Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi
Introduction / Paul Julian Smith and Emilie L. Bergmann 1
One. Re-Loading the Canon
Aldonza as Butch: Narrative and the Play of Gender in Don Quixote / Mary S. Gossy 17
The "Fecal Dialectic": Homosexual Panic and the Origin of Writing in Borges / Daniel Balderston 29
Two. (Neo)historical Retrievals
The Argentine Dissemination of Homosexuality, 1890–1914 / Jorge Salessi 49
Julián del Casal and the Queers of Havana / Oscar Montero 92
Three. Nationalisms, Ethnicities, and (Homo)sexualities
Community at Its Limits: Orality, Law, Silence, and the Homosexual Body in Luis Rafael Sánchez's 'Jum' / Agnes I. Lugo-Ortiz 115
Toward an Art of Transvestism: Colonialism and Homosexuality in Puerto Rican Literature / Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé 137
Fleshing Out Virgilio Piñera from the Cuban Closet / José Quiroga 168
The Lesbian Body in Latina Cultural Production / Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano 181
Four. Biographical Constructions, Textual Encodings
The "Schoolteacher of America": Gender, Sexuality, and Nation in Gabriela Mistral / Licia Fiol-Matta 201
Disappearing Acts: Reading Lesbian in Teresa de la Parra / Sylvia Molloy 230
A Logic in Lorca's Ode to Walt Whitman / John K. Walsh 257
Five. Queer Readers/Queer Texts
The Look that Kills: The "Unacceptable Beauty" of Alejandra Piznarnik's La condesa sangrienta / Suzanne Chávez Silverman 281
Lesbian Tantalizing in Carmen Lugo Filippi's "Milagros, Calle Mercurio" / Luz María Umpierre 306
Six. Call to Theory/Call to Action
Virtual Sexuality: Lesbianism, Loss, and Deliverance in Carme Rierra's "Te deix, amor, la mar com a penyora" / Brad Epps 317
Teatro Viva!: Latino Performance and the Politics of AIDS in Los Angeles / David Román 346
Nationalizing Sissies / José Piedra 370
Index 411
Contributors 427

About the Author

Emilie L. Bergmann is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of California, Berkeley and a coauthor of Women, Culture and Politics in Latin America.

Paul Julian Smith is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Cambridge University. He is the author of many books including, Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar and Laws of Desire: Questions of Homosexuality in Spanish Writing and Film, 1960–90.

Reviews

"People working in gay and lesbian studies in Hispanic literatures or cultural studies will not be able to continue to work without this volume close at hand. ¿Entiendes? provides both impetus and standards for all subsequent work in the field."—Benigno Sánchez-Eppler, Brandeis University

"This is a groundbreaking collection of essays on gay and lesbian topics in Hispanic literatures—there is nothing that compares with it."—George Yúdice, Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York