(Eye)Line(R)?: Makeup and the Consumption of Latina Bodies Amanda L

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Where Do We Draw the (Eye)Line(r)?: Makeup and the Consumption of Latina Bodies Amanda L. Matousek Wofford College

Abstract This article examines the social media responses to the marketing of two MAC Cosmetics makeup campaigns inspired by deceased Latinas. The conception and creation of the MAC-Rodarte Juárez collection and the MAC Selena collection represent an awareness of increasing Latinx visibility and buying power in the U.S. However, each exoticizes Latinas and contributes to their social and political invisibility in particular ways. While superficially it seems obvious why consumers would reject the Juárez collection and not Selena’s, a more profound analysis within the contexts of body studies and Deborah Paredez’s notion of Selenidad, or the acts of remembering Selena, reveals a deeper distinction. That is, the contrast of these MAC makeup campaigns reveals the line between the agency of claiming Latinx memory and identity and a politics of the corpse that banalizes violence and furthers impunity, invisibility, ignorance, and indifference toward real suffering bodies.

Introduction

Scholars and artists, including Deborah Paredez, Isabel Molina Guzmán, Angharad N. Valdivia, and Coco Fusco, have examined U.S. culture’s hyper-commodification of Latinas, with particular focus on the posthumous fame of icons like Selena Quintanilla, Frida Kahlo, and Evita Perón. In her book, Latinos Inc., Arlene Dávila looks critically at how “Hispanic marketing” shapes U.S. Latinidad, or latinness (29). Whether Hispanic marketing is regarded as a Latinxs’1 “coming of age” or a condemnation of “their commodification,” Dávila contends that this “…selling and promoting [of] generalized ideas about ‘Hispanics’ to be readily marketed by corporate America” further alienates them as “…a foreign rather than intrinsic component of U.S. society, culture, and history, suggesting that the growing visibility of Latino populations parallels an expansion of the technologies that render them exotic and invisible” (29-30). This article examines the social media responses to the marketing of two MAC Cosmetics makeup collections inspired by deceased Latinas. The conception and creation of both collections represents an awareness of increasing Latinx visibility and buying power in the U.S. However, each exoticizes Latinas and contributes to their social and political invisibility in particular ways. To illustrate, while “…commercial representations may shape people’s cultural identities…[and] affect notions of belonging and cultural citizenship in public life,” they do not automatically translate to social or political empowerment (Dávila 2). Despite the fact that a record number of Latinxs are currently serving in congress, they are still underrepresented when juxtaposed with the roughly 59 million Latinxs who form the largest minority group in

1 A gender-neutral inclusive term used to reclaim identity and reflect the multiracial, multiethnic, and multilingual Latinxs in the U.S.

17 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 the U.S. This underrepresentation combined with toxic anti-immigrant rhetoric, targeted violence against Latinxs2, and inequitable educational outcomes in the U.S. complicates the message that the ability to consume and be consumed affirms Latinx identities and points to their prominence and relevance in U.S. society. In 2010, beauty bloggers, who were previewing the products, successfully brought down the controversial MAC-Rodarte Juárez makeup collaboration before it could officially launch on the market. Inspired by the maquiladora3 workers in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, the makeup featured ghostly and bloody palettes called “factory” and “Bordertown.” In 2016, the Selena Quintanilla MAC collection4, honoring the late singer, sold out within 24 hours of its release. While the latter collection explicitly furthers the invisibility of the murdered women of Juárez, the former seeks to celebrate the life and memory of “the Queen of Tejano Music” to maintain her visibility and relevance. Superficially, it seems obvious why people would reject the Juárez collection and not Selena’s. However, a more profound analysis within the contexts of body studies and Deborah Paredez’s notion of Selenidad, or the acts of remembering Selena, reveals a deeper distinction between celebration of these Latina bodies and abhorrence to their fetishization. That is, the contrast of these MAC makeup campaigns reveals the line between the agency of claiming Latinx memory and identity and a politics of the corpse that banalizes violence and furthers impunity, invisibility, ignorance, and indifference toward real suffering bodies.

Necropolitics and Gore Capitalism

Before analyzing social media responses to both MAC makeup collections, it is essential to contextualize them within the theoretical frameworks of necropolitics and gore capitalism. In “Necropolitics,” Achille Mbembe asks how life, death, and the human body are “inscribed in the order of power” (12). He expands upon Michel Foucault’s discussion of biopower, sov- ereignty, and the state of exception5 by focusing on the sovereign power to decide who lives and dies. This includes the power to dictate norms and laws and to wage wars that make certain populations, like slaves and survivors of colonial/imperial occupations and contemporary wars/war machines, live in a precarious third state between life and death. Mbembe

…put[s] forward the notion of necropolitics and necropower to account for the various ways in which, in our contemporary world, weapons are deployed in the interest of maximum destruction of persons and the creation of death-worlds, new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to conditions of life conferring upon them the status of living dead. (40)

Ciudad Juárez is one example of a death-world where violence (especially femicidal) and impunity coalesce to transform its terrified residents into the living dead—a fact visually mani-

2 This includes the massacre of Latinxs at an El Paso, Texas Walmart in August 2019 and the burning of Latinx literature at Georgia Southern University in October 2019. 3 Free-trade factories at the U.S.-Mexican border characterized by exploitative labor practices 4 Originally borne from an online petition 5 For example, Nazi concentration camps and plantations

18 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 fested through the MAC-Rodarte makeup and fashion collaboration. Similarly, Sayak Valencia draws from necropolitics to examine Tijuana, Mexico as a case study on gore capitalism6. Borrowing from the film genre characterized by extremely brutal violence, gore capitalism is “…the undisguised and unjustified bloodshed that is the price the Third World pays for adhering to the increasingly demanding logic of capitalism” (Valencia 19). Consequently, in gore capitalism, “…the destruction of the body becomes in itself the product or commodity…as death has become the most profitable business in existence” (Va- lencia 20-21). Although Valencia focuses on criminal entities, her ideas relate to how violently murdered bodies can be depoliticized to sell makeup and fashion. Valencia explains that organized crime infiltrates and becomes part of the legitimate political system through necro- empowerment. In other words, criminals utilize dystopian practices such as drug-trafficking, killing, kidnapping, etc. in order to self-affirm and acquire wealth within the gore capitalist system (22, 25, 301). These endriago7 subjects, or “radical capitalist subjects,” respond to their being left out of the legal economy through violence and the black market (Valencia 26-27). Valencia’s perspectives on socialization through consumption are especially relevant to the subject/identity formation prompted by both makeup campaigns. She argues that

[t]hrough the establishment of hyper-consumption, capitalism…creates a neo-ontolo- gy that re-posits the fundamental questions of any subject: Who am I? What is the meaning of my existence? What place do I occupy in the world? Why? The response to these questions is founded on an obsession with consumption…8 (Valencia 82).

While erasing the real subjects of the Juárez makeup collection, the First World designers and the targeted wealthy consumers affirm their own identities as separate from the living dead of the Third World. Conversely, Latinas can point to Selena’s collection as evidence of their self-discovery and significance within U.S. culture. Therefore, the logic goes that consuming Selena gives meaning to the buyer’s existence and place in society. Further, Ksenija Bilbija agrees that “…the logic of late capitalism constructs identity through consumption and not through human relationships” (303). The analysis of social media responses to both makeup campaigns will show that while consuming Latina bodies has the potential to validate Latinx identities, they are still rooted in a hyper-consumerist logic that disproportionately devalues and destroys brown (female) bodies. While seeing oneself represented in advertising and pop culture is certainly a positive development in terms of cultural belonging, as Dávila and Valen- cia9 have pointed out, it does not necessarily translate to political empowerment. Moreover, it can exacerbate gore capitalism and its dystopian practices. It is well known that makeup and fashion capitalize on the body as product. Valencia adds that

6 Valencia argues that the brutal violence of gore capitalism is more intense within border zones. 7 Taken from the literary character and enemy who is man, hydra, and dragon that Amadís de Gaula must confront to refer to the “ultraviolent, destructive subjects of gore capitalism” (133). 8 Valencia uses the term biomarket to refer to the internalized logic that tells us that consumer-action “cannot be confronted or eliminated” (82-83). 9 Valencia explains that “…marginalized people also want to (have to) be consumers, since they seek a form of socialization/competition through consumption” (135). This also relates to the notion that consumption forms and reaffirms identity as a “triumph through purchasing” (Valencia 136).

