Breaking Queer Silences, Building Queer Archives, and Claiming Queer Indigenous P’urhépecha Methodologies

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

This is a fascinating essay, which explores the tension between utilising indigenous genealogies, and those genealogies having been saturated with a colonially-imposed heterosexuality. It compares usefully ‘the violence against queer P’urhépechas in the early colonial Michoacán with the violence queer P’urhépechas experience in the present’ and draws out significant archival queer histories, which have ‘been historically unstable in P’urhépecha narratives’. Early on, it could do with a little more anchoring in research on the imposed heterosexuality of colonialism more broadly. I also wonder if Sara Ahmed’s ideas on ‘queer use’ or Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s ‘gravitas’ might be of interest to the author. The personal tone and connection to the communities in question is handled deftly. There could be a little tidying up of expression and some light edits for succinctness as the paper is very dense. But overall I enjoyed reading this piece – thank you.

 

·      ‘What stood out to me from this case is that sodomy was listed as one of the reasons to persecute the Cazonzi’ – this sentence could do with a footnote acknowledging that right up to the present day, ‘sodomy’ is  still used as a tool to dispatch political enemies, with a few examples given

·      ‘whose body was found in the community until local street dogs started to pull out the corpses from the ground’ – I didn’t quite follow this sentence

·      This detail perhaps isn’t necessary: ‘Because I wasn’t trained as an archivist or historian, and I recognized the difficulties of reading and interpreting 17th century Spanish documents, I enrolled in a paleographic online course provided by the NEH-AHRC Spanish Paleographic and Digital Humanities Institute held by the University of Texas, Austin in the fall of 2021’

·      A footnote acknowledging the various other contexts in which queerness has no name might be useful here: ‘Through my interviews and participant observations in Michoacán, I found people often refer to us as “those who are like that.”’

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

This could do with some light ends, and with being made slightly more succinct.

Author Response

Comment 1: Early on, it could do with a little more anchoring in research on the imposed heterosexuality of colonialism more broadly.

Response 1: Throughout the paper, I referred to other cases of colonial queer persecution, and I refer that the P’urhepecha case is not an isolated one. 

Comment 2: I also wonder if Sara Ahmed’s ideas on ‘queer use’ or Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s ‘gravitas’ might be of interest to the author.

Response 2: I didn’t have the opportunity to engage with the suggested literature because of the lack of time to submit a revised article, but I will consider them for other papers. However, I incorporated the work of Indigenous Mississauga Nishnaabeg queer artist and scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s approach to Indigenous methods, which has helped to reflect more concretely about my own queer Indigenous research methods. 

Comment 3: There could be a little tidying up of expression and some light edits for succinctness as the paper is very dense.

Response 3: I changed my introduction and introduced a history/analogy to portray my Indigenous methodologies of talking-while-walking. Following P’urhepecha’s histories and cosmogonies, I used the reference of the surco (furrow) in the land to refer to queer histories and queer paths that haven’t had a surco to follow. The surco refers to what my P’urhepecho’ abuelo would call “following a straight line in life” to succeed while supporting others. The reference to the surco is one of my main threads in the paper since, in my case and the case of others queer P’urhepechas, the surco is not a straight line, and we have had to be creative to create our surcos and histories. 

Comment 4: ·  ‘whose body was found in the community until local street dogs started to pull out the corpses from the ground’ – I didn’t quite follow this sentence

Response 4: Thanks for the observation. I changed a few words to make it more clear: "I recollect their histories and compare them with the violence queer P’urhépechas experience in the present and the lack of records related to the violence experienced by queer P’urhépechas, like the case of a queer P’urhépecha man who was killed by community members in Santa Fe de la Laguna (a town in the Lake Region) in the fall of 2021, and whose body was found in the community by street dogs who pulled out the corpses from the ground."

Comment 5: ·      ‘What stood out to me from this case is that sodomy was listed as one of the reasons to persecute the Cazonzi’ – this sentence could do with a footnote acknowledging that right up to the present day, ‘sodomy’ is  still used as a tool to dispatch political enemies, with a few examples given

Response 5: I sent it to a footnotes.

