
Circuits of the Sacred
A Faggotology in the Black Latinx Caribbean
Carlos Ulises Decena(Author)
Duke University Press
Published on 3. February 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-1-4780-1944-2 (ISBN)
Description
In Circuits of the Sacred Carlos Ulises Decena examines transnational black Latinx Caribbean immigrant queer life and spirit. Decena models what he calls a faggotology-the erotic in the divine as found in the disreputable and the excessive-as foundational to queer black critical and expressive praxis of the future. Drawing on theoretical analysis, memoir, creative writing, and ethnography of SanterIa/LucumI in Santo Domingo, Havana, and New Jersey, Decena moves between languages, locations, pronouns, and genres to map the itineraries of blackness as a "circuit," a multipronged and multisensorial field. A feminist pilgrimage and extended conversation with the dead, Decena's study is a provocative work that transforms the academic monograph into a gathering of stories, theoretical innovation, and expressive praxis to channel voices, ancestors, deities, theorists, artists, and spirits from the vantage point of radical feminism and queer-of-color thinking.
Reviews / Votes
"Beyond the provocation of the book's title and theoretical framework lies, in moments, a charming memoir chronicling Decena's auto-ethnographic experience of growing up in a Black Dominican migrant family. . . . Decena's generational musings on queer life will be of particular interest to readers who value sex-positive ethics regarding HIV awareness and prevention." - James Padilioni (American Religion) "More than memoir, more than monograph, Carlos Ulises Decena's Circuits of the Sacred boldly undresses dominant preconceptions surrounding queer spiritual and sexual identity. . . . Decena's unapologetic command of space and attention makes this book a valuable contribution to queer scholarship. The text's emotional complexity constructs kinetic reckoning and revolution, calling us to (re)shape livable futures." - Marion Eames White (Reading Religion)More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
307 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4780-1944-2 (9781478019442)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
01/2023
1st Edition
De Gruyter
€30.49
Available for download
Person
Carlos Ulises Decena is Professor of Latino and Caribbean Studies and of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Rutgers University and author of Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men, also published by Duke University Press.
Content
Gratitudes ix
Part 0. OrIgenes (Origins)
Pensar MaricOn (Faggotology): An Introduction 1
1. Re-membered Life: A Composition for Egun 23
Part I. Caminos
2. Bridge CrOnica: A Triptych, with ElegguA 33
3. Experiencing the Evidence 57
Part II. Dos Puentes, TrAnsitos
4. Loving Stones: A Transnational PatakI 81
5. !Santo! Repurposed Flesh and the Suspension of the Mirror in SanterIa Initiation 102
Part III. Trances
6. Indecent Conocimientos: A Suite Rasanblaj in Funny Keys 125
EpIstola al Futuro/An Epistle to the Future 155
Notes 159
Bibliography 175
Index
Part 0. OrIgenes (Origins)
Pensar MaricOn (Faggotology): An Introduction 1
1. Re-membered Life: A Composition for Egun 23
Part I. Caminos
2. Bridge CrOnica: A Triptych, with ElegguA 33
3. Experiencing the Evidence 57
Part II. Dos Puentes, TrAnsitos
4. Loving Stones: A Transnational PatakI 81
5. !Santo! Repurposed Flesh and the Suspension of the Mirror in SanterIa Initiation 102
Part III. Trances
6. Indecent Conocimientos: A Suite Rasanblaj in Funny Keys 125
EpIstola al Futuro/An Epistle to the Future 155
Notes 159
Bibliography 175
Index