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

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