Paper short abstract:

I argue that for a group of Latinx queer individuals in Houston, the creation of queer-kinship relationships and spaces of sociability has aided them to perform their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, vis-a-vis the development of a support network that serves as a collective enterprise of survival.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I argue that for a group of Latinx queer individuals in Houston, the creation of queer-kinship relationships and spaces of sociability has aided them to perform their gender and sexuality, ethnic identities vis-a vis de development of a support network that sometimes serves as a collective enterprise of survival. In these queer spaces they can freely perform their queerness and their Latinidad at the same time and develop a particular kind of queerness that opposes to any static view of identity. The focus of my presentation is based on my ethnographic work with eleven Latinx individuals in Houston, who identified as the “LaRue Legacy”. To the heteronormative gaze, this is a group of friends who do drag performances; however, I argue that this group relate to each other as a family, developing queer kinship connections, using the nomenclature used within a family such as: mother, grandmother, sister, among others. In addition, they also support each other with the same love and feelings that a traditional family would do. In addition, I study the way in which Mexican and U.S. conceptions of gender and sexuality have influenced the group I study creating a hybrid discourse of queerness that fused hegemonic and subaltern forces. I argue that the gender practices of my collaborators challenge notions of traditional norms of gender, sexuality and nationality. In my study I am developing an ethno-gender- ethnographic approach based on theories of intersecionalities, gender, and queer studies.

Paper short abstract:

The terms bugarrón & pinguero represent 2 facets of MSM (men who have sex with men) identity in Cuba that have been shaped by Spanish colonialism & geopolitical conflicts. They link the historical and contemporary struggles of undocumented queer migrants who find opportunity through invisibility.

Paper long abstract:

The term bugarrón has European antecedents (the French word bougre referencing a sodomite, and often accusations of male pedophilia). Brought to the Caribbean through Spanish colonialism, it has re-emerged with new connotations and functions that are frequently invisible to heteronormative institutions and policies. In Cuba, this term traditionally arises in reference to father-son type relationships where an older single man informally adopts a young orphaned boy into his home, resulting in rumours of pedophilia. In contemporary Cuba, it is a reference to men who move from rural locations to Havana without residency permits. They sell their bodies to older sexually passive Cuban men in exchange for temporary housing and the opportunities to find/create money to send to their rural families. Their heterosexuality is not questioned, both because of the hypermasculinity that is imposed on black bodies as well as the notion that hypermasculinity and heterosexuality are dictated by the desire to penetrate and dominate any body regardless of sex or gender. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and Cuba's ensuing economic crisis (1991), the Castro government opened the country to international tourism, which resulted in a surge in sex work and the emergence of the term pinguero, i.e. a bugarrón who primarily targets tourists, often with the goal of creating networks outside of Cuba for longer term economic stability and migration to Europe. I will look at these two terms in relation to their origins and social functions from Europe to Cuba and back again.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the decolonial perspective, I explore the connections between the emergence of bawdy folklore and the establishment of modern regimes of sexuality in the wake of European colonialism. Although I focus on the history of Ukrainian bawdy folklore, other cultural contexts are considered too.

Paper long abstract:

Under the influence of romantic nationalism, the 19th-century intelligentsia and middle class declared their commitment to preserving folklore in all its diversity and complexity. However, while collecting and publishing a wide variety of folklore genres, folklorists were tireless in their persistent efforts towards erasing some of these texts, particularly those perceived as indecent and threatening public mores. These processes of elimination led to the establishment of a new group of folklore and, subsequently, the appearance of bawdy folklore collections. Since the 19th century, bawdy folklore, for the first time in history, was strictly controlled by state institutions, barred from public dissemination, and intended solely for academics.

Drawing on the decolonial perspective (Anibal Quijano, Sylvia Wynter, and Maria Lugones), I seek to explore the connections between the emergence of bawdy folklore and the establishment of modern regimes of sexuality in the wake of European colonialism. While folklore and sexuality are typically studied separately, their juxtaposition allows us to reveal the workings of coloniality. In my research, I ask: Why did texts circulating freely among peasants and nobility for centuries in various cultures start being perceived as a threat so severe that modern societies needed new laws and institutions to control these texts? What motivated the Ukrainian elites (and the middle classes all over the globe) to eliminate a considerable part of their native culture while otherwise struggling to preserve folklore and vernacular knowledge?

Paper short abstract:

The paper aims to describe the meaning of ‘othered’ gender in Ukrainian belief narratives and to look at the meaning of gender from the perspective of social or corporeal deviation. The research is based on Ukrainian folkloric and ethnographic collections of the 19th-early 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

Traditional societies, like Ukrainian society of the 19th-early 20th century, tend to have a strict socially accepted structure that entails gendered behaviour. The structure is closely intertwined with job segregation, working capacity, and fertility. Deviations, although those that are not big in common sense, evoke marginalization and, as a result, beliefs that surround one’s status in the community. As a result, one’s gender lies beyond the common understanding of femininity or masculinity, ‘wrong’ performance of woman- or manhood leads to beliefs.

The paper aims to describe the meaning of ‘othered’ gender in belief narratives of Ukraine in the 19th-early 20th century, as well as to look at the meaning of gender from another angle. The research concentrates on the gender that is surrounded by beliefs in traditional societies that impact its meaning, and that’s why this gender can be seen from another perspective. The paper is based on Ukrainian folkloric and ethnographic collections of the 19th-early 20th century.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, we will study how the identity of traditional 'Naga warrior' in the retold warrior folktales changed with colonization, and how warriorhood has been negatively conceptualized by the indigenous Naga community.

Paper long abstract:

The Naga retold warrior folktales are well-known traditional male centric stories, which currently are regarded by researchers as examples of establishing patriarchal dominance in the traditional oral community. However, traditionally these warrior folktales were not regarded as problematic nor viewed as gender biased and promoting patriarchy. It was only with the coming of colonization that gender hierarchy and sexuality power demarcation were redefine, and the warrior folktales were affected in their traditional frame and nature since it contradicts the kind of society the warrior is depicting. Moreover, warrior folktales are started to be seen as promoters of structures of gender and dominance against other non-warriors. Therefore, it is important to study how the identity of traditional warrior changed with colonization, and how warriorhood has been negatively conceptualized by the indigenous Naga community. Using textual analysis of two Naga warrior folktales, we further argue, with the help of Maria Lugones’ decolonial perspective, that we can reimagine the traditional symbolism of warriors in the selected retold folktales. These folktales/perspectives are created indirectly as and through embodied acts and behaviors and constitute Naga personhood. Hence, through these warriors’ folktales we can understand the traditional meaning of gender relationship and how they differ from the colonized gender.