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UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Barbara Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Salsa Epistemology: On the Present, Utopia, and the Caribbean Intervention in Critical Theory Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7k0667h4 Author Soares, Kristie Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Salsa Epistemology: On The Present, Utopia, and the Caribbean Intervention in Critical Theory A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Kristie Soares Committee in charge: Professor Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Chair Professor Chela Sandoval Professor Ellie Hernández June 2015 The dissertation of Kristie Soares is approved. ____________________________________________ Chela Sandoval ____________________________________________ Ellie Hernández ____________________________________________ Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Committee Chair May 2015 Salsa Epistemology: On The Present, Utopia, and the Caribbean Intervention in Critical Theory Copyright © 2015 by Kristie Soares iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation comes from what my parents already knew and taught me. I learned some fancy words along the way, but most of the knowledge belongs to them and to my community of dancing/cafetera-wielding/laughing/DJ-Laz-listening/perreando Cubans and Brazilians in Miami. I am so grateful to these communities and to my parents—Ronnie and Maria Soares—for living their lives in a way that not only inspires me, but also shows critical theory a thing or two. I am lucky enough to be married to the smartest person I have ever known. My wife, Emily Scheines, has the singular ability to plan a political campaign while checking my logic on Anzaldúan theory and putting the finishing touches on butternut squash lasagna. Without you, my love, I would have starved and misquoted. I would have never discovered burrata and never read Kindred. Thank you for being everything. I am fortunate enough to have best friends as silly as they are successful: Miguel Nolla, MaryAnn Holland, Laura Rodriguez, and Loren Beer have acted in my Kendale Elementary and Arvida Middle stage productions, proofread my college papers, visited me when I moved to the mountains, picked up the check when I couldn’t, reached out to my parents when I was living far away, reminded me to meditate, listened to my job talks, sent me articles for my research, bought me a computer, made me ride a mechanical bull… Stop it you guys. You rock. Then there’s Katrina Ruiz, who kept me writing creatively and performing when all I wanted to do was wear elbow patches. Guapa, as Cristina says, “Pa'lante, pa'lante, pa'tras ni pa' coger impulso." James Molina, for always volunteering to drive since we were sixteen years old so that I could sit in the passenger seat while we talk philosophy. Irina Popescu iv and Javier Cikota: you have healed me with your futon and your Turkish coffee and your hiking and your wine. Thank you for being family. My LA-based dissertation writing group: writing is a solitary process and I’m so grateful to have found you. Melissa Netto: Dude. Getting a PhD has got nothing on being a super mom. You inspire me. Katia Netto who gave me my first copy of This Bridge Called My Back. If people like you and Fredda Rubin hadn’t fought the good fight, dissertations like this one simply couldn’t exist. Vóvó Jandyra, for helping me understand that humor and wisdom are often synonymous. Tia Sonia, for being the first nerd I ever met and the first meditator—you are me of the future. Tia Isa, you are the most resilient and the most joyful person I know. You taught me that those two things could go together. Desi: you’re a German Shepherd and you can’t read this, but you should know that your little face keeps me going day after day. I’m a person that collects mentors, and I’m fortunate to have the following brilliant people to thank for guiding me along this path: First my chair, Carl Gutiérrez-Jones. Carl, you’ve been incredibly giving of your time, your emotional energy, and your patience throughout this multi-year process. