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University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting WHERE’S MY THANKS: CITIZENSHIP AND THE REGULATION OF QUEER LATINOS IN CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CULTURE By R. GABRIEL MAYORA A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2016 © 2016 R. Gabriel Mayora To mami, papi, Yesu y Reyving por ser mis ángeles en la tierra y por los sacrificios que hicieron para que yo llegara a este punto. Su sabiduría y amor son la mejor herencia. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Though I wrote this dissertation myself, it feels like it belongs to the countless of people who helped me every step of the way. I dedicate this dissertation to Ramón and Maritza Mayora, mami y papi, who gave up everything so that I could have a place in the world. My siblings Yesu y Reyving worked all kinds of jobs to support our family when we immigrated to the U.S., and without them, I simply would not have had the chance to be doing what I chose to do. Yira’s unconditional support helped make this journey a lot more bearable. Without the input and enthusiasm of Efraín Barradas, Amy Ongiri, and Kim Emery, I would be completely lost. I thank them for asking the tough questions; my work is stronger because of them. Creed Greer, Martin Simpson, Terry Harpold, and Kenneth Kidd kept me employed so that I could actually afford to work on this project. Without Leah Rosenberg, Sid Dobrin, Emilia Hodge, Sarah McLemore, who helped me receive the Delores Auzenne Dissertation Award, I would not have been able to finish it. Carla Blount, Melissa Davis, and Kathy Williams at the Department of English and Mary-Lynn Bassett and Jessie Runge at the University Writing Program were indispensable in helping me navigate the administrative elements of graduate school. Then there is the late great Scott Nygren, whom I miss enormously. His encouragement and intelligence made me a better scholar, and I hope to make him proud with this work. I want to thank my students for continuously inviting me to challenge myself and help me discover my passion for teaching, especially my spring 2014 “Writing About Theatre” students and my fall 2015 “Testimonios: Race, Gender & Sexuality in Latina/o Popular Culture” students. My mentees at the University Writing Program, Jackie Elliott, Holly Pratt, Eileen Rush, and Jackson Sabbagh, were some of my biggest cheerleaders 4 during the last stages of finishing this project, and their assistance during the year we taught together was key in completing this project; it was inspiring to see each of you in the classroom and get to learn from you every day. Those involved in Professor Tace Hedrick’s dissertation writing group offered critiques and encouragement throughout, and I especially want to thank Renee Cole, Kristin Allukian, Shoniqua Roach, Tamar Ditzian, and Berit Brink. I was fortunate enough to have countless of friends to always offer a word of support, a useful critique, or an adult beverage when that is what was needed. While it is impossible for me to name them all, I have to mention the incomparable Adrienne Reeves-Gower, as well as my dear friends Michael Gower, Alison Coman, Anthony Coman, Thomas Cole, Amy Brown, and Cathy Duarte. There are not enough words to describe my dissertation chair Tace Hedrick’s role in my life; she’s a friend, mentor, life coach, teacher, and cheerleader. Tace took my very rough idea and helped shaped it into this project. When I was ready to quit, she refused to let me, and I am on this path because of her. I also have to thank my colleague Jackie Amorim, my partner in crime, whose friendship got me through the best and the worst of graduate school. Finally, I thank Timothy Robinson—my love, my partner in life, my colleague, and my best friend. His humor, intelligence, patience, and relentless support made the present and the future possible. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: FROM THE BACK OF THE BUS TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE AND BACK AGAIN ........................................................................................ 10 They Just Keep Moving the Line ............................................................................. 10 Let’s Start at the Very Beginning ............................................................................ 14 The Neoliberal Context ........................................................................................... 23 Thesis and Structure ............................................................................................... 29 2 HASHTAG IT GETS BOURGIER: CITIZENS ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN ........................................................................................................ 35 La Vida Loca ........................................................................................................... 35 A “Peer of Kings”: The Construct of American Citizenship ...................................... 39 Getting “Better”: Visibility and the Corporization of Rights ...................................... 54 Lacking a Decent Pair of Panties: The Welcome Difficulty of Categorizing Locas .. 62 3 FASHIONED, NOT BORN, THIS WAY: INTERROGATING (AUTO)BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES OF SYLVIA RIVERA AND HOLLY WOODLAWN .......................................................................................................... 70 “Basically Pushed into this Role” ............................................................................ 70 The Trouble with “We Shall Overcome”: Stonewall, Nostalgia, and Progress ........ 76 Introducing Sylvia Rivera and Holly Woodlawn ....................................................... 86 Dressing Them Up: Making Locas Intelligible ....................................................... 104 4 TRASHING STONEWALL: LOCAS, WHITE ARTISTS, AND REGULATION AND RESISTANCE IN TRASH (1970) AND STONEWALL (1995) ...................... 122 Trash-y Obsessions .............................................................................................. 122 From Trash to Stonewall, an Overview ................................................................. 124 Queer Cinema and Latino/Rican Representation ................................................. 132 How Can I Tell If He Loves Me So? Is It In His Eyes? Holly and La Miranda through the White Gaze ..................................................................................... 146 Undoing Locas ...................................................................................................... 169 5 COVER, GIRL: BRANDING LOCAS IN CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CULTURE ............................................................................................................. 171 6 “America Lets Me Be Latina”: Contemporary Gay Rights and Rican Queens ....... 174 “I Can See Her Rice and Beans”: Performing Puerto Rican Identity ..................... 185 “When I’m in Drag, I’m a Star”: Survival and Negotiation as Forms of Subversion ......................................................................................................... 194 Responsitranity ..................................................................................................... 201 6 CONCLUSION: IMAGINING A QUEER LATINA/O UTOPIA ................................ 203 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 206 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 212 7 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy WHERE’S MY THANKS: CITIZENSHIP AND THE REGULATION OF QUEER LATINOS IN CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CULTURE By R. Gabriel Mayora May 2016 Chair: Tace Hedrick Major: English This project analyzes representations of locas, a term used to refer to queer Latinos who are defined by a public display of qualities associated with “bad” citizenship in today’s queer culture (such as overt sexuality, femininity, homelessness, and a sense of entitlement), across a variety of texts in contemporary U.S. popular culture, ranging from the late 1960s to the present. These texts are produced by white queer authors and/or designed to be consumed by a predominantly white queer audience. The locas I write about are predominantly Nuyorican or U.S.-based Puerto Ricans; thus, I seek to add specificity to my argument and move away from a monolithic notion of Latino/a subjectivity. Moreover, I situate the locas in this project within the colonial history that has defined the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico. The study seeks to criticize and challenge the ways in which, through media representation, the dominant 21st-century LGBT movement in the U.S. has created an image of “good” citizenship for queer people shaped around white, middle-class, neoliberal values. I argue that this form of citizenship has relied on regulating, disciplining, and normativizing disenfranchised queer Latino bodies without taking into 8 account the legal and affective needs and desires of those bodies. The study also seeks to reframe the role of performance in the representation of locas by white queer authors, not in terms of victimization, but rather as a site of potentiality
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