Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This book is a manifestation of the many gifts of knowledge I have received over the course of my life. Like the different spaces I describe in this text, multiformed spaces have shaped my intellectual formation. I grew up in a home where ideas, humor, cariño, and chaos ate together. My grandmother adored me and taught me almost everything I know about death, love, and food. My mother indulged my childhood efforts at theorizing the world, and my father taught me to be curious and kind. My sister nurtures the creative spirit in me and my brother continually affirms my belief in the resilience of that which is good. The aunts, uncles, cousins, kin, and family friends who I grew up with continue to care for my queer self, and I love them for it. Biological families , especially large Cuban ones, can be treacherous. I have been blessed. Inside the teaching machine, I have been witness to the kindness and beneficence of many scholars who people the machine. Judith Butler, Barbara Christian, VèVè Clark, Johnetta Cole, Juan Flores, Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan, Laura Pérez, and Carol Stack have all generously shared their genius with me when it mattered most. Special thanks are extended to two of the earliest influences in my career: Deborah Britzman, who taught me to read at a tender age, and Patricia Guthrie, my academic godmother. Later in my education, I was fortunate to encounter two visionary scholars who listened deeply and taught me to trust my apparitions: Norma Alarcón, a valued friend who provides unending lessons in the practice of critical creativity , and Gerald Vizenor, the tender trickster who asks questions that spin out in wild ventures of language. It is also a particular joy when your dearest friends, near and far, are also your trusted academic conspirators and advisors. With that as my aperture, I would like to extend my thanks to Linda Susan Beard, Marisa Belausteguigoitia , Amalia Cabezas, Anne Dalke, Susan Dean, Irene Gonzalez, ix Herb Green, Joseph Kramer, Daphne LaMothe, Michelle Raheja, Katherine Rowe, Theresa Tensuan, and Michael Tratner. I take special pleasure in acknowledging the love and support of Kimberley Nettles and Alexandra Seung Hye Suh, two of the best friends and co-conspirators around. Additional thanks go out to José Quiroga and David Román for providing such availing readings of my work. I also want to thank José Esteban Muñoz and Ann Pellegrini , the editors of the Sexual Cultures Series, Eric Zinner, the senior editor at New York University Press, and Rosalie Morales Kearns, copyeditor extraordinaire , for all of their enthusiasm. As a teacher-in-process I am continually inspired by those I teach, so a note of sincere appreciation goes out to my students at the University of California at Berkeley, Hayward State University , Colegio ContraSIDA, San Francisco State University, and Bryn Mawr College. Several institutions have contributed to the completion of this project. At the Tomás Rivera Latino Dissertation Writing Workshop, Deena González provided many hours of careful, dedicated reading. As a fellow at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine, I enjoyed the guidance and spirited interdisciplinary exchange of many of the scholars in residence; I particularly want to thank Patti Lather and Joan Tronto for keeping it fun. I would also like to recognize the Lindback Foundation for its generous financial support. My unending gratitude goes out to Suzanne Warren , a research assistant who shared with me both her meticulous attention to detail and her warm disposition. Bryn Mawr College and the Tri-College community have been the source of both collegial affirmation and many valuable resources; my thanks to those that have made me feel welcome. The chapter on activism is dedicated to all of my familia at Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida, because they have all educated me. I would especially like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Jesse Johnson, Hector León, Marcia Ochoa, Juan Rodríguez, and Adela Vázquez for their hours of inspiring conversation, political insights, constructive criticism, cariño, ovarios, dedication, and most of all, for breathing vision into life. I am forever indebted to the visual artistry of Patrick “Pato” Hebert, who shared his ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS x glorious images with me. I particularly want to thank Ricardo Bracho, who carefully read several drafts of this manuscript, and gave me more gifts of language...