Abstract: Exchanging research anecdotes as method and as theoretical sites of inquiry, seven leading scholars in US Latinx and Latin American gender and sexuality studies engage in an interdisciplinary conversation on archival praxis. We ask: How does disciplinary training shape our understanding of the archive? How do affect, national histories, and experiences of historical violence—from colonialism to the Chilean dictatorship, the Cuban Revolution, and Argentine and Venezuelan police repression—register in the archive and on the body? What roles do fantasy and fiction play in archival practice and historical narration? From Gloria Anzaldúa's altar to the circulation of Sylvia Rivera's speeches, to the scars on trans women's bodies, contributors examine how multisensorial and transnational encounters shape archival interpretation. Ultimately, we frame the archive as a political site where historical meaning is negotiated through liberatory and collective practices that reimagine the histories we desire both to narrate and to preserve.
Blanco et al. (Sun,) studied this question.