Everything Is Drag: the Politics of Performing Beautiful Women in Cold War Chile
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-25-2016 Everything Is Drag: The olitP ics of Performing Beautiful Women in Cold War Chile Carson Emily Morris Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Morris, Carson Emily. "Everything Is Drag: The oP litics of Performing Beautiful Women in Cold War Chile." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hist_etds/57 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Carson Emily Morris Candidate History Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Elizabeth Q. Hutchison, Chairperson Dr. Kimberly Gauderman Dr. Judy Bieber Dr. Margaret Jane Slaughter Dr. Stephen Gundle EVERYTHING IS DRAG: THE POLITICS OF PERFORMING BEAUTIFUL WOMEN IN COLD WAR CHILE By Carson Emily Morris B.A., Spanish, Wake Forest University, 2002 M.A., Latin American Studies, University of New Mexico, 2006 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2016 ©2016, Carson Emily Morris iii Dedication To Nana, With infinite love This dissertation is dedicated to my maternal grandmother, Margaret “Peg” Bailey Stanfield Walker, fondly known to me and to her other grandchildren as Nana. Although she did not live to see its completion, this dissertation would not exist had it not been for her encouragement and insistence that I finish my PhD. My Nana taught me the importance of traveling, of learning new languages, and of being independent and open to new experiences and ideas. Most of all, she engrained in me a firm belief that writing and dancing are equally powerful acts. This dissertation fulfills a promise that I made to her on her deathbed. iv Acknowledgements The dissertation is the result of over ten years of research and writing, a task I could never have accomplished without the support of many people and institutions. First and foremost, I want to thank my family for their support, encouragement, and understanding of the enormous financial and physical sacrifices I have made, sacrifices that have often kept me away from them more than I would have liked. I especially want to thank my incredible son Elias Andres for making those sacrifices with me, for moving with me multiple times nationally and internationally, for adjusting so well to a new country, and for saying goodbye to so many friends in Chile and elsewhere each time we continued on our journey. And I want to thank him for doing all of this with a smiling face and an adventurous spirit. I also want to recognize the profound support of my parents, Everett Lee Morris, III and Gilda Anne Walker Morris; of my siblings, Everett and Jessie; of my step-grandmother Carolyn P. Morris; and of all of my grandparents, Peg Walker, Harry Gordon Walker, Everett Lee Morris, and my paternal grandmother, Arvis Lauren Stewart Morris, the only one of the four who lived to see this project’s completion. I am also forever indebted to my professors in the History Department at the University of New Mexico, and particularly to my committee members. I was truly blessed to work with such a strong and supportive committee. I thank my advisor, Dr. Elizabeth Hutchison, for continuously pushing me to think more critically and to dream bigger, for setting high standards and believing I could accomplish them. The road she paved in Chilean studies of gender and sexuality offered me countless invaluable connections in Chile, Argentina, and the United States. Dr. Judy Bieber also supported me morally and intellectually and guided me throughout my graduate studies, never hesitating to provide me v speedy, constructive feedback on all things academic and otherwise. I will never forget her sewing a quilt for my newborn son whilst leading heavily theoretical intellectual discussions in seminar. Dr. Kimberly Gauderman was also a profound inspiration to me, from the first time she blew my mind in her class on Early Latin America to the countless instances in which she reminded me of the value of my work and of my being. It is a great honor to be the last graduate student to work with Dr. Jane Slaughter. She provided me with rich knowledge of Comparative Gender and Sexuality in diverse regions of the world both in seminar and in our countless private conversations, constantly emanating profound wisdom and encouragement in her sparkling eyes. In so many ways, she has truly been a pillar of support for me, and I can honestly say that this dissertation would have never been completed without the foundation of that support. I am also so appreciative of my “dream” outside committee member, Dr. Stephen Gundle, for so effectively demonstrating the importance of studying the politics of beauty, for agreeing to work with a stranger on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and