A Poet's Truth: Conversations with Latino/Latina Poets (review)

Abstract

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 253 The book, organized in one introduction and four chapters, provides a wide survey of fourteen films: De eso no se habk, El lugar sin lÃ-mites, Aqueles dois, Convivencia, Conducta impropia, The Disappearance of GarcÃ-a Lorca, Doña Herlinda y su hijo, No se lo digas a nadie, En el paraÃ-so no existe el dolor, A intrusa, Pkta quemada, Afrodita, and Fresa y Chocolate. The analysis centers around the key concept of "Queerness." According to Alexander Doty, quoted in Foster's book, queer is an umbrella concept for: anything that challenges or subverts the straight, the compulsory heterosexual , through either an ironizing of its limited view of human potential or through the overt defiance of its conventions. (92) Following Doty's proposed definition, the films analyzed in Foster's book aim, in one way or another, at subverting heterosexual compulsion and defying the conventions of patriarchal culture . It follows that not all the films deal explicitly with the gay issue, and that the film directors are not necessarily gay themselves. One of the best discussions in the book is the one on MarÃ-a Luisa Bemberg's De eso no se habk. Although the movie does not feature gay characters or deal with the gay issue per se, Charlotte , the protagonist, is marked as other by her dwarfism. Her phallic mother, Leonor, tries by all means, to conceal her daughter's differentness , to compel the community to overlook her daughter's markedness, and to fit her compulsively into the patriarchal culture. The queerness of this film resides in its defiance of the conventions of patriarchal culture. Another key concept in the book is homophobia , understood as "the irrational fear of homosexuals/lesbigays/queers" (x). For the author , homophobia "is a complex dynamic that functions to enforce the principles of heteronormativity and that any irrational fear associated with it is what homophobia as an instrument of heteronormativity is all about" (x). The film El lugar sin lÃ-mites by Arturo Ripstein, based on José Donoso's novel of the same title, constitutes a clear example of homophobia: Manuela, a cross-dressed gay, is murdered by a prototypical macho, Pancho, in an effort to deny his homoerotic desires, and to prove to his brother-in-law that he is not gay. David William Foster's fourth book on Latin American cinema, Queer Issues in Contemporary Lain American Cinema, provides a radical critique of homophobia and anti-gay stereotypes in Latin America. At only one year of its publication in 2003, this book is already shaping out to be an obligatory reading in the fields of Latin American Cinema and Gay Srudies because of the excellent research that supports the analysis and the originality of its contribution . Although there is an extensive bibliography on both Latin American cinema and Latin American Gay Studies, this is the first volume that is exclusively dedicated to examine queer Latin American cinema. Most definitely , this book widens the area of analytical reflection on gender issues in Latin America. Fernando Valerio-Holguin Colorado State University A Poet's Truth: Conversations with Latino! Latina Poets The University of Arizona Press, 2003 By Bruce Allen Dick A true labor of love, A Poet's Truth: Conversations with Latino/Latina Poets compiles fifteen interviews by Bruce Allen Dick with Latino/Latina poets. Their responses were artained through the usual number of possible procedures: via phone, internet, or through a personal entrevista. All of the poets are published authors, although the number of publications varies with each of them. Each interview is prefaced by a short bio on each poet that features information on accomplishments and a suggested reading list. The interviews were conducted entirely in English with: Miguel AlgarÃ-n, MartÃ-n Espada, Sandra Maria Esteves, 254 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies VÃ-ctor Hernández Cruz, Carolina Hospital, Carlos Medina, Demerria Martinez, Pat Mora, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Leroy Quintana, Aleida RodrÃ-guez , Luis RodrÃ-guez, BenjamÃ-n Alire Sáenz, and Virgil Suárez. Each of the Latino poets has a story to tell, and A Poet's Truth has a very foreboding...