In A Kiss across the Ocean Richard T. Rodríguez examines the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their Latinx audiences in the United States since the 1980s. Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodríguez spotlights a host of influential bands and performers including Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam Ant, Bauhaus, Soft Cell, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Pet Shop Boys. He recounts these bands’ importance for him and other Latinx kids and discusses their frequent identification with these bands’ glamorous performance of difference. Whether it was Siouxsie Sioux drawing inspiration from Latinx contemporaries and cultural practices or how Soft Cell singer Marc Almond’s lyrics were attuned to the vibrancy of queer Latinidad, Rodríguez shows how Latinx culture helped shape British post-punk. He traces the fandom networks that link these groups across space and time to illuminate how popular music establishes and facilitates intimate relations across the Atlantic. In so doing, he demonstrates how the music and styles that have come to define the 1980s hold significant sway over younger generations equally enthused by their matchlessly pleasurable and political reverberations. 

Richard T. Rodríguez is Professor of English and Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside, and author of Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics, also published by Duke University Press.

Acknowledgments  ix
A Kiss Across the Ocean: An Introduction  1
1. Red over White  27
2. Touching Prince Charming  48
3. Darker Entries  67
4. The Shining Sinners  85
5. Zoot Suits and Secondhand Knowledge  104
6. Mexican Americanos  128
7. Latin/o American Party  147
Conclusion. Dedicated to the One I Love  164
Notes  175
References  207
Index  231