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Antonio Banderas: Hispanic Gay Masculinities And The Global Mirror Stage (1991-2001) , Joseba Gabilondo

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Here I map out the Atlantic intertwining between neo-liberal/neo-imperial Spain and cinema by analyzing Antonio Banderas's body politics as the postmodern (post- or neoimperialist) Don Juan. Banderas's career trajectory from 1991 to 2001 coincides with larger political and historical developments. He arrived in Hollywood in the early 1990s, a moment when different but interconnected historical events came together— the end of the Cold War and the neo-liberal globalization of the United States with treaties such as NAFTA and GATT; the growing public profile of the fundamentalist religious right and gays; and the mainstream population's (unwilling) acceptance of Latinos as a …