Libercueca: biopoéticas del sexo y la fusión en la cueca urbana chilena

Abstract

Cueca is a Chilean couples dance that has its hybrid origin in the 19th century. It has evolved—sometimes within an environment of real tension—into multiple versions, three of which are examined in this article. The "porteña" version, known as "chora," exhibits the exiled voices of "rotos" and prostitutes in the theaters and radio of the 1950s. The "cueca sola" was a way for women to denounce the disappearance of their husbands and partners under the 1973-1990 military dictatorship. Finally, the more modern urban cueca brings us the voice of a Chile that dissents from those in power who view the popular classes as only a labor force, a military contingent, a residual group, or, from theoretical point of view, an "other" that is ever- suffering. As a highly eroticized dance, with melodies that fuse with tango, Chilean urban cueca proposes an open national community to foreigners, and restores pleasure as a basic human right and a condition to life.