Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings

256 Pages·2014·4.031 MB·English

by  Juana María Rodríguez

Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures,
and Other Latina Longings
SEXUAL CULTURES
General Editors: José Esteban Muñoz and Ann Pellegrini
Titles in the series include the following:
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue Arranging Grief: Sacred Time and the
Samuel R. Delany Body in Nineteenth-Century America
Dana Luciano
Queer Globalizations: Citizenship
and the Afterlife of Colonialism Cruising Utopia: The Then and
Edited by Arnaldo Cruz Malavé There of Queer Futurity
and Martin F. Manalansan IV José Esteban Muñoz
Queer Latinidad: Identity Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism
Practices, Discursive Spaces Scott Herring
Juana María Rodríguez
Extravagant Abjection: Blackness,
Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and Power, and Sexuality in the African
the Limits of Religious Tolerance American Literary Imagination
Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini Darieck Scott
Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries
Latinization of American Culture Karen Tongson
Frances Négron-Muntaner
Beyond the Nation: Diasporic Filipino
Manning the Race: Reforming Black Literature and Queer Reading
Men in the Jim Crow Era Martin Joseph Ponce
Marlon Ross
Single: Arguments for the Uncoupled
In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Michael Cobb
Bodies, Subcultural Lives
Brown Boys and Rice Queens:
Judith Halberstam
Spellbinding Performance in the Asias
Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays Eng-Beng Lim
on Race and Sexuality in the U.S.
Transforming Citizenships: Transgender
Dwight A. McBride
Articulations of the Law
God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics Isaac West
of Religious Violence
The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption
Michael Cobb
and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture
Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, Vincent Woodard, Edited by Justin
and the Black American Intellectual A. Joyce and Dwight A. McBride
Robert Reid-Pharr
Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures,
The Latino Body: Crisis Identities in and Other Latina Longings
American Literary and Cultural Memory Juana María Rodríguez
Lázaro Lima
For a complete list of books in the series, see www.nyupress.org
Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina
Longings
Juana María Rodríguez
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2014 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that
may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rodriguez, Juana Maria.
  Sexual futures, queer gestures, and other Latina longings / Juana María Rodríguez.
       pages cm
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-0-8147-6075-8 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-8147-6492-3 (pb)
 1.  Hispanic American lesbians. 2.  Sex—Social aspects—United States. 3.  Queer theory—
United States.  I. Title.
  HQ76.3.U5R633 2014
  306.76010973—dc23
                                                            2014005190
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1. Who’s Your Daddy? Queer Kinship and Perverse Domesticity 29
2. Sodomy, Sovereignty, and Other Utopian Longings 69
3. Gesture in Mambo Time 99
4. Latina Sexual Fantasies, the Remix 139
The Afterglow 183
Notes 189
Bibliography 213
Index 229
About the Author 245
>> v
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Acknowledgments
In a book that is, above all, about sociality and the promise of friendship,
the moment to acknowledge the real-world social connections that have
made the work possible seems overly burdened with significance. But
because this book is also about ephemera, the unseen but felt, let me
begin instead by thanking the spirits that have opened doors, protected
me, and taken the time to whisper in my ear. Let me offer gratitude for
the many memories of love and care that I carry under my skin. What-
ever comes next, I know I have already been touched by magic.
In a world filled with quotidian cruelty, I am blessed to make fam-
ily with those who make the promise of a future somewhere I want to
live, and who fill my everyday present with all manner of joy. Mateo is
a sweet, funny, smart, and caring companion. He is a kind person, and
that makes me so happy and proud. Rosío is an assemblage of love,
encouragement, passion, intellectual stimulation, tech support, edito-
rial advice, ravishing good looks, and an unending source of inspiration.
Thank you, Daddy, for holding my hand through the fire, and not letting
go. Juju and Suki are just who they need to be, and we love each other.
This seems to be an important lesson. A girl needs her sisters: thank you
to Dinorah de Jesús Rodríguez, Julia LaChica, and María Cora, a vir-
tual trinity of outstanding sisterly support. My brother René is so easy
to love, and I do. Beauty, strength, and resilience to Anila, Isis, Israel,
Michael, Carrie, René, Summer, Isabela, and those yet to come. Peace to
my parents, Dignora and René, and light to those on the other side.
Today many of the folks I call family live in the academy. José Este-
ban Muñoz saw the potential en esta guajira de Placetas, invited me to
