Vanessa Del Rio, Porn Icon (presented by Dr. Laura Marks)

In 2006, famed comic book artist Robert Crumb complained of the way the porn industry wasted phenomenal talent, citing Vanessa Del Rio is the chief wasted opportunity: “It’s not about her Afro-Latin or Hispanic appearance; she was just a superior woman, an Amazon, and in the splendor of her youth none of these jaded panderers spotted how exceptional she was!” Perhaps not, but this is not for want of trying. There is something about Del Rio that seems too big, too fantastic, too dynamic to properly capture on the screen. Certainly, this magic shone through regardless of the efforts of the filmmakers. Born Ana Marie Sanchez in the South Bronx, Vanessa Del Rio exploded onto the pornographic screen in 1974, rapidly becoming a porno chic sensation and the adult film industry’s first Latin star. Through her sexually explicit cinematic personae, Del Rio was and remains a key figure in the lived experiences of Black and Latinx individuals and artists, an icon of unabashed sexual desire referenced by cultural luminaries such as Junior Mafia, Ice Cube, Gangsta Boo, Digital Underground, and Bernie Mac. In this talk, we will explore Del Rio’s celebrated career and enduring legacy: her rise to fame during the golden age of the adult industry, her venture into professional bodybuilding and subsequent iconic, steroid-augmented performances of the 1980s, and the significance of Del Rio’s performance of race and sexuality in sex media and society as a whole.