CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- One. MELODRAMA AS AMBIGUOUS SIGNIFIER: Latin American Telenovelas and Narco-Dramas -- PART I -- Two. SEEING XICA AND THE MELODRAMATIC UNVEILING OF COLONIAL DESIRE -- Three. PRODUCING THE GLOBAL WEST THROUGH LATIN TALES OF SEDUCTION AND ENVY -- Four. KAREN'S SEDUCTION: The Racial Politics of Appropriate Dinner Guests -- Five. A MOTHER'S WRATH AND THE COMPLEX DISJUNCTURING OF CLASS -- PART II -- Six. BEING NARCO: The Evolution of a Continental Sensibility -- Seven. SAINTLY FIGURES AND ICONS: The Migration of a Continental Dream -- Eight. LA REINA DEL SUR: Gender, Racial, and National Contestations of Regional Identity -- Nine. SEX, DRUGS, AND CUMBIA: The Hybrid Nature of Culture -- Ten. CONCLUSION: The Postcolonial Politics of Melodrama -- Postscript. UGLY BETTY -- REFERENCES -- INDEX.