Tongue Ties: Logo-Eroticism in Anglo-Hispanic Literature (New Directions in Latino American Culture)

208 Pages·2003·0.62 MB·English

by  Gustavo Perez Firmat

TONGUE TIES
Logo-Eroticism in
Anglo-Hispanic Literature
Gustavo Pérez Firmat
T T
ONGUE IES
N D L A C
EW IRECTIONS IN ATINO MERICAN ULTURES
A Series Edited by Licia Fiol-Matta & José Quiroga
Published in 2003:
Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture & Chicana/o Sexualities,
edited by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, with a foreword by Tomás
Ybarra Frausto
The Famous 41: Sexuality and Social Control in Mexico, 1901,
edited by Robert McKee Irwin, Edward J. McCaughan, and
Michele Rocío Nasser
Bilingual Games: Some Literary Investigations,
edited by Doris Sommer
New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone,
by Raquel Rivera
Tongue Ties,
by Gustavo Pérez Firmat
Forthcoming Titles:
New Tendencies in Mexican Art,
by Rubén Gallo
T T
ONGUE IES
Logo-Eroticism in
Anglo-Hispanic Literature
Gustavo Pérez Firmat
TONGUE TIES
Copyright © Gustavo Pérez Firmat, 2003.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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First Palgrave Macmillan edition: August 2003
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Printed in the United States of America.
For John M. Fein
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The moment one learns English,
complications set in.
—Felipe Alfau, Chromos
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C
ONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Bilingual Bliss, Bilingual Blues 1
1. Saying Un-English Things in English 23
2. Love in a Foreign Language 45
3. Spanish-Only Body Talk 69
4. Mother’s Idiom, Father’s Tongue 87
5. Remembering Things Past in Translation 107
6. Spanish Passion, English Peace 123
7. Words That Smell Like Home 139
Epilogue: I’m Cuban—What’s Your Excuse? 159
Notes 165
Index 191