L ATCI N U LT AM UERRAILC A SN T USDTIU ED SIES
Seeking Rights from the Left
Latinx Lives in Hemsipheric Context
Gender, Sexuality, and the Latin American Pink Tide
MARIA A. WINDELL and JESSE ALEMÁN , editors
ELISABETH JAY FRIEDMAN , editor
Photo by Felicitas Rossi.
a special issue of ENGLISH LANGUAGE NOTES
Seeking Rights from the Left
This special issue investigates
offers a unique comparative
the intersections among
assessment of left-leaning
Latinx, Chicanx, ethnic, and
Latin American governments
hemispheric American Studies,
by examining their engagement
mapping the history of Latinx
with feminist, women’s, and
and Latin American literary
LGBT movements and issues.
and cultural production as it
Focusing on the “Pink Tide”
has circulated through the
in eight national cases—
United States and the Amer-
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and
icas. The issue comprises
Venezuela—the contributors evaluate how the Left addressed
original archival research on
gender- and sexuality-based rights through the state. Most of these
Latinx print culture, modern-
governments improved the basic conditions of poor women and their
ismo, and land grabs, as well
families. Many significantly advanced women’s representation in
as short position pieces on
national legislatures. Some legalized same-sex relationships and
the relevance of “Latinx” both
Frontispiece of Yo Quiero Ser Senador, a one-act comedy by Felipe Rivera Matheu, 1927.
enabled their citizens to claim their own gender identity. They also
as a term and as a field category for historical scholarship, repre-
opened opportunities for feminist and LGBT movements to press
sentational politics, and critical intervention. Taken as a whole, the
forward their demands. But at the same time, these governments
issue interrogates how Latinx literary, cultural, and scholarly pro-
have largely relied on heteropatriarchal relations of power, ignoring
ductions circulate across the Americas in the same ways as the lives
or rejecting the more challenging elements of a social agenda and
and bodies of Latinx peoples have moved, migrated, or mobilized
engaging in strategic trade-offs among gender and sexual rights.
throughout history.
Moreover, the comparative examination of such rights arenas reveals that the Left’s more general political and economic projects have been profoundly, if at times unintentionally, informed by traditional understandings of gender and sexuality.
Contributors Sonia E. Alvarez, María Constanza Diaz, Rachel Elfenbein, Elisabeth Jay Friedman, Niki Johnson, Victoria Keller, Edurne Larracoechea Bohigas, Amy Lind, Marlise Matos, Shawnna Mullenax, Ana Laura Rodríguez Gustá, Diego Sempol, Constanza Tabbush, Gwynn Thomas, Catalina Trebisacce, Annie Wilkinson
Contributors Elise Bartosik-Vélez, Ralph Bauer, Rachel Conrad Bracken, Anna Brickhouse, John Alba Cutler, Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez, Joshua Javier Guzmán, Anita Huizar-Hernández, Kelley Kreitz, Rodrigo Lazo, Marissa K. López, Claudia Milian, Yolanda Padilla, Juan Poblete, David Sartorius, Alberto Varon
Maria A. Windell is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Jesse Alemán is Professor of English at the University of New Mexico and the coeditor of The Latino Nineteenth Century.
Elisabeth Jay Friedman is Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at the University of San Francisco and the author of several books, including Interpreting the Internet: Feminist and Queer Counterpublics in Latin America.
“Seeking Rights from the Left represents a much-needed advance in the study of comparative politics, left politics, and gender and sexuality studies more generally. Eschewing simplistic formulae, this book takes on the nuance and complexity of contemporary efforts to advance a progressive agenda in Latin America in a global context that is riven by contradictions. This volume offers a rich theoretical treatment, amply demonstrating the shortcomings of a single-issue approach to understanding political change. No one dedicated to understanding or driving progressive political change should miss the lessons from this book.”— S. L AUREL WELDON , coauthor of The Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women’s Rights Around the World
L AT I N A M E R I C A N S T U D I E S / G E N D E R S T U D I E S
C H I C A N X & L AT I N X S T U D I E S
January 328 pages
October 112 pages, 2 illustrations
paper, 978-1-4780-0152-2, $26.95/£20.99
Vol. 56, no. 2
cloth, 978-1-4780-0117-1, $99.95/£77.00
paper, 978-1-4780-0358-8, $22.00/£16.99
Available as an e-book
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