Book Description

"The anthology Queer in Aztlan: Chicano Male Recollections of Consciousness and Coming Out gives readers the opportunity to experience deeply personal narratives from queer Chicanos/Mexicanos, and makes it possible for them to understand and sympathize with the stories' protagonists. It was also a finalist for a 2014 Lambda Award. The book explores issues of queer youth identity, sexuality, masculinity, homophobia, sexism, and violence in Mexican and American culture, presents a complex view of queer Chicanos/Mexicanos, and contests dominant sexual norms. It challenges current scholarship in Chicana/Chicano studies to expand beyond the traditional confines of male sexuality. The seven sections of the book survey the queer experience from a variety of perspectives through reading selections that focus on presence, recollection, embodied self, men of heart, Coatlicue state, and Joteria studies. A unique transnational bibliography gives emphasis to themes on, or by, queer Chicano and Mexicano authors on male sexuality, homoerotic writing, literary criticism, and fiction. Adelaida R. Del Castillo is an associate professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San Diego State University, and from 2007 to 2010 Professor Del Castillo served as the first Chicana chair of the department. Her research interests include Chicana feminisms, the economic survival strategies of working-class women in Mexico City, rights discourse, and postnational notions of citizenship. Gibran Gudo is a doctoral student in the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. In 2010 he organized the 5th Annual Queer People of Color Conference at San Diego State University, and co-organized the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies 3rd Joteria Conference. He is a recipient of the Richard P. Geyser Ethics Memorial Scholarship."