Two Guillermos, several boundaries: transnational identity performances in Guillermo Verdecchia and Guillermo Gómez-Peña

Abstract

Through a (at times implicit) dialogue with critical texts that problematize Latin American and Latino identitary constructions as being fluid, this essay analyzes representations of American (understood here in its more ample sense) border identities, or identities in transit, in the work of two intellectuals who opt for identifying themselves as both Latin American exiles and Latinos: performatic authors/actors Guillermo Gómez-Peña, a self-proclaimed "Chicano-ized Mexican"; and Argentine Canadian Guillermo Verdecchia. I wish to argue that Latino as a category serves the political purposes of these artists, in whose performances "identify" is a form of identification informed by a vast repertoire of "americanness", and by constant processes of negotiation.