Jennifer as Selena: Rethinking Latinidad in Media and Popular Culture

This essay argues that the similarities among US Latinos that have emerged from their status as historical minorities and racialized subjects can be deployed to understand the sites in which Latinos from different national groups identify and disidentify with each other. Instead of rejecting Latinidad as an exclusively hegemonic concept that homogenizes Latinos, Latinidad can be reclaimed as a site for exploring and further understanding the affinities and analogies of historical minorities as (post)colonial subjects. By looking at sites where Latinidad is constituted, such as the case of Jennifer López becoming Selena for the Gregory Nava film, critics can tease out some of the analogous forms of resistance that bring together a Boricua from the Bronx and a Tejana singer. In addition, the issue of the phenotype, style, fashions, and body of both stars is also discussed in terms of Latina feminism.