Comment 6: ·  This detail perhaps isn’t necessary: ‘Because I wasn’t trained as an archivist or historian, and I recognized the difficulties of reading and interpreting 17th century Spanish documents, I enrolled in a paleographic online course provided by the NEH-AHRC Spanish Paleographic and Digital Humanities Institute held by the University of Texas, Austin in the fall of 2021’

Response 6: I sent it to footnotes.

Comment 7:  A footnote acknowledging the various other contexts in which queerness has no name might be useful here: ‘Through my interviews and participant observations in Michoacán, I found people often refer to us as “those who are like that.”

Response 7: I sent it to footnotes. 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The essay has tremendous promise, but is underdeveloped around a central intervention.  A number of methods are introduced, but most of them are not developed.  The essay is very difficult to follow, with many interesting points raised but not connected to a larger argument.  The author needs to choose one or two central methods to develop and exhibit their fruitful interventions concretely.

To revise, I suggest beginning with Section 4 and building the paper around that intervention. 

Finally, be cautious about drawing flat-footed generalizations from 17th century violence to 21st century violence.  Yes, there are clearly colonial structures of binary gender and normativity in place, but there are also innumerable differences.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

The English seems to be fine, but there are sentence fragments and typos that make the writing rough to parse.

Author Response

Comment 1: but is underdeveloped around a central intervention. A number of methods are introduced, but most of them are not developed. The essay is very difficult to follow, with many interesting points raised but not connected to a larger argument.   The author needs to choose one or two central methods to develop and exhibit their fruitful interventions concretely.

Response 1: I agree with the comment; many thanks for pointing this out. I was very ambitious with the paper, and I tried to combine different methods that made sense to my own Indigenous methodology. I focused only on the Indigenous methodology of talking-while-walking. 

I changed my introduction and introduced a history/analogy to portray my queer Indigenous methodologies of talking-while-walking. Following P’urhepecha’s histories and cosmogonies, I used the reference of the surco (furrow) in the land to refer to queer histories and queer paths that haven’t had a surco to follow. The surco refers to what my P’urhepecho’ abuelo would call “following a straight line in life” to succeed while supporting others. The reference to the surco is one of my main threads in the paper since, in my case and the case of others queer P’urhepechas, the surco is not a straight line, and we have had to be creative to create our surcos and histories. 

Also, I incorporated the work of Indigenous Mississauga Nishnaabeg queer artist and scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s approach to Indigenous methods, which has helped to reflect more concretely about my own queer Indigenous research methods. 

Moreover, I made changes throughout the paper to center my intervention on the instability of queer P’urhepecha histories from different historical narratives. I explain that in order to recollect queer P’urhepecha histories, I had to rely on different sources, including oral histories, archives, media information, and interviews. I removed the parts where I talk about “living archives” and more-than-human archives (the Mountains). The voices and histories of my abuelo are crucial in my paper, and I think it is a response to the special issue of the journal about Indigenous Families. 

Comment 2: To revise, I suggest beginning with Section 4 and building the paper around that intervention. 

Response 2: Thanks for the suggestion; paying attention to this section reminded me that I want to claim and rescue queer histories to make justice to the murder and suffering of other P’urhepechas. Starting from here also allowed me to see that my Indigenous methods are crucial for me because the way I connect with knowledge and the human experience is essential to building rapport with research informants and even with the institutional archive. However, I think section two is also foundational for the paper because there, I reflect on my approach to research and collective knowledge. Sections two and four preserve a symbiotic relation, and they reflect intergenerational Indigenous knowledge that challenges the Western approach to creating knowledge. 

Comment 3: Finally, be cautious about drawing flat-footed generalizations from 17th century violence to 21st century violence. Yes, there are clearly colonial structures of binary gender and normativity in place, but there are also innumerable differences.

Response 3: I agree with the comment. Throughout the paper, I mentioned other cases of colonial queer persecution, and I refer that the P’urhepecha case is not an isolated one. I also noted that there are differences in terms of colonial violence across time and geographies. Also, in the conclusion, I pointed out that this is a work in progress and an invitation for others to contribute to the construction of queer archives. 

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The revisions are excellent and the essay is much more focused and cohesive.  I recommend publication!