A Kiss across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad

by Richard T. Rodríguez

Overview

In A Kiss across the Ocean Richard T. Rodríguez examines the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their Latinx audiences in the United States since the 1980s. Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodríguez spotlights a host of influential bands and performers including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam Ant, Bauhaus, Soft Cell, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Pet Shop Boys. He recounts these bands’ importance for him and other Latinx kids and discusses their frequent identification with these bands’ glamorous performance of difference. Whether it was Siouxsie Sioux drawing inspiration from Latinx contemporaries and cultural practices or how Soft Cell singer Marc Almond’s lyrics were attuned to the vibrancy of queer Latinidad, Rodríguez shows how Latinx culture helped shape British post-punk. He traces the fandom networks that link these groups across space and time to illuminate how popular music establishes and facilitates intimate relations across the Atlantic. In so doing, he demonstrates how the music and styles that have come to define the 1980s hold significant sway over younger generations equally enthused by their matchlessly pleasurable and political reverberations. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478023180
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	08/08/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Richard T. Rodríguez is Professor of English and Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and author of Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  ix
A Kiss Across the Ocean: An Introduction  1
1. Red over White  27
2. Touching Prince Charming  48
3. Darker Entries  67
4. The Shining Sinners  85
5. Zoot Suits and Secondhand Knowledge  104
6. Mexican Americanos  128
7. Latin/o American Party  147
Conclusion. Dedicated to the One I Love  164
Notes  175
References  207
Index  231

What People are Saying About This

Holly Johnson

“This is a book written from the heart. Read it, learn, and feel. I vote for Richard T. Rodríguez, a subject close to my heart.”

The Florida Room - Alexandra T. Vazquez

“Breathtaking and medicinal, this is one of those surprise books that you didn’t know you needed until you read it. And after reading it (in one glorious, page-turning sitting!) there is a feeling of being fuller. It enables a heartful recall of the abundant creativity of people past and present who did everything to make minoritarian misfit sensibility and practice. In its luminosity and special vibe, A Kiss across the Ocean gives readers the tools to wonder with precision about intuitive pulls to sounds and their surrounds. This book is a powerful force for good.”

Editorial Reviews

"Tender, wry, delicate, and rich, A Kiss across the Ocean is a love letter to the theatrically potent musical and visual gestures of the artists and bands of the British postpunk scene that made a difference in the mid-1980s and continue to do so today, even when people may have forgotten some of the bands’ names."

Theatre Survey - Caridad Svich

"An intriguing study of how music builds connections between different communities, and how pop desire translates over time and space."

 

Rolling Stone - Rob Sheffield

"Ultimately, Rodriguez’s book is a tribute to the music that not only provided a soundtrack to his teenage years but also enabled him to navigate his way through the thorny questions of identity."

San Antonio Express-News - Gilbert Garcia

"Rodríguez could’ve easily ripped into a press corps that still largely thinks Latinos only listen to Spanish-language music backed by either accordions or congas. He does critique them but limits the bile in favor of a warm, poignant memoir-analysis, which he writes is 'animated by a deep investigative labor propelled by fannish investment.'"

Los Angeles Times - GustavoArellano

"In this part-memoir, part-ethnography of England and SoCal in the 1980s, author Rodríguez, a professor of media and cultural studies and English at UC Riverside, investigates what binds these two seemingly disparate cultures. Starting with his own tween-age fandom of Boy George and the Culture Club, Rodríguez plumbs the depths of the passionate, sometimes tainted love affair between British post-punks and the Latinos who worship at their altar."

Los Angeles Times - Suzy Exposito

"Extremely well written and researched the book is a fantastic exploration  into the wider reaches of UK post-punk and compulsive reading for those with an interest in subculture studies and the post-punk scene itself."

Vive Le Rock - Lee Powell

"In seven short chapters, the author’s intertwining of autobiography and a deeply researched history is a winning approach for articulating the equally intertwined friendships, influence and politics of British post-punk and Latin American cultures."

Punk & Post-Punk - Maria Elena Buszek

"The book is valuable in furthering a grasp of the deeply nuanced cultural hybridity, orientation and style sensibilities that have informed U.S. Latinx life from its very beginnings, and how this community has in turn been pivotal in determining artistic output beyond our borders and into the mainstream. . . . , Rodriguez opens up vistas from personal experience and lifelong research to chart dizzying connections across fandom, fantasy and friendships, showing influences from Latinos on both U.S. coasts on recording artists who received and processed Latinx culture in tandem with their trans-Atlantic careers."

New Lines Magazine - Benjamin Ortiz