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Copyright by Keara Kaye Goin 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Keara Kaye Goin Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Dominican Identity in Flux: Media Consumption, Negotiation, and Afro-Caribbean Subjectivity in the U.S. Committee: Mary Beltrán, Supervisor Maria Franklin Shanti Kumar Janet Staiger Joseph Straubhaar Dominican Identity in Flux: Media Consumption, Negotiation, and Afro- Caribbean Subjectivity in the U.S. by Keara Kaye Goin, BA, MA 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 2015 Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank who have been instrumental and provided unwavering support throughout the five year process that has culminated in this dissertation. I would first like to thank Mary Beltrán for not only serving as my dissertation chair but also my advisor and champion throughout my Ph.D. Thank you for reading countless drafts of papers, articles, and chapters. I know not all of them were exceptional and without you I would not have been able to accomplish half of what I was able to over our time together. Thank you for listening to me vent, giving me direction for my degree and academic future, and always being in my corner. Words cannot even begin to express the level of gratitude I have for you and all you have done for me. I would also like to thank my committee members, Maria Franklin, Shanti Kumar, Janet Staiger, and Joseph Straubhaar. Thank you for your comments, advice, and support along the way. Without your contributions I would not have been able to craft and conduct this research project. To the countless Dominicans and Dominican-Americans I interviewed, spoke with, and engaged with in New York City I am forever grateful and humbled by your insight. I only hope that my dissertation iv is able to relay your voices and share your experiences. I would also like to thank the City University of New York Dominican Studies Center for providing me with a home base for my fieldwork and being a source of information. The wealth of scholarship you hold in your archives and support through your initiatives are truly inspirational and were incredibly influential for this dissertation. To Nelson Santana, thank you for being my cultural interpreter, key informant, and research facilitator. Without you I would not have been able to complete my research and for that I will be forever grateful. To my family, who to this day think my desire to be an academic is a sign of insanity, thank you for never doubting that this is something I could achieve. Thank you to my father and sister for proofreading things that you would normally have no interest in ever reading. To my partner, Chad Parker, thank you for lighting a fire in my heart and under my ass. This time has been a challenging one for us, but without you I would have never known the level of joy I now experience every day. Finally, I would like to thank my fellow graduate students who have struggled in the trenches with me for all these years. I would like to especially thank my friend and academic soulmate Alfred Martin. Thank you for reading countless drafts, talking to me for hours, helping me work out ideas, and being my graduate school role model. I hope that I can be half the scholar you are. To Ikram Toumi, thank you for being my cheerleader and constantly reminding me that this was not only possible for me but that I was good at it. Nobody can boost my confidence and reignite my drive like you. v Dominican Identity in Flux: Media Consumption, Negotiation, and Afro- Caribbean Subjectivity in the U.S. Keara Kaye Goin, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Supervisor: Mary Beltrán This dissertation uses U.S. media as a lens to interpret the identity negotiation practices among Dominican-Americans and Domini cans living in the U.S. in the struggle to maintain an identification that is distinct from both pan-ethnic latinidad and blackness. Not appropriately hailed by either category, those that are of both Latino and African heritages must attempt to negotiate and position themselves within racialized discourses that place “Black” and “Latino” as mutually exclusive categories, discourses that simultaneously privilege these categories above other forms of identification that would be more salient for U.S. Dominican communities, namely nationality or cultural heritage. As a result, those with a Dominican/Dominican- American subjectivity are challenged to find representations that reflect their racial, ethnic, and national identities, often negotiating an identification with images that do vi not accommodate their regularly ignored dominicanidad . Therefore, my dissertation is framed by the question: what are the ways Dominicans navigate U.S. mediated and discursive landscapes of identity and how are they negotiating U.S. media and the representations they include? Through a combination of traditional fieldwork conducted in New York City, a critical cultural study, and internet reception study, this dissertation seeks to give voice to those who are experiencing identity in flux. Not only does such a project address a U.S. population that is often ignored and marginalized within the scholarly literature, it attempts to complicate identity negotiation processes within the U.S. more broadly. Rooted in the contention that dominicanidad is uniquely positioned to potentially challenge U.S. hegemonic racial ideology, my dissertation will provide two critical interventions into the field of Latina/o Media Studies: (1) it offers an exploration of the mediated representation and discourses contributing to a highly negotiated process of identification among Dominicans and Dominican-Americans, and (2) it reveals a more intimate and contested relationship between blackness and latinidad based on how they are imbedded within articulations of dominicanidad . Ultimately, my project illuminates how the negotiated usage of various media (such as television, films, and websites) by Dominicans in the U.S. plays a significant role within a fluctuating understanding of dominicanidad . vii Table of Contents List of Figures .........................................................................................................xi Introduction: Ethnoracial Discourses and dominicanidad ......................................1 Literature Review.........................................................................................11 Mestizaje and Dominican Ethnoracial Heritage ..................................14 U.S. Mediations and Paradigms of Latinidad ......................................18 Discourses of African Hypodescent and Blackness ....................20 Ethnic Labels, Pan-Ethnicity, and Group Identifications ............24 Constructing a Panethnic Latino Audience ................................29 Dominican and Afro-Caribbean Latinidad...........................................33 Diaspora Studies and the Mediation of Diaspora ...............................41 Methodology: Approach and Research Design............................................45 New York City Fieldwork .....................................................................46 Internet Critical Cultural and Reception Study....................................48 Chapter Summaries......................................................................................52 Chapter One: Mediated dominicanidad: Dominican/Dominican-American Responses to Dominicans in U.S. Mainstream Media ...................................................58 Celebrities as Text ........................................................................................62 U.S. Celebrity and the “Americanization” of Ethnic and Racialized Stars ....66 Zoe Saldana or Zoë Saldaña?: Ambiguous dominicanidad and the Hollywood Star......................................................................................................70 Zoe Saldana’s Cinematic Oeuvre.........................................................72 Saldana and (In)Authentic dominicanidad ..........................................77 What’s In A Name?: The Connotations of Dropping the Enye ............81 “I Am Just Zoe”: Zoe Saldana as a Raced Post-Racial Figure ...............84 Alex Rodriguez: A-Rod’s “Americanized” Persona .......................................91 A-Rod: The Damned Yankee................................................................96 viii “A-Rod is Not the Yankee Type”........................................................100 Failure on Both Ends of the Hyphen: Neither American nor Dominican Enough .....................................................................................103 Dominican Music Stars: A More Authentic Representation of Dominicanidad ? ..........................................................................................................105 Chapter Two: MTV’s Washington Heights and Televisual dominicanidad ..........118 Reality Television .......................................................................................122 MTV, Reality TV, and the Spectacle of Otherness......................................125 MTV Reality Branding........................................................................126 MTV and Identity Production............................................................130 MTV Reality TV as a Spectacle of Containment ................................134 The Hills in the