Date of Award

1-1-2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Human Communications

First Advisor

Bernadette M. Calafell, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Kate Willink

Third Advisor

Roy Wood

Fourth Advisor

Luís León

Keywords

Decolonial theory and praxis, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, LGBTQ, Chicanos, Latinx communication studies, Oral history performance, Queer of color critique, Rhetorical criticism and theory

Abstract

By collecting the cultural/historical narratives of gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (GBTQ) Chicanos of Colorado, this research project locates theories in the flesh, or theories of resistance and agency, in the forms of cuentos, pláticas, chismé, mitos, testimonios, and consejos to explicate a queer of color performance of intersectional and decolonial politics. To set the context, several historical and political snapshots of GBTQ Chicano experience over the last 500 years are reviewed to demonstrate how communication about, for, and between GBTQ Chicanos operate in a liminal state (nepantla) where violence, marginalization, and oppression are the cultural norm. To honor the performative, queer, and decolonial approach to this project, the Four Seasons of Oral History Performance was developed and utilized as a cyclical, creation-centered method for collecting and sharing social science research. In the end, GBTQ Chicanos are challenged by inter- and intra-generational divides that make "coming-out" regardless of age in this historical/political moment a traumatic event where ones intersectional cultural identity is under attack from multiple vectors. From these erasures, traumas, and violence, GBTQ Chicanos create theories in the flesh to carve out spaces to survive and thrive from the fringes: this work collects their histories.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

Rights holder

Robert Mitchell Gutierrez

File size

188 p.

File format

application/pdf

Language

en

Discipline

Communication, LGBTQ studies, Ethnic Studies



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