CLACS Speaker Series: Angharad Valdivia "Emilia Pérez: A Perfect Case Study of the overlap of Latin American and Latinx Studies"

On November 16th at 3pm in Coble Hall 306, Professor Emerita Angharad Valdivia will present "Emilia Pérez: A Perfect Case Study of the overlap of Latin American and Latinx Studies." 

This presentation explores the controversies surrounding the film Emilia Pérez (2024) produced in France about a Mexican narrative whose transnational implications included US Latinx.  In particular, and via a Media Studies theoretical approach, I examine issues of visibilization of the trans main character and trans medical tourism, the country of Mexico, and AfroLatinidad as well as the policing of US Latinx Spanish language usage and the promise of counternarratives for highlighting the neocolonial gaze.

Angharad N. Valdivia is Research Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois. Her research includes gender and the press in revolutionary Nicaragua, Latin American and Latinx popular cultural studies, girls studies, especially quinceañeras, and Disney Studies. She just published (Re)Booting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television with Isabel Molina-Guzmán and Quinceañeras: Latinidades & Girlhood in Popular Culture with Jillian Báez and Diana Leon-Boys. Emilia Perez: Confronting the impossibility of authenticity (with Stephanie Pérez) is forthcoming. She is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association.