This book by Kathryn Bishop-Sanchez focuses on Carmen Miranda as if seen through a kaleidoscope, suggesting several topics that deserve attention—not only about her public persona but also about her international stardom and its implications for race, ethnicity, and gender. The starting point of the study is her early death. Then the author proposes to examine the singer's rise to stardom and her participation in the popular cultural arena. As part of this Bishop-Sanchez analyzes Miranda's appropriation of the stereotype of the baiana and her competition with similar artists, ranging from her early presence in vaudeville to her success at the Urca Casino. Years before her Hollywood success, Carmen Miranda and the Bando da Lua were some of the most important artists of Latin American popular music. Carmen's success abroad seems to have been based on the fact that the American entertainment industry deconstructed her in such a way that...

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