Latinos were largely invisible, and the Hispanic backgrounds of Latin stars like Anthony Quinn and Raquel Welch weren't usually recognized. The '60s and '70s saw an 'era of contestation,' she writes, in which Hollywood movies cast Latinos largely as criminals, prostitutes or welfare cases, although comedians like Cheech Marin and Charo also emerged, and other Latinos began making their own films. Rodríguez also recognizes the impact of gender and class issues and includes plenty of bios of Latino actors, from Dolores Del Rio and Jose Ferrer to Jennifer Lopez and Benecio Del Toro. But a little less factual data and a little more analysis of films featuring Latino characters would have strengthened her otherwise engaging book. 57 b&w photos." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) About the AuthorClara E. Rodríguez is the author of Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in U.S. Media and Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States. She is a professor of sociology at Fordham University in New York. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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