ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the cultural work of queer Salvadoran comedian Julio Torres through the Muñozian lens of queer utopian aesthetics and ethnic camp. Through textual and discursive analysis, it establishes how Torres’ comedy disrupts dominant images of male Central American migrants as violent gang members, as well as how Torres creates a space for queer U.S. Central American subjectivities in the Latinx media imaginary. This article also examines Torres’ advocacy work alongside his comedy to consider the extent to which both uphold economic value as central to evaluating the worthiness of immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship. This approach that considers the affordances and limitations of utopian aesthetics illuminates the contradictions in contemporary U.S. Central American representation. I argue that Torres’ cultural work offers glimpses into queerer future U.S. Central American representations and immigration rights discourses that ensure that queer migrant lives are more livable.

摘要

本文通过酷儿乌托邦美学和种族阵营的穆尼奥斯镜头分析酷儿萨尔瓦多喜剧演员胡里奥·托雷斯的文化作品。通过文本和话语分析，它确定了托雷斯的喜剧如何破坏男性中美洲移民作为暴力帮派成员的主导形象，以及托雷斯如何在拉丁媒体想象中为美国中美洲酷儿主体性创造空间。本文还考察了托雷斯的宣传工作以及他的喜剧，以考虑两者在多大程度上都支持经济价值作为评估寻求美国公民身份的移民价值的核心。这种考虑乌托邦美学的可供性和局限性的方法阐明了当代美国中美洲表现中的矛盾。