SEXUALITY and the CHICANA/O DETECTIVE: Identity and Violence in Alicia Gaspar De Alba and Michael Nava's Mystery Fiction

SEXUALITY AND THE CHICANA/O DETECTIVE: Identity and Violence in Alicia Gaspar De Alba and Michael Nava’s Mystery Fiction María de los Ángeles Lara-Jaén BA, MA Study submitted for the award of PhD School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies Dublin City University July 2019 Supervisors: Mr. Jean-Philippe Imbert, Dublin City University Dr. Catherine Leen, Maynooth University I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD is entirely my own work, and that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: M. Lara-Jaén ID No.: 59213169 Date: 08/07/19 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of many people. First, I would particularly like to thank my supervisors Mr. Jean-Philippe Imbert and Dr. Catherine Leen for all their guidance and words of wisdom. I would also like to thank Dublin City University, in particular the School of Applied Language and Cultural Studies. A special thank you to my partner, Chrissy, for her constant encouraging words, love and support. She has been a fundamental pillar during my writing process and has given me the necessary strength to finish this thesis. I am also very grateful to all those friends who acted as a sounding board for ideas and remained understanding when I could not be around. Last, but not least, to my parents who have always supported me and from whom I have inherited my love for literature. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………...6 CHAPTER I: TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES: CHICANA/O THOUGHT AND IDENTITY POLITICS …………………………………………………………………….14 I.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………...15 I.2. Emergence of Theoretical Perspectives on Chicana/o Subjectivity ……………………..17 I.2.1. The Chicano Movement ………………………………………………………..18 I.2.2. Chicana/o Art as a Socio-Political Tool during the 1960s and 1970s Movement ………………………………………………………………...22 I.2.3. Theorising the Female Brown Body ……………………………………………27 I.2.4. Chicana/o Queer Studies in a Transnational Context ………………………….35 I. 3. On Violence and the Discursive Limits of Identity ………………………………………39 I.3.1. Identities that Matter …………………………………………………………...41 I.3.2. Identity as a Social, Cultural and Historical Construct …………………………43 I.3.3. Violence in the Name of Identity ………………………………………………44 I.3.4. Challenging Identities ………………………………………………………….46 I.4. Synthesis …………………………………………………………………………………48 CHAPTER II: OPPRESSION AND RESISTANCE: TOWARDS A MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH …………………………………………………...50 II.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………..51 II.2. Chicana/o Detective Fiction in Context …………………………………………………52 II.2.1. Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Michael Nava’s Mystery Novels …………………54 II.3. Detective Fiction: Theories and Practices ……………………………………………….61 II.3.1. The Feminist and Ethnic Turns in Detective Fiction …………………………..63 II.3.2. Chicana/a Detective Fiction: A Quest for Identity ……………………………66 II.3.3. Queer Theory: The Role of the Gay Detective ………………………………..67 II.4. Identity, Sexuality and Violence ………………………………………………………..69 II.4.1. Queer Perspectives ……………………………………………………………72 II.4.2. Subjective and Objective Violence …………………………………………...74 II.5. Synthesis ………………………………………………………………………………..77 CHAPTER III: THE EVOLVING IDENTITY OF THE CHICANA/O DETECTIVE ……………………………………………………………………………….79 III.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….80 III.2. Shifting Identities in Detective Fiction …………………………………………………81 III.2.1. From Classical to Hard-Boiled Detective …………………………………....82 III.2.2. The Early Hard-boiled Detective (1922-1955) ……………………………....86 III.2.3. The Transitional Hard-boiled Detective (1964-1977) ……………………….87 III.2.4. The Modern Hard-boiled Detective: Revealing Diverse Identities (1977 to the present day) …………………………………………………...88 III.2.5. Gen(re/de)ring the Hard-boiled Detective …………………………………...90 III.2.6. The Ethnic Hard-boiled Detective …………………………………………...92 III.3. Identity from Both Sides of the Border ………………………………………………...96 3 III.3.1. Chicana/o Detective Fiction Writers …………………………………………97 III.3.2. Lucha Corpi’s Detective Gloria Damasco …………………………………..102 III.3.3. The Multifaceted Social Commentary of the Queer Chicana/o Detective ….105 III.4. Synthesis ……………………………………………………………………………...111 CHAPTER IV: TRANSGRESSIVE IDENTITIES …………………………………….113 IV.