Capítulo 15-Sexuality and Desire in Racialized Contexts

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Chapter 15
Sexuality and desire in racialized

contexts
Mara Viveros Vigoya
Introduction
Over the last few years, the study of sexuality has ceased to be of marginal
interest in the social sciences. Various reasons can be given for this. The work
of Foucault (1976, 1984a, and 1985b) and Rubin (1975, 1984) has
encouraged us to understand sexuality as a social construction and an area of
study relatively separate from that of gender. Concurrently, a focus on pleasure,
which had hitherto been absent in social theory, stressed the importance
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of deconstructing the binary divides of man-woman, masculine-feminine,
heterosexual-homosexual, within which discussion of sexuality has hitherto
been framed (Butler 1990). Interest shifted subsequently towards the study
Not for distribution

of desire, its significance, evolution and cultural meaning. In parallel, feminist
analysis not only questioned the ‘naturalness’ of sexuality, but also developed
a critique of gender relations and the normative character of heterosexual
and reproductive sexuality (Bereni et al. 2008).
Although efforts to differentiate between gender and sexuality first
emerged in theoretical debates and feminist politics in the 1980s, relatively
little attention was given in this work to the intersections between sexuality
(and gender) and race (or ethnicity). The beginnings of efforts to trace these
connections can be found in Black Feminism, a movement that came into
existence in the second half of the 1970s in the USA, when African-American
feminists challenged their Anglo-Saxon counterparts in ways paraphrased by
the title of Carby’s (2008 [1982]) book, White Woman, Listen! Black Fem-
inism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood. This movement, which sought to
build ways of understanding how gender, race, and class play out in the life
experiences of black women, constituted a major shift in US feminist theory
and paved the way for new area of investigation, including questions of
intersectionality.
In Latin America, the study of race and ethnicity, and gender and sexu-
ality, has until recently taken place within relatively separate theoretical
niches. Race has traditionally been addressed through its historical ties with
social inequalities, but rarely in relation to gender and sexuality. Sexuality, a
Proof
Proof
Mara Viveros Vigoya 219
subject that has until recently garnered little attention, has largely been dis-
cussed within the context of its biopolitics and its links to kinship and family.
Only a very few studies have examined the links between race, sexual values,
and different forms of socio-sexual domination and control (Stolcke 1992
[1974]); and only in the last decade, and in recognition of the persistence of
colonialism, has concern for these issues come to the fore in Latin American
social scientific research (Viveros Vigoya, 2009).
That said, there is evidence of growing interest in the field. In Colombia,
for example, a number of papers have recently been published analyzing the
intersections between race (and ethnicity) and sexuality (and gender) (Urrea
and Quintín 2002, Urrea et al. 2006, Congolino 2008, Gil, 2008, Viveros
Vigoya 2002b, 2006). Earlier in Cuba, authors such as Kutzinski (1993) in
Sugar’s Secrets: Race and the Erotics of Cuban Nationalism highlighted how,
since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the racialization of sexuality
has constructed the female mulatto as an inherently devious ‘seducer’. Poems
such as Francisco Muñoz del Monte’s (1945) La Mulata and novels such as
Cirilo Villaverde’s (1882) Cecilia Valdés also promoted such imagery, trans-
forming women into objects of masculine pleasure and excluding them from
the sphere of feminine purity and nobility, characteristic of Europe and
North America.
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Later studies, such as Fernandez’s (1996) work on mixed-race unions in
Cuba, Kempadoo’s writing on prostitution and sex tourism in the Caribbean
(1992), and Rahier’s (1998) study of beauty contests in Ecuador, have

drawn attention to recurrent hyper-sexualized images of both women and
men of African descent. This atavism can perhaps best be understood as part of
the meta-narrative that served to legitimize slavery and the spirit of ‘civilizing’
inherent in colonization. Its influence over the Latin American social imaginary
largely explains its continued presence in many different aspects of life today,
including celebrations, sports, literature, and advertising (Lavou-Zoungbo
2001).
Sexual unions within a racial context

