The sexual politics of the military dictatorship: Dynamics of sex-affective encounters, resistances, and subsistences of trans/travesti women and homosexuals in Arica, 1973-1990

Authors

Abstract

The heightened violence of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship silenced and disrupted the social dynamics that transvestites and men with homoerotic desire constructed and reproduced for their socialization and subsistence. In the commune of Arica, historical records document the first official case of a person detained and disappeared due to his sexual orientation in Chile. This article presents the results of a qualitative research study on the life experiences of trans women/transvestite and homosexual men concerning their sexuality and socialization dynamics during the military dictatorship. Survival strategies during the dictatorship are identified, including engaging in sex work, repression of one's own sexuality, as well as ambivalences in its expression in both public and private spheres, highlighting the agency of the interviewees. The collected data raise pertinent questions about the historical and political analysis of the LGBT+ population in Chile.

Keywords:

sexuality, gender, dictatorship, transvestite, queer

Author Biography

Bastián Tapia Sánchez, Universidad de Tarapacá

Antropólogo Social. Magíster en Antropología, Universidad de Tarapacá