View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.Awarded Honorable Mention for the 2005 MLA Prize in United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies. ôLoca Motion is a work of intelligent exuberance. Michelle Habell-Pallßn has the eyes, ears, and heart to read popular performance, culture, and music as the new archives of Chicana and Latina transnational and translocal histories.ö--Lisa Lowe,UC San DiegoôForget about Ricky Martin and Shakira, here come El Vez and Marga Gomez. Habell-Pallßn has produced a highly original study of Chicano/Latino popular culture and of its local, national and international dimensions by taking us into the world of alternative and experimental Chicano/Latino art.ö--Arlene Davila, author of Barrio DreamsOffers insight into the dynamics of race, class, gender and sexuality.

--Hispanic LInk Weekly ReportIn the summer of 1995, El Vez, the ôMexican Elvis,ö along with his backup singers and band, The Lovely Elvettes and the Memphis Mariachis, served as master of ceremony for a ground-breaking show, ôDiva L.A.: A Salute to L.A.Æs Latinas in the Tanda Style.ö The performances were remarkable not only for the talent displayed, but for their blend of linguistic, musical, and cultural traditions.In Loca Motion, Michelle Habell-Pallßn argues that performances like Diva L.A.

play a vital role in shaping and understanding contemporary transnational social dynamics. Chicano/a and Latino/a popular culture, including spoken word, performance art, comedy, theater, and punk music aesthetics, is central to developing cultural forms and identities that reach across and beyond the Americas, from Mexico City to Vancouver to Berlin. Drawing on the lives and work of a diverse group of artists,Habell-Pallßn explores new perspectives that defy both traditional forms of Latino cultural nationalism and the expectations of U.S. culture. The result is a sophisticated rethinking of identity politics and an invaluable lens from which to view the complex dynamics of race, class, gender, and sexuality.