NewYorkUniversity
LawReview
Issue

Volume 72, Number 4

October 1997

Borders (En)Gendered: Normativities, Latinas, and a LatCrit Paradigm

Berta Esperanza Hernandez-Truyol

This Essay, developed in a prologue and three parts, adopts Latinas'/os' world traveling as a metaphor for Latina/o multidimensionality and as a springboard for LatCrit theorizing. The Prologue is a brief diary entry of un fin de semana viajando mundos–a weekend of actual traveling between New York and Miami; law and familia; profesora and learner; colleague and hija; espanol and English; norte y sur; normativa and other; indigenous and alien. This abbreviated record of a Latina's life reveals, exposes, and unveils Latinas'/os' daily crossdressing simply by virtue of their latinidad. The Essay explores two sets of relationships vis-a-vis their significance to and impact on the development of LatCrit theory.