JuanGa/Aguilera: A Queer Figuration of the “Homosexual” in Latin America

Abstract

This article presents a study about Latin American figurations of the “homo­sexual”. It was inspired by the work of Cynthia Weber in Queer International Relations (Queer IR) and the Latin American Queer analysis of Carlos Figari. It proposes a new pluralistic way to answer to three interrogatives: who is the “homosexual” in Latin America?, what is the modern nation-state that is assumed to be “sovereign”? and, how does the “homosexual” participates in the construction of the “sovereign” nation-state? The first two questions are not answered, rather they are explored for their potential to produce new insights to Queer and IR theories.

To answer the third question, it will be introduced a new plural figuration of the “homo­sexual” that breaks apart with the either normal or perverse dichotomy: JuanGa/Aguilera. It is justified why JuanGa/Aguilera creates a plural “sovereign” nation state that makes more difficult (even impossible) to sustain traditional binary understandings of sovereign. This last result will be used to give new research possibilities that can be achieved in Latin American Queer Studies and International Relations through the understanding of plural figurations of sovereign man.