Description: Petra R. Rivera-Rideau analyzes how Zumba Fitness--an exercise program that draws from Latin music and dance--creates and sells a vision of Latinness that's tropical, hypersexual, and party-loving.
Review Quotes: "Meticulously argued and persuasively written, Fitness Fiesta! will without a doubt expand the parameters of Latinx studies while sharply revealing how popular music and dance operate on multiple registers of reception. It sets the bar for future critical assessments of the unrelenting market demands for tropicalized Latinidad and will quickly take its place as a touchstone text in Latinx cultural studies."--Richard T. Rodríguez, author of, A Kiss across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad
"We cannot underestimate the cultural damage that is done by the practices of misrepresentation of Latinidad and Latin music, to which Zumba is a contributor. Petra R. Rivera-Rideau outlines why we must all take Zumba seriously, as it is one of the contemporary ways that global audiences come to understand, consume, and appropriate this very particular representation of Latinness. Fitness Fiesta! will be an instant classic."--Vanessa Díaz, author of, Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood "Rivera-Rideau's work is novel, entertaining, and well-researched scholarship shedding light on some of the more hidden mechanisms of racial and ethnic exclusion in the US. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals."--Choice