Body, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin American Cinema: Insurgent Skin

254 Pages·2022·6.375 MB·English

by  Juli A. Kroll

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN (RE)PRESENTING GENDER
SERIES EDITOR: EMMA REES
Body, Gender, and
Sexuality in
Latin American Cinema:
Insurgent Skin
Juli A. Kroll
Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender
Series Editor
Emma Rees
Director, Institute of Gender Studies
University of Chester
Chester, UK
The focus of Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender is on gender and
representation. The ‘arts’ in their broadest sense – TV, music, film, dance,
and performance – and media re-present (where ‘to represent’ is taken in
its literal sense of ‘to present again’, or ‘to give back’) gender globally.
How this re-presentation might be understood is core to the series.
In re-presenting gendered bodies, the contributing authors can shift
the spotlight to focus on marginalised individuals’ negotiations of gender
and identity. In this way, minority genders, subcultural genders, and gen-
der inscribed on, in, and by queer bodies, take centre stage. When the
‘self’ must participate in and interact with the world through the body,
how that body’s gender is talked about – and side-lined or embraced by
hegemonic forces – becomes paramount. These processes of representa-
tion – how cultures ‘give back’ gender to the individual – are at the heart
of this series.
Juli A. Kroll
Body, Gender, and
Sexuality in Latin
American Cinema:
Insurgent Skin
Juli A. Kroll
Modern and Classical Languages
University of St. Thomas
St Paul, MN, USA
ISSN 2662-9364 ISSN 2662-9372 (electronic)
Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender
ISBN 978-3-030-84557-5 ISBN 978-3-030-84558-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84558-2
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For my family
C
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Lesbian Pathology and Monstrous Maternity in Lucrecia
Martel’s Salta Trilogy 13
3 The Lesbian Utopia of Albertina Carri’s Las hijas del fuego
(2018) 65
4 Non-Binary: Gender Trouble and Intersex Bodies in
Latin American Cinema 113
5 Prosthetic Memory and Uncanny Absence: The Female
Body in Tempestad (2016) by Tatiana Huezo 161
6 Embodied Existence as Resistance: The Transgender Body
in Una mujer fantástica (2017) and Bixa Travesty (2018) 203
Index 245
vii
L f
ist of igures
Fig. 2.1 Middle-aged family members creep into frame in La ciénaga’s
opening sequence. (Amazon Prime Video) 14
Fig. 2.2 Momi (Sofía Bertoletto) lounging by the pool with her brother
José (Juan Cruz Bordeau) eludes the spectator’s gaze. Their
figures line the edges of the frame. (eyeforfilm.co.uk) 29
Fig. 2.3 The spectral child’s unresponsive body. (gtglobalcinema.
wordpress.com) 35
Fig. 2.4 Toward a collective female gaze: Josefina (Julieta Zylberberg)
and Amalia (María Alche) watch as Inés (Mía Maestro) sings a
hymn and is overwhelmed with religious passion. (cinema.
indiana.edu) 37
Fig. 2.5 Helena (Mercedes Morán) as a goddess in disguise and
potential object of the male gaze in La niña santa (2004).
(bampfa.org) 43
Figs. 2.6
and 2.7 The child’s handprints on Vero’s (María Onetto) car window
change from innocent imprints to something more skeletal or
quasi-canine after the impact. (anothergaze.com) 47
Fig. 2.8 Vero is figuratively decapitated by the technologies of
radiography. (cinemaruwordpress.com) 48
Figs. 2.9
and 2.10 A deeply disturbed Vero seeks to soothe her head and neck.
(anothergaze.com, learningandcreativity.com) 51
Fig. 2.11 Vero, Candita, and Cuca in the matrixial, trans-subjective space.
(Chicagoreader.com) 53
ix
x LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 3.1 Violeta (Carolina Alamino Barthaburu), Agustina (Mijal
Katzowicz), and Carmen (Rocío Zuviría) contemplate
Argentina’s seafaring history. (www.viennale.at/en/films/
hijas- del- fuego) 88