Early work on sexuality in the context of racialized relations followed the
path established by Bastide (2001 [1958]) in his book Le prochain y le lointain,
originally published in 1958. In one chapter of this book, suggestively sub-
titled ‘Vénus noires et Apollons noirs’, Bastide explains why sex is never simply
a sensual experience between two bodies but is also an encounter between
social beings endowed with collective memory. Bastide suggests that mixed-
race sexual encounters were neither respected nor sexually equal, given
stereotypes of black women as objects of pleasure for white men, and of
black men as more virile than white men. Bastide’s claims, founded on his
experience in Brazil during the late 1950s, are bolstered by other research in
the region.
Proof
Proof
220 Sexuality and desire in racialized contexts
For example, following his research on interracial relations in Medellín,1

Wade argued that if, in Brazil, questions of ‘race’ always link closely to ‘sex’,
this is not necessarily so in Colombia. In contrast to Bastide’s claims, Wade
documents a certain normativity of mixed-race relationships – both formal
and informal – most usually taking the form of white men and mulatto or
black women. However, Wade also recognizes the strongly sexualized nature
of these relationships, in popular discourse at least (Wade 1997). In my own
work (Viveros Vigoya 2002a) examining the relationship between sexuality
and race, there have also been occasions when I observed non-black men,
including intellectuals, referring to black men as being obsessed with sex.
Studies of mixed-race sexual relationships, such as those by Moutinho
(2004, 2008), Urrea (2006) Urrea Giraldo y Posso Quiceno (2011), and
myself (Viveros Vigoya 2002a, 2002b, 2008), demonstrate across a variety of
contexts the close links between race and ethnicity and sex and desire. Findings
highlight how racism intersects with sexism through the establishment of
gender and racial hierarchies within mixed-race partnerships. In Moutinho’s
work, mixed-race relationships in Brazil and South Africa are compared.
Urrea’s work in Cali, Colombia (where the Afro-Colombian population
comprises 26.2 per cent of the population) draws on both quantitative and
qualitative findings to describe the interracial sexual relations of young black
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men and, most recently, black and indigenous women. Finally, my own work
in the Colombian cities of Quibdó, Armenia, and Bogotá focuses on masculine
identities, the intersection of racial and sexual stereotypes, and more recently,
social mobility.
All of these studies reveal how mixed-race partnerships are often viewed
with suspicion by others. A desire for upward mobility is normally attributed
to the darker member of the couple. Moutinho argues that this is especially
so in the case of men of colour who are perceived to be climbing the social
ladder through their relationships with white women. Women of colour, on
the other hand, are assumed to trade their aesthetic or erotic capital within
the relationship. These hypotheses concerning partnership decisions carry
negative moral connotations by presuming that materialistic motivations are
stronger for black people than sexual, aesthetic, or affectionate ones.
In her writing, Moutinho (2004) highlights the dominant tendency in literary,
sociological, and historical texts to represent mixed race relationships as
being between white men and black/mulatto women, ignoring the existence
of relationships between black men and white women, which Brazilian marriage
statistics show to be the most common form of mixed-race partnership.
When these latter relationships are mentioned, they tend to be portrayed as
potentially tragic unions giving rise to death, suicide or murder, or as relationships
structured by the social ambitions of men of colour.
In more recent work, Moutinho (2008) demonstrates changes in social
perceptions of black and white men and their relationships with white
women. White men are seen as continuing to occupy positions of power in
Proof
Proof
daily life but are no longer considered sexual predators. Instead, they are
seen as more sexually ‘opaque’, relatively devoid of erotic attributes although
they are still considered to be more romantic. Mulatto and black men on the
other hand are considered more erotic, especially by white women, whose
patterns of sex and marriage have changed greatly in the last few decades.
Urrea et al. (2006)’s work examines interracial fluidity in marriage in Cali.
This was found to be greatest for the mulatto population, less so for the
mestizo population and much less so for both white and black populations
where sexual mixing is governed by rigid rules for all social classes when it
comes to marital choice.
My own work on mixed-race relationships in Bogotá (Viveros Vigoya
2008) demonstrates that even in marital relationships, racial-sexual stereo-
types continue to persist. While at times these may be trivialized, they never
actually disappear. Being black is so strongly associated with a form of
hypersexuality that it is difficult to conceive of relationships involving black
men or women without reference to their sexual character (see Lavou-
Zougbo, 2001). In couples comprising a white man with a black woman, the
white man generally benefits from a double power structure – first, by being
white, and second by being a man. Paradoxically, black respondents in Bogotá,
along with other white men and mestizos, appear to adopt an attitude of
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‘gratitude’ towards these types of men and the households they sustain, as if
these men – who are in relationships with black women – have internalized
that it is normal for these unions to function with some kind of instrumental

