From Conformity to Protest: the Evolution of Latinos in American Popular Culture, 1930S-1980S
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From Conformity to Protest: The Evolution of Latinos in American Popular Culture, 1930s-1980s A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History of the College of Arts and Sciences 2017 by Vanessa de los Reyes M.A., Miami University, 2008 B.A., Northern Kentucky University, 2006 Committee Chair: Stephen R. Porter, Ph.D. Abstract “From Conformity to Protest” examines the visual representations of Latinos in American popular culture—specifically in film, television, and advertising—from the 1930s through the early 1980s. It follows the changing portrayals of Latinos in popular culture and how they reflected the larger societal phenomena of conformity, the battle for civil rights and inclusion, and the debate over identity politics and cultural authenticity. It also explores how these images affected Latinos’ sense of identity, particularly racial and ethnic identities, and their sense of belonging in American society. This dissertation traces the evolution of Latinos in popular culture through the various cultural anxieties in the United States in the middle half of the twentieth century, including immigration, citizenship, and civil rights. Those tensions profoundly transformed the politics and social dynamics of American society and affected how Americans thought of and reacted to Latinos and how Latinos thought of themselves. This work begins in the 1930s when Latin Americans largely accepted portrayals of themselves as cultural stereotypes, but longed for inclusion as “white” Americans. The narrative of conformity continues through the 1950s as the middle chapters thematically and chronologically examine how mainstream cultural producers portrayed different Latino groups—including Chicanos (or Mexican Americans), Puerto Ricans, and Cubans. Popular culture portrayed Cubans, as exemplified by Ricky Ricardo on the television show I Love Lucy, as foreign, but able to easily assimilate because of class and race into mainstream, meaning “Anglo,” society. Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans, however, fared worse as gang members and “illegals” and not acceptable participants in American society. These chapters also explore how Latinos reacted to those portrayals, which ranged from ambivalence, acceptance, disturbance, and, later, rage. As the U.S. moved to an era of seemingly ii greater equality and liberty in the post-World War II era, Latino groups demanded inclusion and social citizenship and openly rejected rhetoric and images that cast them as marginal and foreign. The latter chapters of this dissertation also analyze the inter-ethnic coalitions that participated in this transformation and the occupying tensions within such relationships. By the 1980s, Puerto Ricans and African Americans protested in the streets of New York City against demeaning portrayals, particularly of the film Fort Apache, The Bronx. These groups now demanded acceptance into American society as Americans and as culturally different. This new development not only caused a tension between cultural producers and consumers, but also among Latinos as they debated the appropriate or authentic way to portray their culture. iii © 2017 Vanessa de los Reyes iv Acknowledgments I am eternally grateful to the many people and institutions that supported me through the entirety of this long, rigorous process. First and foremost, to my advisor and supreme mentor, Steve Porter, I probably would not have finished this dissertation without your persistent encouragement and optimism. I consider you a fine historian, patient teacher, and good friend. I will never forget your kindness and compassion and your unwavering confidence in my abilities. Thank you for gently pushing me outside of my writing comfort zone and for committing to this project from its very beginning (and my dabbles in foreign policy) to its completion. We did it! Thank you to my committee, Isaac Campos and Lilia Fernández. Thank you for committing to this project and for your insightful feedback. I appreciate that you pushed me to think more deeply about the topic. I am a better writer because of your time and dedication to detail. Thank you to the Taft Research Center, which not only awarded me travel funds for research, but also granted me the Taft Dissertation Fellowship for the 2016-2017 academic year. I was able to fully immerse myself into this project because of their gracious financial and intellectual support. The Graduate Student Governance Association and the University Research Council also generously funded my research through the Diversity/Interdisciplinary Research Fellowship and the University Research Council Summer Fellowship, respectively. I wanted to thank the archives I visited and all of the helpful people in the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Austin, the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, the Institute for Latino Studies at University of Notre v Dame, the Manuscript Division and Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Thank you to the individuals from the University of Texas, San Antonio library system and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research who scanned and sent me electronic copies of archival material. A special thank you to the library system at UC, especially June at the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library. When I had over 100 books, monstrous bound magazines, and microfilm checked out, they never complained and worked so patiently to make sure I received everything I needed. I would not have been able to attend and complete this program without the funding from the Department of History at the University of Cincinnati. Their assistantship helped me to focus on my studies financially and provided me opportunities to pursue and develop professional relationships and leadership roles within the department and the university. Also, thank you to the history department for their support and guidance including Ashley Bone and Hope Earls. Thank you to Chris Phillips, Willard Sunderland, and Tracy Teslow for their leadership. Erika Gasser and Maura O’Connor, thank you for your willingness to converse and advise. A special thank you to David Stradling and Brianna Leavitt-Alcántara for serving on my exam committee and for allowing me to barge into their offices whenever I wanted to discuss the complexities of academia and life. Of course, I could not have done this without my colleagues and friends. Thank you all for helping me get this all on paper and making sure it made sense. I am so grateful for you and that we went through this process together. Thank you Alex Parker, Dustin Meier, and Peter Niehoff for your eyes and for making my first two years so memorable (in a good way). I’ll never forget our irreplaceable cohort. Alyssa McClanahan and Nathan McGee, thank you for your friendship and for providing me with such excellent examples to follow. Debra, Angela, vi and Bela, thank you for always being there for me as a friend and for giving me such insightful and honest feedback on everything. Melissa and Leah, I’m glad our paths crossed because of our crafty interests. Kristen, you have been with me since the very beginning (since we were prospective students)! You have patiently listened to my rants and have offered support and love. The dissertation is not only getting things on paper, but also about having the mental state to do it. Thank you for keeping me sane and for giving the confidence I often lacked! I also appreciate my friends outside of the program. Kerri McKenna, thank you for supporting me in this venture. Thank you, Julie Turner, for your friendship and advice all these years. Jenny Ernie-Steighner and Ryan Steighner, you two are amazing! Thank you for all the inspiration! Last, but not least, a huge thank you to my family. Thank you to my parents who have been my rock from the very beginning. They never gave up on me and always taught me the value of education. Most of all, they taught me how to be a good human being. To Gabriel, Ashley, and Eva, thank you for reminding me what family is and that there’s more to life than school. Finally, I have to thank the two people who have intimately endured the pain of this process, my husband and daughter. Jonathan, I cannot fully express how important it was to have your emotional and financial support. I’ve been in school during most of our life together and you never complained once about my aspirations. You are, and continue to be, my biggest cheerleader and my best friend. I am so fortunate to have you in my life. Emilia, thank you for pushing me to be a better person and for reminding me what’s important in life. This dissertation is dedicated to you. Do epic things, little bean! vii Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgments v Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Good Neighbor Rhetoric in Popular Culture, 1930s-1950s 16 Chapter 2 Ricky Ricardo, the Cold War Latin 49 Chapter 3 The “Wetback” in Postwar American Life 88 Chapter 4 Puerto Ricans in Postwar American Popular Culture 129 Chapter 5 The Chicano Struggle for Mainstream Representation, 1960s-1970s 164 Chapter 6 The Politics of Authenticity and Interethnic Coalitions, 1960s-1980s 198 Conclusion 239 Bibliography 244 viii Introduction For Cuban exiles who left Fidel Castro’s regime in the 1960s and 1970s, the PBS television sitcom ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? brings back memories of a challenging transition to the United States in a humorous way. My family came to the U.S. from Cuba during this time. They still talk about the characters on the show, which aired from 1977 to 1980, and how it reminded them of people they knew.