Building upon works by Frances Aparicio, Alicia Arrizón, Jill Dolan, Cherríe Moraga, Jose Muñoz, David Román and Alberto Sandoval Sánchez, Ramón Rivera-Servera probes Latina/o queer performances and social events in US theatres, cultural centres and dance clubs from 1996 to 2011. These sites evoke strategies of expressing, fostering and sustaining queer latinidad, defined as an embodied aesthetic that is both a ‘utopian performative’ (p. 35) and an active counterpublic. Opening with an account of the 2009 Orgullo en Acción Latina/o LGBTQ Pride Picnic in Chicago, Rivera-Servera addresses what it means to be Latino and queer in public enactments. He powerfully reads performing bodies and affects:
During the fifteen years of researching and writing this project, I have danced along with others … [both] partnering on the dance floor and … being attuned bodily and emotionally to those around me … [T]he theories … in my analysis have been practices in performance; experienced, learned, and felt on my own body. (p. 19)
In each chapter's exploration of theories-in-practice of home, hope, utopia and friction, Rivera-Servera examines Latina/o queer performances as interventions in US social and political realms.
Chapter 2 engages the work of dancer–choreographer Arthur Aviles, considering home as a theory-in-practice of queer latinidad. Noting the political implications of Latina/o queer performance in contexts of heteropatriarchy, Rivera-Servera illustrates how Aviles sparks community awareness for the betterment of the Bronx neighbourhood of Hunts Point. As a homemaker, Aviles uses performance to create spaces where residents imagine and create a more ‘livable Hunts Point’ (p. 54), sharing creative skills in a safe environment.
Chapter 3 examines the circulation of hope in the art and activism of Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, a San Antonio, Texas Latina/o queer cultural organization dedicated to social justice that was defunded in 1997. Rivera-Servera examines the organization's Todos Somos Esperanza campaign to support its legal battle with the city. Positioning hope as a political praxis vital to mobilization, Rivera-Servera shows how the campaign galvanized queer and straight Latina/o communities to address urban homophobia, racism and touristic cultural appropriation.
Chapters 4 and 5 turn to quotidian nightlife and social dance as practices of Latina/o queer world-making. Drawing upon interviews with club patrons, Rivera-Servera reads dance floor choreographies as sites of critical inquiry that engender utopia, fostering agency, community and pleasure. Utopia, however, is not devoid of frictions. Chapter 5 compares two dance clubs in Phoenix, Arizona, exploring ethnic and class tensions among queer Latinos. While Club Zarape has a working-class, norteño ranchero aesthetic, Club Karamba features Mexican techno-pop and caters to a pan-Latina/o middle-class audience. Frictions around class, race, ethnicity and gender manifest in the identitarian negotiations and affective exchanges of ‘dancing reggaetón with cowboy boots’ (the chapter's title) in Phoenix's queer clubs.
Performing Queer Latinidad brings together theory and practice, dance and performance studies, queer studies and Latina/o studies to explore the interventions of community organizers, artist–activists and ordinary people. Rivera-Servera captures his subjects in action, making queer Latina/o bodies matter locally and globally. As such, Performing Queer Latinidad offers a significant contribution to a range of fields.
