Decolonizing queer time: A critique of anachronism in Latin@ writings

Abstract

While the term Latin@ is untraceable to any coherent referent in terms of geographical or epistemic origin (Rodríguez 2014), still it denotes a very stable referent when it comes to geographical destination - the USA being the central migratory destiny shaped by and shaping identity shits and epistemic positions variously associated with Latin America. As much as this narrative determinacy is the efect of global power asymmetries, it also tends to naturalize them by couching migration in evolutionist terms that anachronize struggles against displacement, deterritorialization, and dispossession. he ield of Latin@ literature and criticism therefore becomes an efective locus from which the ongoing historical conlicts elided by those narratives can be creatively recalled and reconigured. This article relects on the temporal borderlands as a critical paradigm for reconiguring narratives of straight temporality within Latin@ texts.