Cartographies of dissent: the body, desires and decoloniality in transvestite and trans writing from the Global South

Abstract

This essay explores the works They Won't Kill Us Now (2021), The Useless Journey: Trans/Writing (2024) and What If I Were a Whore? (2016), written by Latin American trans women and transvestites. In this context, we question how the writing of these authors emerges, reflects, and reimagines processes of self-reflection and practices of social transformation. Methodologically, writing and analysis are anchored at the intersection of three theoretical perspectives: valéria flores cuir writing (2013), Halberstam's subnormal methodology (2008), and Mombaça's undisciplined submethodology (2016). In the first part, the queer concept is historicized, highlighting the tensions and complexities involved in incorporating the term into the Latin American context. This is followed by a dialog with Brazilian and Latin American authors, who challenge the epistemological hegemony of the Global North. Finally, the writing regimes identified in the works indicate that language is a political tool capable of questioning heteronormativity and systems of power/knowledge. The autobiographical narratives incorporate personal experiences, at the same time as they are part of the political forces of the uprising against cisheteronormative colonial systems. In this way, writing transcends mere artistic expression, making it a powerful tool of resistance, empowerment, and political and aesthetic act–a space for denouncing and reconstructing narratives silenced by coloniality, cisheteronormativity, and transphobia.