Narcomedia
Latinidad, Popular Culture, and America's War on Drugs
Published on 10. October 2023
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-4773-2818-7 (ISBN)
Description
2024 Honorable Mention - The Victor VillaseNor Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book Award - English, Empowering Latino Futures' International Latino Book Awards
Exploring representations of Latinx people from Scarface to Narcos, this book examines how pop culture has framed Latin America as the villain in America's long and ineffectual War on Drugs.
If there is an enemy in the War on Drugs, it is people of color. That is the lesson of forty years of cultural production in the United States. Popular culture, from Scarface and Miami Vice to Narcos and Better Call Saul, has continually positioned Latinos as an alien people who threaten the US body politic with drugs. Jason Ruiz explores the creation and endurance of this trope, its effects on Latin Americans and Latinx people, and its role in the cultural politics of the War on Drugs.
Even as the focus of drug anxiety has shifted over the years from cocaine to crack and from methamphetamines to opioids, and even as significant strides have been made in representational politics in many areas of pop culture, Latinx people remain an unshakeable fixture in stories narrating the production, distribution, and sale of narcotics. Narcomedia argues that such representations of Latinx people, regardless of the intentions of their creators, are best understood as a cultural front in the War on Drugs. Latinos and Latin Americans are not actually America's drug problem, yet many Americans think otherwise-and that is in no small part because popular culture has largely refused to imagine the drug trade any other way.
Exploring representations of Latinx people from Scarface to Narcos, this book examines how pop culture has framed Latin America as the villain in America's long and ineffectual War on Drugs.
If there is an enemy in the War on Drugs, it is people of color. That is the lesson of forty years of cultural production in the United States. Popular culture, from Scarface and Miami Vice to Narcos and Better Call Saul, has continually positioned Latinos as an alien people who threaten the US body politic with drugs. Jason Ruiz explores the creation and endurance of this trope, its effects on Latin Americans and Latinx people, and its role in the cultural politics of the War on Drugs.
Even as the focus of drug anxiety has shifted over the years from cocaine to crack and from methamphetamines to opioids, and even as significant strides have been made in representational politics in many areas of pop culture, Latinx people remain an unshakeable fixture in stories narrating the production, distribution, and sale of narcotics. Narcomedia argues that such representations of Latinx people, regardless of the intentions of their creators, are best understood as a cultural front in the War on Drugs. Latinos and Latin Americans are not actually America's drug problem, yet many Americans think otherwise-and that is in no small part because popular culture has largely refused to imagine the drug trade any other way.
Reviews / Votes
A concentrated, rigorous look at Latinx representations in late-20th- and early-21st-century 'narcomedia,' or 'communication forms that emerge from drug trafficking'...Ruiz's observations are incisive throughout. He is at his best, though, when directly addressing the 'how' and 'why' behind the production of problematic Latinx representations...Narcomedia itself makes important inroads into paving the path ahead for Latinx representations in US-made film and TV. Ruiz's book is a fine example of the scholarly vigilance and clarity of thought needed to hold the abidingly white-centric entertainment industry's feet to the fire in their ongoing representations of Latinx people on-screen. (Los Angeles Review of Books) Ruiz's work is a valuable contribution to the protracted "blame game" between US and Mexican authorities. . . . [Narcomedia] is a snapshot of a complex topic, offering a good entry point for the public into the complicated subject of the War on Drugs. (CHOICE) A fun and informative romp...[with a] serious message. (Drug War Chronicle)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
20 b&w photos
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4773-2818-7 (9781477328187)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jason Ruiz is an associate professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Americans in the Treasure House: Travel to Porfirian Mexico and the Cultural Politics of Empire.
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1. "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy": South Florida, Cocaine, and the Many Faces of Scarface
Chapter 2. Miami Vices: Whiteness and Otherness in Representing the Criminalized City
Chapter 3. "The Most Alive Dead Man in the World": Plotting the Death of Pablo Escobar
Chapter 4. Dancing toward Revenge: Queer Representation and What It Means to Be Seen in Narcomedia
Chapter 5. Dark Matters: Breaking Bad and the Suburban Crime Drama
Chapter 6. Bad Hombres: Narcomedia at the US-Mexico Border
Chapter 7. From Public Enemy to Global Media Commodity: Pablo Escobar Transformed
Epilogue. "It's Time for a White Man to Leave the Building": Centering Latinidad in Narcomedia
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Filmography
Bibliography
Index
Chapter 1. "Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy": South Florida, Cocaine, and the Many Faces of Scarface
Chapter 2. Miami Vices: Whiteness and Otherness in Representing the Criminalized City
Chapter 3. "The Most Alive Dead Man in the World": Plotting the Death of Pablo Escobar
Chapter 4. Dancing toward Revenge: Queer Representation and What It Means to Be Seen in Narcomedia
Chapter 5. Dark Matters: Breaking Bad and the Suburban Crime Drama
Chapter 6. Bad Hombres: Narcomedia at the US-Mexico Border
Chapter 7. From Public Enemy to Global Media Commodity: Pablo Escobar Transformed
Epilogue. "It's Time for a White Man to Leave the Building": Centering Latinidad in Narcomedia
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Filmography
Bibliography
Index