Latin American and Latinx Feminisms

Abstract

Latin American and Latinx feminisms emerge out of the social and political backdrop of Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. Hence, the scope of the field is wide and includes diverse positions. The diversity of ideas represented by Latin American and Latinx feminisms is owed to its wide geographical landscape framed by many diasporic conditions that have generated points of contact and convergence. Nevertheless, the tradition broadly coheres around its desire to contextualize ideas in a way that appreciates the intimate bond between theory and lived experience. This chapter has two central aims, one expository and the other argumentative. First, the expository goal is to introduce the tradition of Latin American and Latinx feminisms, and in so doing provide historical context to the ideas and figures therein. It is important to note that what can be presented in a single chapter is not exhaustive. Yet, the task remains urgent and important. The voices of women and gender non-conforming people within Latin American philosophy, specifically in the context of the U.S., are often underrepresented or are omitted from the history of Latin American philosophy. For instance, it is not unusual to see the work of women and gender-non-conforming peoples in the history of Latin American philosophy as a mere topic within Latin American philosophy rather than constituting an independent rich and complex tradition of its own. It is for this reason that Cynthia Paccacerqua has noted that Latin American and Latinx feminisms are specters of the Latin American philosophical tradition. In light of the historiographical omissions within Latin American and Latinx philosophies, tracing the ideas of Latin American and Latinx feminisms proves to be difficult, since the ideas are not necessarily identifiable through their historical impact. In other words, their ideas did not necessarily have social and political impact. However, historiographical absence does not entail lack of existence. Hence, the argumentative goal of this chapter is to give credence to the claim that Latin American and Latinx feminist ideas exist and are worthy of close attention in spite of their historical and philosophical absence. If strong, this argument contests any