Sexual micropolitics: twisting lesbiana and cuir (queer) genealogies in contemporary Mexico City

Abstract

This article explores the circulation of the terms lesbiana and queer (cuir) in Mexico City. More particularly, I discuss how de ambiente and la diversidad sexual, which capture the spirit of queer politics, predominated in the 1990s and early 2000s, to be surpassed by lesbiana in the 2010s, in lesbian communities. While the circulation of lesbiana parallels, permeates, and impregnates cuir genealogies too, I suggest here that its continuity, and stronger resurgence in the 2010s, relates to acute attention to structural violence in the region, particularly in the face of feminicides. At such moment young activists “twist” lesbiana genealogies to give place to new terms such as lesboterrorism. I pay particular attention to lesboterrorismo, a new theoretical formulation young activists developed in the midst of militarization, gore capitalism, and graphic violence against women’s bodies. This paper is informed by ethnographic fieldwork I have conducted since 2000, including participant observation, 40 qualitative interviews with women participating in lesbian spaces in Mexico City, and the review of newspapers.