This volume sets out current debates about Puerto Rico. The title simultaneously refers to the results of a non-binding 1998 plebiscite held in San Juan to determine Puerto Rico's political status, the ambiguities that have historically characterized its political agency, and the complexities of its ethnic, national, and cultural identifications.

NATIONALISM WITHOUT A NATION-STATE The Absent State; F.Picó Nation, Migration, Identity; J.Duany Sailing the USS Titanic: Puerto Rico's Unique Insertion into Contemporary Globalization Trends; J.Benson National Consensus and the 'Good Feelings' Era; C.Pabón None of the Above Means More of the Same: The Elusive Quest for Puerto Rican Self-Determination; C.Burnett THE SPECTACLE OF POLITICS AND THE POLITICS OF SPECTACLE Entertainment Tonight! Puerto Rican Media and the Privatization of Politics; S.Alvarez Curbelo Vieques: Protest as a Consensual Spectacle; J.Duchesne Racializing the Puerto Rican Day Parade: Recent Media Representations of U.S. Puerto Ricans in Public Space; F.Aparicio Cultural Nationalism: Roots That Kill or Roots That Give Life?; R.Rivera Imagining Puerto Rican Queer Citizenship: Frances Negrón-Muntaner's Brincando el charco; A.Sandoval NO BORDERS On U.S. Latinos; J.Flores Salsa, Bodies, and Brass; J.Quiroga Getting F**ked in Puerto Rico; J.M.Rodríguez "Los Lenguajes Vacilantes": On the Translatability of Bilingual Narratives in Latino Writing; Y.Martínez No Standards: Spanish, Puerto Rican Style; G.Prosper

"Negrón-Muntaner examines Puerto Rico - not as a unique case - but as a key part of the shift toward a 'politics of small problems' that embraces spectacle, ambiguity, and contradiction in order to maneuver around dominant frameworks for political and national identity." - Chon A. Noriega, University of California, Los Angeles, author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema "The uncertain political status of Puerto Rico - is it a state, a nation, a territory? What is a commonwealth, anyway? - allows its dwellers not onlyto morph effortlessly depending on the context, but also to appreciate the world through the prism of ambiguity. The explorations Frances Negrón-Muntaner assembles in this volume do not attempt an exposé of that ambiguity; they simply map it out, innovatively. ¡Burundanga!" - Ilan Stavans, author of Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language "Arguably the most brilliant among an impressive cohort of Puerto Rican cultural critics, Negrón-Muntaner has put together a stylish, serious, totally compelling collection.' - Bruce Robbins, Professor of English, Columbia University, author of Feeling Global: Internationalism in Distress (1999) "An insightful and provocative collection bringing together some of the most important and original Puerto Rican studies scholars working on the States and on the Island. This is a must read on Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, and on theworking of contemporary nationalism and colonialism more generally." - Arlene Dávila, Associate Professor of Anthropology and American Studies, New York University