"An important study of Mexican Americans numerous battles to represent their history

and cultural identity in the media within the ever present constraints of the market."Arlene Davila, author of Latinos Inc: The Marketing and Making of a People

"Combining political economy and ethnographic research, Producing Dreams, Consuming Youth offers an insightful account of Mexican American media culturefrom grassroots video production to fan culture. This study will bridge the gap between an earlier generation of mass communications studies of Mexican Americans media habits and the current emphasis on textual analysis."Chon Noriega, Professor and Director, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

"In this accessible and engaging book, Vicki Mayer not only presents a carefully delineated and impressively grounded ethnography of the influence of mass media and alternative media on the lives of young Mexican Americans in San Antonio, but also a profound rumination on the relationship between political citizenship and consumer subjectivity."George Lipsitz, author of American Studies in a Moment of Danger

Producing Dreams, Consuming Youth takes us behind the scenes in San Antonio, Texas, a major market for Mexican American popular culture. Through the voices of those who produce and consume mass media, we see how the media brings together communities of Mexican Americans as they pursue cultural dreams, identification, and empowerment.

At the heart of this book is a debate about the future of Mexican American media, and thus of the youth market. How do media professionals imagine ethnic youths? How do young Mexican Americans accept, negotiate, and resist these images of themselves? Producing Dreams, Consuming Youth emphasizes the paradoxes of media industries that seek to include youths of color while profiting from their creative energies.

Vicki Mayer, a former journalist and community advocate, is an assistant professor of communication at Tulane University.