Reading Latina/o images: interrogating Americanos

Abstract

This essay explores the visual and discursive elements of Americanos, a published collection of photographic images of Latina/o life in the United States. While clearly a mass‐market text intended for enjoyment and edification, Americanos also serves as a mass‐mediated rhetoric through its location and its representation of Latina/o life and cultural practices. We argue that, in this role, Americanos serves the project of a critical rhetoric by articulating a vernacular rhetoric, and we explore how the verbal and visual fragments in Americanos invent a Latina/o community while reifying Latina/o differences. We conclude that Americanos implicitly critiques how Latina/o identities have been flattened and distorted by dominant discourses.

Notes

Bernadette Marie Calafell is Assistant Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University. Fernando Delgado is Associate Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Graduate Studies at Arizona State University West. Correspondence to: Bernadette Calafell, 100 Sims Hall, Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244. Email: [email protected]. The first author presented an earlier version of this essay at the 2000 National Communication Association Convention. The authors would like to thank Phaedra Pezullo, J. Robert Cox, Thomas Nakayama, the anonymous reviewers, and the editors of Critical Studies in Media Communication for their thoughtful critiques.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bernadette Marie Calafell

Bernadette Marie Calafell is Assistant Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University. Fernando Delgado is Associate Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Graduate Studies at Arizona State University West. Correspondence to: Bernadette Calafell, 100 Sims Hall, Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244. Email: [email protected]. The first author presented an earlier version of this essay at the 2000 National Communication Association Convention. The authors would like to thank Phaedra Pezullo, J. Robert Cox, Thomas Nakayama, the anonymous reviewers, and the editors of Critical Studies in Media Communication for their thoughtful critiques.