Two Vatos Talk Pop Cultura: Latinx TV, Film, and Futures Unscripted (Latinx Pop Culture) - Softcover

Aldama, Frederick Luis; Murrieta, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816557721 ISBN 13: 9780816557721

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2026

Synopsis

Two Vatos Talk Pop Cultura brings a leading Latinx media studies scholar, Frederick Luis Aldama, together with an award-winning television writer and producer, Peter Murrieta, to examine how Latinx representation has evolved―and stagnated―across seven decades of American TV, film, and pop culture.

Born from the popular podcast Mighty Peter and Professor Latinx but written in a collective voice with breakout discussions shaped by specific experiences and insights―Aldama’s theoretical acumen and Murrieta’s industry war stories―the book exemplifies what the authors call the collective shaping of “borderlands epistemology.” It analyzes shows while accounting for the behind-the-scenes industry battles such as those fought in writers’ rooms.

Two Vatos Talk Pop Cultura aims to be an essential book for students and lay readers alike, shedding light on who shapes representation―and why it matters.

About this title

About the Author

Frederick Luis Aldama is the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas, Austin, and founder of the Latinx Pop Lab. A multiple award–winning author and editor of over fifty books, he is an inductee of the Texas Institute of Letters and Ohio State University’s Hall of Fame.

Peter Murrieta, the recipient of the Imagen Foundation’s Norman Lear Writer’s Award and Arizona State University’s associate dean for Herberger Institute of Design and Arts–Los Angeles, as well as deputy director at ASU’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School, is a multiple Emmy winner known for series like Netflix’s Mr. Iglesias and Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place. Murrieta currently has a first-look deal with Universal and is developing an adaptation of the novel Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta, which he co-wrote with novelist Jeffrey J. Marriote.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816557721
• ISBN 13: 9780816557721
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184