Butler and negritas pujol

Reading butler and her reading of the drag performance, I’m thinking about the other configurations or other readings of femininities in the carnival, how can I leave them outside?

Negritas Pujol
Maria Moñitos
Gay parade
Black face
Drag

Back to Barranquilla

It’s been ten years since I went for the first time to Barranquilla and I still am fascinated with the centrality of the female figure … what strikes me now it also its invisibility. Cumbiamberas, reinas, dancers, all are places in a symbolic center , a mythical referent for society but most of the time they are in a powerless position, just a thing to look at. (connections with Benjamin)
Barranquilla’s it’s still a mens carnival and even when women hold power positions in the administrative issues, organization of the carnival, creation of the choreographies and the performance itself, they are surrounded by a web of men to hold their place, in a way to make it “legitimate” and create a safe space for them to act.

In my first there, I too needed a safe space to do ethnography in Barranquilla. I had my professor with me most of the time, or some elder or his son to be my diligent partner, to hold me even if I did not deen to be held.

I’m back almost ten years later and again, like the first time, by body in barranquilla’s public space gains unexpected visibility, and unwelcomed one.