The function of dance in Latin/o American culture is the focus of the essays collected in Everynight Life. The contributors interpret how Latin/o culture expresses itself through dance, approaching the material from the varying perspectives of literary, cultural, dance, performance, queer, and feminist studies. Viewing dance as privileged sites of identity formation and cultural resistance in Latin/o America, Everynight Life translates the motion of bodies into speech, and the gestures of dance into a provocative socio-political grammar.
This anthology looks at many modes of danceundefined;including salsa, merengue, cumbia, rumba, mambo, tango, samba, and norteundefined#241;oundefined;as models for the interplay of cultural memory and regional conflict. Barbara Browningundefined;s essay on capoeira, for instance, demonstrates how dance has been used as a literal form of resistance, while Josundefined#233; Piedra explores the meanings conveyed by women of color dancing the rumba. Pieces such as Gustavo Perez Fundefined#237;rmatundefined;s undefined#34;I Came, I Saw, I Congaundefined;dundefined#34; and Jorge Salessiundefined;s undefined#34;Medics, Crooks, and Tango Queensundefined#34; illustrate the lively scope of this volumeundefined;s subject matter.
Contributors. Barbara Browning, Celeste Fraser Delgado, Jane C. Desmond, Mayra Santos Febres, Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia, Josh Kun, Ana M. Lundefined#243;pez, Josundefined#233; Esteban Muundefined#241;oz, Josundefined#233; Piedra, Gustavo Perez Fundefined#237;rmat, Augusto C. Puleo, David Romundefined#225;n, Jorge Salessi, Alberto Sandoval
