La bachata del gay volador: challenging (homo) sexuality and Dominican identity in Andy Pena's music and Pedro Antonio Valdez's Bachata del angel caido

This article examines the multiple ways in which sexualized and gendered national discourses are alternately reproduced and challenged in Pedro Antonio Valdez's novel, Bachata del angel caido (1999) and in Andy Pena's bachata Quiero volar (2008). This article argues that the social meanings ascribed to bachata are challenged to varying degrees in Valdez's novel and on Pena's music. While Bachata del angel caido emphasizes the << machista >> and heteronormative undertones of bachata, Pena's work manages to pave the way for the incursion of an otherwise unlikely subject in bachata: the queer Dominican male.