NEW BOOK: Latina Teens, Migration, and Popular Culture

[Ryan Goble]

Latina Teens, Migration, and Popular Culture

This richly ethnographic book explores the relationship between migration and popular 19
culture through a case study of the consumption practices of working-class, transnational
Latina teens. While everyday practices are examined at the local level, the processes of
identity construction that Vargas seeks to address are akin to those created by diasporic
youth around the world. The book is suitable for graduate and upper-level undergraduate
courses in Latina/o communication studies and international/global communication.
Scholars researching youth will also find the book of particular interest.


“This is a gracefully written and wonderfully illuminating study of young transnational
Latinas’ media uses, living outside the main U.S. centers of Latinidad. Lucila Vargas
deploys theoretical insight skillfully but critically, using Fernando Ortiz, Edward Said,
Linda Martín Alcoff, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Judith Butler. Throughout, however, the
voices of the teens are respectfully placed at center stage. This is a mature and searching
report on changes and dilemmas in communication and ‘race’ in the contemporary USA.”

John D.H. Downing, Director, Global Media Research Center,
Southern Illinois University Carbondale


“Lucila Vargas presents a sensitive and reflexive portrait of the Latina migration
experience via a transnational media literacy project. Her sophisticated use of poststructural
theories of identity as a performance, combined with critical race theory and current
research on the psychological development of migrants and teens, makes this a unique
interdisciplinary contribution to the humanities and social sciences. The analysis Vargas
culls from working with her teenage girl subjects sets an action research agenda for studying
immigration and belonging in the contexts of hegemonic media representations,
painful migration memories, and the lived realities in the New Latino South.”

Vicki Mayer, Tulane University