Cover -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART I: THE POLITICS OF AMBIGUITY -- 1 The Absent State -- 2 Sailing on the USS Titanic: Puerto Rico's Unique Insertion to Global Economic Trends -- 3 Space out of Place: Consumer Culture in Puerto Rico -- 4 Nation and Migration: Rethinking Puerto Rican Identity in a Transnational Context -- 5 The Political Status of Puerto Rico: A Nonsense Dilemma -- 6 "None of the Above" Means More of the Same: Why Solving Puerto Rico's Status Problem Matters -- PART II: POLITICS AS SPECTACLE AND THE SPECTACLE OF POLITICS -- 7 Vieques: Protest as a Consensual Spectacle -- 8 Entertainment Tonight! Puerto Rican Media and the Privatization of Politics -- 9 Beauty Salons: Consumption and the Production of the Self -- 10 Getting F****d in Puerto Rico: Metaphoric Provocations and Queer Activist Interventions -- 11 Imagining Puerto Rican Queer Citizenship: Frances Negrón-Muntaner's Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican -- 12 Exposed Bodies: Media and U.S. Puerto Ricans in Public Space -- PART III: BORICUA BORDERLINES -- 13 Transing the Standard: The Case of Puerto Rican Spanish -- 14 Boricua (Between) Borders: On the Possibility of Translating Bilingual Narratives -- 15 The Diaspora Strikes Back: Nation and Location -- 16 Will the "Real" Puerto Rican Culture Please Stand Up? Thoughts on Cultural Nationalism -- 17 Salsa, Bad Boys, and Brass -- 18 [a. k. a.: The Sex/Salsa/Identity Show] -- PART IV: CODA -- Living La Vida Global: The Case of Jose Padilla/Abdullah Al Muhajir -- Notes on Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.