Synopses & Reviews
Puerto Rican soldiers have been consistently whitewashed out of the grander narrative of American history, despite playing parts in all American wars since World War I. This book examines the online self-representation of Puerto Rican soldiers who served during the War on Terror. Focusing on social networking sites including Facebook and MySpace, user-generated content such as videos on YouTube, and web memorials for deceased soldiers, Avilés-Santiago looks at how text, photographs, and video articulate a digital image of the soldiers. He explores how they portray their racial and colonial selves in the face of the continental United States' media indifference.
About the Author
Manuel G. Avilés-Santiago is Assistant Professor of Communication and Culture in the College of Letters and Sciences at Arizona State University, USA.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Saving Private Fulano de Tal: Representations of Puerto Rican Soldiers in Television and Film
2. Digital Bodies at War: The Boricua Soldier in Social Networking Sites
3. Broadcasting Puerto Ricanness: Mash-up Identities in the User-Generated-Content Zone
4. Digital Epitaphs: Web memorializing Puerto Rican Soldiers in the 21st Century
Conclusions