Fig. 3.2 After cross-dressed Violeta (Carolina Alamino Barthaburu) pulls
damsel Sofía (Alanna Colona Olson) to safety, they share a kiss.
(www.viennale.at/en/films/hijas- del- fuego) 95
Fig. 3.3 Violeta (Carolina Alamino Barthaburu)-in-drag and damsel
Sofía (Alanna Colona Olson) enjoy pleasuring Sofía’s (strap-on)
phallus. (www.viennale.at/en/films/hijas- del- fuego) 96
Fig. 3.4 Rosario (María Eugenia Marcet) prepares for the masturbation-
apotheosis at the end of Las hijas del fuego (2018) (www.
viennale.at/en/films/hijas- del- fuego) 103
Fig. 4.1 Ariel (Lucía Bedoya) stares at the viewer through the bony legs
of mannequins. (www.prensa.com) 148
Fig. 4.2 Ariel’s (Lucía Bedoya) lower body is illuminated in Yo, imposible
(Dir. Patricia Ortega, 2018) (Amazon Prime Video) 149
Fig. 4.3 The spectral crone figure and the death of the mother loom in
Yo, imposible (Dir. Patricia Ortega, 2018) (Amazon Prime Video) 150
Fig. 4.4 Ariel (Lucía Bedoya) is illuminated in the bath in Yo, imposible
(Dir. Patricia Ortega, 2018). (Amazon Prime Video) 152
Fig. 5.1 A young woman walks toward the family circus encampment
and away from the dark perimeter in Tempestad (Dir. Tatiana
Huezo, 2016). (youtube.com) 162
Fig. 5.2 An abandoned building in Tempestad evokes feeling of
enclosure and neglect. (Alexander Street) 171
Fig. 5.3 Close-up of a little boy’s ear is accompanied by waves of
non-diegetic wind and humming sounds in the last 10 minutes
of Tempestad. (Alexander Street) 179
Fig. 5.4 Spectral hands dangle at the edge of the frame in Tempestad’s
final sequence. (Alexander Street) 192
Fig. 5.5 Tempestad’s final image begins as a white oval—the surface
of a cavernous swimming hole filmed from underwater.
(Alexander Street) 195
Fig. 5.6 Uncanny affect as the viewer sees Miriam’s body for the first
time in Tempestad. (Alexander Street) 195
Fig. 6.1 Marina (Daniela Vega) struggles to make headway against the
obstacles facing her, while the special effect, “the lean,”
exaggerates her struggle. (www.berlinale.de) 219
Fig. 6.2 Marina (Daniela Vega) is lifted to new heights in a musical
interlude at the club. (https://observancyfilmblog.wordpress.
com) 221
Fig. 6.3 Linn da Quebrada performs transfeminist, Brazilian funk/rap
in São Paolo in Bixa Travesty. (imdb.com) 232
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
A Revolution of QueeR Signifying
The changing representation of LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, Queer and Questioning, Intersex) bodies and identities in
the #metoo and #NiUnaMenos era has shifted the ways in which global
cinema is addressing gender, sexuality, identity, and embodiment.1
Simultaneously, Latin America has been at the forefront of advocacy for
LGBTQI rights. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Argentina in 2010,
after which several Latin American countries and states followed: Mexico
City and various Mexican states beginning in 2010, Brazil and Uruguay in
2013, Colombia in 2016, Ecuador in 2019, Costa Rica in 2020, and Chile
in 2022. The passing of Argentina’s Gender Identity Law in 2012 pro-
vided access to gender re-assignment surgery and hormonal treatment as
part of public and private healthcare plans, and it permitted adults to
legally change their gender without approval of a doctor or judge.2
Uruguay’s progressive transgender legislation in 2018 similarly allowed
transgender people to legally change their name and gender without
extensive bureaucracy and ensured access to state-funded medical treat-
ment for gender-related issues and employment quotas for trans people.
These examples of gains for LGBTQI people coincide with unfortunately
high rates of gendered violence and trans and homophobia, especially in
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1
Switzerland AG 2022
J. A. Kroll, Body, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin American Cinema:
Insurgent Skin, Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84558-2_1