In this broadly conceived exploration of how people represent
identity in the Americas, Suzanne Bost argues that mixture has been
central to the definition of race in the United States, Mexico, and
the Caribbean since the nineteenth century. Her study is
particularly relevant in an era that promotes mixed-race musicians,
actors, sports heroes, and supermodels as icons of a "new" America.
Bost challenges the popular media's notion that a new millennium
has ushered in a radical transformation of American ethnicity; in
fact, this paradigm of the "changing" face of America extends
throughout American history.
Working from literary and historical accounts of mulattas,
mestizas, and creoles, Bost analyzes a tradition, dating from the
nineteenth century, of theorizing identity in terms of racial and
sexual mixture. By examining racial politics in Mexico and the
United States; racially mixed female characters in Anglo-American,
African American, and Latina narratives; and ideas of mixture in
the Caribbean, she ultimately reveals how the fascination with
mixture often corresponds to racial segregation, sciences of
purity, and white supremacy. The racism at the foundation of many
nineteenth-century writings encourages Bost to examine more closely
the subtexts of contemporary writings on the "browning" of
America.
Original and ambitious in scope, "Mulattas and Mestizas"
measures contemporary representations of mixed-race identity in the
United States against the history of mixed-race identity in the
Americas. It warns us to be cautious of the current, millennial
celebration of mixture in popular culture and identity studies,
which may, contrary to all appearances, mask persistent racism and
nostalgia for purity.
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