Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Rita's pants: The charro traje and trans-sensuality

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07407701003589170

1748-5819

Deborah R. Vargas,

Media, Gender, and Advertising

Chicana singer Rita Vidaurri is one of very few women to ever perform publicly in Mexico wearing charro pants. This analysis argues that Rita Vidaurri's self-fashioned appropriation of Mexico's nationalist charro costume establishes trans-sensuality as an affect of mexicanidad. Vidarrui's charro pants represent a trans-sensual performative vernacular that breaks with heteromasculinist constructions of mexicanidad. Traditionally, what has literally and figuratively stitched masculinity and mexicanidad together has been the charro costume, in particular the pants and hat. The curves and hips of Vidaurri's female body ‘‘la Jorge Negreta’’–the nickname bestowed upon her by her audience–metaphorically stretches the stitching of the charro pants to produce a non-heteromasculinist sensuality of mexicanidad.