Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies

Galarte, a professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of New Mexico, analyzes contemporary depictions of “brown trans people” in this scholarly debut. Documenting the murders of two Chicana/Latina trans women in 2002 and 2008, Galarte examines the killers’ transphobic legal defenses and media depictions of the victims to reveal how “nontrans people understand transgender people, as opposed to how trans folk understand or construct their own narratives.” Galarte also examines evidence of “Chicano/Mexican American FTMs” (female to males) in the historical record. The book’s most accessible sections provide thorough and rewarding analyses of popular culture, including The Christine Jorgenson Story, a “trashy” film adaptation of trans pioneer Christine Jorgensen’s autobiography, and A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, a Lifetime movie about the 2002 murder of a trans woman in California, and a mural depicting “racialized queer pride” in San Francisco’s Mission District. Academic jargon clutters the analysis elsewhere, and Galante cites other academics so much he overshadows his own ideas. Still, scholars in the fields of Latinx and gender studies will appreciate this detailed look at an underexplored subject. (Jan.)