In her novel The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz examines Latino identities and sexuality and the ways in which both are influenced and informed from violence. This violence is enacted through institutions such as the state, through representations and misrepresentations, and through the very nature of sex and sexuality. Diaz makes an analysis of identity and sexuality, underlining the way in which it is not only formed and generated by itself, but also worn and imprinted, through violence or with violent repercussions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Reinaldo Arenas' autobiography Before Night Falls conveys similar themes to Diaz's novel about how sexuality is controlled through violence by the state, particularly in the form of dictatorships. Arenas describes life in Cuba during Castro's time, discussing how Castro, and the state, presented homosexuality as evidence of being unpatriotic and against nationalism, as well as grounds for torture and incarceration. Many of the men who engage in homosexual acts are not homosexuals themselves, and it is in fact such policing that causes more sexual acts to occur. This environment of violence and sexuality, therefore, also has repercussions on all other aspects of life. Likewise, Diaz discusses how sexuality comes into play in the Dominican Republic, during Trujillo's time. Oscar's mother, Beli, falls prey to state violence in the form of an attack sanctioned by Trujillo's sister, who disagrees with her relationship with her husband, the Gangster. In this way, Diaz, like Arenas, dismantles the idea of ​​the state as a noble protector and guarantor of just laws, illustrating the ways in which it actually commits injustices and advances its own agendas. Both authors also describe how this violent application was unsuccessful: Beli continues to have a love relationship with the gangster, even after the attack, and Arenas continues to have sex with men, obtaining in fact more opportunities for sexual acts due to the state laws. oppression. Foucault, in his History of Sexuality, discusses the idea of ​​the repressive hypothesis, talking about how sexuality is thought to have a history of repression, and discussions of sexuality have been withheld since the Victorian era. Foucault underlines the inaccuracy of this statement, stating that silence itself creates a certain type of discourse, and the repression of discourses on sexuality is decisive in their formation. Diaz also discusses a similar idea regarding information withholding: he tells a story in which Abelardo, Oscar's grandfather, is imprisoned and violently tortured by Trujillo for hiding his daughter and wife from his rapacious sexual appetite. He then contrasts this narrative with mention of another possible reason for his imprisonment, conveying information about a possible book Abelard could have written about Trujillo, showing the supernatural qualities of Trujillo and his regime. In doing so, Diaz mentions the white page, the missing or unknown information in such narratives, and the ways in which they can speak louder than any words. The erasure of violence from public knowledge, like the erasure of the reasons for its production, does not eliminate knowledge of its existence or its effects. In this way, sexuality and violence, even when they give the illusion of being silenced, emerge and are talked about even through their absence from public discourse. Ricardo L. Ortiz, in his article “The cultural eroticism of AmericaCuban” analyzes the impact of The Life and Death of Arenas. As a homosexual, Arenas was placed outside the context of Cuban nationalism, even being classified as a terrorist subject regarding his homosexuality, and with his death, Arenas simultaneously reaffirmed his identity as a Cuban despite being outside Castro's nationalist project, and attacked him as the cause of his death. Ortiz discusses Arena's death in the context of a pro-life protest by calling attention to the flaws and injustices of the Cuban government, while reclaiming sexuality as a necessary element to sustain life. Likewise, Diaz constructs a similar understanding of Oscar's death in his novel. Oscar essentially commits suicide by choosing to stay with Ybin, despite knowing that his violently angry boyfriend will come after him. Since Ybin's boyfriend is a state employee, he can be seen as a manifestation of her violence, as well as a reincarnation of the state's violence promulgated in the past, for Beli. Oscar's sexuality becomes the cause of his death and he comes to realize his Dominican identity through its expression. As such, both authors highlight the nature of protest through death and beyond life, and Latino sexuality as crucial to understanding Latino identity. Furthermore, the state can be shown to manipulate representations of sexuality for its own purposes. In A Queer Mother For a Nation, Licia Fiol-Matta analyzes how the state became encapsulated in the image of Gabriela Mistral and why she became a symbol of the nation. Mistral's masculine and gender-queer identity and behavior allowed her to be taken seriously despite being a woman, and she still includes state-sanctioned desired feminine traits such as motherhood. Mistral followed the racist rhetoric of the state, maintaining an “other” gaze against blacks and pushing for racial cleansing through the production of white mixed-race offspring. This racist rhetoric provided the state with a language with which to address “other” black populations through the passive violence of exclusion and negative representation. Likewise, Diaz presents the figure of Oscar Wao in a contradictory and interesting light. He possesses none of the traits of a stereotypical Dominican and throughout his life finds it extremely difficult to flirt, date, or have sex with any girl due to his extremely nerdy and socially awkward personality, eventually going so far as to commit violence against himself. partly due to his inability to practice this aspect of his identity and sexuality. Despite this, he ultimately fulfills the saying that no Dominican man dies a virgin, having sex with his prostitute girlfriend – and in doing so comes to exemplify the idea that even as an exception to the rule, he can fulfill his “Dominicanness” to the fullest. As such, Diaz ironically examines the way Latino bodies are stereotyped, even within the Latino community, and the violence of this type of representation, as well as the effect it can have on identity in this way , both authors discuss the politics of representation and the contradictory and performative nature of identity and sexuality Philippe Bourgois, in his anthropological analysis of Puerto Rican street life described in In Search of Respect: Selling Crack en El Barrio, performs violence. similar through his representation of Latino bodies, as an outsider to this community, Bourgois casts an “other” gaze on Puerto Rican crack dealers and creates a culture of difference between readers (as well as himself) and the members of the community he describes. One aspect of this distance comes from?