Making the Miami Cubanita - by Paula Davis Hoffman (Hardcover)

About the Book

Paula Davis Hoffman studies the cultural precepts and political aims underlying the construction of Cuban femininity in various pop culture outlets produced by, for, and about Cuban Americans in different decades of the Cuban diaspora.

Book Synopsis

At the end of the nineteenth century, William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal glorified cubanas as "the most feminine and simple women in the world." Ever since, the stereotype of Cuban femininity as chaste and dutiful has informed Cubans' racial, social, and ethnic identity in the dominant American imagination, and this gendered and deracialized narrative has taken different forms and served various purposes throughout the Cuban diaspora.

In Making the Miami Cubanita Paula Davis Hoffman examines the cultural precepts and political aims underlying the construction of Cuban femininity in pop culture outlets produced by, for, and about Cuban Americans of the Cuban diaspora. By incorporating academic texts, oral interviews, and elements of popular culture as well as personal accounts of growing up in a first-wave Cuban exile family, Hoffman discusses the historical forces that molded vacillating constructions of Miami Cuban women. Organized by decade, this book traces internal and external articulations of Cuban American culture and examines how Cuban American exceptionalism played into the evolution of the term chonga, originally an insult disciplining young cubanas who performed stigmatized ethnic signifiers that has today become a label some proudly own. Not only does Hoffman fill a gap in academic research surrounding the subculture of Cuban American women, she further demonstrates how migration, race, gender, and sexuality are informed by popular culture and political agenda within the diverse context of South Florida.

Review Quotes

"Deeply researched yet highly personal, rich, and complex yet thoroughly entertaining, this history of Cuban femininity--centered on the rise of the Miami chonga--marks a new milestone in the Cuban American canon. A must-read!"--Lisandro Pérez, author of The House on G Street: A Cuban Family Saga

"From Joan Didion to Desi Arnaz, many cultural workers have tried to make sense of the complexities of Cuban American identity, especially in Miami. Paula Davis Hoffman's highly readable Making the Miami Cubanita is a particularly deft examination of this community, its contradictions, and its meanings. This fabulous book takes readers on quite a ride!"--Jason Ruiz, author of Narcomedia: Latinidad, Popular Culture, and America's War on Drugs

"Interdisciplinary, thought-provoking, and engaging. Mixing memoirs, government policy, radio, television, and film as primary sources helps readers to understand the genealogy of the Miami Cuban in general, and the cubanita to the chonga specifically. This book's deep history, political foregrounding, and textual analysis of media make it readable and informative to any audience."--Adrien P. Sebro, author of Scratchin' and Survivin' Hustle Economics and the Black Sitcoms of Tandem Productions

"Paula Davis Hoffman's readings of Miami Cuban culture bring a fresh critical perspective to our understanding of gendered diasporic cubanidad, for those who are specialists in Cuban American studies as well as for Latinx studies scholars. I cannot stress enough the importance of these two contributions. A pressing need to challenge and complicate reigning scholarly paradigms regarding gendered diasporic cubanidades exists, and this text successfully takes up that call."--María Elena Cepeda, author of Musical ImagiNation: U.S.-Colombian Identity and the Latin Music Boom

"Paula Davis Hoffman's study is a sprawling, challenging addition to the ever-evolving body of research on the various versions of the Cuban American experience. Making the Miami Cubanita poses significant questions about how gender, race, and ethnicity intersect in the Magic City."--Jennine Capó Crucet, author of Say Hello to My Little Friend: A Novel

About the Author

Paula Davis Hoffman is an adjunct professor of history at Houston City College.