Queer and Trans* Latino/x Men and Masculinities in Higher Education

• In Event: Envisioning Futures for Queer and Trans* Latina/o/x Students in Education

Abstract

Soy Cuir
Soy Cuir/I’m Queer
Soy Macho/I’m Masc
Soy Hombre/I’m a Man

Being a masc presenting Queer person continues to intrigue me and is the basis of my research. Understanding the ways masculinity feels like home for Queer & Trans* Latinx/o men. Specifically, the ways we navigate gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and dis/ability in collegiate settings. What does it mean for masc Queer & Trans* Latinx/o men in the academy to exist? To find joy, love, and healing in a system not built for them. What does it mean to privilege off masculinity and in effect privilege off patriarchy?

My body of work at it’s heart is about Queer & Trans* Latinx/o masculinity and the way we em/body that with(in) academia. I believe in the call to action by Aida Hurtado and other Chicana Feminists in the need for men to interrogate their being. To interrogate what it means to be a man/hood. Specifically, to think about the ways dominant hegemonic ideas of masculinity trap us in never ending cycles of violence to ourselves and to others. In this way I hope to learn how to deconstruct masculinity for college Latinx/o men, to resist, challenge, and disrupt the types of masculinity that continues to hurt our communities.

The author utilizes an intersectional Chicana feminist framework to center the experiences and knowledge of Latinx/o men (Calderon et al., 2012; Delgado Bernal, 1998; Hurtado 2020). The connection between Chicana feminist and art, specifically photography is utilized to conceptualize how Latinx/o men can produce photography that is tied to their culture, history, and academic experience, as well as how this can help further explore the intersections of the sexuality, gender, ethnicity, race, and dis/ability (Hurtado, 2020). In addition, utilizing testimonios as a method, specifically to illuminate the aspects of healing, intuition, and feeling that are used to center the personal experiences of the participants (Calderon et al., 2012; Delgado Bernal, 1998; Hurtado 2020).

Alongside Chicana feminist frameworks, I utilize Jotería (Duran, Orozco, & Gonzalez, 2020; Hames-García, 2014; Pérez, 2014; Orozco, 2021; Tijerina Revilla & Santillana, 2014). Answering the call of Orozco (2021) to imagine the ways Jotería can be incorporated into the study of higher education, specifically, his call to expand the scholarship of Queer Latinx/a/o students. This theoretical framework allows me to engage Queer Latinx/a/o knowledge and experiences with the possibilities of what can be in higher education (Orozco, 2021). Honoring the legacies of Jotería studies also honors the legacy of Queer Chicana feminists whose work help shaped the Jotería. This concept allows us to imagine futures and create hope for what is yet to be seen and felt; in the possibilities of another world (Muñoz, 2009; Orozco 2021).

This paper hopes to further humanize the educational experiences of Queer & Trans* Latinx/o men and continue to inform future research and practice can center their unique experiences.

Author

• Gabriel Rodríguez Lemus, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author