Copyright by Esther Díaz Martín 2018
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Copyright by Esther Díaz Martín 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Esther Díaz Martín certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Radiophonic Feminisms: The Sounds and Voices of Contemporary Latina Radio Hosts in the U.S. Southwest, 1990-2017 Committee: Héctor Domínguez Ruvalcaba, Supervisor Luis Cárcamo-Huechante Kelly McDonough Julie A. Minich Radiophonic Feminisms: The Sounds and Voices of Contemporary Latina Radio Hosts in the U.S. Southwest, 1990-2017 by Esther Díaz Martín Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2018 Dedication Para todas aquellas que les gusta el güiri güiri, empezando por mi mamá. Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to thank the staff, faculty, and colegas in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese who have provided me with the resources, guidance, and space of convivencia that allowed me to evolve as a scholar and complete this present work. I thank my advisor Héctor Domínguez Ruvalcaba for hearing my voice and for helping me to tune- in to the broader conversations on the topics of gender, sex, and body politics. I am deeply grateful for the feedback, encouragement, and enthusiasm of my dissertation committee, Luis Cárcamo-Huechante, Kelly McDonough, and Julie A. Minich. I wish to acknowledge the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Inter- University Program for Latino Studies for providing me with the resources I needed to finish the last stretch of my program through the IUPRL-Mellon Dissertation Fellowship. I wish to thank Albert Laguna and Inés D. Casillas for their direction along with Jennifer Boles and the 2017-2018 IUPLR-Mellon fellows for their unyielding support. I am grateful to the readers and editors that closely read my evolving work in the last five years, especially Arturo Arias who directed my qualifying paper, Elizabeth C. Martinez at the Center for Latino Research at DePaul, Josephine Méndez-Negrete, and the 2015 MALCS Writing Institute cohort. A special thank you, and place in my heart, for my compañera Ruth Rubio who has been my most dependable reviewer, transcriber, and friend. Gracias a las locutoras que han sido tan generosas conmigo en especial Alicia Alarcón y Marlene Quinto, mujeres a quienes admiro de todo corazón. Gracias a mi familia que he extrañado mucho en estos años, en especial a mi mamá por darme por mi lado, a mi suegra y a Lili por ayudarme con Lupita-mi-amor en esta última etapa de mis estudios. Finalmente, estoy profundamente agradecida por tener a José, In Lak’ech, de mi lado como pareja y compañero a cada paso de este largo camino que vamos haciendo al andar. v Abstract Radiophonic Feminisms: The Sounds and Voices of Contemporary Latina Radio Hosts in the U.S. Southwest, 1990-2017 Esther Díaz Martín, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Héctor Domínguez Ruvalcaba In this dissertation, I draw on theories of gender, voice, and sound to explore Latina feminisms across contemporary popular radiophonic media at the turn of the 21st century. My investigation centers on the work and personal narratives of Latina radio hosts and podcasters located mainly on the West Coast including: Alicia Alarcón, a borderland journalist, writer, and political commentator in AM Spanish-language host who began her career in radio during the height of the 1990s anti-immigrant movement; Marlene Quinto, an immigrant, working class, bilingual and bicultural early millennial who migrated to Los Angeles from Central Mexico in the early 1990s as a child and participated in an important moment in West Coast music culture shaping the sound of a new generation of FM morning radio; three recent Latina podcasts—Super Mamás, Chicana M(other)work, and Locatora Radio—which speak from different points of Latina positionality reflecting their generational status, professions, and particular ethnic and political identities; and the YouTube-based podcasting genre of Contestaciones which are parodies composed by borderland Latinas to counter the late 2010s trend of explicit misogyny in the genre of vi Mexican Regional music. Through a close listening methodology, I identify the distinct ideologies that undergird each of these projects and qualify them as distinct radiophonic feminisms. I argue that their work revamps the testimonio genre as a testimonio en vivo, a live, and ongoing bearing witness to injustice that calls to immediate action by sonically interrupting gendered cultural violence. Their work is a trabajo que no se ve, an unseen labor and product that advances women’s status in society. It acts through horizontal women-organized sonic spaces of convivencia through which women (re)construct feminist epistemologies. vii Table of Contents Introduction: Hearing Latina Voices .............................................................................1 The Embodied Politics of Latina Voices in Popular Culture ..............................14 Close Listening as a Decolonizing Research Method ........................................26 Radiophonic Techniques: Testimonio en vivo, Trabajo que no se ve, and Sonic Spaces of Convivencia ..................................................................................34 Chapter Road Map ..............................................................................................44 Chapter 1: Alicia Alarcón a Critical Voice in AM Spanish-Language Radio .............47 Biography and Career, Gender Politics of Spanish-Language Radio .................53 A Dissonant Voice, Strategic Silences ...............................................................66 Sounds of Critical Femininity: Regaños and Desmayos ...................................71 Chapter 2: “Radio ‘pal barrio”: Marlene Quinto and the Sonic Desmadre of Gordibuena Feminism ............................................................................................86 Biography: Marlene’s Conocimiento ..................................................................88 Exploiting Listener’s Misogyny: Marlene 13, La Bozales , La Vozalona, La Marleona .......................................................................................................93 Streaming Feminist Desmadre ..........................................................................103 Gordibuena Politics: Curating her Image .........................................................108 Chapter 3: The Sonic Spaces of Convivencia of Super Mamás, Chicana M(other)work, and Locatora Radio .....................................................................114 Latina/o/x Podcasting, Sonic Spaces of Convivencia in the Digital Age .........117 Super Mamás: Sounding Mamá Sisterhood .....................................................123 Chicana M(other)work: Sounding Third Woman Feminism ............................134 Locatora Radio: The Sound of High Femme Politics .......................................142 viii Chapter 4: Contestaciones to Narcodespechos: Gender Politics in Regional Mexican Music....................................................................................................................153 Musical Machismo and Feminine Countersongs at the Borderlands ...............155 “Duermo tranquila mi amor”: Overpowering Machos .....................................159 “Ni que fuera bruta”: Appraising Women’s Worth .........................................164 “Hay que tener valor”: Re-Writing Sex ............................................................168 Conclusion: Sound as a Point of Departure ...............................................................175 Appendix 1: List of Latina/o/x Podcasts ....................................................................183 Works Cited ...............................................................................................................187 ix Introduction: Hearing Latina Voices This dissertation listens closely to the work of contemporary Latina radio talk hosts across U.S. Southwest commercial AM/FM radio and independent web-based broadcasts. It seeks to understand how they sonically express feminist ideologies through their voice, music choices, and other mediated sounds. I select from the work of Latinas who articulate feminist politics, broadly defined as a commitment to advancing the social, cultural, and political status of women. Beginning from this broad definition, this project underscores the multi-dimensional ideological discourses that underpin each case study, highlighting the plural, complicated, and sometimes contradictory gendered versions of personal and political empowerment in popular culture. Through a close listening methodology that draws from the fields of Chicana Feminism, Literature Studies, and Sound Studies, this project uses sound as an entry point to re-describe cultural history. Moreover, it incorporates the conocimiento of Latina radio hosts as shared through interviews and co- editing in line with a decolonizing Chicana feminist approach to scholarship. I highlight significant moments in popular Latina feminism of the last 30 years (from the late 1980s to the present) previously overlooked by Latina/o Studies scholars beginning with Alicia Alarcón, a borderland journalist, writer, and political commentator in AM Spanish-language host who began her career in radio during the height of the 1990s anti-immigrant movement. I continue with Marlene Quinto, an immigrant, working class, bilingual