logic in relation to sexuality.
In some cases within the white-mestizo community, it is the woman who
seeks to conform to prevalent gender norms, adopting a discreet form of
behaviour by dressing in a non-flashy, desexualized manner, thereby distan-
cing herself from popular stereotypes of the mestizo woman. In couples
comprising a black man and a white or mestizo woman, it is often assumed
either that the man is motivated by the desire for social mobility or that the
woman is of somewhat lower value within the sexual or marital ‘market-
place’, for social or aesthetic reasons. In either case, the concept of ‘real love’
is not seen as part of these relationships.
A recent study in Cali focusing on black and Afro-Colombian heterosexual
women found that black women ‘do not seem to be found attractive to
anybody, but at the same time are desirable to all’ (Cuero and Urrea in
Urrea Giraldo & Posso Quiceno 2011) According to this analysis, sexualized
images of black women exist in the fantasies and desires of many men (white,
mestizo, black). But these fantasies differ from those that these same men
hold about desirable and more stable sexual relationships. Study findings
reveal how the context and setting affects racialized characteristics. The
sexual nature of women changes radically in cities, like Cali, which lack a
substantial white-mestizo population and the daily experience of racism. As a
result, black women are more highly valued within this context.
Proof
Proof
According to the same authors, black women in Cali who prefer relation-
ships with white or mestizo men, are seen by these same men as being
‘passionate’, but as women with whom it is preferable to maintain a casual
relationship as opposed to a more stable one. In cities like Buenaventura, on
the other hand, where the majority of the population is black, black women
are seen by black men to be more desirable partners, in that they are viewed
as sexually uninhibited and physically voluptuous, in accordance with the
sexual and aesthetic norms in that city. The authors conclude that racialized
images of the bodies of black women change depending on the ethno-racial
origin of their romantic or sexual partners.
Importantly, some women in Cali construct their identities upon a partial
‘acceptance’ of hypersexualization while others form theirs out of a partial
‘negation’. Black women from academic and professional backgrounds tend
to be more conscious of the racialization of their bodies – manifesting this
awareness through a reflective and critical attitude towards their subordination
and the fact that they are seen as sexual objects, whether by black or white-
mestizo men. In general, however, few if any black women succeed in shaking
off completely the sexual stereotypes that oppress them.
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Race and sexuality in same-sex relationships
Until now this chapter has focused on heterosexual relationships, but what of
same-sex partnerships? How do race and sex interact within these contexts?