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have had someone as grounded, brilliant, and compassionate as you as my guide into academia. Ellie Hernández and Chela Sandoval—thank you for introducing me to decolonial Chicana theorists! I have you to thank for the Latina/o studies scholar that I have become. Stephanie Batiste: you taught me that being a scholar-performer was something that people did, and encouraged me to do it myself. You made academia fun again. Juan Pablo Lupi: the day you introduced me to Lezama changed my life! Cristina Venegas: I never knew I wanted to be a media scholar until I met you and you encouraged me to write about Pitbull. Robert Buffington: Rob, eight years later I can still see the traces of our conversations in my work. v Radhule Weininger: compassion meditation is the most important thing I’ve learned in the past decade, and I’m grateful to you for being my teacher. And last but not least, my DAWGs (Dope-Ass-Writing-Group…there I said it). Shannon Brennan, Jessica Lopez Lyman, and Alison Reed, thank you most of all. You are alchemists—you turn germs of ideas into polished prose! Thank you for your time, your compassion, your brilliance. May the future of academia look just like the three of you. And one last thing: I am grateful to Pitbull, who reps the “305” and whose music makes me feel at home anywhere I go. Pitbull has more wisdom than we give him credit for. He is right when he says that when there is nothing left to try, you just gotta ¡Dale! And now, as Fulanito would say, que comience la fiesta… vi VITA OF KRISTIE SOARES May 2015 Education University of California, Santa Barbara Ph.D., Comparative Literature, expected June 2015 Dissertation: “Salsa Epistemology: The Present, Utopia, and the Caribbean Intervention in Critical Theory” Committee: Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Chela Sandoval, Ellie Hernández Graduate of International Language Schools of Canada French Program, July 2012 Montreal, Canada Graduate of Northwestern University Black Feminist Performance Institute, June 2011 Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University University of Colorado, Boulder M.A., Comparative Literature, May 2009 Graduate Certificate in Women & Gender Studies Thesis: “Traveling Queer Subjects: Homosexuality in the Cuban Diaspora” University of Florida B.A., English and Women’s Studies, June 2006 Graduated cum laude Graduate of Global Institute for Leadership and Civic Development, Havana, Cuba Semester Abroad in Havana, Cuba, Summer 2004 Research Interests • 20th Century Caribbean Literature and Popular Culture • U.S. Latina/o Literature and Media • Queer of Color Critique • Chicana Feminist Philosophy • Hemispheric American Studies • Performance Cultures of the Americas • 20th Century Political Theory Publications Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles “Garzona Nationalism: The Confluence of Gender, Sexuality and Citizenship in the Cuban Republic.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 35.3 (2014). “Traveling Queer Subjects: Homosexuality in the Cuban Diaspora.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 45.3 (2011). “From Canary Birds to Suffrage: Lavinia’s Feminist Role in Who Would Have Thought It?” Letras Femeninas 35.2 (2009): 211-229. vii Peer-Reviewed Chapters in Edited Books “The Political Implications of Playing Hopefully: A Negotiation of the Present and the Utopic in Queer Theory.” The Un/Making of Latina/o Citizenship: Culture, Politics and Aesthetics. Ed. Ellie D. Hernández and Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. “Who Do I Have to Forgive to Move On From This Place?’: Meditations from a Third World Feminist Lesbian.” Queer Girls in the Class: Lesbian Teachers and Students Tell Their Classroom Stories. Ed. Lori Horvitz. New York: Peter Lang, 2011. Introductions Introduction. “Latin America: A Special Issue.” Spec. issue of Counterpoise Magazine 9.1 (2005). Creative Publications and Performances “Arroz Con Mango.” Original play co-written with Katrina Ruiz. Staged reading at University of California, Santa Barbara, May 8, 2014. “Saturday Night Salsa.” Askew: A Poetry Journal 14 (Spring/Summer 2013). Featured Poet. The 2012 Whitman-Stein Poetry Fest. Santa Barbara City College. April 21st, 2012 “Las Reinas del Sazón.” Invited alongside Katrina Ruiz to perform an original piece at the Ultimate Latina Theatre Festival at the Nuyorican Poets Café, October 2009. “Cuban, Brazilian, Bisexual Me.” Consciousness-Raising: A Primer for Multicultural Counseling. 3rd edition. Ed. Woodrow M. Parker, Mary A. Fukuyama. Springfield: Thomas Books, 2007. Book Reviews Timothy A. Wise, Hilda Salazar, and Laura Carlsen, eds., Confronting Globalization: Economic Integration and Popular Resistance in Mexico. Reviewed for Counterpoise Magazine 8.1/2 (2004). Carol Queen. The Leather Daddy and the Femme. Reviewed for Counterpoise Magazine 8.1/2 (2004). Guest Editorships “Latin America: A Special Issue.” Ed. Kristie Soares. Spec. issue of Counterpoise Magazine 9.1 (2005). [Counterpoise Magazine is an academic book review journal dedicated to the independent press. I proposed and edited this special edition.] viii Academic Appointments University of California, Santa Barbara, Comparative Literature Program Instructor on Record / Teaching Associate CL 100, Introduction to Comparative Literature, Spring 2015 CL 34, Performance Literature of the Americas, Summer