What did it mean to be a man in colonial Latin America? More specifically, what did indigenous an... more What did it mean to be a man in colonial Latin America? More specifically, what did indigenous and Iberian groups think of men who had sexual relations with other men? Providing comprehensive analyses of how male homosexualities were represented in areas under both Portuguese and Spanish control, "Infamous Desire" is the first book-length attempt to answer such questions. Each of the contributors connects male homosexual behaviour to broader gender systems - both indigenous and European - that defined masculinity and femininity, and relate sodomy to concepts of desire and power. But they sometimes draw very different conclusions. For instance, based on his study of the "berdache" (indigenous cross-dressers), Richard Trexler argues that homosexuality as we know it today did not exist in colonial Latin America, while Luiz Mott uses Inquisition documents to reveal a community of sodomites whom he believes shared a homosexual identity rooted in their common oppressio...
The Franciscan friar Diego de Landa, in the mid-sixteenth century, and the Holly-wood film produc... more The Franciscan friar Diego de Landa, in the mid-sixteenth century, and the Holly-wood film producer and director Mel Gibson, in the early twenty-first century, created Maya men as beings with perverted and penetrated bodies. In 1566 Landa wrote his Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, an extensive text about the Maya people. In 2006 Gibson released Apocalypto, a Hollywood film in which all dialogue was in Yucatec Maya. Landa and Gibson both argued that they showed the true Maya world, but each expressed a visceral reaction to Maya sacrifice and, in so doing, infested their own fantasies with nightmares of savage Maya men. This essay argues that by analyzing the voyeurism and fantasies of Landa and Gibson, we can come to terms with the position of Maya masculinity in modern Western imaginations. Moreover, by working to understand Landa’s and Gibson’s investments in perverse Maya men, we can think about why Western people formulate fantasies of colonized subjects. Finally, these fantasie...
surgente de Hidalgo representó la resurrección política de su pasado y el resurgimiento de los ra... more surgente de Hidalgo representó la resurrección política de su pasado y el resurgimiento de los rasgos míticos de la memoria indígena y cómo en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, ante el proyecto de consolidar un estadonación, se intentó hacer desaparecer su identidad étnica con el pretexto de alcanzar la integridad y la unidad política de la nación. Sin embargo su capacidad de adaptación y resistencia contribuyó a que los indígenas actuales se mantuvieran fieles a las tradiciones que durante siglos los conformaron como pueblo. El redescubrimiento de su realidad social, tras la Revolución de , y la revalorización de la antigüedad nativa, mediante estudios arqueológicos y etnográficos, no han hecho sino confirmar la permanencia de una tradición milenaria. Culmina así una obra verdaderamente notable por su rigor científico y sus brillantes interpretaciones. Pero no podía esperarse menos de quien hoy por hoy es uno de los más reconocidos investigadores de México.
... ever, the Spanish gloss accompanying the phallic figures says that these puto priests did no... more ... ever, the Spanish gloss accompanying the phallic figures says that these puto priests did not leave the temple. This text, representing the puto as phallic, stands out from the other sources (indeed, the connection between the puto and fertility seems entirely ... Queer Nahuatl 15 ...
What did it mean to be a man in colonial Latin America? More specifically, what did indigenous an... more What did it mean to be a man in colonial Latin America? More specifically, what did indigenous and Iberian groups think of men who had sexual relations with other men? Providing comprehensive analyses of how male homosexualities were represented in areas under both Portuguese and Spanish control, "Infamous Desire" is the first book-length attempt to answer such questions. Each of the contributors connects male homosexual behaviour to broader gender systems - both indigenous and European - that defined masculinity and femininity, and relate sodomy to concepts of desire and power. But they sometimes draw very different conclusions. For instance, based on his study of the "berdache" (indigenous cross-dressers), Richard Trexler argues that homosexuality as we know it today did not exist in colonial Latin America, while Luiz Mott uses Inquisition documents to reveal a community of sodomites whom he believes shared a homosexual identity rooted in their common oppressio...
The Franciscan friar Diego de Landa, in the mid-sixteenth century, and the Holly-wood film produc... more The Franciscan friar Diego de Landa, in the mid-sixteenth century, and the Holly-wood film producer and director Mel Gibson, in the early twenty-first century, created Maya men as beings with perverted and penetrated bodies. In 1566 Landa wrote his Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, an extensive text about the Maya people. In 2006 Gibson released Apocalypto, a Hollywood film in which all dialogue was in Yucatec Maya. Landa and Gibson both argued that they showed the true Maya world, but each expressed a visceral reaction to Maya sacrifice and, in so doing, infested their own fantasies with nightmares of savage Maya men. This essay argues that by analyzing the voyeurism and fantasies of Landa and Gibson, we can come to terms with the position of Maya masculinity in modern Western imaginations. Moreover, by working to understand Landa’s and Gibson’s investments in perverse Maya men, we can think about why Western people formulate fantasies of colonized subjects. Finally, these fantasie...
surgente de Hidalgo representó la resurrección política de su pasado y el resurgimiento de los ra... more surgente de Hidalgo representó la resurrección política de su pasado y el resurgimiento de los rasgos míticos de la memoria indígena y cómo en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, ante el proyecto de consolidar un estadonación, se intentó hacer desaparecer su identidad étnica con el pretexto de alcanzar la integridad y la unidad política de la nación. Sin embargo su capacidad de adaptación y resistencia contribuyó a que los indígenas actuales se mantuvieran fieles a las tradiciones que durante siglos los conformaron como pueblo. El redescubrimiento de su realidad social, tras la Revolución de , y la revalorización de la antigüedad nativa, mediante estudios arqueológicos y etnográficos, no han hecho sino confirmar la permanencia de una tradición milenaria. Culmina así una obra verdaderamente notable por su rigor científico y sus brillantes interpretaciones. Pero no podía esperarse menos de quien hoy por hoy es uno de los más reconocidos investigadores de México.
... ever, the Spanish gloss accompanying the phallic figures says that these puto priests did no... more ... ever, the Spanish gloss accompanying the phallic figures says that these puto priests did not leave the temple. This text, representing the puto as phallic, stands out from the other sources (indeed, the connection between the puto and fertility seems entirely ... Queer Nahuatl 15 ...
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