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Rodríguez Clara E. Smithsonian Books, Washington, 2004.256pp. Hardback.ISBN: 158-834-1119
The late Jacques Derrida demonstrated to Western thought how language could have denotative and connotative meanings where, according to Simon Wortham (1999), the relative meanings of "survival" and the act of "surviving" speak to the perseverance of ideas and images. Hence, surviving connotes more than just the subjective act of perseverance common to the narratives of reality-based television shows; the term also describes the impact of preserving or revitalizing ideas and discourse - an agency in maintaining modes of thought.1 Thus, the history of the Latina and Latino presence in the Hollywood motion picture industry survives through the agency of Latina film scholars such as Clara Rodríguez, whose Heroes, Lovers, and Others: The Story of Latinos in Hollywood preserves the obscure legacy of Hispanics in film. As the author of Puerto Ricans: Born in the USA (1991) and the editor of Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in US Media , Rodríguez has previously addressed the diversity of Hispanic representations in the American motion picture industry, with an emphasis on profiling her subjects as a vehicle for exploring their sociological significations. As overdetermined as the subtitle is in suggesting a conventional narrative approach, Rodríguez's new volume nonetheless provides an engaging academic exercise in historiography that enhances her chronology and complements the numerous photographs that are included. Chicano film scholar and film archivist Chon A. Noriega has implied that the primary threat to the Chicano and Latino image alike is the threat of erasure - specifically the erasure of independently produced images that do not benefit from the institutional preservation efforts of Hollywood and the Smithsonian institute. Published by Smithsonian Books, Heroes, Lovers and Others suggests how this erasure has already occurred with regards to the earliest Latino actors and portrayals. In a sense, Rodríguez's work supplements the recent 2002 documentary by Susan Racho...