ABSTRACT
I explore Latina magazine in conjunction with a number of US Latina writers, including Achy Obejas, and Angie Cruz. Specifically, I look at ways that these writers are able to challenge the assumptions about Latinidad that many outlets of popular media consumption cannot seem to escape. To this end, Latina proves a fruitful place to begin this discussion as it presents a very particular subject position through which Latinidad is created. By analyzing the “Editor’s Note”, the short letter written by the editor to the readers in the initial pages of each issue, I show how the magazine constructs a very specific type of Latinidad, which accounts for some types of acceptable diversity, while completely rejecting others that are seen as more tenuous to the identity. The use of the Editor’s Note (rather than a general look at the entirety of each issue) is key because it is the product of a very specific subject position, wherein the editor creates the terms of Latinidad construction. That is to say, that unlike many of the studies that look at the way Latinxs are represented in various forms of media, almost exclusively by non-Latinxs, here the publication makes its “by us, for us” mission a definitive part of the process of subject formation. Through this discussion, I conclude that more resistant modes of Latina identification need to be made available in popular media.