19 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 [f]or necropolitics and endriago subjects, the body is fundamental because it is con- ceived of as a critical commodity, since this is what gore capitalism advertises. The body has a specific value, ranging from medical and aesthetic technologies to ‘take care’ and ‘rejuvenate’ it to the release of the body after it is kidnapped and ransom is paid. The body’s care, its preservation, its freedom, and its integrity are all offered to us as products. There is a hyper-corporalization and a hyper-valorization applied to the body, which has been transformed into a profit-making commodity. (208)

Unlike the criminal enterprises of gore capitalism that literally measure “wealth” through the body count, the MAC makeup collections straddle the line between violent acts against the body and its beautification. This is marketable since “decorative violence” desensitizes consumers and makes death and violence “fashionable objects of consumption”10 (Valencia 247). Valencia offers the decorative example of an AK-47 transformed into a lamp to be sold as an accent for the home. She explains that

[u]nderstanding violence as decorative psychologically prepares society, making violence progressively less offensive, dangerous, and frightening, allowing both public and private spaces to be invaded by consumption with clear connections to warfare, ultimately converting these objects into desirable, enjoyable and consumable items. (231)

According to Valencia, radical neoliberalism has helped create fashion designers who roman- ticize violence and miss the connection with real suffering bodies (290). This is precisely what occurs with the MAC-Rodarte partnership and the frivolity with which they treat the femicides in Ciudad Juárez. Instead of trivializing violence, people must “…speak of the body, of the violence enacted upon it and suffered within it” and “…be able to construct meaning around the death of any person [t]o make sure that the death and the pain of an Other cause a shudder in all of our bodies” (Valencia 291-292). Finally, since both makeup collections are selling a fantasy, they erase the “heartbreakingly palpable and irreparable” realities of the murder of Selena and of the thousands of other women in Ciudad Juárez (Valencia 235).

Femicide in Ciudad Juárez

Next, it is essential to summarize the causes of the femicide epidemic in Mexico. Mexico’s relative social and political stability since 1930, perpetuated by the pretense of democracy, be- gan to break down in the 1990s through NAFTA and other neoliberal economic policies11.

10 Valencia also highlights the banalization of violence through television shows like The Sopranos and video games like Grand Theft Auto. 11 Kathleen Bruhn and Daniel Levy describe how “[v]iolence reached into the upper levels and inner sanctums of power, exposing ruptures at the heart of the [political] establishment. Assassinations, which had riddled Mexico in the early decades of the twentieth century and then disappeared during the decades of strong stability, returned with chilling frequency” (7-8).

20 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Since the 1990s, thousands of women have been disappeared, raped, and murdered in Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua12. This “…longest epidemic of femicidal violence in modern history” is perpetrated against young, impoverished, and dark-skinned female bodies often working in the free-trade manufacturing plants that straddle the U.S.-Mexico border (Gaspar de Alba and Guzmán 1). The violence has been attributed to drug cartels, serial kill- ers, patriarchal and machista attitudes toward women, globalization and neoliberal economic policies, corruption, and impunity. Craig Whitney asserts that the femicides “…[have] more to do with the powerful forces at work in the city than [they do] with ‘bad people who do bad things.’ He explains that “powerful financial interest[s],” among multinational corporations, the illegal drug trade, and the government and police forces that profit from impunity, maintain the status quo and create a hotbed of violence (“Interview by FBOMB”). Sergio González Rodríguez calls this the femicide machine, or “…an apparatus that didn’t just create the conditions for the murders of dozens of women and little girls, but developed the institutions that guarantee impunity for those crimes and even legalized them” (7). Despite the devastating statistics, tragic stories, and activist movements, we still “know too much, and yet we continue to know nothing” about the femicides (Gaspar de Alba and Guzmán 2). Ignacio Corona calls this “the politics of no-information,” and discusses how jour- nalism too often neutralizes, normalizes, and reproduces violence at the U.S.-Mexico border. Corona explains that the media “…typically offer little more than a voyeuristic approach to the themes of violence and death along the border,” and thus leave a void of knowledge regarding the identities of the victim and the killer, among other essential elements that make up the whole story. For Corona, telling the women’s stories represents a public commitment to dis- covering the truth (108, 117). This echoes Valencia’s call to speak of the mutilated body and to construct meaning out of death caused by gore capitalism. Alicia Gaspar de Alba moves away from finding the culprits to figuring out why “…such viciousness [is] directed at the brown female body” (8). Ana del Sarto considers how femicidal violence is inherent to neoliberal economic structures and patriarchal views about working women. She states that this subjectivity outside of the norm is used to justify treat- ing these women as objects of violence (83, 89). Melissa W. Wright agrees that the Mexican government uses the fact that the victims of femicide inserted themselves into the public sphere to justify the violence against them:

The discourse of the public woman normalized the violence and used the victims’ bodies as a way to substantiate the politics based on the patriarchal notions of nor- mality. Normal Mexican families, with normal, private women safely at home, had nothing to worry about.13 (713-714)

12 In his book, The Femicide Machine, Sergio González Rodríguez approximates the number of women killed at 400. Although other sources estimate the murders to be in the thousands (Leão, “Women’s Media Center”). Elaine Graham-Leigh points out that the fact “[t]hat there can be such uncertainty about the numbers is an indication of how poor the authorities’ response has been to these crimes (“Counterfire”). 13 In her article, “Ghost Dance in Ciudad Juárez at the End/Beginning of the Millennium,” María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba also discusses the “sexed and sexist discourse at work” in Ciudad Juárez through her analysis of government advertisements and propaganda. Among others, she explores the message that “…’decent’ women maintain themselves in private spaces. But women who dare to go dancing ‘until dawn’ put themselves at risk of becoming another statistic” (102).

21 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Here, these same bodies are coopted to promote fashion and makeup, which only adds to the normalization of violence and to the erasure of their individual identities. In her forward for the edited volume Accounting for Violence: Marketing Memory in Lat- in America by Ksenija Bilbija and Leigh A. Payne, Luisa Valenzuela explains that the book is about “…how to keep remembrance alive without losing respect” (ix). In the text, scholars explore the “memory market” borne of specific Latin American dictatorships from the 1960s to the 1980s and the subsequent transitions to democracy. This memory market “…explores the ways in which time and memory are used to produce value and values—to profit, or benefit, from remembering the repressive past, to not repeat it,” and is profitable (successful) when it generates “…progress toward human rights goals, acknowledgment of events in the past, justice, and deterrence” (Bilbija and Payne, Introduction, 1, 3). However, because the authors recognize that the marketing of memory can often lead to the promotion of “…financial profits over social transformation” and to depoliticization14, they explain that their work “…values the memory market and its products in some cases, criticizes it in others, and explores the imagi- native uses of such a market” (Introduction, 23-24; 2). This relates to the notion that Latinx representation in pop culture and advertising can foster a sense of belonging and progress while contributing to an overall depoliticization and desensitization of their daily lived experiences. The following section will show how creative allusions to the plight of the dead women of Juárez do not prioritize human rights causes and therefore add to their invisibility as subjects.

