Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad

Tropicalization, as the editors define it, "means to trope, to imbue a particular space, geography, group, or nation with a set of traits, images, and values" that are circulated and perpetuated through official texts, history, literature, and the media. With bold strokes, this collection outlines how dominant Anglo cultures have, through traditional colonizing discourses, constructed Latin American and Latinas/os in the US. It also examines how Latina/o writers and artists have internalized, appropriated, and transformed these hegemonic definitions. Focusing on literary and aesthetic production, essays explore topics such as the imbalance of power in the trans-cultural relationship, gender-based myths about Latin America and Latina/o sexuality, tensions inherent in contact zones between cultures, and the tropicalization of Cuba from within the US.