ABSTRACT
A late eighteenth-century satire mocked the abundance of maricones in Lima by calling it Androginopolis. “Maricones” displaced the use of the term “sodomite,” and it was used to criticize the abundance of male cross-dressers, often racialized as men of African descent, and who actively participated in social life seeking the attention of other men. Racialized representations would be prevalent until the end of slavery in the mid-nineteenth century, giving vent to the elite's distrust of the slave population and the social fear its size engendered as the slaves vastly outnumbered it. This chapter concentrates on late eighteenth-century racialized representations in which Lima's enlightened colonial elite faced the news of the appalling slave revolution in Saint Domingue and the specter of racial violence raised by the Túpac Amaru uprising. Furthermore, the debate revealed the visibility maricones had attained in Lima's social landscape, as reflected in literary satires, public debates, and costumbrista paintings.
