Un fixing the race: Midcentury sonic Latinidad in the shadow of Hollywood
Abstract"Un fixing the Race: Midcentury Sonic Latinidad in the Shadow of Hollywood" analyzes the careers of postwar era crooner Andy Russell and jump blues musician Don Tosti to make the argument that while these artists were associated with symbolic Whiteness (Russell) and symbolic Blackness (Tosti) their musical practices engaged sonic Latinidad to express, rather than elude, their Mexican American cultural origins. Rejecting the option of acoustic "passing," they employed Spanish language and pachuco Calo in their performances and recordings and claimed a space for Latinos as subjects, rather than exotic Others, within the project of borderlands modernity.