UC Riverside

In this dissertation I look at the discourses and "carnival rhetoric" around female bodies, specifically the cumbia dancer, the carnival queens and the way in which they are portrayed in printed media (magazines, newspapers), advertisements (for the Carnival and for other companies in Carnival time) and the TV broadcasting of the main Carnival events. I Analyze their performances during carnival time and the rules and regulations regarding their participation in Carnival festivities. Through the analysis of these dancing bodies the processes of creation of national identity and regional identity can be traced, I look at the conflictive discourses (bodily and otherwise) that create raced and gendered nation building theories for the Caribbean Region of Colombia and for the consolidation of Colombian identity abroad.