"Definitional Violence": Rediscovering Indigenous Sexuality



CORRALES
The indigenous women of Latin America are so diverse in terms of ethnicity and tradition, that they are really only bound together in their shared identity by systematic forms of marginalization. They are defined by the systematic exclusion from the state and are therefore reliant on self-identification. Of that violence, definitional violence, where one is permitted or denied their identity as indigenous or otherwise, can be the most harmful. In the same way, the historical amnesia regarding the pre-colonial diversity of sexuality is a loss and violence towards queer indigenous women. When there is no space to name a problem, the problem cannot be fixed. A number of Latin American scholars have tried to decolonize the history of sexuality in Latin America. Marc Rifkin (2011) argues that heterosexual patterns are a tool of colonization. He asks his audience to consider just when Indians became straight. Heterosexual vocabulary is as inappropriate a term as the gender binary is on indigenous communities. The traditional male and female roles were used by some colonizers to impose control on the indigenous societies. Only after they laid that foundation could they impose the labels of heterosexuality and consequently, homosexuality. Especially in communities where the gender binary did not originally exist, such as the Muxes in Zapotec, contemporary American concepts of queerness can not be applied. Picq (2016) argues that many of the terms he finds are untranslatable, as they refer to a social fabric that has already been destroyed. These concepts of gender and sexuality then may be lost, but rediscovering the sexual diversity of indigenous Latin America can provide a passage to resistance and healing.

Sources:   
Bastian Duarte, Ángela Ixkic. "From the Margins of Latin American Feminism: Indigenous and Lesbian Feminisms." Signs 38, no. 1 (2012): 153-78. Accessed May 16, 2020. doi:10.1086/665946.

Bosia, Michael J., Sandra M. McEvoy, Momin Rahman, and Manuela L. Picq. The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics. Oxford University Press, 2020-05. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673741.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190673741-e-23.

 Bosia, Michael J., Sandra M. McEvoy, Momin Rahman, and Manuela L. Picq. "Decolonizing Indigenous Sexualities: Between Erasure and Resurgence." In The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics. : Oxford University Press, 2020-05. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673741.013.23

Brian Gilley, Mark Rifkin. When Did Indians Become Straight? Kinship, the History of Sexuality, and Native Sovereignty. New York: Oxford University Press. 2011. The American Historical Review, Volume 117, Issue 2, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.117.2.571

Picq, Manuela L. Vernacular Sovereignties: Indigenous Women Challenging World Politics. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2018. Accessed May 16, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt20krzcq.

 Smith, Andrea. "Queer Theory and Native Studies: The Heteronormativity of Settler Colonialism." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16, no. 1 (2010): 42-68. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/372444.

 Image can be found at: https://www.americasquarterly.org/lgbt-rights-in-the-americas/
I'm Emily Ortiz, a freshman at Claremont McKenna College, and one of the co-founders. I'm a first-generation Mexican-American, so I have always been invested in the history of Latin America. I began to notice, however, that Latin America was often treated as a monolith, instead of the incredibly diverse and beautifully complicated countries they are. As I discovered more about myself too, I became invested in the LGBTQ+ movements, not only in the U.S., but in the various Latin American countries, as well. In the very little research I conducted, I could never find much information on pre-colonial views on sex and sexuality. Because access to information brings power, and silence on issues contributes to oppression, I believe this blog should serve as a space to learn and connect with people who are just as invested in learning more about their history.

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