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Transculturation and Gender in US Latina Performance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2009
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Transculturation refers to an intercultural body associated with hybrid encounters and with a system that resists and contests the powers of domination. The term transculturation was coined by the anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1940. He formulated this neologism as a way to counteract and subvert the homogenizing grammars implicit in the term ‘acculturation’, which Anglo anthropologists had coined in the late 1930s. Mary Louise Pratt suggested that as a function of the ‘contact zone’, transculturation dramatizes dialectical bodies ready to be reconstrued, re-embodied, and re-visioned. Specifically, Pratt refers to the ‘contact zone’ as the space of colonial encounters. While the contact zone can be materialized at any point in time and space, interculturalism in the study of Latina performance not only shapes the heterogeneous character of the term Latin American and its hybrid variants, but also influences diverse modes of representation. Within the specificity of US Latina performance, I propose to expand the idea of transculturation as it opens possibilities for understanding the intercultural body—the hybrid that can redefine notions of mestizaje itself. In this study, the concepts of transculturation and performance suggest a framework in which cultural norms and practices must be rooted in the materiality of human agency. Therefore, before discussing transculturation and performance, it is necessary to clarify the term Latina as an identity marker, which displaces hegemonic representation across linguistic and cultural borders.
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References
Notes
1. Specifically, Ortiz's notion of transculturation was a response to Herskovits, Melville J.'s work, Acculturation: The Study of Culture Contact (New York: J. J. August, 1938)Google Scholar. See also Taylor, Diana, ‘Transculturating Transculturation’, in Marranea, Bonnie & Dasgupta, Gautam, eds., Interculturalism & Performance, (New York: PAJ Publications, 1991), pp. 60–74Google Scholar; and Spitta, Silvia, Between Two Waters: Narratives of Transculturation in Latin America (Houston: Rice University Press, 1995).Google Scholar
2. Pratt, Mary Louise, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (New York: Routledge, 1992), p. 6.Google Scholar
3. Román, David and Sandoval, Alberto, ‘Caught in the Web: Latinidad, AIDS, and Allegory in Kiss of the Spider Woman, the Musical’, American Literature, 67, 3 (09 1995), pp. 553–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Cuello, José, ‘Latinos and Hispanics: A Primer on Terminology’Google Scholar, 19.11.1996, in Midwest Consortium for Latino Research (‘MCLR-L@msu.edu’). Note that these references were posted as a service to MCLR Subscribers. José Cuello is an Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit.
5. Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Russo, Ann & Torres, Lourdes, eds., Third-World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 7.Google Scholar
6. Ibid.
7. Taylor, , ‘Transculturating Transculturation’, p. 61Google Scholar
8. Ibid.
9. See, for example, Spitta, , Between Two WatersGoogle Scholar; and Aparicio, Frances R. & Chávez-Silverman, Susana, eds., Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad (Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1997).Google Scholar
10. Forte, Jeanie, ‘Women's Performance Art: Feminism and Postmodernism’, in Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theater, edited by Case, Sue-Ellen (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), p. 251.Google Scholar
11. This passage was not included in the final publication of ‘I DisMember the Alamo: A Long Poem for Performance’ included in Arrizón, Alicia & Manzor, Lillian, eds., Latinas on Stage: Practice and Theory (Berkeley: Third Woman Press, forthcoming)Google Scholar. However, Esparza performed this section many times before writing the final script of her piece. The text included here is from a videotape produced by Marguerite Waller in 1992. Note that the verb chingar is richly polysemic. In some instances it can be translated as ‘to fuck’, or ‘to despoil’, or ‘to subordinate’, or ‘to subdue’. Esparza uses chinga tu madre to mean ‘screw you’.
12. Bustamante, Nao, IndigurritoGoogle Scholar. The performance discussed here was presented on 23 January 1994 at Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica, California).
13. Esparza, in I DisMember the Alamo, constructs her identity and acknowledges its multiplicity by deconstructing the battle of the Alamo, a pivotal segment in Texas history. Nao Bustamante explores her ethnic, female identity in Indigurrito by mounting a hilarious critique of phallocentrism and whiteness. Both performance artists deal with the political contestations that have defined their sense of history and have shaped their personal stories. For more discussion about these performances, consult my forthcoming book Latina Performance: Traversing the Stage (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).
14. Peggy Phelan points out that Newt Gingrich has threatened to ‘zero out’ NEA funding by 1997. See her ‘Open Letter’, Theater Topics, 6:1 (1996), p. 105. In response to these kinds of threats, as well as newly implemented government policies on the arts, an ad hoc coalition of organizations, institutions and individuals have recently created ARTNOW. This group hopes to organize a national demonstration and local actions across the country to demand the strongest possible federal support for the arts. Individuals involved in ARTNOW include artists, activists, art administrators, students and faculty. Their efforts on behalf of the arts will culminate in an April 1997 demonstration on the Mall, directly opposite the Capitol building in Washington, DC.
15. The text of this performance is in Palacios, Monica, ‘Latin Lezbo Comic: A Performance About Happiness, Challenges, and Tacos’Google Scholar, in Arrizón, & Manzor, , Latinas on StageGoogle Scholar. Palacios's first performance of Latin Lezbo was in 1992 at Highways, Santa Monica, California. That same year her performance was featured on the Public Broadcast System (PBS).
16. Forte, , ‘Women's Performance Art’, p. 261.Google Scholar