Hollywood made Rita Hayworth into a star.
But before she became one of the most iconic women of the twentieth century, she was Margarita Cansino—a girl dancing in the nightclubs of Agua Caliente, crossing borders between languages, identities, and selves.
Set against the glittering world of Old Hollywood, American Goddess traces Rita Hayworth’s transformation from ambitious young dancer to international legend, exploring the reinvention of women’s bodies, the making of American myths, and the devastating cost of becoming an image the world believes it owns.
Drawing from years of archival research, studio histories, photographs, gossip columns, memoirs, and forgotten fragments, American Goddess reimagines the woman behind the myth—and the America that created her.
ABOUT THE NOVEL
"And then it happened:
my body understood what to do.
Despite the leering looks, despite Papá’s grip,
despite even my fear,
I lifted out of myself
and let the world fall away.
It was a good trick—
my very best."