Vendidas y Devueltas: Queer Times and Color Lines in Chicana/o Performance

This paper explores the temporal structures that shape Chicana subjectivity. The historical figure, La Malinche, is often imagined through acts of betrayal as “La Vendida” (literally the one who has been sold). I propose an alternative reading—that of “La Devuelta”—the one who is returned as an empowering Chicana figure. Drawing on and extending theories of queer temporality, I consider the way time passes and is recuperated by queer Chicanas who rewrite nationalist temporalities. Although nationalist projects structure La Vendida through heterosexual and capitalist imperatives, Chicana feminist treatments of imperial trauma and queer erotics provide alternate modes of belonging, healing, and embodiment.