Puerto Rican sugar: the transnational film career of Mapy Cortés

This article charts the movie star text of Puerto Rican entertainer Mapy Cortés (1910 1998), one of the top boxoffice attractions of Mexican cinema in the 1940s, who made a quick trip to Hollywood in 1942 and returned to Puerto Rico in the 1950s and 60s to collaborate in the nascent national television and cinema. By charting the vedette s on-screen image, especially her embodiment of Puerto Rico, the tropics or Pan-Americanism, the article analyzes the racial and gender norms governing transnational Puerto Rican stars prior to better known Latina performers such as Rita Moreno or Jennifer López.