View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Washington University St. Louis: Open Scholarship Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2018 We are a Fantasia: Violence, Belonging, and Potentiality in Transgender Latina Sexual Economies Andrea Bolivar Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the American Studies Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons Recommended Citation Bolivar, Andrea, "We are a Fantasia: Violence, Belonging, and Potentiality in Transgender Latina Sexual Economies" (2018). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1512. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1512 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Anthropology Dissertation Examination Committee: Shanti Parikh, Chair Bret Gustafson, Co-Chair Rebecca Lester Jeffrey McCune Gina Pérez “We Are a Fantasía: Violence, Belonging, and Potentiality in Transgender Latina Sexual Economies by Andrea Bolivar A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2018 St. Louis, Missouri © 2018, Andrea Bolivar Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction: Fantasia, Race, Potentiality & Ambivalence .......................................................................... 1 “Somos una Fantasía”: Race, Potentiality and Ambivalence ................................................................... 3 Literature Review ...................................................................................................................................... 9 The Anthropology of Latinxs and Racialization in the US ................................................................... 9 Feminist Anthropology and the Study of Sex Work ........................................................................... 10 Transgender Studies ............................................................................................................................ 13 Methodology and Methods ..................................................................................................................... 14 Access and Key Interlocutors ............................................................................................................. 19 Feminist/Queer/Trans/Latinx Ethnographic Approaches.................................................................... 22 Confidentiality and Anonymity .......................................................................................................... 23 A Note on Ethical Dilemmas .............................................................................................................. 24 My Positionality .................................................................................................................................. 24 Overview of Chapters ............................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 1: History of Latinx Chicago: Migrating, Working, and Exploiting Brown Bodies ..................... 30 Colonialist Roots of Latinx America ...................................................................................................... 31 1920s-1940s: State-Sponsored Mass Labor Importation ........................................................................ 32 1950s: Urban Renewal ............................................................................................................................ 35 1960s-70s: Breaking Point ...................................................................................................................... 37 1980s: The War on Drugs and the AIDS Epidemic ................................................................................ 40 1990s & 2000s: Increased Gentrification, Criminalization & Deportation ............................................ 42 Historical Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 46 Chapter 2: Violences: Mutually Reinforcing & Multiplying ...................................................................... 48 Part 1: Interpersonal Violences ............................................................................................................... 49 Violence in Countries of Origin and Reasons for Immigrating .............................................................. 50 Violences Related to Sexual Labor ......................................................................................................... 53 Dora..................................................................................................................................................... 53 Intimate Partner Violence ....................................................................................................................... 56 Police Brutality ....................................................................................................................................... 61 Part 2: Bureaucratic Violences: Deportation and Identification ............................................................. 64 Encountering the Deportation Machine .................................................................................................. 65 Bureaucratic Violence through State Documentation ............................................................................. 68 ii “The Law Doesn’t Reflect my Experience:” The Double Power of Legal Documents for Undocumented Trans Women ................................................................................................................ 73 “Okay, This is My Story”: Facing and Overcoming Bureaucratic Violences ........................................ 75 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 78 Chapter 3: “Somos Una Fantasia”: The Racialized-Sexualization of Trans Latina Women ..................... 80 Transgender Deviance: Histories of Policing and Regulation ................................................................ 81 The Hypersexual Latina .......................................................................................................................... 88 Fantasy on Both Sides: The Hypersexual Transgender Latina & The Hypermasculine White Male ..... 92 Cartographies of Racial Fetishization: Sex Workers’ Understandings & Uses of Race ......................... 96 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 100 Chapter 4: “Blackness is Often Tied to Masculinity”: Blackness in Trans Latina Sexual Economies & the Racialization of Gender ............................................................................................................................ 102 Mercury: Trans, Latina & Black ........................................................................................................... 105 The Effects of Racial Passing on Gender Passing and Vice Versa ....................................................... 109 Trans, Latina, Black, and Disabled ................................................................................................... 114 The Violent Black Male Client ............................................................................................................. 118 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 125 Chapter 5: Money, Kin & Ambivalence ................................................................................................... 127 Financing Gender and Producing the Self ............................................................................................ 130 Confidence-Boosting Capabilities of Money and Ambivalent Attitudes towards Sex Work ............... 132 Money and Trans Kinship ..................................................................................................................... 137 Ambivalent Relations with Biological Kin ........................................................................................... 143 Manipulating Transnational Space to Maintain Kin Relations ............................................................. 147 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 149 Chapter 6: Working