Transphobia, Prosthetic Motherhood and Non-heteronormative Identities in Loxoro (2011) by Claudia Llosa

Abstract

The following article analyzes Loxoro (2011), a short film by Claudia Llosa. This film was part of the "Fronteras project” (a series of Latin American short films produced by cable television TNT) and in 2012 it was awarded the Teddy Award at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. It is intended to demonstrate that in Loxoro a complaint is made against the social conditions to which transvestites are subjected, whose bodies are violated, disappeared or discarded. Likewise, it is desired to prove that this film presents a series of  representations of non-heteronormative identities that challenge the cisheteropatriarchal system. Theseidentities have the capacity of agency, and their actions subvert some basic institutions of this system,such as motherhood and language. Indeed, in Loxoro a prosthetic maternity is proposed, which isunderstood as the replacement of a member that is part of the mother-child kinship relationship, byanother entity, which is responsible for reproducing the role that one of these members played insuch relationships. In addition, in the text, such identities subject language to transformations thatnot only make it an artifact of communication as a differentiated group, but also constitute a wayof violating order, deconstructing the language of power, adapting it to its vital priorities.