Queering Latin American Coloniality and the Cross-cultural Production of Racialised Sexualities
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07256868.2012.673476
ISSN1469-9540
Autores Tópico(s)Race, History, and American Society
ResumoAbstract In the light of the bicentenary of independence celebrated in several Latin American countries in recent years, I focus on continuities, shifts and cracks in Latin American coloniality in this paper. Analysing several images of Latin America I discuss ambivalences and paradoxes implicit in white and heteronormative representations of Latin America. How are global socio-economic and geopolitical power relations pervaded by desire and shape sexual imaginaries of latinidad? In which ways do constructions of genders, sexualities and ethnicities overlap and shape national cultural policies and transnational cultural economies of the Americas and beyond? The example of Carmen Miranda will serve to substantiate the thesis that straight and queer images often privilege white perceptions of latinidad; yet, these are challenged by local cultural expressions. Keywords: BlacknessCarmen MirandaColoniality of PowerCosta RicaCultural PoliticsDragGender, Sexuality and DesireLatin AmericaVisual Representations Acknowledgements Special thanks to Sirma Bilge and Paul Scheibelhofer for their co-editing work. Many thanks also to Roxana Reyes Rivas, Roberto Alvarado Campos, Antke Engel and the anonymous reviewers for reviewing several versions of this paper. This is much appreciated. Furthermore I want to thank Ines Doujak for her permission to reproduce her art collage in this article. I presented a previous version under the title "Representaciones cross-culturales y drag de latinidad" at the I Congreso Iberoamericano sobre Patrimonio Cultural, Universidad de Costa Rica, December 2010. This paper arises in the context of my PhD thesis in progress on subjectivities and social imaginaries of Afro-descendent and indigenous bribri women in Costa Rica, at the University of Costa Rica in the doctoral programme "Estudios de la Sociedad y la Cultura". Notes 1. With latinidad I critically refer to a supposed set of characteristics that constructs a common identity of 'being Latina/o' or of 'being Latin American'. Time, space, origin and language influence in their determination. Most significant references in the history of political thought may be associated with Martí's and Bolívar's idea of 'Our América', focusing on the geographic space south of the Río Bravo (Mora 2001 Mora Rodríguez , A. , 2001 . La identidad de nuestra América . Cuadernos Prometeo 22 . Heredia : Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Costa Rica . [Google Scholar]). See also José Martí (2005 [1891] Martí , J. , 2005 [1891] . Nuestra América [online]. In : J. Bolívar , Caracas : Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho . Available from: http://www.bibliotecayacucho.gob.ve/fba/index.php?id=97&backPID=2&tt_products=15 [Accessed 9 January 2010] . [Google Scholar]). The colonial legacy and global interconnectedness make reductive definitions impossible though (Kohut and Mackenbach 2005 Kohut , K. and Mackenbach , W., 2005 . Literaturas centroamericanas hoy. Desde la dolorosa cintura de América . Frankfurt am Main : Vervuert . [Google Scholar], Ebert et al. 2009 Ebert , A. , Lidola , M. , Bahrs , K. and Noack , K., 2009 . Differenz und Herrschaft in den Amerikas. Repräsentationen des Anderen in Geschichte und Gegenwart . Bielefeld : transcript . [Google Scholar]). 2. Postcolonial theories became well known through Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak. I refer to Root and McClintock, as associated with these theories. Decolonial theories are epistemologically located in Latin America as part of the Global South (i.e. Quijano; Mignolo; Hinkelammert). Others use both streams (Grosfoguel; Rivera Cusicanqui). Indeed, asking who 'represents' which theory is problematical. Approaches may appear as oppositional, hindering insights on epistemological intersections and common grounds. Concerning the positioning of Central American and Latin American cultural studies in the international academe, see Schramm (2011 Schramm, C. 2011. "›Land gegen Bibel‹. Christentum, Kolonialismus, Moderne". In Das Geschlecht der Anderen. Figuren der Alterität: Kriminologie, Psychiatrie, Ethnologie und Zoologie, Edited by: Könemann, S. and Stähr, A. 63–82. Bielefeld: transcript. [Google Scholar]). 3. All Spanish and German quotations have been translated into English by the author. 4. Mignolo refers to Franz Hinkelammert. See also Hinkelammert (2007 Hinkelammert, F. 2007. Hacia una crítica de la razón mítica. El laberinto de la modernidad. Materiales para la discusión, San José: Editorial Arlekín. [Google Scholar]: 228). 5. See also Grosfoguel (2008 Grosfoguel , R. , 2008 . Transmodernity, border thinking and global coloniality. Decolonizing political economy and postcolonial studies [online] . Eurozine . Available from: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-07-04-grosfoguel-en.html [Accessed 8 January 2010] . [Google Scholar]: 5). 6. Due to copyright regulations, I can only refer to the image of America from the series Nova Reperta (AN445411001) via an Internet URL. See the British Museum British Museum . Nova Reperta America (445411) [image online]. Available from: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database.aspx [Accessed 1 November 2011] . [Google Scholar]'s collection database: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database.aspx. The visual representation of Carmen Miranda that inspires my analysis can be found via an Internet search. 