Precarity + excess in the latinopolis: Miami as Erzulie

Abstract

Miami’s built and natural environment, together with the politics of migration, has transformed it into a major global city and art center over the past decades. This article situates Miami—generally viewed as an aspirational city and cultural nexus of the Americas—as an oceanic borderlands lying between political and ecological precarity as well as economic and cultural excess. This article examines the relationship of contemporary art and the urban landscape to consider Miami’s unique place for thinking about LatinX and Latin America today. Building on Gloria Anzaldúa’s theorizing on borderlands and creative expression as a framework and drawing inspiration from the Vodou pantheon of Erzulie, this essay analyzes Miami through a queer and Caribbean lens. New high-rises, prominent museums, and public art installations exemplify the rise of the neoliberal city and its inherent contradictions. The work of prominent local and international artists such as Edouard Duval-Carrié, Jeanne-Claude & Christo, Glexis Novoa, and Alfredo Jaar is explored as a window for considering Miami’s cultural production. Miami is a model of tropical urbanity. Its social, political, and economic conditions belie this city’s status as global cultural capital.