Chapter 1.
The discussions of personhood are grounded in Vodou philosophy, Agamben's and Roach's work on substitution, and a performance analysis of Marissa Chibás's one-woman play, Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, view excerpts on Vimeo.
Chapter 3.
This chapter compares the performance stages that anchor the tourism industry throughout the Caribbean and contrasts them to improvised spaces that are off of that circuit.
•Referenced in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's Tres Tristes Tigres is the famous Tropicana Club, which is contrasted to el chowcito where La Estrella, a fictionalized portrait of La Freddy, originally performs (Besame mucho):
•Featured in the description of the rumshop Sunday fête in Oonya Kempadoo's Tide Running include Lady Saw's "Sycamore Tree":
Most notable is Buju Banton's "Til I'm Laid to Rest," the lyrics of which the protagonist mis-sings to make them more appropriate to his own desires.
•Ernest Pépin's L'Envers du décor describes the impact of being an audience member to the following songs:
Chapter 4.
Proposing that blogs can be read as drawing on both the performance dynamics of the dance circle and literary practices, this chapter analyzes blogs by Staceyann Chin and Zoé Valdés. As work in the digital sphere is wont to do, both blogs have changed their appearance and location radically since I undertook the analysis. Chin's personal website, staceyannchin.com, which hosted her blog "Cyberjournal" no longer exists, but much of her text--if not the comments on which much of my research relies--has been migrated to the notes section of her facebook page. Although its layout has changed in between 2014 and now, Zoé Valdés's website remains present at zoevaldes.net.
Chapter 5.
This chapter places Rosario Ferré's short story "Maquinolandera" in conversation with Jacques Stephen Alexis's Les Arbres musiciens. Ferré's "Maquinolandera" is named for and structured on the performance by Ismael Rivera as part of Cortijo y su combo.
Del programa de la televisión de Puerto Rico "El Show del Medio Día", transmitido a finales de los años 50's y principios de los 60's, es tomada esta interpretación en ritmo de bomba "Maquino Landera" original de la compositora Margarita Rivera. Es cantada por el "Sonero Mayor" Ismael Rivera acompáñado por Cortijo y su Combo.