MAC-Rodarte Juárez Collaboration

Rodarte is a high-end clothing and accessories brand founded in 2005 by sisters, Kate and Laura Mulleavy. The company’s moniker pays tribute to the original spelling and pronuncia- tion of their Mexican-Italian mother’s maiden name, Rodart. Through this maternal line, they are Latinas themselves, whose grandfather migrated to Los Angeles after the Mexican Rev- olution (Morgan). The Mulleavys are described as “fashion’s outsider nerds” who are “push- ing [clothing’s] relevance from the racks and the runway into the realms of other art forms” (Peretz). They have designed costumes for the acclaimed movie Black Swan, gowns inspired by Italian frescoes, as well as Star Wars wear. Their first collection, inspired by California Red- wood trees, appeared on the cover of Women’s Wear Daily. Famous faces like Michelle Obama, Selena Gomez, Yalitza Aparicio, January Jones, and Taylor Swift have all donned their cre- ations. Some of their pieces are also featured in their original screenplay, Woodshock, starring Kirsten Dunst. Their accomplishments and continued popularity notwithstanding, the Rodarte partnership with MAC Cosmetics, based on the label’s Autumn/Winter 2010-2011 fashion collection has garnered much controversy15. At this show, the sisters and famous attendees alike described the line as dreamlike. They applauded the visual representation of a spiritual subconscious state between wakefulness and sleep. They touted the light and ethereal garments inspired by a dark place—the Mexican bordertown—, a transient landscape (“Fashion Show”).

14 For example, “…the Che [Guevara] image ‘sells’ on the capitalist market only because he no longer poses (Revolutionary Socialist) threat to that market” (Introduction, 28-29). 15 Rodarte’s parent company, Estee Lauder, has its own controversies. The son of one of the founders and President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, has been linked to Israeli extremists and anti- Muslim activism. (WRMEA.org, Telesurtv.net).

22 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 They explain that the clothing invokes sleepwalking and the act of being in between states or existing between two worlds just like the women of Juárez who “make their way to factory jobs in the middle of the night” (Hing). Still others described the apparel as cozy, yet vaguely dis- turbing, where romance and emotion combined to form a sense of radioactive romanticism. In other words: “The Great Gatsby buried under a nuclear meltdown” (“Fashion Show”). Kate Mulleavy directly confirms that the collection represents the ghosts of the women of Juárez (“Fashion Show”). Later, both sisters release an official statement indicating that they were inspired by their travels through the border desert landscape. Nevertheless, it seems more likely that the Juárez collection was inspired by the ghost story since, “[o]ver time, [The Mulleavys’] vision has grown darker, their clothing riskier, more de- constructed, punk, and gothic,” [and] “[e]ach collection has been stranger than the last, influenced by anime and horror films, and elements of S & M” (Fortini). This time, the Mulleavys’ usual risks and bold statements would clash with the real context of the murdered women of Juárez. Certainly, fashion and makeup are art forms where shocking products can lead to valu- able dialogue and criticism of politics, pop culture, and everything in between. This, however, is not the initial result of the Juárez collaboration with MAC. Similar to the fashion line, the accompanying makeup collection ranges from romantic to troubling. There are sparkling and pearlized lipsticks in hues of white, gold, green, pink, and violet called “Ghost Town,” “Rose State,” “Sleepless,” “Rodarte,” and “Del Norte.” Most evocative of violence are the eyeshadows. “Bordertown” is a blood-red mixed with a rotting-flesh gray. It is reminiscent of blood-streaked pavement and invokes imagery of brutal and gory death. “Sleepwalker,” whose name is more offensive than the color, is beige mixed with veins of pale blue and pink. A shimmery beige-brown, “Badlands,” seems closest to a shade inspired by the desert. The pale pearl beauty powder “Softly Drifting,” the shimmery pink blush “Quinceañera,” and the pink and mint nail lacquers “Juárez” and “Factory,” round out the product collection that combines the eerie with the designers’ tone-deaf representation of Latinx cultures. Beauty bloggers who had greatly anticipated the MAC-Rodarte collaboration were the first to denounce the collection for its tastelessness and disregard for the gravity of femicide in Ci- udad Juárez. Their swift and deliberate action caused Rodarte and MAC to publicly apologize, promise to change the name of the products, and donate 100,000 dollars to a Juárez charity. When further pushed by a petition16 claiming this amount was minuscule, MAC cancelled the cosmetics line and pledged to “donate all of its projected global profits from [the] collection to local and international groups that work to improve the lives of the women and girls of Juárez” (“Rodarte and MAC Collaboration Canceled”). Colorlines.com organized a virtual panel of the most prominent bloggers who first drew attention to the issue, including Jessica Wakeman of the women’s interest news site The Frisky, Liloo Grunewald of the beauty blog Le Petit Jardin de Liloo, and Yinka Odusote of the blog Vex in the City. Wakeman was dismayed at how uninformed and insensitive the companies had been. Grunewald, who admittedly had never heard of the femicides before, was astounded that this line could have ever passed the first stages of production. Odusote argued that there is “absolutely no way that this can be condoned or passed off as being artistic” (Hing).

16 Petition created by Olivia Wood (ipetitions)

23 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 In her book, [Un]framing the “Bad Woman”: Sor Juana, Malinche, Coyolxauhqui and Other Rebels with a Cause, Alicia Gaspar de Alba refers to the collection as “maquiladora goth.” She agrees that “[t]he blood-streaked eye shadow, bone-white foundation, and fraying dresses” recall images of the bodies found in the Juárez desert, and undoubtedly highlight “…the desensitization of violence against women on the U.S-Mexico border” (168). In response to this apathy, Gaspar de Alba urges the public to

…re-member the dismembered Coyolxauhquis17 of Juárez…[T]hey are more than victims…They were women and girls who lived and died among us. They had lives and names and histories imprinted on their bodies, they had dreams and troubles of their own. They left mothers desperate to find them, wailing likeLloronas 18 at the indifferent desert to bring their daughters home. (172)

Steeped in the bloody and ghostly colors of death, unfortunately, the Rodarte-MAC Juárez collection only furthers this indifference and desensitization. Since the Rodarte-MAC collaboration undermines the ongoing efforts to locate and com- memorate the murdered women of Juárez, it is crucial to name them. Norma Ledezma Ortega founded the group Justicia para Nuestras Hijas in Chihuahua in 2002 after the disappearance and murder of her own daughter Paloma Angélica Escobar Ledezma. At the time of her death, Paloma studied computer science and worked at a maquiladora. The organization brings together the women’s family members, lawyers, and activists to perform the investigations that the government does not19 (“Justicia”). The Rodarte-MAC cosmetic line unquestionably en- raged Ledezma Ortega: “We try [so hard] to preserve our daughters’ memory with dignity and to defend their right to life…,” [that] we felt that this [collection] was a mockery” (my translation, “Justicia”). She reiterates that women like her daughter are not a myth and that disappearance and femicide is a reality in Juárez and beyond (“Justicia”). Even for the uninformed observer, it is clear that both the Juárez-inspired fashion line and the cosmetics collection are disjointed and evocative. Not surprisingly, the Mulleavys modi- fied their original comments regarding the products. In the official apology statement, they were no longer inspired by the ghosts of the women of Juárez. Instead, they reiterated the influence of the desert landscape (“Where Their Spirits Roam”)20. Some of the runway models’ clothing could be interpreted as Southwest-inspired with desert roses and geometric patterns colored turquoise, orange, and pink. However, their faces whitewashed with powder, cheeks deeply blushed to appear sunken, and eyes darkly and thickly lined invoke death imagery. Those wearing tattered white lace and bloody eye colors resemble corpse brides. Further, the disconnected product names themselves reveal a mixture of misguided in- tention and overgeneralization of complex Latinx cultures. Randomly labelling a blush quinceañera does not reinforce a borderland aesthetic.

17 Aztec goddess whose brother Huitzilopochtli dismembered her 18 The Weeping Woman from the pan-Latinx legend of a mother condemned to wander the earth looking for the children she lost 19 The organization has received funds from the Global Fund for Human Rights and the Pfizer Company. 20 The designers “contended [that] the line was inspired by the desert landscapes and the women who work factory jobs in the area, but many felt [that] the cosmetics line made light of the poverty and violence in Juárez” (Kennedy-Ross).

