A mesmerizing ethnography of the largest favela in Rio, where residents articulate their own politics of freedom against the backdrop of multiple forms of oppression.
Normative liberalism has promoted the freedom of privileged subjects, those entitled to rightsâ"usually white, adult, heteronormative, and bourgeoisâ"at the expense of marginalized groups, such as Black people, children, LGBTQ people, and slum dwellers. In this visceral ethnography of Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mois©s Lino e Silva explores what happens when liberalism is challenged by people whose lives are impaired by normative understandings of liberty. He calls such marginalized visions of freedom âminoritarian liberalism,â a concept that stands in for overlapping, alternative modes of freedomâ"be they queer, favela, or peasant.
Lino e Silva introduces readers to a broad collective of favela residents, most intimately accompanying Natasha Kellem, a charismatic self-declared travesti (a term used in Latin America to indicate a specific form of female gender construction opposite to the sex assigned at birth). While many of those the author meets consider themselves âqueer,â others are treated as âabnormalâ simply because they live in favelas. Through these interconnected experiences, Lino e Silva not only pushes at the boundaries of anthropological inquiry, but also offers ethnographic evidence of non-normative routes to freedom for those seeking liberties against the backdrop of capitalist exploitation, transphobia, racism, and other patterns of domination.
Industry Reviews
"Lino e Silva's remarkable book fulfills its ambition to decolonize the freedom at liberalism's heart. Equal parts erudite political theory and delicate anthropology, it roams a favela in Rio for stories and imaginaries across Blackness, queerness, gender, and class, where it discovers everywhere the bubbling of minoritarian desires and practices of freedom. This beautifully written work does nothing less than bring liberalism-as theory and practice-into the twenty-first century." * Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley *
"A contemplative and engaging ethnography of life in one of Rio de Janeiro's infamous favelas, Minoritarian Liberalism is an exploration of alternative freedoms, distinctive bodies, and surprising pleasures. Best of all, the book features travestis: feisty, gritty, dazzling individuals who never cease to enchant and disquiet." * Don Kulick, author of 'Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes' *
"Pretty much the perfect ethnography: a rich set of narratives, properly self-aware, strong descriptions of place and situation, and some really useful theoretical and conceptual frames that go beyond the context of the inquiry itself." * Timothy Burke, Swarthmore College *
"Minoritarian Liberalism: A Travesti Life in a Brazilian Favela presents a rich ethnographic study of queer residents of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro's largest slum, deftly crafting a tale of migration, survival and complex social relations against a backdrop of violence and poverty. . . . Lino e Silva offers radical readings of bodily, sexual, social and religious practices as means to liberation outside the familiar technologies of the liberal state." * Radical Americas *