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………..114 IV.2. Transnational Detectives ……………………………………………………………..118 IV.2.1. Taboo in el barrio …………………………………………………………..121 IV.2.1.1 La Familia es la familia ……………………………………………124 IV.2.1.2 Religion: The Catholic Church and the Institutionalisation of Homophobia ………………………………………………………………..127 IV.2.1.3 Mariposas and Machorras: From Vendidas to Feminazis ………..130 IV.3. Forging New Spaces for the Different Chicana/o Subjectivities ……………………..133 IV.3.1. Woman and Brown: The Gendered and Racial Space ……………………..135 IV.3.2. Homophobic Violence and the Sexualised Space in Desert Blood 138 IV.3.3. Henry Ríos Down These Mean Streets …………………………………….140 IV.3.3.1. Masculinity as a Social Construct ………………………………..143 IV.3.3.2. Deviance, AIDS Pandemic and Hate Crimes …………………….145 IV.4. Synthesis ……………………………………………………………………………..147 CHAPTER V: VIOLENCE AND VIOLATIONS: THE DETECTIVE’S COUNTER DISCOURSE ………………………………………………………………………………185 V.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………150 V.2. Femicide in the Era of Globalisation …………………………………………………..151 V.2.1. The Mexican Border Industrialisation Program, NAFTA and the Maquila Industry ……………………………………………………………………………..154 V.2.1.1. NAFTA and Global Maquilas ……………………………………..157 V.2.1.2. NAFTA and Gender ……………………………………………….158 V.2.2. The Dichotomous Border ……………………………………………………160 V.2.3. Poor Brown Female at the Border: Disposable Bodies ………………………162 V.2.4. Systemic Violence …………………………………………………………...165 V.2.5. Contributing Factors to the Juárez Femicides: Macho Culture at the Border, Impunity and Corruption ...…………………………………………………………166 V.3. When Fiction Crosses Reality ………………………………………………………...169 V.3.1. Maquiloca: The Brown Femme Fatale ………………………………………172 V.3.2. Private Languages and Public Discourses: Bathroom Graffiti and Hashtag Era …………………………………………………………………………174 V.3. 3. Other Public Discourses: Artivism and Activism …………………………..176 V.3.3.1. Aestheticization of Violence and Pornomiseria …………………..179 V.3.3.2. Local, Binational and International Activism ……………………..181 V.4. Synthesis 182 CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………………186 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………………………....194 4 ABSTRACT SEXUALITY AND THE CHICANA/O DETECTIVE: IDENTITY AND VIOLENCE IN ALICIA GASPAR DE ALBA AND MICHAEL NAVA’S MYSTERY FICTION María de los Ángeles Lara-Jaén This doctoral thesis looks at how queer Chicana/o detectives investigate, from an outsider/insider point of view, identity politics and violence as related to sexuality and gender roles. In particular, this thesis aims to make a comparative analysis between the mystery works of Chicana/o writers Michael Nava and Alicia Gaspar de Alba. This study is predominantly informed by Chicana/o, Detective Fiction, Feminist and Queer Studies. Until the 1970s, the dominant traditional discourse in detective fiction had placed ethnic and homosexual characters in a marginal position. Traditional mystery narratives subordinated and limited these characters to a negative representation. In the last decades, this restrictive style has gradually morphed with the introduction of ethnic and queer sleuths. The purpose of my research is to examine how detective fiction has been a suitable genre, for Nava and Gaspar de Alba, to explore sexuality issues within the Chicana/o community and examine homophobia and violence in a transnational context. The inclusion of indigenous and non-indigenous critical theories to support this research will allow this thesis to offer an emic and etic approach to Chicana/o culture. It will also negotiate differences and similarities between those theories developed from inside the Chicano culture and those constructed from the outside. 5 INTRODUCTION Along with my love for detective narratives, one of the reasons that initially motivated this study was the research that I carried out to write my dissertation for the MA in Comparative Literature at Dublin City University (Ireland). This dissertation revolved around the reinterpretation of myths as related to sexuality, which led me to discover Cherríe Moraga’s play The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea (1995). My attendance at the conference Transitions and Continuities in Contemporary Chicano/a Culture Conference that took place at University College Cork (Ireland) in June 2011, where I had the tremendous opportunity to discuss her Mexican Medea with Moraga, further moved me in the direction of Chicana/o literature and criticism. Another author in attendance at this conference who has inspired my research in this field, and more specifically the present study, was Alicia Gaspar de Alba. Their academic work on the complexities of Chicana/o subjectivities and the interrelationship between ethnicity, sexuality and gender has encouraged my exploration of these themes. The presence of queer, ethnic and female fictional detectives has become critical in the transformation of the genre over the past forty years, as they have produced a social commentary

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