24 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 To give the fashion line a deeper context, and thus render it more defensible, MAC and Rodarte could have used their art to criticize impunity and inspire change21. Instead, by making Lati- na death visible, they only rendered the murdered women of Juarez’s identities all the more invisible22. Blogger She’s Got Plenty agrees that any potential awareness brought on by the fashion line is corrupted by the addition of the makeup collection. She exhibited collages on her website combining the runway models and makeup products with Mexican calaveras, or skull imagery, and the iconic pink crosses erected in the desert to remember the murdered women of Juárez. The blogger explains that she created the images

…to show the cognitive dissonance between [her] love for Rodarte and [her] discom- fort in their use of femicide as inspiration for fashion…Rodarte’s ghostly portrayal in their collection is an accurate reflection of how femicide in Juárez is regarded; as sur- real events that drift away like ghosts in the night, only to be forgotten. (“Where Their Spirits Roam”)

She wonders when “…art imitating life cross[es] the line between acceptable and tasteless” (“Where Their Spirits Roam”). This gets at the distinction between the fetishization of the Juárez bodies and the exaltation of Selena’s. Where is the line drawn between fetishizing death and celebrating life? And, following Mbembe, where are these bodies inscribed in the order of power? In both cases, the commodification of memory is rooted in the violent murder of Lati- nas. While the distinction is certainly delineated by the continuous cultivation of the purity of the Selena brand juxtaposed to the indifference toward the “invisible” victims of femicide, it is still productive to consider both the deeper bodily implications of these fashion and makeup lines and the degree to which they erase the “real” Latina bodies that they represent.

21 In May 2018, MAC Cosmetics Middle East inspired a less controversial debate with their video makeup tutorial, “Get Ready for Suhoor,” depicting a model applying makeup for the predawn meal of Rama- dan. While glamour is part of the celebration in certain Middle Eastern communities, many American Muslims on Twitter quickly pointed out that they typically roll out of bed in their pajamas to eat (Kuru- villa). 22 Ksenija Bilbija signals similar issues with Diesel and Ripley ads that appeared in South America. To ad- vertise jeans, Diesel displayed young men and women under water, bound at the wrists and ankles, and chained to cinder blocks with the phrase: ‘They are not your first jeans, but they could be your last. At least you’ll leave a beautiful corpse’ (292). The Ripley ads featured models who were bound, shackled, hanging from hooks, and with sacks over their heads. Bilbija explains that the creative team at McCann Erickson were inspired by the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison: “Mc- Cann Erickson’s ‘translation’ of the Abu Ghraib images lacks blood, or expressions of pain, suffering, and trauma in general. What is left in their staging of violence are ‘clean,’ exquisite bodies…Such visual rhetoric mimicking torture trophy photographs is a kind of strategy that places the viewer in the position of a perpetrator, a sadistic voyeur, a complicit bystander, or even a victim. In that sense, McCann Erickson’s marketing specialists are not offering a critical comment…nor trying to cultivate socially con- scious citizens…they are using the air of empowerment and irreverence from the Abu Ghraib frame of reference in order to promote sales” (297). Similarly, she also states that “…no one was expected to shed a tear after looking at” the Diesel ads (305). Bilbija concludes that neither company was interested in “raising social consciousness,” but were instead “in [the] business of promoting their brand” (305).

25 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Twitter Reactions to the MAC-Rodarte Juárez Makeup Collection

In order to explore the social media response to the MAC-Rodarte Juárez makeup collection, I compiled every tweet with the hashtags #MACRodarte or #RodarteMAC. Then, based on my content analysis, I categorized the tweets as activating, “absurdizing,” and meaning-making to represent their overarching sentiments. The activating subset of tweets were from Twitter users who drew attention to larger issues at stake or called for some form of social activism. @ monina82 wanted to return the focus to the murdered women rendered invisible by the end- less cycle of violence and impunity: “The #MACRodarte campaign doesn’t offend me, it’s the impunity and violence and femicide in #Juarez that offends me.” @Galen_UK saw the nega- tive publicity and press attention as an opportunity for MAC, Rodarte, and individuals to do more to thwart the violence in Juárez and other border towns. Others planned to boycott the collection, refusing to allow companies to profit from the plight of the murdered women, “especially after they tried to lie about what influenced them” (@BigFashionista, @TheAlterLife). @musicalhouses gives no credit to MAC and Rodarte for raising awareness and reminds us that: “For all the girls who think [they] raised awareness, no they didn’t, and they didn’t want to! We did, not them!” This illustrates the significance of the bloggers’ and other social media users’ swift reactions. Since they had previewed the products, they halted the full rollout of the makeup line and, in so doing, brought greater recognition to the victims of femicide. Where Hispanic marketing generalized their suffering and rendered their identities invisible, online activists helped to expose what really happens to women in Ciudad Juárez. The “absurdizing” group of tweets utilized humor and irony to draw attention to the ab- surdity of the cosmetics. One user suggested that MAC and Rodarte, in a clever marketing ploy, orchestrated the entire controversy for publicity (@promakeupstore). Similarly, @Nan- cy_Siledhel noted that the planned release date of the cosmetics was September 15th, the eve of Mexico’s Independence Day when the Mexican President shouts the famous Grito de Do- lores, or Cry of Dolores, on the balcony of the National Palace. Some commented on the ignorance and indifference to femicide in Juárez expressed in other users’ tweets. @musicalhouses shared her “LOL of the day: A comment on my #rodartemac post spelled Juarez as Jaurez. Unsurprisingly, that person thinks that it’s just makeup.” @tsunimee ridiculed the product naming in her tweet: “Juarez: City in Mexico where thousands of women were murdered. Also, an opal pink nail polish from Mac.” The immediate consciousness to foil the plans of beloved giants in the cosmetics and fashion worlds speaks to the power and persistent online activism of these diverse bloggers and social media users. In real ways, they helped reverse the social mechanisms that continue to undermine Latinx individuality and to perpetuate Latinx invisibility. The online activists point to the irony of appropriating Latinx struggles only to depict them frivolously through fashion and makeup. The final category of meaning-making Juárez tweets portray the emotions associated with what buying and wearing the makeup would signify. @ImperfectPaint was perturbed by the juxtaposition of the vanity and privilege of the people who would use the product to the suffering of the people after which it’s named. Another tweet compared it to “painting [her] face with the blood of those poor women” (@LauraWheat). Others expressed sadness at such blatant exploitation and argued that no amount of money could make up for the indifference, carelessness, and ignorance of the MAC-Rodarte collaboration (@EmmaSaidWhat, @Suxani- ta).

26 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 The bloggers and social media users effectively and efficiently identified that the attention to the victims of femicide in Ciudad Juárez brought forth by the makeup collection and fashion line would not translate to greater visibility or better outcomes in the real world. Like Dávila, they knew that this absurd display of their perceived identities would only further make them invisible, pointing again to the idea that Latinx representation in marketing does not necessarily lead to better treatment, rights, or political capital. Perhaps @alisonbayne sums it up best: “I’m used to women’s bodies being manipulated to sell things, but #rodartemac are using corpses.” These activating, absurdizing, and meaning-making tweets return the focus to the women of Juárez. Furthermore, they demonstrate the power of grassroots social movements to invert the hegemonic politics of the Latina corpse in order to empower Latinxs to reclaim their histories and identities.

The Commodification of Latinx Bodies

Isabel Molina Guzmán and Angharad N. Valdivia have examined U.S. culture’s hyper-commodification of Latinas who “have gained iconic status as representatives of feminine Latini- dad”23 (209). Molina Guzmán and Valdivia emphasize the irony that Latinas like Frida Kahlo, Evita Perón, and Selena Quintanilla only reach the heights of fame that they know elsewhere in U.S. mainstream culture after death (210). And, while this iconic status

…may provide the opportunity for individual Latinas to open spaces for vocality and action, [it] nevertheless builds on a tradition of exoticization, racialization and sexual- ization, a tradition that serves to position Latinas as continual foreigners and a cultural threat. (217)

It is true that this notion of Latinas as continual foreigners in the U.S. does not directly apply to the Mexican women of Juárez. However, both MAC campaigns exoticize (dead) Latinas for the U.S. fashion and cosmetics market. While the MAC-Rodarte collaboration blatantly and recklessly built upon this tradition, the Selena line is part of the continual acts of remembering and celebrating the iconic performer. These acts are what Deborah Paredez has termed Selenidad. Paredez contends that Selenidad is not just about Selena. Rather, it is also “what it means to remember her” (xi). She explains that it encompasses the memorial terrain beyond Selena that provides a space for Latinxs to explore and reimagine their identities in order to survive present struggles and create future possibilities. Paredez examines the juxtaposition of Sele- na’s iconic celebrity to anti-Latinx political policy at the turn of the 21st century (xii-xiii). She describes how factors like the Latino cultural boom, excitement about the 2000 census, and devastating legislative practices from NAFTA to Proposition 18724 came together through the afterlife of Selena (15).

