"The Gender of Latinidad: Uses and Abuses of Hybridity explores the way Latina representations have exploded onto mainstream popular culture--and into American consciousness. From "J Lo's butt", Penelope Cruz, and steamy tele-novellas, to Bratz and Flava dolls and the PBS cartoon, "Dora the Explorer", the volume will probe the dynamic manner by which Latinas are portrayed, caricatured and commercialized as cultural forms. While Valdivia's focus is primarily here in the United States, she also examines U.S. popular culture as the world's biggest import. By sifting through the current Latino "craze" as well as the usual pop culture clutter--women's magazines, mass-produced and marketed children's toys and books, television, popular music, movies, and celebrity culture--The Gender of Latinidad: Uses and Abuses of Hybridity soberly and sensibly addresses the popular iconography of Latinidad in its everyday location"--