Tra(n)zando identidades: Colombian neighborhoods, images, and narratives from narco-trafficking to beauty queens

This dissertation is a study of the ways in which representations of Colombians in the United States have changed since the initiation of the drug wars in the late 1970s. Framing the study within the last three decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, I analyze the various images of Colombians, both in the United States and out, that have been presented in film, literature, and news media to bolster the perception of Colombians as narco-traffickers and drug runners. By investigating the portrayals that have occupied dominant representations of Colombians in the U.S. since the 1970s, I present the increasingly evolving ways in which they are seen and in which they represent themselves in film, literature, and cultural events, such as beauty pageants. The study's conclusions explain that the increasing Colombian immigration to the United States, along with a deliberate effort by international organizations of Colombians to alter the ways in which they are presented in popular media explain the various representations that have emerged in the 21st century.