23 “As a demographic category, Latinidad describes any person currently living in the United States of Spanish-speaking heritage from more than 30 Caribbean and Latin American countries. It is an imag- ined community of recent, established and multi-generational immigrants from diverse cultural, lin- guistic, racial, and economic backgrounds” (Molina Guzmán and Valdivia 207). 24 Legislation passed in 1994 in California that made undocumented immigrants ineligible for public ben- efits. In 1999 it was ruled unconstitutional.

27 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Before she was murdered at age 23 on March 31st, 1995 in Corpus Christi, Texas by Yolanda Saldívar, the manager of her fan club and boutiques, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez revolutionized the male-dominated Tejano music scene and successfully crossed over into Latin American and English-speaking markets. Her music, image, and body are still cultivated today, especially among Latinx communities, as a source of resistance to traditional beauty standards. From her bright red lipstick to her self-designed flamboyant clothing, Selena did not resemble her Tejano cowboy counterparts. Paredez stresses that because U.S. marketing often ignores U.S. Latinxs for more exotic Latin Americans, it was particularly remarkable that a brown, curvy, black-haired, and suggestively dressed Chicana rose to such ubiquitous prominence (9-11). Further,

Selena resonated with audiences not only in terms of a shared class and regional history, but in terms of color: her brown skin and unbleached black hair provided a rare and affirming representation of frequently devaluedmorena (dark) traits in a world where most Latin/a American celebrities conformed to Anglo-American standards of beauty in hair color and body shape. (Paredez 12)

For Paredez, Selena embodied a sense of both tragedy and promise that Latinos used as a way to reflect on their own personal triumphs and challenges25. Paredez points to the 24,000 Latinas who auditioned for the eponymous role in the Selena movie:

For many of these young women and girls, the act of becoming Selena was not simply an exceptional feat undertaken for a special, officially sanctioned occasion, but a quo- tidian activity that provided a way for them to inhabit and negotiate the fraught terrain of Latina representation in the United States…To become Selena was to become Lati- na. (128)

By painting their faces with the MAC Selena makeup, Latinxs embody Selena and, therefore, cement their own cultural belonging within U.S. society. It is logical, then, that the MAC Selena collection celebrates Selena’s fortitude and power. By transcending her tragic murder, Selena becomes a vector for potential as well. This notion of promise is not commonly associated with the poor and single working women of Juárez, even though they break similar patriarchal barriers as Selena. Their makeup line accentuates death and their invisibility as a group, without showcasing their stories, hopes, dreams, and unique identities. Like Paredez, Rachael Anne Greenburg further explores the queer dimension of Selenidad. She agrees that Selena and her posthumous fame have opened a space of power for Latinxs and also analyzes the ways in which Selena commodities reinforce Latinx heteronormative public identity. Greenburg describes how Selenidad is still actively shaping Latinx identity today since Selena has a wax statue at Madame Tussaud’s Hollywood (that also travels to the yearly celebration of her legacy, Fiesta de la flor, in Corpus Christi) and has a star on the Holly- wood Walk of Fame, among other achievements (7).

25 Paredez also remarked about how Tejanos were historically perceived as “the backward country cous- ins” of “authentic” Latinos, which for her made Selena’s popularity among other Latino cultures all the more intriguing. In her study, she also sought to explore the productive work that grief and memory could stimulate.

28 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Greenburg also asserts that the queer Latinx community use Selena’s music and legacy to claim cultural citizenship. She explains that Selena’s song El chico del apartamento 512 brought mourners together at a Gay Pride event in Washington, DC shortly after 49 Latinxs were mas- sacred on June 12th, 2016 at PULSE nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Greenburg illustrates how when this “…loss of the queer Latinx nightclub as an untouchable, utopian space and uncen- sored realm of queer expression26…” occurred, Selena’s music opened an alternative “sacred” space for the queer Latinx community to dialogue about “the systemic racism and homophobia” that spurred the massacre (17). Greenburg further discusses the impact of Selena’s murder at age 23 for Latinx and, especially, Mexican-American communities. She emphasizes the link between Selena’s fame and her untimely death that “punctuates the complexity of [her] legacy” which is “dependent upon an act of violence against the Latina body” (17-18). Greenburg contends that while this constant reminder of brutality (and the “queer criminal archetype” in her murderer, Yolanda Saldívar27) undoubtedly complicate Selena’s legacy, her music and memory can still be used to “create a space of belonging” for queer expression and identity affirmation (18-19). MAC Sele- na banks on this same assertion of identity through the purchase of cosmetics.

MAC Selena Makeup Collection

The reaction to MAC’s Selena launch was euphoric. Even the official description is cele- bratory. It tells the public that consuming Selena will keep her alive:

The vivacious music and style of Mexican-American singer, Selena Quintanilla, lives on through the passion of her fans and her impact on Latin beauty and culture. Inspired by the devotion of all those who continue to be touched by the young legend 20+ years after her untimely passing, M·A·C Selena is a makeup collaboration tenderly curated by Selena’s sister. Selena not only taught us to move, she moved us — let’s keep that rhythm alive! (“MAC Selena”)

The softening of her death as an “untimely passing” combined with the stress on the tender curation of the makeup collection demonstrate an intentional pivot from the bodily realities of Selena’s murder in order to maintain soul integrity and purity of the brand, and, of course, to sell makeup. In a video advertisement, her sister Suzette says that they chose the colors directly from Selena’s makeup case to represent the “everyday Selena” and “the performer Selena” (“MAC Selena”). Suzette explains that the image of Selena selected for the packaging “speaks to” the

26 Greenburg states that “Latin night at a queer club is politically significant, precisely because it creates a semi-public/private space for those who exist at the intersection of racial, gendered and sexual differ- ence. The desecration of this sacred space therefore threatens the very freedom and visibility of multi- ply marginalized subjects” (17). 27 Greenburg is concerned with Selenidad’s conflicting messages of Latina/o inclusion and criminalized queerness. She demonstrates “how legal and commercial actors in the United States have exploited Selena’s death/Saldívar’s murder to maintain the image of the queer criminal archetype in the public sphere” (3). While this makes her “a contradictory site of identification for her queer fans,” Greenburg also argues that it provides a space for the “…queer[ing] [of] Selena’s image to disrupt the queer criminal archetype” (3). 29 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 viewer. Selena’s intense stare, folded arms, leaning back, and black sleeveless shirt contrast- ed with gold hoop earrings, a gold belt, and bright red lipstick strikes a strong and rebel- lious tone. This divergence from her Coca-Cola drinking, pizza-eating, girl-next-door image demonstrates her power as a woman who broke traditional racial, ethnic, and gender barriers to become an icon. Her gaze can be likened to the iconic image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna that capitalism has immortalized on everything from t-shirts to notebooks. Both images captivate the viewer through tight lips and deep stares. The Quintanilla family premiered the makeup line at Dillard’s in Corpus Christi. It sold out online almost immediately on October 1st, 2016 and was depleted completely in stores by October 6th. Due to popular demand it re-launched in stores and online at the end of Decem- ber 2016 and its Limited Edition run culminated on Jan 31st, 2017. MAC has stated that it is one of the most sought-after collections in their history. It is currently on display at the Selena museum in Corpus Christi28.

