Capitán Latinoamérica

Vinodh Venkatesh is Professor of Spanish at Virginia Tech and author of New Maricón Cinema: Outing Latin American Film and The Body as Capital: Masculinities in Contemporary Latin American Fiction.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Mexican Origins2. Urbanization and Its Discontents in El Man, el superhéroe nacional3. Allegories of Trauma and Transition in Mirageman4. The Superhero and a Death Foretold: Chinche Man in San Pedro Sula5. YouTube, Parody, and Neoliberal Critique in Capitán CentroaméricaPost Data: "Un pibe... un boludo más... nos vino a salvar"NotesWorks CitedIndex

"…Capitán Latinoamérica offers students and scholars of Latin American film and culture an excellent starting point for exploring Latin American superheroes. Furthermore, because the examples cited are mostly available on digital platforms, they are an excellent resource for Spanish instructors of all levels looking for authentic materials with which to engage twenty-first-century students." — Hispania"…[a] thought-provoking volume…" — Latin American Research Review"This is a great study that combines concise historical context, astute observations about media forms, and insightful theoretical engagements while, at the same time, exposing readers to a wide range of popular movies—some on the big screen and some on the small—that they might not otherwise know about. Venkatesh does a masterful job demonstrating how superhero films arise in response to specific social, cultural, political, and critical crises." — Brian L. Price, author of Cult of Defeat in Mexico's Historical Fiction: Failure, Trauma, and Loss