Queering Latin American Coloniality and the Cross-cultural Production of Racialised Sexualities

Abstract

In the light of the bicentenary of independence celebrated in several Latin American countries in recent years, I focus on continuities, shifts and cracks in Latin American coloniality in this paper. Analysing several images of Latin America I discuss ambivalences and paradoxes implicit in white and heteronormative representations of Latin America. How are global socio-economic and geopolitical power relations pervaded by desire and shape sexual imaginaries of latinidad? In which ways do constructions of genders, sexualities and ethnicities overlap and shape national cultural policies and transnational cultural economies of the Americas and beyond? The example of Carmen Miranda will serve to substantiate the thesis that straight and queer images often privilege white perceptions of latinidad; yet, these are challenged by local cultural expressions.