Transformista, Travesti, Transgénero: Performing Sexual Subjectivity in Cuba

This essay considers the stories of Blaccucini and Ángel Daniel, two Black transgender drag performers from Cuba, and dwells on the relationship they imagine between their work as performers and their subjectivities as trans people. The author situates these narratives within queer Cuban and Caribbean studies, noticing the ways they push back against renderings of gender and sexuality as inherently distinct categories. Instead, for these artist-thinkers, trans subjectivity is informed by various experiences related to gender, sexuality, race, class, and geography. The essay offers some possibilities for greater nuance in accounts of sexual subjectivity in Cuba and the Caribbean and locates the stakes of these discussions in broader transnational LGBT rights discourses.