To answer this question, it must first be recognized that there is virtually no
published work examining the interaction between race and homosexuality
in Latin America. With but a few exceptions, such as Parker (1999) and
Moutinho (2006), existing theoretical frameworks offer little traction in
analyzing same-sex relationships in this region. Parker’s work on homo-
sexuality in the middle and upper classes in Rio de Janeiro has shown that
same-sex relations are present in all social classes and among all ethno-racial
groups. In Moutinho’s study of young, black residents in the favelas of Rio
de Janeiro, she argues that homosexual experience paradoxically allows
greater social opportunities – enabling some young men to expand their
social networks and experiences, thereby allowing them to enhance their
cultural, social and economic capital. Research along these lines demonstrates
the need to adopt a critical perspective which takes into account the combined
effects of ethnicity, race and class in non-heterosexual identities (Balderston and
Guy 1997).
Studies of same-sex relationships in Bogota and Rio (Díaz 2006), in Cali
(Urrea et al. 2008), and in Bogota (Gil 2008) demonstrate that that the
image of the black man as ‘powerful’ and sexually desirable is not widely
adhered to by many gay men. In Díaz’s work, black men were viewed as
potential ‘romantic’ partners. Urrea and his team document how black men
are often seen as the insertive partner in sex, fulfilling a natural, ‘active’ role.
Proof
Proof
The pressure that these sexual stereotypes create is examined in Gil’s work,
which suggests that blackness has come to represent a natural sexuality,
making it difficult to conceive of black men engaging in sexual practices that
deviate from the heterosexual norm. For these reasons, black people, and
particularly black men, struggle to find a balance between being gay and
retaining an ‘authentic’ black identity.
The studies cited show that despite the supposed desirability of black,
homosexual men, ‘blackness’ nevertheless continues to be stigmatised as
inferior. Díaz (2006) noted that it is difficult for same-sex-attracted black
men to be successful in the gay erotic marketplace in Rio de Janeiro if they
do not display physical youth, beauty and virility that make them a desirable
partner. Similarly, Urrea (2008) argues that black men’s success in the gay
community in Cali depends on their skills in establishing relationships using
middle or upper class means. Black men that fit the requirements of the local
erotic market – by being young and physically and sexually gifted as well
having good manners – have the opportunity to ‘correct’ their blackness, and
thereby increase the chances of finding a partner (Gil 2008). Youthfulness
also has a part to play in interracial same-sex interactions. Younger black men
tend to be seen as more desirable than those aged 30 years and older.
Because of these multiple factors, it is unwise to oversimplify the relationships
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between distinct separate forms of domination. Moreover, the boundaries
defining private erotic experiences may be more open and diffuse than those
apparent within the public domain.

Stereotypes of black men as hypersexual are problematic for the formation
of an identity among black same-sex-attracted men in Colombia. Equally, the
experience of being black and gay may be contradictory and debasing, parti-
cularly for socially marginal black men who have adopted a gay style as a
means of protest against white hegemonic models of masculinity (Viveros
Vigoya 2002a, 2002b, Urrea and Quintin 2002). In this latter case, being
both black and ‘gay’ confers membership of a double minority – not because
blackness and homosexuality are necessarily negative social characteristics
that add up on a single-dimensional scale, but because racial stereotypes have
made this combination a degrading paradox. For a black man, being homo-
sexual not only implies a betrayal of criteria essential to defining racial identity,
but also demonstrates incongruity with widespread but simplified images of gay
identity. This can result in difficulties finding legitimate social standing, and
political space within both the black and LGBT communities (Gil 2008).
What is the situation like for same-sex-attracted black women? Does their
non-heterosexual identity also exist in tension with their ethno-racial iden-
tity? Once again, there exist few analyses to draw upon. In one of the few
studies that do exist, almost all the women respondents reported having
occasional erotic encounters as well as longer-term relationships (Malatesta
and Urrea 2011 in Urrea Giraldo & Posso Quiceno 2011). But in both of
these types of relationship, white and mestizo women encountered a tension
Proof
Proof
between the sexual capital generated by their skin colour, and the pursuit of
affection. Many experienced profound frustration in finding the latter, even
in long-term relationships.
Although women in this same study came from different social classes, few
differences were found in sexual practices. Stronger contrasts emerged with
respect to their lifestyles, associated with cultural difference and migratory
experiences. Does this mean that sexual orientation weighs more heavily on
the sexual experiences of non-heterosexual black women than social, race,
ethnicity and gender? The jury is still out. The same authors identify three
key features in the experiences of the black women respondents. First, they
tend to self-identify well beyond the hegemonic boundaries of the hetero-
sexual femininity idealized by popular culture (c.f. Wittig 1980). Second,
they give importance to the pursuit of pleasure in life. Third, their families
have been characterized by the absence of a father figure but the presence of
a strong mother, with all the implications that this carries.
Overall, the place and the script assigned to black eroticism is defined and
guided by hegemonic values of gender and sexuality that suggest that mixed-race
sexuality is only valid between white men and white women, as sex between
black men and white women is perceived as threatening or takes place only
out of economic interest. In contrast, same-sex mixed-race relations for men
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feed less strongly on narratives of miscegenation, but take their roots instead
from notions of ‘activity’ and ‘passivity’ characterising heteronormativity. For
same-sex-attracted women, the gaining of affection seems elusive within both

