Juliet Made Latinx

This chapter tracks the racial, cultural, and linguistic processes by which Juliet is made Latinx. This chapter shows how Anna-Marie McLemore’s The Weight of Feathers, a tale of two lovers who are separated by long-standing antagonisms, creates a space for young readers to explore the ways cultures, communities, or individuals edge each other, that is, the novel shows ways in which they can cross the borders separating them. Alongside this reading, I propose an alternative one that keys the x in Latinx. The Weight of Feathers, I argue, invites a queer reading that offers a corrective to the heteronormative values and practices fostered in Romeo and Juliet. This reading is further supported by McLemore’s “King of the Fairies,” a short story appropriation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which the “Indian boy” of Dream is actually a girl stolen from Aztec parents who wishes to dress like a boy. The x in Latinx, a signifier that advances gender inclusivity and thus expands gender knowledges and practices, becomes a social justice imperative in which gender critiques of Shakespeare’s plays lead to transformative visions of new possibilities for an inclusive human community.