Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance

Translocas explores the political potential of drag and transgender performance and activism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora, focusing on the lives and work of contemporary performers and activists. It demonstrates how each destabilizes dominant notions of gender and sexuality through drag and their embodied transgender expression, providing a means to explore and critique issues of race, class, poverty, national identity, and migratory displacement. It also analyzes the murders of Jorge Steven LÓpez Mercado and Kevin Fret in Puerto Rico and invites readers to challenge, question, and expand their knowledge about queer life, drag, trans performance, and Puerto Rican identity in the Caribbean and the diaspora.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 30 April 2021
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

Translocas is a groundbreaking exploration of drag and transgender performance and activism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. Written by Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, the book argues for the political potential of Latin American and Latinx locas, effeminate men, drag queens, transgender performers, and unruly women. Through an interdisciplinary, auto-ethnographic approach, the book delves into the social and cultural disruptions caused by these individuals and the various forms of violence they face in Puerto Rico and the United States.

The book features the lives and work of contemporary performers and activists, including Sylvia Rivera, Nina Flowers, Freddie Mercado, Javier Cardona, Jorge Merced, Erika LÓpez, Holly Woodlawn, Monica Beverly Hillz, Lady Catiria, and Barbra Herr. It also examines television programs such as RuPaul's Drag Race, films such as Paris Is Burning, The Salt Mines, and Mala Mala, and literary works by authors such as Mayra Santos-Febres and Manuel Ramos Otero.

La Fountain-Stokes, a drag performer himself, showcases how each destabilizes (and sometimes reifies) dominant notions of gender and sexuality through drag and their embodied transgender expression. These performances offer a platform to explore and critique issues of race, class, poverty, national identity, and migratory displacement. At times, they also posit a relationship between audiences and performers that has a ritual-like, communal dimension.

In addition to its exploration of performance and activism, Translocas also analyzes the murders of Jorge Steven LÓpez Mercado and Kevin Fret in Puerto Rico. The book invites readers to challenge, question, and expand their knowledge about queer life, drag, trans performance, and Puerto Rican identity in the Caribbean and the diaspora. It also pays careful attention to transgender experience, highlighting how trans activists and performers mold their bodies.

Overall, Translocas is a vital contribution to the field of performance studies and LGBTQ+ studies, providing a rich and nuanced understanding of the lives and experiences of Latin American and Latinx locas and their impact on society.

Weight: 478g
Dimension: 153 x 228 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472054275