7. For a further discussion of this classic allegory of America taking into account intersections of Christianity, colonialism and modernity, see Schramm (2011 Schramm, C. 2011. "›Land gegen Bibel‹. Christentum, Kolonialismus, Moderne". In Das Geschlecht der Anderen. Figuren der Alterität: Kriminologie, Psychiatrie, Ethnologie und Zoologie, Edited by: Könemann, S. and Stähr, A. 63–82. Bielefeld: transcript. [Google Scholar]). 8. The English translation is Images of Sexuality and Economy. Queer Cultural Politics in Neoliberalism. 9. Through critical discourse and image analysis, Engel discusses constructions of gender and sexuality as part of a performative field of cultural politics. She focuses on moments of political dissent, transformative fantasies and modes of desire in/between the spaces of global and local hegemonic power relationships. 10. The "face and head decoration reminds to the famous Latina performer Carmen Miranda" (Engel 2009 Engel, A. 2009. Bilder von Sexualität und Ökonomie. Queere kulturelle Politiken im Neoliberalismus, Bielefeld: transcript. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 105, fn. 4). 11. Whereas Engel (unpublished manuscript: 3) locates the two figures "in an orientalist setting", I problematise their location in a tropicalist setting. Critiques from Central American cultural studies consider that the "tropicalismo (the version of the South of Edward Said's orientalism) is the underlying logic that shapes various projects of imperialism, neocolonialism and neoliberalism establishing in Central America". Within this logic Central America or Latin American tropics are imagined as rundown places that need northern technological help (Rodríguez 2009 Rodríguez, A.P. 2009. "La producción cultural en Centro América bajo la égida del neoliberalismo". In Estudios Culturales centroamericanos en el nuevo milenio, Edited by: Baeza Ventura, G. and Zimmerman, M. 25–33. San José: Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica. [Google Scholar]: 30f.; see also Schramm 2011 Schramm, C. 2011. "›Land gegen Bibel‹. Christentum, Kolonialismus, Moderne". In Das Geschlecht der Anderen. Figuren der Alterität: Kriminologie, Psychiatrie, Ethnologie und Zoologie, Edited by: Könemann, S. and Stähr, A. 63–82. Bielefeld: transcript. [Google Scholar]). 12. According to Engel (unpublished manuscript: 4) "the colourful, campy representation of bodies and site confounds this kind of sexualisation by not feeding into clichéd expectations of rubber, leather and chains". This interpretation fits well with the deconstructive reading proposed here. 13. Thanks to Roxana Reyes for this hint. 14. For a further discussion on the intersection of drag and camp, see Halberstam (2006 Halberstam, J. 2006. Female masculinity, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press. [Google Scholar]: 236–237), who problematises these terms in relation to butch-femme cultures and constructions of femininity and masculinity. 15. Engel (unpublished manuscript: 4), questions similarly. 16. During the colonial period, values based on Christian morality measured in how far people were to be considered as civilised and hence were selectively integrated to colonial society (Stolcke 2009 Stolcke, V. 2009. "Wie Mestizen zu Mestizen wurden: Zur Geschichte einer sozialen Kategorie". In Differenz und Herrschaft in den Amerikas. Repräsentationen des Anderen in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Edited by: Ebert, A., Lidola, M., Bahrs, K. and Noack, K. 37–68. Bielefeld: transcript. [Google Scholar]: 56). The doctrine of the 'purity of blood' served to distinguish mestizas/os, people born out of Spanish and indigenous crossbreeding, from indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples. From the eighteenth century on, this process of social classification was re-interpreted through modern racial discourses. 17. In the case of Argentina, see Vela (2001 Vela, M.E. 2001. "Los afroamericanos en el imaginario de algunos intelectuales argentinos del siglo XIX". In Rutas de la esclavitud en África y América Latina, Edited by: Cáceres, R. 405–423. San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica. [Google Scholar]: 405–423); for Costa Rica, see Montenegro (1998 Montenegro Trejos, R. 1998. "El Estado en la lucha contra la discriminación". In Justicia y discriminación en Costa Rica, Edited by: Campbell Barr, E. and Calzada, A.V. 51–56. San José: Poder Judicial, CONAMAJ. [Google Scholar]: 52) and Lobo and Meléndez (1999 Lobo Wiehoff, T. and Meléndez Obando, M. 1999. Negros y blancos. Todo mezclado, San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica. [Google Scholar]). 18. Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui (1996: 48) characterises the system of exclusions as "ubiquitous as well as invisible" because of its internalisation as part of "each person's subjectivity and one's process of cultural self-valuation". She refers to indigenous Bolivia, but the processes exist beyond. 