LATEST RESEARCH

Dissertation Title: Unpinning Gender: Exótico Interventions in Gender Performativity in Mexican Lucha Libre.

Defended with distinction on June 2nd, 2023.

Available on the Tulane University Theses and Dissertations Archive or here.

As Mexican lucha libre wrestlers who are most easily recognized for their dramatic stylizations and their feats of strength and grace, exóticos defy convention and categorization even as they constitute their own genre of wrestling. While the ‘exótico’ category typically includes luchadores who identify as gay men, the category itself is not solely based on gender identity or sexual orientation, but rather on a common mode of exótico performance. This study seeks to understand how exóticos engage with and contest heteronormative hierarchies and structures of hegemonic gender relations that would inscribe men who perform femininity and stereotypes of homosexuality in positions of inferiority. By examining exóticos’ experiences with becoming exóticos, their performative practices, how they interact with other exóticos and other luchadores (“wrestlers”), as well as how they move through public and activist spaces, this dissertation considers both the ways that exóticos disrupt heteronormativity and the ways in which their practices may reinscribe it, especially with regard to trans exóticas. Drawing on data from 16 semi-structured interviews, this dissertation documents and amplifies the experiences and perspectives of exótico wrestlers both as a subculture and as a category of wrestlers with growing popularity. By connecting queer theory, gender and sexuality studies, and performance studies, this research aims to contribute to the growing discussions of gender performativity within exótico wrestling and the broader cultural implications of exóticos’ performances on attitudes towards lucha libre, exóticos, queer identities, and LGBTTTI activist movements.

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios de Género (CIEG), Mexico City, Visiting Investigator. 2021 - 2022.

Participated in the CIEG Visiting Investigators Program for September 2021 - May 2022 to work with Dr. Hortensia Moreno Calvo on my dissertation research, titled Wrestling with Hegemonic Masculinity: How Exóticos Are Changing Mexican Lucha Libre.

PRIOR RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

American University, Master’s Degree Qualifying Paper. 2017 - 2018.

• Secured IRB approval, conducted and transcribed semi-structured interviews in Spanish with Mexican artists concerning the content of their work.

• Qualifying paper: “La reconfiguración de La Catrina.”

Center for Latin American & Latino Studies, American University, Graduate Assistant for research team headed by Dr. Eric Hershberg, Dennis Stinchcomb, Dr. Ernesto Castañedas, and Dr. Noemí Enchautegui de Jesús. 2016 - 2017.

• Conducted and transcribed interviews in Spanish with unaccompanied migrant youth from Central America and their caregivers for the ongoing project “Household Contexts & School Integration of Resettled Migrant Youth.”

• Resulting Publication: “Young Immigrants’ Integration into a New Home: The Case of Central American Children and Youth Settling In Washington, DC” for Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, by Ernesto Castañeda, Daniel Jenks, and Cynthia Cristobal.

Pacific University, Senior Thesis Project. 2013 - 2014.

• Secured IRB approval, conducted semi-structured interviews in Spanish concerning virginity and gender roles.

• Anthropology Senior Thesis: “The Formation of Mexican-American Understandings of Virginity.”

• Spanish Senior Thesis: “La formación de los entendimientos méxico-americanos de la virginidad.”

Pacific University, Member of student research team led by Dr. Daniel B. Eisen. 2012 - 2013.

• Focus groups and surveys concerning racial tensions and white privilege on campus.