Twitter Reactions to the MAC Selena Makeup Collection

Here, I compiled every available tweet for #MACSelena or #SelenaMAC. This resulted in two themed categories: Satirizing and Identity-forming, where users mocked the product sale and used it to claim their identities, respectively. First, the satirizing group provided some humorous memes. One connected MAC’s website crash (due to the immediate overwhelming influx of Selena orders) with the scene from theSelena movie where Selena and her band had expected a mere 1,000 fans at a concert in Monterrey, Mexico and 100,000 showed up. Like Selena y Los Dinos, MAC was “not prepared for a crowd this big!” (@Lucybri83). Many expressed their frustration with the sold-out line by making comparisons to Selena’s murderer, Yolanda Saldívar. Some lamented the fact that people were selling the products at a much higher cost on eBay, while others confessed to buying a mediocre product that they did not really like because “anything for Selenas,” again referencing the movie (@Robyn32, @aleisstupid). @alexaregarcia expressed her initial reaction to sellers online named Yolanda with an image of Selena walking away, looking back, and smiling. Others swore that their frustration with the sold-out product would turn them into Yolanda (@BaiLale). There were abundant retweets of a meme depicting a little girl with lipstick smeared all over her face and her mother holding a Selena lipstick that read: “When your daughter thinks she is Selena and you are about to turn into Yolanda” (Meme). Mentioning Yolanda alludes to the violent act that always underlies Selena’s memory. The recontextualization of her murder as decorative violence al- lows the viewer to continue to ignore other stories of gun violence, especially within Latinx and other minority communities. Gore capitalism also reverberates here since Yolanda (the endriago subject) ultimately murdered (dystopian practice) Selena (the commodity) as a result of financial and personal disputes with Abraham Quintanilla, Jr. (the patriarch/“CEO”). Within the identity-forming category, Twitter users talked about how the collection made them take pride in who they are.

28 A second MAC Selena Collection was released in April 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of her death. While this analysis focuses on the original 2016 collection, subsequent new and re-releases of the makeup affirm the ever-growing popularity and demand for consuming Selena.

30 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 @ThinMint23 posted: “In the words of Selena, ‘I feel very proud to be Mexican.’ Another compared it to the highly in-demand Kylie Jenner lip kit, by saying that while white girls were buying Jenner’s collection, Latinas were turning to the MAC Selena line (@PaolaShanellee). @Claudia278x referenced the impact that it is so much more than a makeup collection for Selena fans. Like Selena’s music, they believe that the makeup provides an alternative space for Latinxs to celebrate their presence in mainstream U.S. culture. @atb_william compared Selena’s legendary status to celebrities today, recalling that: “Selena died 21 years ago, but has sold sixty million records, [has] a Grammy, and now has a makeup line.” These Twitter users saw themselves made visible through MAC Selena because it projected their identities to the forefront of the beauty industry. Other identity-forming tweets created a sense of political community by identifying Selena consumers as those who should also support Latinx-favorable candidates and policies, and by criticizing Donald Trump directly. So, while they recognized Latinx representation through the product line, they were still aware of the limitations to this visibility. For example, one user wrote: “If you voted for #Trump, you’re not allowed to buy the #Selena line from #MACSele- na” (@CallMeLo1463). @RussellFalcon tweeted an image of Trump’s inauguration with: “I saw more people at the mall when MAC released the new Selena lipsticks.” This perceived political solidarity among Selena makeup consumers is related to Greenburg’s description of the mourners after the PULSE nightclub massacre coming together through Selenidad to denounce racism and homophobia. Thus, even though Selena’s murder is erased, Latinx communities can claim her memory as a cry for the political and social visibility that Hispanic marketing has not materialized on its own. At the same time, it is vital to recognize that the banalization and depoliticization of Selena’s murder and murderer foster a society desensitized to violence and prone to the dystopic practices of gore capitalism. Stemming from the fields of anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies, body studies “…addresses how we as individuals and as societies, deal with, represent, and understand bodies” (DeMello XVI). Susan Bordo’s seminal book in the field,Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body (1993) helps us formulate a deeper bodily distinction behind the reactions to both MAC campaigns. Although, Bordo specifically considers the eating-disor- dered body and hunger as ideology, her notion of mind-body dualism applies to this analysis. She describes how, historically, the body has been constructed as that which is apart from the true self (“soul, mind, spirit, will, creativity, freedom, etc.”) and as that which actively undermines “the best efforts of that self.” In other words, “that which is not body is the highest, the best, the noblest, the closest to God” (5). Bordo contends that the weight and limitations of the flesh are typically attributed to the feminine, while uncontaminated humanness belongs to males (5). Adam Locks and Niall Richardson agree that women are “…identified simply as their bodies,” while masculinity represents “intellect and reason” (X). While both makeup collections reinforce the female body as limited and in need of correc- tion and enhancement, by virtue of their intended consumer, each approaches their subjects differently. Selena’s makeup disassociates her body from death and reflects her life and liveli- ness. The Juárez collection exemplifies the corporeal fragility of the murdered women in the desert without providing a context through which to remember their individuality respect- fully. Selena, and by extension, Selenidad, have transcended death. The color palette and aesthetic designed for the Juárez victims act as ghastly reminders of human corporeal limitations and therefore further distance people from the noble or spiritual realm to which Bordo refers.

31 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 While Selena has been effectively embalmed, the MAC-Rodarte collection emphasizes the rawness of death by femicide without the insight that could have made a poignant human rights statement. MAC and Rodarte could have purposefully emphasized the limitations of the flesh in order to bring awareness to the femicide epidemic. They could have intended to sell makeup that would benefit activism against femicide, instead of recreating its horrors on the faces of runway models. Bordo also highlights the well-known fact that women’s bodies are rarely left untouched: “No feature or extremity is spared the art, or pain, of improvement…This alteration is an ongoing, repetitive process. It is vital to the economy, the major substance of male female differ- entiation, the most immediate physical and psychological reality of being a woman” (21). She sees this same issue of improvement within medicine where “the body of the subject is the passive tablet on which disorder is inscribed” (67). Following these ideas, the Selena collection actualizes the purely perfect female body, while the Juárez line is haphazardly inscribed with disorder. The first layer of rejection of the Juárez makeup comes from the appalling nature of its distasteful origin. Upon peeling that away, repulsion derives from a disgust for one’s own corporeal limitations. This implied weakness functions as a repellant to the MAC-Rodarte products, while the images of vivacity and strength communicated by the Selena collection attract consumers. By digging deeper, it becomes clear that both collections render certain identities invisible and fetishize Selena and the Juárez victims by capitalizing on violent acts against women. Lucie Fama states that “[o]n a deeper level, cosmetics have the power to affect identity, emotions, and how others perceive you, and that [t]he earliest use of makeup was not for feminine beauty, but for masculine power and influence” (“Cosmetics”). This is definitely mirrored in the marketing of both MAC campaigns through the neglect of the real victims of femicide and through the sense of community formed by Selenidad. Even the Che Guevara-esque image selected for the Selena collection communicates this desire for strength and power from makeup. A perceived diminishing or absence of power propel people to further reject the Juárez collection and not Selena’s. While the Juárez and Selena MAC makeup collections blur many complex issues, it is clear that there is no limit to how far commemoration29 and Hispanic marketing will go to com- modify Latinx bodies and extend their afterlives. It is not enough that Latinxs find belonging through Selenidad, Hispanic marketing, cultural memories, and other identity markers. They must simultaneously participate in the development of the rights, laws, and institutions that govern them. In the same way that Selena’s song “Como la flor’ makes room for a multitude of Latin[x] bodies…to share in [their] collective grief” and to express their individual identities and desires, the complexities and depth of latinidad must be emphasized in all aspects of U.S. society from products to pop culture to politics and beyond (Paredez 55). In the meantime, individuals can support Latinx-owned beauty, fashion, and other brands that depict Latinas as more than mere objects of fetishization. They can turn to narrative and media that highlight complex and profound Latinx subjectivities, histories, and stories. Additionally, the Lat- inx-identified and their allies can protest, vote, run for office, and create policies that will -sup port and provide justice for their communities.

29 Recently, Selena and other deceased pan-Latinx singers like Jenni Rivera and Juan Gabriel have been resuscitated as performing holograms (not without controversy).