19. See also Morales (2011 Morales , N. , 2011 . Adventures in feministory: Carmen Miranda [online]. Available from: http://bitchmagazine.org/post/adventures-in-feministory-carmen-miranda [Accessed 26 October 2011] . [Google Scholar]) in http://bitchmagazine.org/post/adventures-in-feministory-carmen-miranda 20. Since 1999, every 31 August, the Gala Parade in the streets of Limón is the culmination of Afro-Costa Rican festivities. This day was known as "Día del Negro y la Cultura Afrocostarricense". However, in 2011, the Costa Rican Parliament renamed the day as "Día de la Persona Negra y la Cultura Afrocostarricense", using a more inclusive language (Asamblea Legislativa de la República de Costa Rica, 2010). I compare the representations of black women with those of Miranda to question their apparent similarity. When I started my research on Miranda after having read the note on her in Engel's book, I saw images of Miranda that reminded me of the women participating in the Parade that I have attended for years. My research for more than a decade on Afro-Costa Rican women's lives, including interviews, conversations and friendships with them, have made me sensitive to the subtle processes of whitening. Against this background, I analyse Engel's mention of the Latina figure as Miranda. Furthermore, the fact of being a migrant for me is also pervaded by experiences of failure, which as "modes of unbeing and unbecoming propose a different relation to knowledge" (Halberstam 2011 Halberstam, J. 2011. The queer art of failure, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 23). This has led me to an epistemic positioning marked by intersecting academic and non-academic knowledge productions mainly from Latin America, Anglo-Saxon North America and Europe. 21. See also organisers' profile on Facebook: Comité Cívico Cultural Étnico Negro de Limón. 22. See also Taylor (2002 Taylor, U.Y. 2002. The veiled Garvey. The life & times of Amy Jacques Garvey, Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar]). 23. According to Yúdice (2004: 10), this mediated appropriation points to "the political uses of culture to promote a particular ideology". Miranda's whitened representation of exotic blackness happens in a context of national racism against many African American artists, who were forced to perform as whites or foreigners when representing the 'exotic' (Seigel 2009: 15). Following Yúdice (2004: 10), this political use of culture also indicates the "influence in foreign relations, as in the United States' Good Neighbor" policies. 24. These presuppositions are actually in a sort of contrast with her critical stance arguing that Doujak's art collage cannot be interpreted "without reference to (post-)colonial, racist, classist and (hetero-)sexist regimes" (Engel unpublished manuscript: 5). At the end of the review process of this paper, Engel forwarded me her revised introduction of the manuscript. There Engel strengthens her argument by making more explicit Latin America's colonial legacies (Engel 2012 Engel , A. , 2012 . The surplus of paradoxes. Queer/ing images of sexuality and economy . In : C.-M. Pascale Social imaginaries in a global landscape: The politics of representation . London : Sage . [Google Scholar]). 25. See also Souza Rocha (2005 Souza Rocha , F. de , 2005 . Carmen Mirandaesqueness. Styling gender/en-gendering style [pdf online] . Cercles , 14 . Available from: http://www.cercles.com/n14/souzarocha.pdf [Accessed 15 February 2010] . [Google Scholar]: 65f.). 26. See also McClintock (1995 McClintock, A. 1995. Imperial leather. Race, gender and sexuality in the colonial contest, New York and London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]: 65ff.). 27. Butler deepens this debate in Gender Trouble (1999 [1990] Butler J. Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity , 10th ed 1999 [1990] Routledge New York [Google Scholar]: 174ff.). 28. See also Root (1996 Root, D. 1996. Cannibal culture: art, appropriation, & the commodification of difference, Boulder, CO: Westview Press. [Google Scholar]). 29. This idea is inspired by the song lyrics of "Canción para un niño en la calle" by Mercedes Sosa and René Pérez from Calle 13 (2009). Cantora. 30. In Latin America, hate crimes have increased. See Transrespect-Transphobia (2010 Transrespect-Transphobia Org , 2010 . TDOR 2010 [online]. Available from: http://www.transrespect-transphobia.org/en_US/tvt-project/tmm-results/tdor2010.htm [Accessed 19 May 2011] . [Google Scholar]) and Karen Vargas et al. (2010 Vargas , K. , Quirós , A. , Segura , L.D. and Matul , D. , 2010 . Diagnóstico sobre los crímenes de odio motivados por la orientación sexual e identidad de género en Costa Rica [online]. Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional and Centro de Investigación y Promoción para América Central de Derechos Humanos. Con el apoyo financiero de HIVOS. Available from: http://www.cipacdh.org/pdf/DIAGNOSTICO%20COSTA%20RICA%20(vfinal).doc [Accessed 19 May 2011] . [Google Scholar]). 31. See also Pessah and Castilhos (2009 Pessah, M. and Castilhos, C. 2009. Em rebeldia da bloga ao livro. En rebeldía de la bloga al libro, Porto Alegre: colección Libertaria. [Google Scholar]). Additional informationNotes on contributorsChristina SchrammChristina Schramm (Dipl.-Pol.) has a Masters in Political Science and Latin American Studies from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Currently she is a PhD candidate in the Doctoral Programme in "Estudios de la Sociedad y la Cultura" at Universidad de Costa Rica, San José. Her investigation theme concerns a queer feminist and post-/decolonial ethnographic study on contemporary culture in Costa Rica, with special focus on the construction of Afro-Costa Rican and indigenous women's subjectivities and social imaginaries. She has been living in Costa Rica since 2004. She has presented papers at international conferences in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Panama, Sweden, Uganda and the USA and has published in diverse academic journals
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