Mexicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction - Hardcover

by Aída Hurtado (Editor), Norma E. Cantú (Editor)

2020 Second Place, Best Nonfiction Multi Author, International Latino Book Awards

Collecting the perspectives of scholars who reflect on their own relationships to particular garments, analyze the politics of dress, and examine the role of consumerism and entrepreneurialism in the production of creating and selling a style, meXicana Fashions examines and searches for meaning in these visible, performative aspects of identity.

Focusing primarily on Chicanas but also considering trends connected to other Latin American communities, the authors highlight specific constituencies that are defined by region ("Tejana style," "L.A. style"), age group ("homie," "chola"), and social class (marked by haute couture labels such as Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta). The essays acknowledge the complex layers of these styles, which are not mutually exclusive but instead reflect a range of intersections in occupation, origin, personality, sexuality, and fads. Other elements include urban indigenous fashion shows, the shifting quinceañera market, "walking altars" on the Days of the Dead, plus-size clothing, huipiles in the workplace, and dressing in drag. Together, these chapters illuminate the full array of messages woven into a vibrant social fabric.

Author Biography

Aída Hurtado is a professor and the Luis Leal Endowed Chair in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author and editor of numerous books, most recently Beyond Machismo: Intersectional Latino Masculinities.

Norma E. Cantú is the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Endowed Professor in Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio. In addition to pursuing scholarly research in folklore and literary studies, she has published poetry and fiction, including the award-winning Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera. Her most recent coedited volume is Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art.