Sex, Borders And Identity Transvestism: Latino Men Who Have Sex With Men In The International Context Of The American Southwest

Abstract

This article addresses the various ideological constructions of the US-Mexican border from the perspective of Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men. These men constructed the border through the assignation of various qualities supposedly inherent in bodies and landscapes. In engaging in these assignations, this article will argue that in fact these men embody ideologies that create the border as not just a mark in the geopolitical landscape but also as a lived and practiced reality. The border is therefore a bodily experience of regimes of power-knowledge-pleasure (Foucault) which allows borderlanders to manipulate these regimes for various reasons including: avoiding social injury; use of specific zones of the body; and engaging in identity transvestism. Overall, this article engages queer theory; borderland theory; and demonstrates the complexity of the border as a lived and embodied phenomenon.