for offering me critical insights on this project. Outside of my dissertation committee, I also want to extend sincere thanks to Dr. Michael Ryan, Dr. Tiffany Florvil, and Dr. Linda Hall for their inspiration, guidance, and support. Dr. Hall’s Beauty, Body, and Power course, in particular, inspired the whole idea of this project, and she was the first one to suggest that I turn it into a dissertation. All of these people, as well as countless other faculty and staff, have been invaluable in making this project what it is. This project and the international fieldwork it required would never have been possible without generous funding from the University of New Mexico, including the Office of Graduate Studies, the Feminist Research Institute, the Latin American & Iberian Institute, the Bilinski Foundation, and Dean’s Dissertation Awards. Such awards, including the LAII vi Doctoral Research Fellowship, allowed me to conduct over 15 months of research in Santiago, Chile. The Bilinski Foundation Fellowship and Dean’s Dissertation Award supported the critical last year of writing of this dissertation. I am honored and eternally grateful for all of the financial support that made this dissertation possible, including employment by the University of New Mexico’s Spanish & Portuguese Department, College of Education, and History Department, as well as both The Howard School and The Galloway School in Atlanta, Georgia. I also want to recognize the American Historical Association’s Committee on LGBT Studies for their important work in general and support of my project in particular. My research in Chile was strengthened by the support and guidance of many people and institutions. I am forever grateful for my affiliations with the University of Chile’s Latin American Culture Studies Department, the Chilean Center for Women’s Studies, and Organizando Trans Diversidades (OTD Chile). Furthermore, Dr. Emma De Ramon, of the National Archive of Chile, and Dr. Pía Montalva were both profoundly helpful to me in conceptualizing my project and advising my research. I also want to thank a great number of friends and colleagues who assisted with my project, research, and general well being throughout these ten years and two hemispheres of my doctoral degree. While I do not have room to name everyone individually, I do want to personally recognize several people who were particularly invaluable throughout this process, including Fernando Garavito, Dr. Tshepo Chéry, Dr. Colin Snider, Dr. Leith Passmore, Dr. Damián Wilson, Dr. Lawrence Roybal, Jesse Zarley, Estela Vasquéz, José Bucheli, Talal Saint-Lot, Carlyn N. Pinkins, Kelley Sawyer, Amanda Sutton, Amber Bradshaw, Michel Riquilme, Claudia Rodriguez, Victor Hugo Robles, and Valentina Verbal. I must acknowledge as well the profound vii inspiration of two of Chile’s greatest sexual politics activists, Hija de Perra and Pedro Lemebel, may they rest in peace and power. Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank all of the people who generously offered me their stories in countless conversations and in the nineteen anonymous oral histories I conducted. Isabel Allende and Luis Rivano both graciously spoke to me about my project. The names of those who shared their oral histories with me will remain anonymous, per our agreement, but their bravery and openness have made this project all the more richer. Every single person I spoke to touched my heart and soul profoundly, and I am forever indebted to each of these people who trusted me enough to share some of the most intimate and painful details of their lives. viii EVERYTHING IS DRAG: THE POLITICS OF PERFORMING BEAUTIFUL WOMEN IN COLD WAR CHILE By CARSON EMILY MORRIS B.A., Spanish, Wake Forest University, 2002 M.A., Latin American Studies, University of New Mexico, 2006 Ph.D., History, The University of New Mexico, 2016 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines productions, consumption, and performances of female bodies, genders, and sexualities in Chile under changing Cold War political regimes from 1950-1990. Drawing on deconstructionist and performance approaches, I consider the multiple, changing ways Cold War Chilean cisgender and transgender women performed their femininity as part of racialized nationalist projects, analyzing laws and government documents, contemporary print media, television, film, literature, cabaret and theater performances, and oral histories and testimonies of female, queer, and transgender Chileans, including cabaret artists and nightclub owners. My focus on nonreproductive sexuality tells a new story of women in Latin America, of queerness in Latin America, and of Chilean politics and civil rights. It also reveals race, sex, and gender constructions as transnational processes.