the party, and got me drunk on inspiration and potentiality. The good
in my work is due to his enduring example of what academic work can
aspire to be. El corazón de mi melón se lo entrego a José Quiroga, whose
>> vii
viii << Acknowledgments
every breath radiates brilliance, who “gets” me, loves me, and always
makes it better. Caren Kaplan and Eric Smoodin are the best Jewish
family a Cuban girl could ask for in this world, and I look forward to a
lifetime of robust conversation and meals at their table; their friendship
and intellectual camaraderie have meant so much, so often. I am sur-
rounded by women who redefine the feminine every day. High-femme
propers to Nicole Fleetwood for being genuine, fearless, and on point;
Gayatri Gopinath for continuing to gush sweet femme friendship from
the right bank, and Jennifer Brody for her easy kindness and impeccable
style. Marcia Ochoa is the trusted confidant every femme needs. Jafari
Allen, Jossianna Arroyo, Marisa Belausteguigoitia, Kale Fajardo, Roder-
ick Ferguson, Jack Halberstam, Licia Fiol-Matta, Lázaro Lima, Yolanda
Martinez–San Miguel, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Ricardo Ortiz, Nayan Shah,
Jennifer Terry, Karen Tongson, and Deb Vargas have been among my
most trusted and cherished interlocutors, and I am blessed to call them
friends. Sending fresh love to Mireille Miller-Young, Lorena Muñoz, Jil-
lian Hernandez Bernal, Michelle Erai, and Alexandra Vazquez; you all
make me want to keep reading. A special note of deep femme gratitude
goes out to Elizabeth Freeman, who has shared so deeply. tatiana de la
tierra, me haces un chingo de falta; I think you would have loved this
book. You more than anyone helped me to say it loud.
At the University of California–Berkeley, I have benefited from the
intellectual companionship, friendship, camaraderie, and support of so
many amazing colleagues across the campus. A special note of appreci-
ation goes out to Kathy Abrams, Jac Asher, Barbara Barnes, Karl Britto,
Mel Chen, Billy Curtis, Carla Hesse, Michael Lucey, Russell Robinson,
Victoria Robinson, Leslie Salzinger, Darieck Scott, Sue Schweik, Cha-
ris Thompson, Barrie Thorne, Trinh Minh-ha, and Leti Volpp; each
of you has made Berkeley a better place to live and work and agitate.
Shari Hundorf and Beth Piatote were sent to me by the unseen forces
of magic; together with Nadia Ellis, Alisa Bierra, and Leigh Raiford,
they are my colored girl academic posse; they bring radiant brown bril-
liance to the struggle to make change happen in the academy. Eileen
Andrade, Vernessa Parker, and Gillian Edgelow make everything eas-
ier; Althea Grannum-Cummings is my Caribbean homegirl and she
knows it; the work of these women has earned them my deepest appre-
ciation. This work has been enriched by the intellectual communities I
Acknowledgments >> ix
have encountered through presentations at the Berkeley School of Law,
California College of the Arts, Center for Race and Gender at Berkeley,
Columbia University, California State University–Long Beach, LGBT
Historical Museum of San Francisco, New York University, Oberlin
College, Ohio State University, Rutgers University, Claremont College,
University of California–Davis, University of California–Los Angeles,
University of California–San Diego, University of California–Santa
Cruz, University of Miami, University of Minnesota, and Williams Col-
lege. I also want to acknowledge the financial support of the Abigail
Reynolds Hodgen Publication Fund and the R. Alvarez Latina Femme
Finishing Fellowship.
Over the years, my students have always inspired me to be better
than I am. I am humbled by their affection. Many of the ideas explored
in this book were shared first with them, and those conversations flow
through every chapter. Thank you all for allowing me to think aloud
and for treating my ideas with such thoughtful consideration. Extra
special thanks to Iván Ramos, Manuel Cuellar, Paige Johnson, Giancar-
los Cornejo, Michelle Potts, Anastasia Kayiatos, Julia Chang, Ianna
Owens, Takeo Rivera, Naomi Bragin, Anna Elena Torres, Hentyle Yapp,
Sima Belmar, Susan Wooley, Marco Antonio Flores, Lara Maldjian,
Juliana Delgado, and Louise Hickman. The CultStud crew from UC
Davis continues to rock the house with their radical queer vision of the
world—shout-outs to Abbie Boggs, Toby Beauchamp, Cynthia Degnan,
Tallie Ben Daniel, Tristan Josephson, and Liz Montegary. Kara Thomp-
son was my student and neighbor, and remains my trusted interlocutor
and friend. Highest praise to Cathy Hannabach: in the long exchange of
life between teacher and student, I have come out far ahead. This book
would not have been what it is without her editorial support, boundless
intellectual repertoire, and inspired intellect. Cathy read almost every
word, twice, and the book is so much smarter for her many contribu-
tions. I have enjoyed a lively and lovely ongoing writing exchange with
Julian Carter, who helped me believe that I had something to say, and
helped me to say it. This work is stronger for his many interventions.
Ricardo Bracho is my ace, my treasure chest of Chicano boy brilliance,
my ideal Latina femme reader; gracias,querid@, for all the gifts. Special
belated thanks to Michelle Strizever, many years in coming and deeply
deserved. Eric Zinner and the folks at New York University Press have