Tuning Out Blackness

Rivero Yeidy M. Rivero

Description

Tuning Out Blackness fills a glaring omission in U.S. and Latin American television studies by looking at the history of Puerto Rican television. In exploring the political and cultural dynamics that have shaped racial representations in Puerto Rico's commercial media from the late 1940s to the 1990s, Yeidy M. Rivero advances critical discussions about race, ethnicity, and the media. She shows that televisual representations of race have belied the racial egalitarianism that allegedly pervades Puerto Rico's national culture. White performers in blackface have often portrayed "blackness" in local television productions, while black actors have been largely excluded.Drawing on interviews, participant observation, archival research, and textual analysis, Rivero considers representations of race in Puerto Rico, taking into account how they are intertwined with the island's status as a U.S. commonwealth, its national culture, its relationship with Cuba before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and the massive influx of Cuban migrants after 1960. She focuses on locally produced radio and television shows, particular television events, and characters that became popular media icons-from the performer Ramon Rivero's use of blackface and "black" voice in the 1940s and 1950s, to the battle between black actors and television industry officials over racism in the 1970s, to the creation, in the 1990s, of the first Puerto Rican situation comedy featuring a black family. As the twentieth century drew to a close, multinational corporations had purchased all Puerto Rican stations and threatened to wipe out locally produced programs. Tuning Out Blackness brings to the forefront the marginalization of nonwhite citizens in Puerto Rico's media culture and raises important questions about the significance of local sites of television production.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Cultural studies
• Television
• Puerto Rico
• Puerto Rico (homonymie)

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 06 juillet 2005
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822386803
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Tuning฀Out฀Blackness Race and Nation in the History of Puerto Rican Television

Yeidy฀M.฀Rivero

Tuning Out Blackness

Console-ing Passions Television and Cultural Power Edited by 

Tuning

Out

Blackness

 . 

    

   



   

Durham and London 

©  Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 

Typeset in Minion by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear

on the last printed page of this book.

To my theater friends

and to my parents,

Agustín Rivero Quintero

and Iris Vázquez Merced

Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Translating Televisual ‘‘Blackness’’ 

 Caribbean Negritos: Ramón Rivero, Blackface, and Black Voice in Puerto Rico 

 Bringing the Soul: Afros, Black Empowerment, and the Resurgent Popularity of Blackface 

 The CubaRican Space Revisited 

Mi familia: A Black Puerto Rican Televisual Family 

 Translating and Representing Blackness 

Notes  Bibliography  Index 

Acknowledgments

Anyone who performs studies on television knows that access is essential. In the case of Puerto Rico, where there is a vacuum of research in the area of media studies and where most documents and visual materials are in the hands of private corporations and individuals, the issue of access is even more relevant. That is precisely why this study would have been impossible without the unconditional support of my theater friends. I cannot recount how many times I heard the comforting words (in Span- ish) ‘‘do not worry, I will get the tape for you’’ (or whatever I was desperately looking for), or ‘‘so and so is expecting your call.’’ These friends never let me down. What is more, throughout the seven years of sporadic phone calls and visits to Puerto Rico and New York City, theseteatreros(theater people) served as personal cheerleaders in addition to offering something that I really miss from my theater years: relaxing, unpretentious, and witty conversations filled with laughter. Two of these ex-colleagues, Judith Pizarro and Deborah Carthy-Deu, played a crucial role in various stages of my research. Judith opened the doors to Telemundo-Puerto Rico and Paquito Cordero Teleproducciones. Also, thanks to Judith,Mi familia’s creative personnel welcomed me as an- other ‘‘player on the team.’’ Deborah coordinated interviews with several media professionals and used her universal Puerto Rico power to get me tapes from shows and contacts inside Puerto Rico’s modeling world. Deborah also took time from her extremely busy schedule to dig up information and last minute material unavailable in the United States. I never heard a ‘‘no’’ from Judith Pizarro or Deborah Carthy-Deu. That is why no words can express my immense gratitude. Pablo Cabrera, Tony Chiroldes-Carbia, and Radamés Vega also contrib- uted to the hunting and research process. Pablo not only offered valuable firsthand information about television but he also connected me with a net- work of television professionals. Tony confirmed my worst fears that Leo- poldo Fernández’s documents might be in a garbage can somewhere in Hialeah. However, thanks to Tony, I was able to contact individuals who have impressive private collections of Puerto Rican popular culture. Finally, Radamés provided the highly guarded—and thus not publishable—Media-