2. How does the cultural production of
Latina/os and their sexualities avoid
essentialists readings of queer
Latina/os?
How does historical objectivity
masquerade ideology?
3. How has the study of Latina/o
sexualities been subject to
paternalistic and imperialistic
gestures?
How is a nuanced study of Latina/o
sexualities a critique of essentialism?
(remember Janice Irvine’s text
“Rethinking Sexuality)
4. Discuss why the cultural production of
knowledge on Latina/os and their
sexualities is said to arise in the 1960s
and 1970s.
Give concrete examples of their
influences to current studies.
5. How are nationalist myths oppressive?
Give an example of a myth we have
previously read about and discussed.
6. What is the importance of This Bridge
Called My Back: Writings by Radical
Women of Color edited by Cherríe
Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa?
What is “third-wave feminism”?
7. How is the problematic issue of race
underscored in Latina/o identity in the
section “Between the Lines: On
Culture, Class, and Homophobia”?
Give two examples.
8. How do some Latina/os “pass”
between racial categories as well as
between the different divisions of
sexuality?
9. John Rechy, Luis Rafael Sanchez,
Manuel Ramos Otero, and Reinaldo
Arenas were the first Latino writers in
the 1960s and 1970s to openly
address the question of homosexuality
in their work.
What were some of their literary
contributions?
Why are they important figures in the
canon of Latin American and U.S.
Latina/o Literature?
10. What are some of the important
literary contributions in the 1990s
Latina/os regarding the broad theme
of gender and sexuality?
11. How has the production of knowledge
on Latina/os and their sexualities been
incorporated into academia?
Why do more recent cultural
productions center on historical and
social analyses?
What are some examples of cultural
knowledge produced about Latina/os
in the media?
