When Coco Fusco and collaborator Guillermo Gomez-Pena toured the country in a cage as "authentic natives," their provocative performance piece enraged some and enthralled others. Known for using performance to explore the boundaries of ethnicity in art, Coco Fusco has now brought her talents to bear in a volume of cultural criticism and theory, English is Broken Here. Infused with a unique cultural sensibility, English is Broken Here examines cross-cultural art issues in America at a crucial moment. Coco Fusco adds an original and eloquent voice to a growing debate over cultural identity and visual politics.
Coco Fusco writes about culture and identity with keen insight, wit and passion. I take the title for this review from one of her own performance pieces in which she describes herself as Yoruba-Taino-Catalan-Sephardic-Neopolitan-Cuban-American. She notes wryly, "In the 1990s that makes me Hispanic." Her outlook transcends conventional notions of ethnicity and illuminates how "American" identity is undergoing transculturation. Her chapter providing a "reverse ethnography" of how whites behave at exhibits of native peoples is brilliant. I've incorporated her material for use in a college race relations course, and students of all ethnic backgrounds relate strongly to it.
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