‘There was always a male gaze behind it’: Madrid exhibition rewrites cliches of female Latin artists

‘There was always a male gaze behind it’: Madrid exhibition rewrites cliches of female Latin artists

Show looks beyond notions of exoticism, hyper-sexuality and diva behaviour to how stars gained control of their own imageFrom the cha-cha-chá dancers of the 1950s to the fruit-heavy turbans of Carmen Miranda, and from the golden age of Mexican cinema to the emergence of salsa stars such as Celia Cruz, the world has not lacked powerful symbols of Latin womanhood.But a new exhibition in Madrid is inviting visitors to look past the cliches and ster…