Queering the Macho Grip: Transgressing and Subverting Gender in Latino Music and Dance
This essay describes and investigates the queer space created by transgressing and subverting gender roles in five popular Latino music and dance genres. It moves across the Latin‑American popular music spectrum from passionate Tango, originating in the turn of the twentieth century, via melancholic Bolero originating in 1930s Cuba to the more recent dance genres – pan‑Latino Salsa, Cuban Timba, and Reggaetón which currently dominates Latino dance floors. It is based on longitudinal fieldwork the author conducted in the gay scenes of Havana, Buenos Aires, and the Latino Diaspora in London.