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El Hijo De Ruby Analysis

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All of the readings this week deal in depth explanations and examples of queer theatre and the concept of performing disidentifications with emotions and their influence on our perceptions and judgments of the queer community, and after viewing the short documentary El hijo de Ruby by filmmaker Gisela Rosario Ramos for the first time, I better understood how this film correlated with the concepts and readings from this week and the previous weeks.
El hijo de Ruby introduces the viewer to a man that is seeking healing and connection to his father through dance. The documentary combined emotional theories with stereotypic judgments such as the very true stereotype of Puerto Rico that it is a place where poverty, drugs, and violence are prevalent …show more content…

The short documentary was particularly interesting because by the end of my third time watching it I realized that one of the most impactful and important scenes was the beautiful scene with Lio dancing in the skirt. This choice to end the documentary with the protagonist dancing with the skirt completely confused me at first but because it was so abruptly introduced, however after reading Jack’s Plunger and Performing Disidentifications I developed my own ideas of what Lio dancing with the skirt might represent and why Ramos might have left this unexplained. By the end of viewing the film for the third time I now believe that Lio’s choice to dance in the skirt probably represents how an assumed heterosexual male challenges gender normativities. Typically women are seen dancing bomba with the skirt, so I imagine that by Lio’s choice to dance with the skirt as a man probably provoked mixed emotions and reactions. This allowed me to make connections with information that I learned in the article Queer Ricans that in Puerto Rico there exists a high level of intolerance for things that are not viewed or labeled as normal.
The documentary, although short, was extremely impactful and powerful and definitely left the viewer with many unanswered questions. Some of the things that I am confused little confused about is what was the filmmaker’s purpose in creating this work? What was it exactly that she wanted us to focus on. I hope that during our discussion Ramos can answer some unanswered

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