Presentation NeMLA 2022 – Engendering Mestizaje: Racialized Masculinities and Negotiation of Desires in Peruvian Negritud and Indigenismo

César A. Romero Fernández

César Romero presented this article at NeMLA 2022, Baltimore, MD. His presentation focused on his re-conceptualization of mestizaje, that he elaborated in his doctoral dissertation, where he analyzed the literary works of negritud and indigenismo, two cultural movements that sought to give voice to Afro and Indigenous Peruvians, respectively, in a society that systematically discriminated against them. His concept of mestizaje allowed him to reveal the scope and limitations of the emancipatory attempts by subaltern subjects, at once subverting and supporting the hegemonic discourses of white superiority. César demonstrated that, even when those attempts couldn’t deactivate racism and exclusion, they produced new and potentially liberating possibilities for thinking about race, gender, identity, and the nation.