casual and more enduring partnerships.
The erotic marketplace: intersections of race and sex in

interracial relationships
Findings from the studies of mixed-race sexual relationships described in this
chapter lay the foundations for a more overarching theory of erotics. In particular,
they highlight the importance of alliance and exchange in sexual relationships,
together with the specific forms of capital that accompany these. While the
notion of a sexual or erotic marketplace is an attractive one, Wade (2008) has
cautioned against too literal an analogy. For him, the image of a market in
which one trades different elements of status – wealth, skin colour, beauty,
youth, and desirability – is a useful heuristic but one that needs to be employed
with caution since it implies ‘the complete estrangement of one element in
exchange for another’ (p. 48). Combination of traits such as race, age, and
beauty cannot be considered simply merchandise to be ‘sold’ or ceded in
exchange. For example, a black man who uses economic success to compensate
for skin colour in order to ‘acquire’ a white woman cannot erase his blackness;
at best, he may seek to re-signify it within a different context. Neither do
different characteristics straightforwardly sum together on a uni-dimensional
scale of value. Instead, relations of class, gender and race coexist, and co-produce
Proof
Proof
and reproduce one another (Kergoat 2000). In some situations, gender

creates class, and in others, racial relationships may be used to ‘gender’
women and men. To say that these relations are equivalent, or coextensive,
implies that each one places its mark on another in a reciprocal manner.
Finally, since the human qualities that can be exchanged in this marketplace
are literally attached to the ‘giver’ and her/his social standing, s/he can
never lose, erase, or lose her/his connection to these origins. Because of this,
exchanges involving race and sex have more in common with a gift economy
(defined by Gregory, 1982, p. 19, cited by Wade 2008, p. 48 as ‘the
exchange of inseparable things between people in a state of reciprocal
dependence’), than a more conventional marketplace.
Drawing on my own work on masculine identities in Colombia (Viveros
Vigoya 2002a), one can argue, for example, that masculinities are not con-
structed exclusively in relation to pre-existing femininities, but instead are
also formed in conjunction with racial and class identities. This serves to
establish hierarchies among both men and masculinities within the context of
family, parental, and sexual relations. For example, men in a white-mestizo
city such as Armenia take on the values associated with hegemonic masculi-
nity, assuming the behaviours of supposedly dominant classes and ethnic
groups as ‘responsible providers’ and ‘present fathers’, and being sexually
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content with monogamous spouses. These attributes subsequently constitute
the basis of the criteria by which the masculinity of other Colombian men is
measured. Thus, the men of Quibdó (with its large black population), some

of whom can easily be labelled ‘absent fathers’, ‘irresponsible providers’ and
‘unfaithful spouses’, become examples of undesirable manliness impeding
black men’s ability to promote the value of their intimate/loving relation-
ships at the level of their white counterparts.
Equally, my own work on mixed-race conjugal relationships in Bogotá
demonstrates that the act of marriage, as a status symbol, is not valued in the
same way by mixed-race couples as it is by white ones. In a relationship between
a black man and a white woman, the woman not only loses her social status,
but also her gendered prestige as a ‘woman’ by bringing undesirable sexual
connotations upon herself. One white respondent described having felt dis-
criminated against after marriage when first her sexuality became cause for
suspicion and second she became labelled a sexually promiscuous woman:
‘ … the eternal question was why I had fallen in love with a black man
… that is the social question that is constantly asked; there is always this
thought process that one could only fall in love with a black man under
sexual pretences, or because one is a unsatisfied nymphomaniac. When
men notice that your husband is black, they think they have the right to
intrude, but if you’re not married it’s even worse, as they might say:
‘She’ll sleep with anybody’ …
(Viveros Vigoya 2008, p. 264)
Proof
Proof
Marriage, the institution that should normally protect against accusations

