Archiving Mexican Masculinities in Diaspora

In Archiving Mexican Masculinities in Diaspora, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández challenges machismo and highlights Mexican men's emotional vulnerabilities and intimacies in their diasporic communities. She documents how Enrique Flores Magón, an anarchist political leader, upended gender norms through sentimentality and emotional vulnerability, and how Braceros forged domesticity and intimacy, sharing affection and physical violence. Guidotti-Hernández formulates a theory of transnational Mexican masculinities rooted in emotional and physical intimacy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 23 June 2021
Publisher: Duke University Press

In her groundbreaking work, Archiving Mexican Masculinities in Diaspora, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández takes on the pervasive issue of machismo, a term that encompasses the misogyny experienced by Latinx men who are racialized and heteronormative. Guidotti-Hernández offers a nuanced portrayal of Mexican men and masculinities across the US-Mexico border, highlighting their emotional vulnerabilities and intimacies within their diasporic communities. By examining the life and expressions of Enrique Flores Magón, an anarchist political leader and journalist, Guidotti-Hernández sheds light on how Flores Magón challenged gender norms through his public performances and private expressions of sentimentality and emotional vulnerability.

Flores Magón's experiences resonate with those of the Bracero program participants, who, as more than 4.5 million Mexican men, traveled to the United States between 1942 and 1964 to work in temporary agricultural jobs. These men forged domesticity and intimacy, sharing affection as well as physical violence. Through these case studies that reexamine the private sphere of diasporic male individuals, Guidotti-Hernández develops a theory of transnational Mexican masculinities that are rooted in emotional and physical intimacy. This theory emerges from the experiences of being racial, political, and social outsiders in the United States.

Guidotti-Hernández's work is a significant contribution to the study of Mexican masculinities and sheds light on the complexities and nuances of gender identities within Mexican communities both in Mexico and in the diaspora. Her work challenges traditional notions of machismo and highlights the importance of understanding the emotional and intimate aspects of male relationships in order to promote greater gender equality and social justice.

Weight: 703g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478013242