UC Irvine

My dissertation sheds light on the performativity of the male figure of the sicario and the roles he plays in Mexican and Colombian literary works from the late 20th century. The novels I explore expose the emergence of the sicario figure and his performativity within (il)legality in the sociopolitical sphere. I define sicario as a subject produced by capitalist society who, in pursuit of sociopolitical recognition, joins criminal organizations to profit from death and ascend the sociopolitical hierarchy. The sicario is a result of economic, social, and cultural precariousness, which propels him to be part of contract killing. The abandonment of citizens by the government nullifies their ability to develop viable life projects, leading them to seek alternative means of survival. I explore the representation of (de)humanization sicarios face and their emergence as a symbol of a failed system that privileges only those on the top of the sociopolitical and economic hierarchy.The sociopolitical system, which benefits the dominant elitist class, reproduces social hierarchies that, through oppressive discourses emphasizing difference, promote the marginalization and exclusion of vulnerable subjects to the point of positioning them as exterminable subjects, which I term queer sacer, which I define as any illegitimate, anomalous, dissenting subjectivity in relation to the normativity of the State and civil society that, in confronting them, lives in intense relation with direct death in limit situations due to the danger of their profession. I define the queer sacer as a postmodern, decitizenized subject who lacks a sociopolitical value that would allow them to (re)insert themselves into the legal system. This subject is preceded by conditions of economic, social, and cultural precarization. The queer emerges from their sociopolitical illegitimacy, positioning them as an exterminable body, that is, sacer. Within this category, I situate the sicario, who, although vulnerable to the cartel and the law, is the most feared figure within civil society. The proliferation of his imaginary as a subject threatening society exposes him to being exterminated, and thus, his life is always on the limit, and his death does not arouse any interest in justice from either the State or society. The first chapter of this dissertation explores the representation of the protagonist Macías, from adulthood, and how he decides to be part of criminality to obtain agency of power in sociopolitical society, since his indigenous phenotypes inhibit the possibility of inserting himself into a plan of progress within of legality. The second chapter analyzes how the influence of the Ideological and the Repressive State Apparatuses uses mechanisms to deploy a dominant ideology that seeks to keep characters such as the sicario Manuel Antonio under the control of the State who maintain capitalist social relations of exploitation that benefit the privileged class. Finally, the third chapter analyzes how the character Alexis is represented as the sicario who exercises endemic violence as a method of survival in Medellin, which is represented as a society without future.