•  
  •  
 

College

College of Arts & Sciences

Major

Creative Writing

Faculty Mentor

Marc McLeod

Faculty Editor

Alexander Johnston

Student Editor

Scarleht Marcos

Abstract

Starting with the infamous Ball of the 41, the perception of Mexican male queerness has been strongly affected by its visibility. The Ball of the 41 attracted massive attention from the press; popular engraver José Guadalupe Posada completed two prints on the ball, mocking the attendees. For the first time in modern Mexico, queerness was represented in widespread public media, as knowledge of the scandal disseminated throughout the country by articles and images printed in newspapers. A politics of visibility is central to understanding the representational shifts of queer people, particularly by studying how queer people represent or are represented in culture, therefore affecting popular attitude. While significant work in Spanish has been written on this change, the pool of English language scholarship is significantly smaller. This paper seeks to expand English language scholarship on the evolution of Mexican male queerness by tracking its visibility and the place it holds within the modern nation of Mexico. By using three case studies of El Vampiro de la Colonia Roma, Y Tu Mamá También, and Sueño en Otro Idioma, this paper explores cultural-specific constructions of queerness and how they have developed in Mexico across the late 20th and early 21st centuries, defining modern Mexico’s national identity.

Download

Share

COinS