Body of One's Own

Patricio Simonetto is a lecturer in gender and social policy at the University of Leeds. He is the author of Entre la injuria y la revoluciÓn: El Frente de LiberaciÓn Homosexual en la Argentinaand El dinero no es todo: Compra y venta de sexo en la Argentina del siglo XX

[Simonetto's] archival trawling across the decades is encyclopaedic, and this work will doubtless be a touchstone for scholars in multiple fields, laying a solid foundation for the developing subfield of Trans Latin American History. Future scholars of the history of gender and sexuality in Argentina will have to reckon with this work, and will be better for it . . . [A Body of One's Own] joins other recent US and international monographs in shaping a conversation about past lives and discourses ‘before trans’, which are both archivally grounded and theoretically innovative.(Gender & History) This is a book that deftly engages trans and travesti histories as central to Argentine statecraft and nation-building. Simonetto treats both his archival materials and his interlocutors with depth and care. He draws enthusiastically from a multitude of thinkers, including those working both inside and outside the space of the academy. (ReVista) Patricio Simonetto reveals a hidden world...that is too often overlooked and misunderstood. (Journal of Latin American Geography) Patricio Simonetto examines the history of transgender and gender-diverse people as Argentina underwent multiple strands of nation-building and rebuilding. The result is an impressive, thoughtful, deeply compassionate work that offers much not simply to scholars of transgender or queer history, but indeed to those rethinking the very concepts of categorisation, discursive boundaries and what it is to be...[this is] a lucid, vibrant and above all empathetic book. Simonetto's focus on the lives and livelihoods of his subjects is admirable, welcome and has urgent relevance in a world where reaction seems to be declaring war on hard-won LGBTQIA+ rights. Rather than romanticising the past, however, Simonetto’s book is a salutary reminder that what we euphemistically call ‘progress’ is often complex, multifaceted and in no way linear. As all good histories should, this outstanding contribution to the literature fascinates and delights, but also serves as a vital warning in troubled – and troubling – times. (Gender & History) The book shifts the focus away from an examination of gay and lesbian activism to document how trans people constructed their own unique personas, found ways to transform their bodies in alignment with their gender identities, built support networks, and mobilized to demand basic civil and democratic rights. Since in-depth studies of trans people in Latin America, as well as social histories of lesbians, lag far behind academic production about gay men, Simonetto’s pioneering work on the topic will immediately become a reference point for scholars who wish to carry out similar studies in other countries of the region or beyond. (The Americas) Simonetto has accomplished something amazing with this book. He has managed to focus Argentinian national history on a struggle that is usually kept to the margins of the historical record, that of the body. As such he advances a new field of research that considers not just trans experiences but also cis ones, as the body is a political battlefield for us all....An instant classic. (NACLA Report on the Humanities)

• A Note to the Reader Introduction. In the Flesh of (National) History Chapter 1. Cut from a Different Cloth: Gender Transgressions in the Early Twentieth Century Chapter 2. The Body I Was Born In: Governing Sex and Embodiment Repertoires during the Era of the Biomedical Transition Chapter 3. Queens in the Theaters and the Streets: The Global Making of Travestis’ Popular Culture and Everyday Technologies Chapter 4. Living Laboratories: Travesti/Trans Knowledge and Homemade Technologies Chapter 5. The Carnal Revolution: Trans Citizenship and the Limits of Democratic Transition Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index