Queer Relajo

“David Tenorio’s Queer Relajo is a brilliant work that explores the hemispheric construction of non-binary sexuality. Tenorio argues that trans and queer performance create alternate worlds and nightscapes using the liberating power of relajo-- defined by Jorge Portilla (1966) as an ‘intimate act of negation.’ Highly recommended.”

-- Diana Taylor, New York University

“Queer Relajo is a beautifully conceived book that tours readers through Mexico City’s diverse queer nightscapes. With this book, Tenorio makes a major contribution to Latino queer studies, while being in dialogue with the broader field.”

-- Kareem Khubchandani, Tufts University

“Through the activation of the concept of ‘queer relajo’ and a rigorous use of methods from literary, visual culture, and performance studies, Tenorio provides deep and powerful analyses of queer cultural works that circulate in contemporary Mexico. Tenorio’s beautiful writing, keen and sensitive eye, and consideration to feelings situate the reader amidst the despair and the glamor (and everything in between) of queer and trans life, which is made possible by and despite the continued neoliberal encroachment and anti-trans and queer violence. An exciting and much-welcomed intervention in Mexican queer cultural studies.”

-- Laura G. Gutierrez, The University of Texas at Austin

“David Tenorio's Queer Relajo is without a doubt a major intervention in the fields of Mexican and Latinx queer and cultural studies. It is mandatory reading for those interested in performance cultures in the Americas, exemplifying an intellectually rigorous approach to queer and trans cultural production, infrastructural/material assemblages, and affective economies within and beyond academia that decenters predominantly English-only approaches. By foregrounding queer and trans popular, working-class practices and cultural artifacts, Tenorio ultimately pushes against the disciplinary and geopolitical boundaries in the knowledge production and cultural analysis of queer sexual cultures in Mexica and Latin/x America."

-- Manuel R. Cuellar, Theatre Su