Cosmopolitan revolutionaries: Masculinity, migration, and gender performativity in Latin American London

Abstract

This article explores the relational dynamics by which a group a young Colombian men strategically construct and perform masculinity within context of London. It focuses on quotidian experiences and seeks to move beyond stereotypical narratives of masculine “loss” or “adjustment” relating to machismo. The article demonstrates how “traditional” hegemonic norms are resourced as constitutive elements in the articulation of new modalities of gendered orientation. It observes that with migration Latin American men are often placed under contradictory pressure to both conform to and subvert cultural stereotypes of machismo and hegemonic masculinity. In this case study young Colombian migrants are seen to harness vernacular cosmopolitanism as an important moral orientation through which to creatively rearticulate machismo and dynamically reframe their subjectivities in ways that meaningfully engage with their life predicaments. What emerges are expressions of a subjectivity referred to here as the ‘cosmopolitan revolutionary’. This is a performative orientation that encourages the expression of masculine authority and decisiveness while also emphasizing anti-authoritarian and egalitarian principles of positive reciprocity and worldly care.