ABSTRACT

Latinxs continue to shape and influence popular culture within the United States (US) through a variety of media forms, fashion, music, popular narratives such as television, performance art, social media, dance, and more. Latinxs, who are a multifaceted and diverse group themselves, affect and influence US popular culture in a variety of ways. One way of thinking of how Latinx cultural traditions have helped US popular culture into what it is to evaluate and ascertain where the traces and evidence of Latinx culture appear within the everyday cultural practices of a majority of Americans. The high visibility of popular culture and its ability to go viral also reminds one of the deleterious natures certain pernicious manifestations of Latinxs in popular culture can be. In considering how and when Latinxs have appeared in popular culture, one can gain a sense of a starting point, the first few tremors that began the avalanche.