Creating Masculinity in Los Angeles's Little Manila

Working-Class Filipinos and Popular Culture, 1920s-1950s
Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-0-231-11593-3
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 383 g

Reihe: Popular Cultures, Everyday Lives

In this new work, Linda Espana-Maram analyzes the politics of popular culture in the lives of Filipino laborers in Los Angeles's Little Manila, from the 1920s to the 1940s. The Filipinos' participation in leisure activities, including the thrills of Chinatown's gambling dens, boxing matches, and the sensual pleasures of dancing with white women in taxi dance halls sent legislators, reformers, and police forces scurrying to contain public displays of Filipino virility. But as Espana-Maram argues, Filipino workers, by flaunting "improper" behavior, established niches of autonomy where they could defy racist attitudes and shape an immigrant identity based on youth, ethnicity, and notions of heterosexual masculinity within the confines of a working class.

España-Maram takes this history one step further by examining the relationships among Filipinos and other Angelenos of color, including the Chinese, Mexican Americans, and African Americans. Drawing on oral histories and previously untapped archival records, España-Maram provides an innovative and engaging perspective on Filipino immigrant experiences.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Espana-Maram, Linda

España-Maram, Linda

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Ethnographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Physische Anthropologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik Soziale Arbeit/Sozialpädagogik: Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kultursoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Filipino Immigration to California and the Contours of Filipino Immigrant Studies 1. Making a Living: The Meanings of Work and the Struggles for Solidarity2. Of Dice and Men: Inter-Asian Relations and the Ethnic Vice Industry in Chinatown3. From the "Living Doll" to the "Bolo Puncher": Prizefighting, Masculinity, and the Sporting Life4. "White Trash" and "Brown Hordes": Taxi Dance Halls and the Policing of Working-Class Bodies5. The War Years: Identity Politics at the Crossroads of Spectacle, Excess, and Combat6. Reformulating Communities: Filipino Los Angeles Since World War IINotesBibliographyIndex

Leseproben

Read an excerpt from the chapter >"From the 'Living Doll' to the 'Bolo Puncher'" (pdf)

Über Autor(innen)

Linda Espana-Maram is associate professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Long Beach.