32 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 While the depoliticization of the corpse and the desensitization to violence promoted both directly and indirectly by the MAC makeup collections cannot be ignored, the affirmation of Latinx identity that they bring forth, through both outrage and celebration, is still significant. When we consider the relative absence of brown identities in mainstream U.S. culture, it is easier to see how consuming helps validate identity (even when we know logically that this is a result of our hyper-consumerist society that breeds decorative violence). Sandra Cisneros articulates this idea alliteratively in Lourdes Portillo’s documentary, “Corpus: A Home Movie About Selena,” through her remark about “a Chicana on a keychain.” Cisneros admits that she was not a fan of Selena and had no idea who she was before she died. Yet, she bought a keychain with Selena on it because it was the only Chicana that she had ever seen on a keychain besides la Virgen de Guadalupe. When Latinxs are not reflected in media nor in the public sphere or are reduced to harmful stereotypes (as gangsters or cholas, criminals, unwed teenage mothers, “spicy” trophy wives, etc.), the Chicana on the keychain and the Latinas embodied through makeup and fashion become powerful symbols for affirming identity, expressing desire, and continuing the fight for the political and social relevance of their communities in U.S. society that is too often undermined by the mechanisms of gore capitalism and the politics of the corpse.

33 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Works Cited @aleisstupid. “Dude the #MACSelena lipsticks suck, but I can’t return them BC anything for Selenaaaassss.” Twitter, 13 Jan. 2017, 2:36p.m., https://twitter.com/aleisstupid/status/820036763272019968. Accessed 18 May 2018. @alexaregarcia. “When you see a #macselena lipstick for sale on Facebook Marketplace and the seller’s name is Yolanda…” Twitter, 20 Oct. 2016, 8:58 p.m., https://twitter.com/alexaregarcia/status/789314841550856192. Accessed 18 May 2018. @alisonbayne. “Retweet: @LauraWheat I’m used to women’s bodies being manipulated to sell things, but #rodartemac are using corpses.” Twitter, 18 July 2010, 1:18p.m., https://twitter.com/LauraWheat/status/18862088990. Accessed 10 May 2018. @TheAlterLife. “Boycotting the #RodarteMac collection, especially after they tried to lie about what influenced them!”Twitter , 18 July 2010, 4:06 p.m., https://twitter.com/TheAlterLife/status/18870439455. Accessed 10 May 2018. @atb_william. “Selena died 21yrs ago, but has sold 60 million records, a Grammy, and now has a makeup line. Your faves can’t even chart in the top 40 #MACSelena.” Twitter, 28 Dec. 2016, 12:14a.m., https://twitter.com/WillFromWakanda/status/8140217291525939 21?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vivala.com%2Fmakeup%2F mac-selena-quintanilla-restock%2F6541&tfw_site=HeyVivala. Accessed 18 May 2018. @BaiLale. “Si me sale que todo ya está agotado de #MacSelena, me voy a convertir en Yolan da Saldívar, están advertidos.” Twitter, 13 Oct. 2016, 8:15a.m., https://twitter.com/BaiLale/status/786586118745493504. Accessed 18 May 2018. @BigFashionista. “I will not purchase from companies that profit from femicide #rodarte mac.” Twitter, 20 July 2010, 2:08a.m., https://twitter.com/BigFashionista/status/1898011 2740. Accessed 10 May 2018. Bilbija, Ksenija. “Tortured by Fashion: Making Memory through Corporate Advertising.” Accounting for Violence: Marketing Memory in Latin America. Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 291-312. Bilbija, Ksenija, and Leigh A. Payne. “Introduction: Time is Money: The Memory Market in Latin America.” Accounting for Violence: Marketing Memory in Latin America. Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 1-40. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. University of California Press, 2004. Bruhn, Kathleen, and Daniel C. Levy. México: The Struggle for Democratic Development. University of California Press, 2006. @CallMeLo1463. “If you voted for Trump, you’re not allowed to buy the #Selena line from #MACSelena.” Twitter, 9 Nov. 2016, 11:29a.m., https://twitter.com/CallMeLo1463/status/796434651455881216. Accessed 18 May 2018. @Claudia278x. “I’m super excited OMG. I can’t believe what just happened! My order. This is not just cosmetics for Selena fans, it means a lot more.” Twitter, 10 Oct. 2016, 8:58a.m., https://twitter.com/Claudia278x/status/785509824595365890. Accessed 18 May 2018. Corona, Ignacio. “Over Their Dead Bodies: Reading the Newspapers on Gender Violence.” Gender Violence at the U.S.-Mexico Border: Media Representations and Public Response, Ed- ited by Ignacio Corona and Héctor Domínguez-Ruvalcaba, University of Arizona Press, 2010, 104-127. Corpus: A Home Movie About Selena. Directed by Lourdes Portillo, Women Make Movies, 1999.

34 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Dávila, Arlene. Latinos, Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People. University of California Press, 2012. “Deborah Paredez Talks About Selenidad.” YouTube, uploaded by duppublicity, 7 Dec. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsxqQjU3EBg. Accessed 10 May 2018. Del Sarto, Ana. “Globalización, violencia y afectividad en Ciudad Juárez.” Mabel Moraña and Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, eds. El lenguaje de las emociones: Afecto y cultura en América Latina. Iberoamericana, 2012. DeMello, Margo. Body Studies: An Introduction. Routledge, 2014. @EmmaSaidWhat. “The MAC collab with Rodarte makes me a little bit sad. It’s exploitative, surprised the whole idea made it through R&D #MACRodarte.” Twitter, 16 July 2010, 5:05 p.m., https://twitter.com/EmmaSaidWhat/status/18725602129. Accessed 10 May 2018. Fama, Lucie. “Cosmetics” The Chicago School of Media Theory, https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/cosmetics/. Accessed 3 July 2018 “Fashion Show: Rodarte: Fall 2010 Ready-to-Wear.” YouTube, Uploaded by Style.com, 26 Mar. 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=53&v=Sm-xlKlEuuc. Accessed 3 July 2018. Fortini, Amanda. “Twisted Sisters: The Designers Behind Rodarte.” The New Yorker, 18 Jan. 2010, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/18/twisted-sisters. Accessed 3 July 2018. @Galen_UK. “While we’re all focused on this issue, and MAC aside, what can I/we do to improve violence in Juarez/border towns?.” Twitter, 20 July 2010, 12:12 a.m., https:// twitter.com/Galen_UK/status/18975298783. Accessed 10 May 2018. Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. Unframing the “Bad Woman”: Sor Juana, Malinche, Coyolxauhqui, and Other Rebels with a Cause. University of Texas Press, 2014. Gaspar de Alba, Alicia and Georgina Guzmán. “Introduction: Feminicidio: The ‘Black Leg- end’ of the Border. Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La frontera, edited by Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Georgina Guzmán, University of Texas Press, 2010, 1-22. González Rodríguez, Sergio. The Femicide Machine. Semiotext(e) Intervention Series 11, 2012. Graham-Leigh, Elaine. “The Femicide Machine.” Counterfire.org, 16 Aug. 2012, https://www. counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/15963-the-femicide-machine. Accessed 5 Nov. 2018. Greenburg, Rachael Anne. “Is Yolanda Saldívar Homo La Flor? Revisiting Selena Commodi- ties and the (im)Possibility of Queer Latinx Cultural Citizenship.” MA Thesis, The University of California, Los Angeles, 2016. Hanley, Delinda C. “Peace Activists Boycott Estee Lauder Products, While Arabs Revive Plan for Israel Boycott.” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Apr. 2001, https:// www.wrmea.org/001-april/peace-activists-boycott-estee-lauder-products-while-ar abs-revive-plan-for-israel-boycott.html. Accessed 8 May 2018. Hing, Julianne. “The Beauty Bloggers Who Blew MAC and Rodarte’s Juárez Cover.” Color- lines, 22 July 2010, http://www.colorlines.com/articles/beauty-bloggers-who-blew- mac-and-rodartes-juarez-cover. Accessed 8 May 2018. @ImperfectPaint. “What bugs me most is that IT’s makeup. Ppl will use “Sleepwalker” 2 beautify their vain selves while ppl it’s named after suffer #rodartemac.”Twitter , 18

