Introduction Chapter 1: Piety and Public Space: The Cemetery Campaign in Veracruz, 1789–1810 Pamela Voekel Chapter 2: Church, Humboldt, and Darwin: The Tension and Harmony of Art and Science Stephen Jay Gould Chapter 3: Black Kings, Blackface Carnival, and Nineteenth-Century Origins of the Tango John Charles Chasteen Chapter 4: "Cartas y cartas, compadre . . . .": Love and other letters from Río Frío William E. French Chapter 5: Peddling the Pampas: Argentina at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889 Ingrid E. Fey Chapter 6: Death and Disorder in Mexico City: The State Funeral of Manuel Romero Rubio Matthew D. Esposito Chapter 7: Images of Indians in the Construction of Ecuadorian Identity at the End of the Nineteenth Century Blanca Muratorio Chapter 8: Many Chefs in the National Kitchen: Cookbooks and Identity in Nineteenth-Century Mexico Jeffrey M. Pilcher Chapter 9: The New Order: Diversions and Modernization in Turn-of-the-Century Lima Fanni Muñoz Cabrejo Chapter 10: From the Ruins of the Ancien Régime: Mexico's Monument to the Revolution Thomas L. Benjamin Chapter 11: Racial Parity and National Humor: Carmen Miranda's Samba Performances, 1930–1939 Darién J. Davis Chapter 12: Oil, Race, and Calypso in Trinidad and Tobago, 1909–1990 Graham E. L. Holton Chapter 13: The Dictator's Seduction: Gender and State Spectacle during the Trujillo Regime Lauren H. Derby Chapter 14: En el corazón del pueblo: Pedro Infante's Funeral, the Pueblo Motif, and the Contest over his Legacy Sal Acosta Chapter 15: Nostalgia for the Future: The New Song Movement in Nicaragua Janet L. Sturman

William Beezley and Linda Curcio-Nagy demonstrate the centrality of popular culture to the understanding of history. They analyze song, dance, ceremony, funerals, regalia, icons, exhibitions, protest, and literature to measure values and provide deep insights regarding class, gender, and race. This book is a tour de force.