Gustavo Subero offers an assessment of the influence, importance and impact of a body of films from the mid 1970s to date that, he argues, constitute a Latin American Queer Cinema. Gustavo Subero addresses major issues surrounding homosexuality in different Latin American societies, starting with the notions of gender and sexuality that are paramount in the construction of queer subjects in these regions. He explores questions of male effeminacy and how the maricon has become synonymous with homosexuality in the popular imaginary, suggesting how this stereotype might be reclaimed as authentic. He also analyses issues of masculine homosexuality in a series of films in which the main protagonists do not correspond to the previous stereotype, such as La leon and the work of Julian Hernandez, considering as he does so the closet and passing as hetero, as well as notions of hetero-patriarchy and masculinity.He also illuminates the way in which the male body structures, organises and redirects notions of queer masculinity in Latin America while it also demonstrates the importance of filmmaking in societies in which homosexuality may be repressed to guarantee the circulation of queer narratives (and experiences) among gay subjects.

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsPrefaceOn contemporary Latin American homosexualityLatin America as a coherent (homo)sexual territory?On machismo in Latin AmericaThe construction of masculinity in Latin AmericaFilming Latin American homosexualityQueer filmic production in Latin America2. Depicting mariconería: Stereotypical representations of male homosexuality in contemporary fiction cinemaDesigning material mariconería: Kiss of the Spider WomanFlavour queens: Fresa y chocolateDe/constructing man-iconería: Más que un hombre3. Unwritten on the body: an analysis of masculine-looking homosexualityThere's no place like the closet: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo's Doña Herlinda y su hijo and eXXXorcismosDangerous liaisons: Constructing proto macho gay4. Where gay meets race: Images of Indo-mestizo homosexuality in the work of Julián HernándezMexican filmic images of queer Indo-mestizo identityJulian Hernández's Indo-mestizo bodies5. Depicting cross-dressing in contemporary Latin American fiction cinemaTransgender representations in fiction cinemaEl lugar sin límitesSimón el gran varónMadame Satã6. No machos were harmed in the making of this film: Defining queer masculinity through gay pornography in the work by Mecos Films.Mecos FilmsNotesFilmographyBibliographyIndex