Selling Fiesta

Chapter 2, “Selling Fiesta,” analyzes the trope of fiesta in Zumba Fitness. The trope of fiesta encompasses many stereotypes associated with the “tropics,” including happiness, dancing, and the exotic. The trope of fiesta neutralizes threatening aspects of stereotypes of Latinos, especially hypersexuality, and transforms them into consumable and desirable qualities. Fiesta reframes Latina sexuality as something that enables white women to tap into their own sexuality. Fiesta also distinguishes the alleged foreignness of tropicalized Latinness by distancing it from US domestic people of color, especially African Americans. This chapter first explains the concept of tropicalization. It analyzes the fashion line Zumba Wear, popular memes about Zumba Fitness, and the experiences of Zumba Fitness instructors to demonstrate how the trope of fiesta centers sexuality and the tropics. The chapter ends by discussing negative perception of twerking in the Zumba Fitness world to show how tropicalized Latinness becomes distanced from Blackness.