Raquel Gutiérrez

An expansive address to southwestern terrains, crossing physical and conceptual borders in an exploration of intergenerational queer dynamics and surveilled Brown artists captivated by wide open spaces. Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiérrez's debut essay collection Brown Neon excavates insight from the sediments of land and relationships. Gutierrez is convinced that every shift in terrain is pertinent in understanding the collective and individual experiences that take place nearby; that no story, no matter how personal, is separate from the space where it unfolds. Whether contemplating the value of adobe as both vernacular architecture and commodified art object, exhuming areas of transphobia in second-wave feminism, or recalling how one of their own romances unraveled, Gutiérrez traverses complex questions of gender, class, identity, and citizenship with curiosity, nuance, and a gust of desert air.

Brown Neon

A meditation on southwestern terrains, intergenerational queer dynamics, and surveilled brown artists that crosses physical and conceptual borders. Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiérrez’s debut essay collection, Brown Neon, gleans insight from the sediment of land and relationships. For Gutiérrez, terrain is essential to understanding that no story, no matter how personal, is separate from the space where it unfolds. Whether contemplating the value of adobe as both vernacular architecture and commodified art object, highlighting the feminist wounding and transphobic apparitions haunting the multigenerational lesbian social fabric, or recalling a failed romance, Gutiérrez traverses complex questions of gender, class, identity, and citizenship with curiosity and nuance.

Raquel Gutiérrez

About

Books

Join the club