Fantasía and Disobedient Daughters: Undistressing Genres and Reinventing Traditions in the Mexican American Carpa

During the 1930s and 1940s, female performers in Mexican American tent shows in San Antonio modified the costumes associated with Mexican "folkloric" dances, incorporating elements derived from vaudeville, to form a hybrid style called fantasía. This style asserted Mexican American identity while subverting the purist nationalism of folklórico dances and marking the performers’ entry into newly public female roles. At the same time, it also involved the performers in reified masculinist discourses of female beauty and fashion.