Queer Intimacy and the Disruption of Latinx Masculinity in Justin Torres’s We the Animals (2011)

Abstract

This article examines the nuanced representation of Latinx masculinities in Justin Torres's We the Animals (2011). I take from Joseph Pierce's assertion that the family structure is already inherently queered because it fails to adhere to the heteropatriarchal structure it sets out to impose. The familial intimacy allows for an examination of the inherently queered nature of family structures because of the contradictory nature of intimacy. I anchor my understanding of intimacy in Lauren Berlant's description where intimacy is a generative framework to push against structures that are by their construct oppressive, building liberating new worlds. By dissecting the portrayal of the father, brotherly relationships, and familial contradictions, I show how intimacy serves as a generative space to reimagine representations of masculinity that are less binary and more all-encompassing. Ultimately, the novel reveals a queered understanding of masculinity, one that fails to meet the gendered definitions imposed on male bodies but provides new, albeit contradictory, representations of masculinity.