De locos y cocolos: Identidades híbridas en el teatro de Carlos Canales

The article centers on a study of the characterization (representation and performance) of hybrid national identities in five dramatic monologues by Puerto Rican dramatist Carlos Canales, associated with the group of playwrights of the Nueva Dramaturgia Puertorriqueña. The plays studied are María del Rosario, ¡Maldita sea el Capitán América!, La esquina caliente, Ecuajey, and Salsa, tango y locura. In these texts, we find alienated beings, marginalized by hegemonic discourses that demarcate narrow definitions of Puerto Rican national identity. Canales’ characters are histrionic and hybrid; their identities are globalized, and immersed in mass-communication discourses and transnational cultures. They consume a diverse array of cultural artifacts and products, from evangelical religions to TV astrology, from salsa music to opera, from Ricky Martin videos to Hollywood action movies. Their Otherness disrupts and defies the official discourse of national consensus. (WG, in Spanish