Chapt 9 discussion
- 1. “Cultural Production of Knowledge” (Chapter 9) By José Quiroga and Melanie López Frank
- 2. How does the cultural production of Latina/os and their sexualities avoid essentialists readings of queer Latina/os? Hoes does historical objectivity masquerade ideology?
- 3. How has the study of Latina/o sexualities been subject to paternalistic and imperialistic gestures? How is a nuanced study of Latina/o sexualities a critique of essentialism? (remember Janice Irvine’s text “Rethinking Sexuality)
- 4. Discuss why the cultural production of knowledge on Latina/os and their sexualities is said to arise in the 1960s and 1970s. Give concrete examples of their influences to current studies.
- 5. How are nationalist myths oppressive? Give an example of a myth we have previously read about and discussed.
- 6. What is the importance of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa? What is “third-wave feminism”?
- 7. How is the problematic issue of race underscored in Latina/o identity in the section “Between the Lines: On Culture, Class, and Homophobia”? Give two examples.
- 8. How do some Latina/os “pass” between racial categories as well as between the different divisions of sexuality?
- 9. John Rechy, Luis Rafael Sanchez, Manuel Ramos Otero, and Reinaldo Arenas were the first Latino writers in the 1960s and 1970s to openly address the question of homosexuality in their work. What were some of their literary contributions? Why are they important figures in the canon of Latin American and U.S. Latina/o Literature?
- 10. What are some of the important literary contributions in the 1990s Latina/os regarding the broad theme of gender and sexuality?
- 11. How has the production of knowledge on Latina/os and their sexualities been incorporated into academia? Why do more recent cultural productions center on historical and social analyses? What are some examples of cultural knowledge produced about Latina/os in the media?