Reflections of Nonnormativity: Photography, Childhood, and Belonging in Mariana Rondón’s Pelo malo

• Published date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20988698
• Date: 01 March 2021
• Author: Gabriela Bacsán
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X20988698

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 237, Vol. 48 No. 2, March 2021, 93–107

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X20988698

© 2021 Latin American Perspectives

93

Reflections of Nonnormativity

Photography, Childhood, and Belonging in

Mariana Rondón’s Pelo malo

by

Gabriela Bacsán

The mirror reflections of Junior, the young protagonist of Mariana Rondón’s film

Pelo malo, attempting to straighten his hair for a school photograph reveal the racial-

ized, gendered, sexualized, and classed aspects of normative subjecthood in Venezuela.

An examination of the circumstances that frame each mirror reflection and the reactions

they elicit in his mother and grandmother and of Junior’s efforts to constitute himself as

a normative child reveals the possibilities the film presents for existing outside of nor-

mativity.

Los reflejos en el espejo de Junior, el joven protagonista de la película Pelo malo de

Mariana Rondón, quien intenta alaciar su cabello para una fotografía escolar, revelan los

aspectos raciales, de género, sexuales y de clase de la subjetivación normativa en Venezuela.

Un análisis de las circunstancias que enmarcan cada reflejo y las reacciones que estas

provocan en su madre y abuela, así como los esfuerzos del mismo Junior por constituirse

como un niño normativo, revela las posibilidades que nos presenta la película para existir

fuera de la normatividad.

Keywords: Normativity, Heteronormativity, Childhood, Belonging, Photography

Pelo malo (2013) is Mariana Rondón’s third feature film and received the presti-

gious Golden Shell award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The film

was made with the financial support of the Autonomous National Cinematography

Center of Venezuela and is part of what Michelle Leigh Farrell (2016) identifies as

a “boom” in contemporary Venezuelan film production between 2005 and 2014.

Farrell notes that the center finances films, such as Pelo malo, that “often times do

not directly support or may offer criticism of the national project” of the Bolivarian

Republic of Venezuela (2016: 381). Indeed, Rondón’s film presents a sharp social

critique of contemporary Venezuelan society. Rondón contends (2013) that Pelo

malo (Bad Hair) is “a message against intolerance and advocates for the respect of

difference . . . political, sexual, and racial”1 and explains that the project arose out

of “pain and anguish.” Accordingly, Farrell (2017: 192) argues that Pelo malo pres-

ents “a continuation of a previous national tradition of contemplating deep societal

Gabriela Bacsán is an assistant professor in the Department of Spanish, Latin American, and

Caribbean Literatures and Cultures at Scripps College. Her research centers on contemporary

Latin American literatures and cultures with a focus on the intersections of gender, race, and

sexuality.

988698LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X20988698Latin American PerspectivesBacsán / Reections of Nonnormativity

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