35 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 July 2010, 8:50p.m., https://twitter.com/ImperfectPaint/status/18887615466. Accessed 10 May 2018 Kuruvilla, Carol. “MAC’s Ramadan Makeup Tutorial Sparks Debate, Highlights the Holiday’s Diversity, The Huffington Post, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mac-ramdan makeup-tutorial_us_5b0d5c4fe4b0568a880ecede?ncid=engmodushpmg00000006. Accessed 6 Sept. 2018. Kennedy-Ross, Selicia. “MAC Pulls Controversial Cosmetics Line.” Hispanic Lifestyle, http://www.hispaniclifestyle.com/topics/update-mac-pulls-controversial-cosmetics line/. Accessed 9 May 2018. @LauraWheat. “@STYLISA Not to be melodramatic but I would feel as though I was painting my face with the blood of those poor women #rodartemac.” Twitter, 19 July 2010, 4:22 p.m., https://twitter.com/LauraWheat/status/18950696019. Accessed 10 May 2018. Leão, Gabriel. “This film is taking on femicide in Juárez, Mexico.”Women’s Media Cen- ter, 19 Jun. 2018, http://www.womensmediacenter.com/fbomb/this-film-is-taking-on- femicide-in-juarez-mexico. Accessed 5 November 2018. Locks, Adam and Niall Richardson. Body Studies: The Basics. Routledge, 2014. “Love MAC’s Selena Line? Don’t Ignore Company’s Racist History.” Telesur, 3 Oct. 2016, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Love-MACs-Selena-Line-Dont-Ignore-Compa- nys-Racist-History-20161003-0017.html. Accessed 8 May 2018. @Lucybri83. “#MACselena crashes and this scene immediately came to mind!” Twitter, 1 Oct. 2016, https://twitter.com/Lucybri83/status/782220570146447361. Accessed 14 May 2018. “MAC Selena.” Belk.com, https://www.belk.com/p/mac-mac-selena/99999991098203.html. Accessed 14 May 2018. “MAC Selena.” Youtube, Uploaded by MAC Cosmetics 3 Oct. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=N5YITbo-bKw. Accessed 14 May 2018. Mbembe, Achille. “Necropolitics.” Translated by: Libby Meintjes, Public Culture, vol. 15.1, Winter 2003, pp. 11-40. Molina Guzmán, Isabel and Angharad N. Valdivia. “Brain, Brow, and Booty: Latina Iconicity in U.S. Popular Culture.” The Communication Review, vol. 7, 2004, pp. 205-221. @monina82. “The #Macrodarte campaign doesn’t offend me it’s the impunity and violence and femicide in #Juarez that offends me.”Twitter , 27 July 2010, 10:21a.m., https://twitter.com/monina82/status/19672914012. Accessed 3 July 2018. Morgan, Susan. “Double Vision.” The New York Times Magazine, 5 Sept. 2008, https://www. nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07style-rodarte-t.html. Accessed 3 July 2018. @musicalhouses. “For all the girls who think ‘at least mac raised awareness,’ no they didn’t, and they didn’t want to! We did, not them! #rodartemac.” Twitter, 18 July 2010, 3:57 p.m., https://twitter.com/musicalhouses/status/18869922269. Accessed 10 May 2018. ---. “LOL of the day: A comment on my #rodartemac post spelled Juarez as Jaurez. Unsurprisingly, that person thinks that it’s just makeup.” Twitter, 17 Aug. 2010, 3:16a.m., https://twitter.com/musicalhouses/status/21392131053. Accessed 10 May 2018. @Nancy_Siledhel. “Anyone noticed #rodartemac release date? – Sept 15- “Cry of Indepen- dence”- One of the most important days in Mexico’s history!?” Twitter, 18 July 2010, 5:34 p.m., https://twitter.com/Nancy_Siledhel/status/18875311795. Accessed 10 May 2018. “No somos un mito: Entrevista a Norma Ledezma, de Justicia para Nuestras Hijas.” Justicia para Nuestras Hijas, 5 Aug. 2010, http://justiciaparanuestrashijas.blogspot.com/2010/08/

36 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 no-somos-un-mito-entrevista-norma.html. Accessed 8 May 2018 @PaolaShanellee. “White girls are buying the Kylie lip kit, while us Latina girls are buying the Selena MAC Line #MACSelena.” Twitter, 28 Dec. 2016, 12:01 a.m., https://twitter. com/PaolaShanellee/status/814018298710888448. Accessed 18 May 2018. Paredez, Deborah. Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory. Duke University Press, 2009. Peretz, Evgenia. “The Rodarte Effect.” Vanity Fair, 9 Feb. 2012, http://www.vanityfair.com/ style/2012/03/rodarte-201203. Accessed 8 May 2018. @promakeupstore. “@VexintheCity am I an old cynic thinking they just planned this from the get go…clever marketing #macrodarte.” Twitter, 20 July 2010, 2:29a.m., https://twitter.com/promakeupstore/status/18980977409. Accessed 10 May 2018. @Robyn32. “You could have just let another #MACSelena fan buy it then, instead of trying to profit off of a woman who is no longer alive.”Twitter , 10 Oct. 2016, 9:54a.m., https:// twitter.com/Robyn32/status/785523976210493440. Accessed 18 May 2018. “Rodarte and MAC Collaboration Canceled.” Huffington Post, 25 May 2011, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/17/rodarte-mac-collaboration_1_n_685106. html. Accessed 8 May 2018. @RussellFalcon. “I saw more people at the mall when MAC released the new Selena lipsticks .” Twitter, 20 Jan. 2017, 8:02a.m., https://twitter.com/RussellFalcon/status/822474454014001152. Accessed 18 May 2018. She’sgotplenty. “Where Their Spirits Roam.” WordPress, 7 Aug. 2010, https://shesgotplenty. wordpress.com/tag/m-a-c/. Accessed 9 May 2018. @Suxanita. “No con donar parte de sus ganancias se arregla lo que hicieron, los de MAC son unos idiotas, inspirarse en las muertas de Juarez.” Twitter, 31 July 2010, 9:31 p.m., https://twitter.com/Suxanita/status/20042820105. Accessed 10 May 2018. Tabuenca Córdoba, María Socorro. “Ghost Dance in Ciudad Juárez at the End/Beginning of the Millenium.” Making a Killing: Femicide, Free Trade, and La frontera, edited by Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Georgina Guzmán, University of Texas Press, 2010, 95-120. @ThinMint23. “In the words of Selena, ‘I feel very proud to be Mexican.’ Twitter, 3 Jan. 2017, 10:18p.m., https://twitter.com/ThinMint23/status/816529117994565632. Accessed 18 May 2018. @tsunimee. “Juarez: City in Mexico where thousands of women were murdered. Also an opal pink nail polish from Mac #rodartemac.” Twitter, 19 July 2010, 6:58a.m., https://twitter. com/tsunimee/status/18917673595. Accessed 10 May 2018. Valencia, Sayak. Gore Capitalism. Translated by John Pluecker, Semiotext(e), 2018. Valenzuela, Luisa. “Forward: On Memory and Memorials.” Translated by: Catherine Jagoe, Accounting for Violence: Marketing Memory in Latin America. Duke University Press, 2011, pp. ix-xii. “When your daughter thinks she is Selena and you are about to turn into Yolanda.” Meme, https://me.me/i/when-your-daughter-thinks-she-is-selena-and-you-are-6104374. Ac- cessed 18 May 2018. Whitney, Craig. Interview by FBOMB. Women’s Media Center, 19 June 2018, https://womensme diacenter.com/fbomb/this-film-is-taking-on-femicide-in-juarez-mexico Ac- cessed 16 November 2020. Wright, Melissa W. “Necropolitics, Narcopolitics, and Femicide: Gendered Violence on the

37 - Hispanic Studies Review - Vol. 5, No. 2 (2021): 17-38 Mexico-U.S. Border.” Signs. 36.3 (2011): 707-731. Wood, Olivia. “Rodarte MAC Makeup Collection and Ciudad Juarez.” ipetitions, https://www. ipetitions.com/petition/macrodarte/. Accessed 8 May 2018.

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