of promiscuity, loses its power in this context because the male partner is
black (see Wade, 2009).
An analysis of the manner in which racism, classism, and sexism affect
mixed-race partnerships should not neglect the fact that racism and certain
elements of racial democracy coexist in countries such as Colombia, and that
the simultaneity operates largely through the articulation of gender and race.
Even if it is true that certain mixed-race unions are in fact strategies for social
advancement, it is also important to remember that the desire for social
mobility does not explain conjugal relationships in their entirety. Many col-
lege-educated respondents aged 50 years or older in a recent study on racial
discrimination (Meertens et al. 2008) made reference to migratory experi-
ence among men in their generation as one of the reasons for the diverse
choices they made when it come to marital decisions. The young black men
who migrated alone in the 1960s to Bogotá could not find any black women
among their compatriots at university in Bogotá; many of them, once they
had completed their studies, established conjugal relationships with local
white women. In other words, their preference was a consequence of their
migratory trajectory, not necessarily the result of a strategic choice.
Interviews in the same research project (Meertens et al. 2008) demon-
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strate that, for some people, the process of selecting a partner is based more
on criteria such as likeness and intellectual similarities with the other person
than ethno-racial preference. Many young, educated black women do not

have the same ties to the past as their mothers and fathers, and thus do not
hold the same expectations for the future. Such young women hope simul-
taneously to establish more equal partner relations and to have partners with
whom they can share their upward social mobility. Their romantic and erotic
needs align more closely with personal sentiments than with the need to
preserve any ‘racial’ or cultural tradition. The same is true for young black
men who want to move on socially, and desire committed partners with
family values independent of membership of any one ethnic-racial group –
not only to fulfil the need for a partner, but also to guarantee the family
stability necessary to reach particular social and professional goals.
In addition, for some people who have been part of a mixed-race relationship
for a long time, racial differences may lose their importance when daily routines
replace exoticism. This is not to say that more time spent in a stable relationship
necessarily eliminates the stereotypes that surround these couples, but it does
reduce them. Colombian society is no more democratic in terms of racial equality
than others, and it does not assign any less importance to race than others, as
illustrated by the fact that racial hierarchies and racism continue to operate within
erotic-affectionate relationships. But the coexistence of racist ideology with an
ideology of mixed breeding has allowed racial hegemony to fulfil its role effi-
ciently in constituting subjectivities, internalized norms, attitudes and racialized
representations of the world that go on to affect even choices of love.
Proof
Proof
In conclusion
The studies mentioned in this chapter show something of the progress made
in Latin America to develop intersectional analytical frameworks for the study
of interracial sexual relations. Although study of the intersections between
sex/gender, class and race is not a totally novel subject in feminist studies,
what is definitely new is the way in which this intersection has become a key
part of contemporary debates on difference, diversity and plurality over the
last couple of years, within both academic and political contexts.
Intersectionality, as defined by this chapter, has its starting point in the
specific forms of domination experienced by different groups. One can the-
orize that every social actor is formed and re-formed by the overlapping of
class, gender, sexuality and race relations. As has hopefully been shown, the
concept of intersectionality is useful in challenging the widespread hegemonic
‘summing’ of values in socio-racial inequalities (Dorlin, 2008) that positions
one group as ‘super-dominant’, and the possessors of all other resources
as super-dominated, deprived of all possibilities. The reality, as described in
this chapter, frequently contradicts these kind of assumptions. Equally, an
analysis of the situation of black or racialized women in the USA and Europe
demonstrates that their experiences are not necessarily the most disadvantaged if
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we compare them with black men or other racialized men, such as Arabs or
Muslims, who may be more subject than black women to police control,
especially within the current ‘clash of civilizations’ (Bereni et al. 2008).

