In the decimated city: symptom, translation, and the performance of a New York jíbaro from Ladí to Luciano to Lavoe
Title:
In the decimated city: symptom, translation, and the performance of a New York jíbaro from Ladí to Luciano to Lavoe
Author:
Urayoán Noel
Appeared in:
Centro journal
Paging:
Volume XIX (2007) nr. 2 pages 120-139
Year:
2007
Contents:
In this article I examine El Conjunto Típico Ladí¿s seis con décima ¿Un jíbaro en Nueva York¿ (1947) as an exercise in performative (mis)translation. Following Patricia Gherovici¿s The Puerto Rican Syndrome and Frances Negrón- Muntaner¿s Boricua Pop, I argue that the song¿s performance of a jíbaro in New York builds upon what was already a contested and controversial construction¿the Puerto Rican jíbaro¿and posits a multilayered, synthetic, fluid, and highly ambivalent model of diasporic puertorriqueñidad. (In my reading, mistranslation functions not as an obstacle to diaspora¿s articulation, but as a key strategy of diasporic performance.) Lastly, I read this song against the Nuyorican movement¿s aesthetic and political resignifying of the jíbaro, as evidenced in Felipe Luciano¿s spoken-word piece ¿Jíbaro/My Pretty Nigger¿ and Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón¿s Asalto navideño albums.
Journal description