A LATIN TRANSFORMISM: BARTOLINA XIXA AND THE MICROPOLITICAL INSURRECTION

Abstract

Interested in Latin America’s drag art with the emphasis on the tension concerning the colonial dynamics expressed in these cultural contexts, we seek to investigate the work of Argentinian Maximiliano Mamani, who embodies the cholita drag queen Bartolina Xixa. We focus on the artist's use of the term “transformism” and its relation to his assemblages as a drag artist. Further, we deal with the process of subjectivity, taking into consideration the link between gender, sexuality, and race. Maximiliano's experiences with transformism also involve the affirmation of native people's fight for the lands they inhabit. To develop these aspects, we work with the notions of micropolitical insurrection (Rolnik, 2018), drag as self-fiction (Preciado, 2013), and cartography (Rosário, 2013, 2016) as an “undisciplined submethodology” (Mombaça, 2016). Among our conclusions, we consider that, in his experiences and performance Ramita Seca (Eli, 2019), Maximiliano reveals a reconfiguration of transformism as a communication device for confronting colonization processes in the cultural sphere.