Although the majority of work on sex and race in Latin America has
focused on the sexual desires of white men or of the dominant elite (Wade
2008) – ignoring those of members of other social groups or considering
these as simply a reflection of the desires of the dominant group – the studies
discussed here provide insight into the sexual motivations and perceptions of
black men and women, both heterosexual and homosexual, as active agents
capable of making their own decisions. Regardless of focus, each study
stresses the context of domination in which sexual desires are inscribed and,
by doing so, makes it necessary to reference the sexual to the dominant, as if
the desires of the dominated group could not possibly exist outside of the
norms established by this group.
Interracial mixing, as the result of the sexual encounters between members
of different racial, ethnic, or social groups, is not only the result of relation-
ships formed out of fear and mistrust, but also out of pleasure and desire.
And the body – as described in Bhabha’s (1994) analysis of stereotypes, dis-
crimination, and colonialist discourse – is not only a component within the
overlapping economies of discourse, domination and power, but also, and
with conflict, in the economies of pleasure and desire. Analysis of these ambi-
guities requires the use of theory that allows us simultaneously to account for
the subjective elements of erotic and love life, and the socio-historical and
political context in which it occurs.
Proof
Proof
Fanon (2009 [1952]) demonstrates with acuity how black people are
alienated by dehumanizing the bridge between the individual and social
structure that generates racism: although the word ‘black’ as used here does
not necessarily classify a distinct species – and therefore lacks in significance
or specific definition – racism that is anti-black makes it function as such,
thereby eclipsing the need to know the individual because of the significance
of the ‘black’ label. In this way, black individuals do not see themselves as
structurally part of the human race, but instead as problematic beings,
enclosed within what Fanon (2009 [1952]) calls a ‘zone of non-being’.
In conclusion, what black men and women, including myself, desire is to
not be considered ‘problematic’ beings but to escape from the zone of ‘not
being’ and to liberate themselves from those racial constructions that have,
like leeches, grown attached to the many different aspects of their lives: work,
intellectual and aesthetic interaction and encounters with others, sexuality
and desire.
Note
1 Medellín, with more than 3 million inhabitants, is the second largest city in
Colombia after Bogotá, the capital of the country. It has long been an important
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migratory destination for black populations, especially from a neighbouring district,
Chocó, which has the largest black population in the country. 91 per cent of the
population living in Quibdó – the capital of Chocó – identified themselves as
raizal, palenquero, black, mulatto, Afro-Colombian, or African-descendent in the

2005 census.
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Capítulo 15-Sexuality and Desire in Racialized Contexts

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Sexuality and desire in racialized

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Mara Viveros Vigoya 219

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Sexual unions within a racial context

220 Sexuality and desire in racialized contexts

For example, following his research on interracial relations in Medellín,1

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Mara Viveros Vigoya 221

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222 Sexuality and desire in racialized contexts

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Mara Viveros Vigoya 223

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224 Sexuality and desire in racialized contexts

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The erotic marketplace: intersections of race and sex in

Mara Viveros Vigoya 225

and reproduce one another (Kergoat 2000). In some situations, gender

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226 Sexuality and desire in racialized contexts

Marriage, the institution that should normally protect against accusations

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Mara Viveros Vigoya 227

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228 Sexuality and desire in racialized contexts

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Mara Viveros Vigoya 229

Urrea Giraldo y Jeanny Posso Quiceno (eds), Feminidades y sexualidades: mujeres

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230 Sexuality and desire in racialized contexts

——(2008). ‘Raza, género y sexualidad en el Brasil contemporáneo’, in Peter Wade,

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Mara Viveros Vigoya 231

Viveros Vigoya Mara. (2009). ‘La sexualización de la raza y la racialización de la

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