Gore capitalism, Narcopolitics, and Femicide in Latin America & the Caribbean
April 30 at the Orchard 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Racial capitalism has through the ages transformed itself to continue producing wealth for the modern colonial powers of the West. At first, it used the commodified body of the African enslaved and the forced labor of the Indian to extract the maximum of wealth. Later it was the racialized living labor of the wage worker whose only property was the body. Today, it is the dead body. There is no one that can explain this type of capitalism better than Sayak Valencia, a Mexican transfeminist scholar. She calls this gore capitalism, a capitalism based on necropower and necromasculinity that thrives on the mass murder of women and the narcoeconomy, wars of aggression and genocide or the slow death of millions through police brutality, mass incarceration, lack of access to healthcare and more. Perhaps some of the best examples of gore capitalism can be found in Mexico, Haiti, or Honduras but there are everywhere.
To describe gore capitalism in Haiti there is also no one better than Dr. Patrick Sylvain, a Haitian literary scholar and renowned poet, who has written about the nexus of colonial history, US occupations, political chaos, and gang violence in Haiti. Drawing Valencia's concept of gore capitalism, Achille Mmbebe's necropolitics, and the political theories Haitian scholar Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Dr. Sylvain offers the genealogical reading of the narcostate in contemporary Haiti. Paying attention to Haitian lexicon of political violence and methods of violence, Dr. Sylvain maps the legacy of gendered racialized and classed violence echoing French plantation slavery, colonialism, US occupations, Christian evangelism, and the scramble for Haiti's natural resources.
But out of the sinister reality of gore capitalism comes hope and new forms of resistance and re-existence. Arlene Tickner, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations New York who has worked with the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, designing a new way of combatting the narcoeconomy will share with us the alternative to the US war on drugs, a war that has caused the death of one million Latin Americans.
Guest Speakers
- Sayak Vakencia, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana Mexico
- Patrick Sylvain, Simmons University
- Arlene Tickner, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent, Representative of Colombia to the United Nations
Flyer of Event Gore capitalism, Narcopolitics, and Femicide in Latin America & the Caribbean (PDF)
Launch Of The Institute For Feminist Studies And Social Action
On April 26th, 2023, the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies launched the Institute of Feminist Studies and Social Action. We opened with the world-renowned Palestinian feminist scholar, Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian from the Hebrew University. Her keynote speech was entitled “Feminist Geopolitics. The Cunning of Gender Violence.” The inauguration was a grand success demonstrating the interest that exists on our campus on issues that revolve around women and gender oppression. The IFSSA responds to a growing need to have a think-tank at CSUN that addresses the problems raised by the current political climate in the US and their impact on women and the LGBTQ+ communities. More events will be announced soon.
