City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2015 "Beyond Chingones and Chingados: Performing Masculinities in Contemporary Mexican Theatre" Zaida Godoy Navarro Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/562 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BEYOND CHINGONES AND CHINGADOS: PERFORMING MASCULINITIES IN CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN THEATRE By ZAIDA GODOY NAVARRO A dissertation submitted to Graduate Faculty in Hispanic and Luso- Brazilian Literatures and Languages Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2015 2015 ZAIDA GODOY NAVARRO All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty of Hispanic and Luso- Brazilian Literatures and Languages in satisfaction of the dissertation requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy . Dr. Oswaldo Zavala _________________ ___________________________ Date Chair of the Examining Committee Dr. Magdalena Perkowska _________________ ___________________________ Date Executive Officer Dr. Elena Martínez _____________________________ Dr. Magdalena Perkowska _______________________ Dr. Stuart Day ________________________________ Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract BEYOND CHINGONES AND CHINGADOS: PERFORMING MASCULINITIES IN CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN THEATRE By Zaida Godoy Navarro Adviser: Oswaldo Zavala The present investigation focuses on how masculinities are conformed and represented in the plays of two generations of Mexican playwrights, the New Dramatists of Mexico and the younger Sixth Generation in an attempt to reflect upon recent conceptualizations of gender as well as contemporary changes in society mainly due to globalization and the impact of feminism and gay movements. The limited literature focused on Mexican masculinities has overlooked the importance of theatre as a privileged and productive setting for the study of gender. Another common factor in studies dedicated to the representation of Mexican men in literature is the focus on the homosexual man. Without ignoring his appearance in the selected plays, I intend to fulfill this critical lacuna by examining heterosexual masculinities that have a problematic correspondence with the normative conventions and gender ideologies of society. In particular, I will analyze the complexities and limitations of the basic dichotomy between chingones and chingados envisioned by Octavio Paz’s seminal essay The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950) that has a dominant influence in Mexico’s cultural production across the second half of the twentieth century. Instead of Paz’s binary, non-essentialist terms such as hegemonic, non-hegemonic, supportive, or marginal masculinities will lead our discussion, but always keeping in mind the relational and always changing nature of masculinities performances. This characteristic nature iv of gender guarantees the future occurrence of a different masculinity, one that even if only barely delineated by the end of this dissertation, will not base its existence on the subordination of others. v Acknowledgements: I owe my deepest gratitude to my committee chair, Professor Oswaldo Zavala. It took me some time to find the right advisor, but now I can say that the wait was more than worth it. In addition to sharing his broad knowledge and expertise with me, he has kept me motivated along the way. I thank him for walking around a fountain with me while discussing my ideas, stopping right on time to avoid us getting dizzy. This has helped me even in the distance. Without his guidance and great feedback this thesis would not have been possible. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee: Prof. Elena Martínez, Prof. Magdalena Perkowska, and Prof. Stuart Day, for their careful readings and revisions, as well as for always being congenial and supportive. I am especially thankful for how easy they have made the process for me even as I lived abroad while writing part of my dissertation. Very special thanks goes out to Prof. Day, my external reader, for having stayed in touch after being my professor so many years ago. He is one of the best teachers that I have ever had and it is because of a course that I took with him that I have dedicated my studies to Latin America theatre. I am also indebted to José del Valle, our program’s Executive Officer, for always being willing to meet with me when I felt lost or needed help. He made me write my first proposal and read it when I still did not have an advisor. He has not only always replied to my emails and solved any doubts that I could have, but he has done so with the human warmth for which he is known in the department, making all of us feel like part of a big family. I would also like to thank the classmates with whom I have shared hours of study, moments of frustration, and of course, laughter. They have helped me to progress towards vi reaching this goal. My non-academic friends have endured me during all this time and stayed optimistic towards my advances. I greatly value their friendship for keeping me sane throughout these years. Most importantly, none of this would have been possible without the love and understanding of my dear husband. I deeply appreciate his belief in me and the patience with which he has learned to accommodate to my studying space and time. I am also thankful to my family for staying proud of me regardless of how long it took me to get here: to my parents and siblings, to my grandparents, to my aunts and uncles, to my cousins and “cousins,” to my in- laws, including uncles, aunts, and cousins by marriage. And in particular I would like to express my gratitude to my mother-in-law, for her editing assistance, love and support. Frankfurt, August 20 th 2014. vii Table of Contents Introduction. 1 Chapter One Gender Studies and Mexican Drama in Historical Context. 11 Chapter Two Masculinities and their Physicality. Bodies Enclosed in a Hegemonic Position. 50 Chapter Three Masculinities and their Female “Other:” Violence As a Response to Gender Inadequacies. 99 Chapter Four Masculinities and the Male “Other:” Indispensable Friends and Enemies. 145 Conclusion. 212 Bibliography. 224 viii Introduction The present investigation focuses on contemporary Mexican theatre and how masculinities are conformed in the plays of authors of the group known as Nueva Dramaturgia Mexicana as well as a selection of works by authors of a younger generation who have been publishing and staging them since the beginning of the new millennium. As studied by gender theory, men and women continuously act their roles according to male and female gender social conventions. Due to this inherent performative quality, I contend that theatre stands out as a privileged and productive setting for the study of gender. The performance of the plays selected (and in some cases the rehearsal processes) displays for us how gender parameters are aspired to, learned, embodied, complied with, and —even if minimally— contested. Being a social aspect relevant to every member of society, gender and its enactment on stage have to be considered in relation to audience response, the success of a play, and particularly, the reviews. Gender —like other categories of identity formation such as race, class, nationality, religion, etc.— regulates society, determining relations of power and conforming to a hierarchy according to patriarchal standards. In the same way that democracy and social reforms aim at equality among all individuals, theorists such as Tim Carrigan, Raewyn Connell, and John Lee advocate transformations towards a kind of masculinity that will not privilege men over women, nor men over other men. 1 In recent decades, Mexican theatre denounces social injustice against women and portrays alternative femininities to the traditional submissive mother, virgin or lover who influence and impact their male partners in the plays to be discussed here. In particular, I will 1 This is my interpretation of Carrigan, Connell and Lee’s approach to masculinities from “an effective political practice” (596) and their insistence on change. As a matter of fact, these authors emphasize how the “male role” literature of the 1970s already aimed at changes even if it remained unclear then how to make such changes a reality. 1 analyze how a binary logic of hegemonic versus non-hegemonic masculinities is negotiated between male characters from various class positions within multiple social dynamics. 2 Masculinities on the contemporary stage are thus no longer limited by the basic dichotomy between chingones and chingados envisioned by Octavio Paz’s seminal essay El laberinto de la soledad (1950), a text that has a dominant influence in Mexico’s cultural production across the second half of the twentieth century. And even when such archetypical masculinities are represented, as I will discuss in what follows, the dénouement of the play forces the spectator to a critical reflection upon the problematic gender ideologies inherited from generation to generation and the specific power relationships that they produce. “Nueva Dramaturgia Mexicana” refers to a group of writers mainly publishing in the 1970s, who also built “a logical bridge into the 1980s” (Nigro 216). Its name, “an editorial coincidence” (Leñero, Introducción 9), comes from the title of a series of books featuring many of the group’s plays, later used for a cycle of dramatized readings of those works. The writers themselves are quite different one from another, but author Vicente Leñero (1933) identifies an unconscious postmodernism as a common characteristic among them (10). Another common factor is that most of the playwrights participated in dramatic workshops.