Memorializing La Lupe and Lavoe: Singing Vulgarity, Transnationalism, and Gender

Fuente: Redalyc
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Frances R. Aparicio
Format: Artículo científico
Language:en
Published: The City University of New York 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1876443865384222720
author Frances R. Aparicio
author_facet Frances R. Aparicio
contents Memorializing La Lupe and Lavoe: Singing Vulgarity, Transnationalism, and Gender Frances R. Aparicio Wilson A. Valentín-Escobar Sociología gender La Lupe Héctor Lavoe cultural memory transnationalism This essay serves as countermemory, as it reclaims the historical role of two late Latinsingers, Guadalupe Victoria Yoli Raimond, known as “La Lupe,” and Héctor “Lavoe”Pérez, in the development of Latin music in the United States and in the constructionof a Puerto Rican national identity, in the case of Lavoe, and of a Caribbean Latinocommunity in the Diaspora, with respect to La Lupe. Most recently, youngergenerations of salsa singers such as Yolanda Duke, La India, Marc Anthony, and VanLester, have “mimetically embodied” La Lupe and Lavoe, respectively, by recreatingtheir singing styles, their repertoires, and their personae. Why are Puerto Ricans andCaribbean Latinos/as memorializing these two particular singers? While also shapedby gender politics, Lavoe and La Lupe’s countercultural positionings articulate thecomplex process of forming oppositional identities whereby their personal lives andstage personae remit audiences, in metonymic ways, to the constructed illegality ofbeing a Latino in the United States. Their respective social marginalities contributeto their canonization as musical and countercultural heroes while simultaneouslytriggering posthumous performances of countermemory. While Lavoe has beencanonized and integrated into the masculine genealogy of Puerto Rican nationalmusical forms, La Lupe’s struggles with the industry revealed her structuredsecondariness as a female interpreter and artist in a male-dominated world.Transcending the mere reflexivity of music and identity, we also argue that theact and process of memorializing both La Lupe and Lavoe are re-creations and reconstructionsof the Puerto Rican/Latino/a imaginary by incorporating thediasporic narrative into the traditional inscriptions of the nation. 2004 artículo científico 1538-6279 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37716207 en http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=377 Centro Journal application/pdf The City University of New York Centro Journal (Estados Unidos de América) Num.2 Vol.XVI
format Artículo científico
id redalyc_37716207
institution Redalyc
language en
publishDate 2004
publisher The City University of New York
spellingShingle Memorializing La Lupe and Lavoe: Singing Vulgarity, Transnationalism, and Gender
Frances R. Aparicio
Sociología
gender
La Lupe
Héctor Lavoe
cultural memory
transnationalism
Memorializing La Lupe and Lavoe: Singing Vulgarity, Transnationalism, and Gender Frances R. Aparicio Wilson A. Valentín-Escobar Sociología gender La Lupe Héctor Lavoe cultural memory transnationalism This essay serves as countermemory, as it reclaims the historical role of two late Latinsingers, Guadalupe Victoria Yoli Raimond, known as “La Lupe,” and Héctor “Lavoe”Pérez, in the development of Latin music in the United States and in the constructionof a Puerto Rican national identity, in the case of Lavoe, and of a Caribbean Latinocommunity in the Diaspora, with respect to La Lupe. Most recently, youngergenerations of salsa singers such as Yolanda Duke, La India, Marc Anthony, and VanLester, have “mimetically embodied” La Lupe and Lavoe, respectively, by recreatingtheir singing styles, their repertoires, and their personae. Why are Puerto Ricans andCaribbean Latinos/as memorializing these two particular singers? While also shapedby gender politics, Lavoe and La Lupe’s countercultural positionings articulate thecomplex process of forming oppositional identities whereby their personal lives andstage personae remit audiences, in metonymic ways, to the constructed illegality ofbeing a Latino in the United States. Their respective social marginalities contributeto their canonization as musical and countercultural heroes while simultaneouslytriggering posthumous performances of countermemory. While Lavoe has beencanonized and integrated into the masculine genealogy of Puerto Rican nationalmusical forms, La Lupe’s struggles with the industry revealed her structuredsecondariness as a female interpreter and artist in a male-dominated world.Transcending the mere reflexivity of music and identity, we also argue that theact and process of memorializing both La Lupe and Lavoe are re-creations and reconstructionsof the Puerto Rican/Latino/a imaginary by incorporating thediasporic narrative into the traditional inscriptions of the nation. 2004 artículo científico 1538-6279 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37716207 en http://www.redalyc.org/revista.oa?id=377 Centro Journal application/pdf The City University of New York Centro Journal (Estados Unidos de América) Num.2 Vol.XVI
title Memorializing La Lupe and Lavoe: Singing Vulgarity, Transnationalism, and Gender
topic Sociología
gender
La Lupe
Héctor Lavoe
cultural memory
transnationalism
url https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=37716207