How can mass media be used to help construct a personal sense of Latinidad whilst navigating predominately white spaces?

As the son of a Mexican immigrant man and a white American woman, living in predominately white areas, author Gabriel A. Cruz shares how his identity was shaped by the socio-cultural forces of whiteness and Latinidad. Grappling with challenges of internalized racism and separation from Latinidad, Gabriel documents how he turned to mass media to help construct his Latino identity.

Latinidad, Identity Formation, and the Mass Media Landscape details the complexities and benefits of the mass media landscape, and how it can ultimately contribute to identity formation.

A journey of identity evolution from youth to adulthood, this book is ideal reading for students of Latinx Studies, Chicanx Studies, Mass Media Studies, Popular Culture, Cultural Anthropology, and Sociology.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1 A carpenter’s son, an academic toolbox
• 2 An exodus and an exigence
  • Dignity and Respect
• 3 Dirty (digital) Mexicans
  • Mass media mechanisms for racialization
  • Dirty, dangerous, and displaced
  • A warped window
• 4 Stereotypes and threats
  • Mass-mediated narratives and ideological fragments
  • Racialized stereotypes
  • El bandido
  • The harlot
  • The female clown and male buffoon
  • The Latin lover
  • The dark lady
  • Wearing the hat
• 5 Articulated Latinx heroism
  • Comics as a medium for social commentary
  • Stuart Hall and articulation
  • Superheroes and Latinidad
  • Marvel, DC, and Latinidad
  • Otherness
  • Sexuality
  • Politics
  • Labor
  • Culture and ethnicity
  • Heroic language
• 6 Virtual Latinidad
  • Manassas, Virginia, 1998
  • Sanford, North Carolina, 2001
  • Reidsville, North Carolina, 2003
  • Wentworth, North Carolina, 2006
  • Bowling Green, Ohio, 2015
  • Press start to begin
  • Bordered gamescapes
  • Digitized race
  • Virtual Latinidad
  • Digital mestizaje
• 7 Suturing together Pocho Villa
  • Of nepantla and “becoming”
  • Points to consider
  • Moving forward
• Discussion questions
• References
• Index

Gabriel A. Cruz PhD is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at North Carolina Central University.