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Those with a disinclination for dense cultural studies need not be scared off by this book's title. In fact Fraunhar (art and design, Saint Xavier Univ.) devotes the bulk of the book to a close reading of the fascinating and iconic mulata cubana figure and mulataje (the phenomenon)--the blend of the white colonial master and the African slave--in multiple Cuban venues and sites from the 19th-century colony to the 20th-century republic. A complex, contradictory construction and representation, the mulata does not pose a threat to white supremacy in Cuba, but she is ubiquitous in Cuban popular culture, print and performative, on the stage and in the streets. Though she does not figure prominently in discourses about the formation of Cuba's national identity, she is an integral part of that identity. She is on cigarette wrappers and magazine covers; she composes, sings, and dances trova and rumba; she is depicted in paintings, novels, plays, and films (both pre- and post-revolution); and she fashions herself in post-Soviet revivals of capitalist international tourism, where a uniquely Cuban sex trade has taken shape. In discussing all this, Fraunhar is fascinating throughout. Including copious color illustrations, this exemplary study of race, gender, and class intersectionality will appeal to scholars in both the humanities and the social sciences.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.