Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies

by Francisco J Galarte

Within queer, transgender, and Latinx and Chicanx cultural politics, brown transgender narratives are frequently silenced and erased. Brown trans subjects are treated as deceptive, unnatural, nonexistent, or impossible, their bodies, lives, and material circumstances represented through tropes and used as metaphors. Restoring personhood and agency to these subjects, Francisco J. Galarte advances “brown trans figuration” as a theoretical framework to describe how transness and brownness coexist within the larger queer, trans, and Latinx historical experiences.

Brown Trans Figurations presents a collection of representations that reveal the repression of brown trans narratives and make that repression visible and palpable. Galarte examines the violent deaths of two transgender Latinas and the corresponding narratives that emerged about their lives, analyzes the invisibility of brown transmasculinity in Chicana feminist works, and explores how issues such as transgender politics can be imagined as part of Chicanx and Latinx political movements. This book considers the contexts in which brown trans narratives appear, how they circulate, and how they are reproduced in politics, sexual cultures, and racialized economies.

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer, Race, Transgender, LGBT, History, Latinx

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2021

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always muddle my way through these academic texts not feeling totally sure I'm following the author's thesis, but I loved reading this book and found it informative and thought provoking.

[Charles Heath · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little heavy on the cultural studies jargon, but acceptable within this realm of literature. A truly thoughtful attempt to explain / understand how to break the binary in brown (and other racialized figures). Sets up the theoretical framework to understand the movement, circulation, and erasure of in issues of transgender politics within the larger Chicano/a/x and Latino/a/x political movements.
I liked this book! Not saying I understand all of it (the intro is difficult for non-specialists), but it was an interesting trip into a world worth discovering. And appreciating!

[sara]

i learned A LOT while reading this and definitely recommend it if you’re wanting to learn more about transness in the chicanx community!

(if you haven’t read a lot of academic style books keep in mind this one is HEAVY on the academic writing style but still so worth picking up)

[E]

Galarte deep-dives on Chicano/a/x transness, and the dialogues between those identities and the larger culture(s) they're situated in.

The first two chapters can be a tough read because they deal with the murders of two different trans women, Gwen Araujo and Angie Zapata, and how the courts media flattened their narratives in the wake of their deaths. Galarte carefully interrogates the court presentation and media coverage of both deaths, and contrasts them with more interpersonal and internal readings. He also examines how the courts and media positioned Angie Zapata's murderer as a threatening Chicano man – macho, gangster, etc. – robbing him of any queer identity or complication, and assigning him a narrative as the repulsive immigrant "other." The stereotyping in courts and media coverage enforced racist anti-Latinx narratives while purporting to honor and protect Angie Zapata's memory.

The subsequent chapters look at the Chicana/o/x butch/FTM "borderlands," in particular the ways in which certain Chicana feminist writers have policed the borders of butchness and Chicano-ness against trans men. The final chapter is a reading of the ways that Chicano trans men disrupt gender binary notions of Chicano masculinity and mainstream trans narratives.

Intersectionality is kind of a buzzword, but this book is a good example of how expansive a deep intersectional reading can be. In choosing a specific focus on Chicana/o/x identity, I think Galarte proves something about the granular being universal. While in some ways these readings are extremely specific to a Chicana/o/x trans experience (with a primary focus on binary transness), Galarte provides a roadmap for readings of how cultural identity and gender interact and refract. I'm not Chicana or Latina but this book still hit pretty hard and between reading sessions I found myself having a lot of ~interesting~ thoughts about gender. (Also, at one point Galarte pulls a very hot quote about "machoness" from Richard Rodriguez's "Next of Kin" – "machoness" is a cultural quality, not a gendered one – that resonated and made me really interested in Rodriguez's book. Galarte introduced me to all kinds of stuff I want to read! I'll probably forget most of it because my reading list is so long, but still! An academic who makes you want to read more is doing something right, you know?)

The writing is very academic, but once you wrangle some of the jargon (or even imbibe it – sinthome and the particular reading of "dolor" are really nice), the ideas underneath are nuanced and interesting. The book also exposed me to some new writers, books, and artists who I wouldn't otherwise have known about.

[max · Rating 5 out of 5]

the lens of "figurations" + examining *tropings* of Brown transness rather than like, seeking to know a unknowable truth of particular subjects, worked really well in this text. I also appreciated the engagement WITH the binary, not to put the binary past critique, but to really consider its consequences. sometimes trans theory gets into one camp (only looking at trans women, only looking at trans men) OR in the attempt to work past the binary, end up collapsing its power to structure our lives differently.

[winnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A breathtaking take on the intersections of Muñoz's brownness and the transgender experience of living. It's impressive how the book achieves in-depth analysis while maintaining a clear prose. In a way, it reads like a detailed survey of different major topics in the field by paying attention to film, literature, history, documentary, etc. This is a beautiful project that leaves you with many questions and pain to carry.

[Lillian Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

chicanx trans queer theories

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting and super readable!

[Anna Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful bug also very deep and extremely emotionally impactful. Be prepared for a paradigm shift after you finish this book

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I criminally underrated this book my first time through. I had read it as soon as it came out in 2021 in just a few days. The book looks at the way transsexuality (Galarte’s preferred discursive term under analysis) has been configured through certain tropings and narrative emplotments (yes, he draws from Hayden White) that render the simultaneity of transness and chicanidad impossible. He also identifies textual moments in a novel and a documentary where these discursive constructs undergo “brown trans figurations,” shifting how we think about transness, chicanidad, masculinity, femininity, identification, and identity. The first 4 chapters were excellent. The fifth chapter on the Lacanian concept of the sinthome I think was the most exciting and maybe least successful. I knocked off a star if only because I’m still not 100% clear on how Galarte uses the terms brownness and “trans figure.” I just would have liked a bit more clarity and specificity there.