DEBORAH PAREDEZ, author of American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous (Norton), is a cultural critic, poet, and scholar. Her previous books include the critical study Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory and the poetry collections This Side of Skin and Year of the Dog. She is the chair of the creative writing program at Columbia University and the co-founder of CantoMundo, a national organization for Latinx poets.