Salsa Crossings
Dancing Latinidad in Los Angeles
Duke University Press · Print & ebook · June 18, 2013
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.
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- Who it’s for
- Los Angeles salsa clubs reveal how dance technique can mark status, identity, and belonging.
- Themes
- Social hierarchies in salsa clubs, Latinidad and social belonging, Dance, identity, and Mexicanidad
- Genres
- Hispanic American Studies, How Cultures Work, Immigration & Emigration
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Start with this bookAbout this book
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.
Continue reading
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.
Salsa and Belonging
Los Angeles salsa clubs reveal how dance technique can mark status, identity, and belonging.
Come here for
- How L.A. salsa technique signals class, nationality, and belonging
- Gender, race, and citizenship hierarchies on and off the dance floor
Expect
- An account of distancing L.A.-style salsa from practices associated with Mexicanness
- Close attention to gestures, movement, and social affiliation
Where it sits
| Hispanic American Studies | 54% |
|---|---|
| How Cultures Work | 49% |
| Immigration & Emigration | 33% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Popular Dance
- How Cultures Work
- Hispanic American Studies
- Authors
- Cindy GarcÃa
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- Published
- June 18, 2013
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Social hierarchies in salsa clubs · Latinidad and social belonging · Dance, identity, and Mexicanidad
- Reading lane
- Popular Dance