Elena, Princesa of the Periphery
182 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
14 color, 1 BW
Paperback
Release Date:17 Mar 2023
ISBN:9781978830172
Hardcover
Release Date:17 Mar 2023
ISBN:9781978830189
Elena, Princesa of the Periphery
Disney’s Flexible Latina Girl
Rutgers University Press
In the summer of 2016, Disney introduced its first Latina princess, Elena of Avalor. Princesa of the Periphery explores this Disney property using multiple case studies to understand its approach to girlhood and Latinidad. Following the circuit of culture model, author Diana Leon-Boys teases out moments of complex negotiations by Disney, producers, and audiences as they navigate Elena’s circulation. Case studies highlight how a flexible Latinidad is deployed through corporate materials, social media pages, theme park experiences, and the television series to create a princess who is both marginal to Disney’s normative vision of princesshood and central to Disney’s claims of diversification. This multi-layered analysis of Disney’s mediated Latina girlhood interrogates the complex relationship between the U.S.’s largest ethnic minority and a global conglomerate that stands in for the U.S. on the global stage.
In this fascinating and insightful study, Diana Leon-Boys demonstrates how Disney has constructed notions of Latina girlhood through its first Latina princess. Through apt exploration of Elena of Avalor on screen and at Disney theme parks, she illuminates how Latina girls’ media is positioned as both Latin American and Latinx, and always peripheral to the U.S. mainstream.
Well researched and argued, Princesa of the Periphery is a welcome contribution to Latinx/girls/media studies. Focusing on Elena of Avalor, one of Disney’s newest 'empowered' yet marginalized princesses, Leon-Boys helps us to understand the complexities of representing and performing Latina girlhood in U.S. popular culture while also drawing attention to the potential consequences of such depictions for Latina girls, who are hungry for public recognition and deserving of authentic role models.
This is a vital and sophisticated study of the connection between Latina girlhood and the dream machine that is Disney. Leon-Boys attends to the voices of Latina girls, and complements this with powerful insights on how Latina girls are seen within media production cultures. The result is a powerful and compelling argument about the marketization of dreams and the reconstitution of Latina marginalization.
DIANA LEON-BOYS is an assistant professor in the department of communication at the University of South Florida, Tampa.
Introduction: Latina Girls’ Media Studies
1 From Black-and-White Mouse to “Latina” Girl
2 The Flexible Production of a “Latina” Princess
3 Animated Latina Girlhood and the Continuum of Flexibility
4 On-Site Performance of Latinidad from East Coast to West Coast
Conclusion: A Princess for All Is a Princess Without a Home
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
1 From Black-and-White Mouse to “Latina” Girl
2 The Flexible Production of a “Latina” Princess
3 Animated Latina Girlhood and the Continuum of Flexibility
4 On-Site Performance of Latinidad from East Coast to West Coast
Conclusion: A Princess for All Is a Princess Without a Home
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
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