User:Dabigailortega/LGBT cinema in Latin America

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Traditional Latin America cinema analysis in Isabel Allende's Novels

Isabel Allende's bestseller novel, “The House of the Spirits”, was written in 1982 and made into a movie in 1993. Diana Palaverisch in her article Skeletons in the closet: Reading sexuality in Allende’s La Casa de Los Espiritus states that “there is an important aspect of the novel closely related to the themes mentioned, which has been completely overlooked by the critics, namely the representation of those sexualities which do not conform to the hetero-sexual norm privileged in the novel.” Implying then the presence of an LGBT+ community in Latin American literature since 1982, although overlooked, she establishes that it is present. Spanish Professor at the University of Virginia, Vinodh Venkatesh, in his book New Maricón Cinema: Outing Latin American Film makes reference to B. Ruby Rich’s notion of a New Queer Cinema in the 1990s, a notion which states that the main body of films from the mid 80s to the late 90s attempted to introduce and bring forward queer voices. Ignacio López Vicuña, in the journal Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures , writes about how Venkatesh opposes B.Ruby Rich's notion in the context of Latin America cinema by stating that the traditional queer representation in Latin America cinema was characterized by a “Maricón” standpoint which basically situates the LGBT+ characters far away from the viewer at a place where the viewer can’t develop any sort of emotional connection with the character, the LGBT+ character is mostly visual but does not hold any feelings or emotions the audience can connect to. Even further, he states  most of the LGBT+ characters were used to serve a bigger, mostly political purpose and so they’re sexuality is merely a brief descriptive characteristic . This can well connect with Palaverisch's article in which she talks about two LGBT+ characters, Férula and Count Jean de Satigny. The former being the sister of the main character and the latter  being a “fabulously rich French aristocrat who brings the air of metropolitan culture to the periphery.” . Palaverisch claims that during the whole book never once is it claimed openly that he is a homosexual but mainly only references to his “effeminate” manner, which is subjective to the Latin American context. Furthermore, she states that this is highly accentuated by the more masculine character of the story which does not grant him the respect he would normally grant to a more masculine man, and finally, he is used for a ‘bigger purpose’ than to just be gay. If Latin American literature were the one on trial this would provide a clear example of Venkatesh’s point, however as this book was transformed into a movie it is important for our attention to be re-directed towards the movie.

The film adaptation was directed by Billie August, and was released in 1993. Due to the complexity and length of the book, this cinematic version shortens some parts of the original plot, combines and eliminates characters and, due to the diversity of nationalities present within the cast, having actors and actresses such as Winona Ryder, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas, Armin Mueller-Stahl, or Jan Niklas, showcases different acting styles heavily marked by their accents. Following the original story of the book, the movie depicts the life of Esteban Trueba, a self-made landowner and senator who destroys his family due to his arrogance and Marxist-phobia. Clara, his wife, finds solace in conversing with spirits while refusing to speak with him. Blanca, his daughter, who was being forced into an arranged marriage and has Pedro's illegitimate child, secretly continues to have an affair with him. Following Vinodh Venkatesh's analysis of Latin American cinema and its lack of queerness–everything that establishes a challenging position to the patriarchal heteronormative– and its reliance on maricón cinema, which doesn't create any critique to the heteronormative gender and sexual politics and subjectivities, the film, as well as its original book version, doesn't provide a space for its LGBT characters, Férula and Count Jean de Satigny, to transcend by having any kind of character development or to present their story and their point of view of the story to viewers, they are just pieces that are necessary for the development of the heterosexual characters, being taken to the background after their job in the story is complete. In Férula's case, her actions towards Blanca, such as her passion to take care of her, the delicacy with which they treat each other, shows her desire for Blanca. Even though her actions demonstrated her lesbian desire, the narrator never admits it or define it as such; all of these actions are just used to let the main story of the heterosexual characters to continue developing, as after Esteban noticed Férula sleeping next to Blanca, he makes her move out of the house. After this, Férula's character does not appear more until Blanca sees her as a ghost, later on in the film. In Férula and Blanca's story, the narrator, whose world view is defined by the heterosexual norm, expresses anxiety in relation to Férula's lesbian traits, no wanting to name her love as what it is and, instead uses euphemistic descriptions to justify these homosexual actions within a heterosexual pattern.

The other gay character of this story, Count Jean de Satigny, also experiences the same censorship by the narrator as it happened to Férula. His homosexuality is covered by intellectual euphemisms, as being in love with arts and literature, constantly referencing big names that have been related to the queer community, such as Oscar Wilde, or in the way he dressed, always impeccable and attentive of his personal care; which, in a macho context like the Latin American ones, it can be translated as a way for men to have weak masculinity or directly associated to women's traits. This reliance to camouflage homosexuality with stereotypes, refusing to mention it and allowing the character to explore it, exemplify Javier Fuentes-León's ideas of Maricón cinema, as the film chooses to focus, instead, in the public representation of homosexual characters, stereotypes, and issues, treating this problem superficially, delegitimizing the homosexual characters in comparison to their homosexual counterparts. The term Maricón denotes a power relation in the way queer characters are represented in film; however, New Maricón cinema orients the audience to empathize with the queer characters as it prioritizes queer desire and affect instead of gay or queer identities or messages. In New Maricón cinema, the queer characters get enough time to develop and show themselves to the audience, letting them create a connection, which allows them to empathize with those queer experiences. In the case of The House of Spirits, the Maricón cinema characteristics can be seen in the presence of a power relationship between heterosexual and homosexual characters, as the role and transcendence of the latter is constantly influenced by the actions of the former, and them only appearing in the film to fulfill them and, after that, vanishing from the story.