Beetles and Vessels
Diversity, Eroticism, and Radical Personhood in Hubert Matiúwàa’s Xùkú Xùwàá
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52537/humanimalia.19475Keywords:
contemporary indigenous poetry, insects and bugs, nonhuman personhood, ecological thought, non-Western philosophyAbstract
This article studies a poetry collection written in Mè'phàà by Hubert Matiúwàa. I propose that the collection, Xùkú Xùwàá/Entre escarabajos (Among Beetles), exemplifies radical personhood that redefines the relationship between humans and nonhumans, having beetles and their anatomies as common denominators for all earthlings. The poems become relevant to ecological thought and animal studies because the entanglement of insects, plants, and animals that intertwine people’s sense of agency, eroticism, and sexuality proposes an alternative biocultural taxonomy and establishes non-Western philosophy as contributor to contemporary ecological thinking. In other words: Matiúwàa’s poems allow readers to notice that there might be another system of thought, one that includes humans and nonhumans without disregarding their/our differences.
Downloads
References
Alfonso, Alethia. “Lenguas, intimidad y rebeldía: la internalización desde / del entorno en Lupe Gómez y Hubert Matiúwàa.” In Transgresiones en las letras iberoamericanas: visiones del lenguaje poético, edited by Laura López Fernández and Luis Mora-Ballesteros, 39–62. Los Angeles: Argus-a, 2021.
Bellinghausen, Hermann. Insurrección de la palabra: poetas contemporáneos en lenguas mexicanas. San Luis Potosí: Ítaca, 2018.
Benítez, Karla. “Pobladores dan último adiós a Acasio Flores, alcalde asesinado en Malinatepec.” El Heraldo de México 23 June 2024. https://heraldodemexico.com.mx/nacional/2024/6/23/pobladores-dan-ultimo-adios-acasio-flores-alcalde-asesinado-en-malinaltepec-614797.html.
Call, Wendy, and Luz María Lepe Lira. “Poetics and Politics of Indigenous-Language Literature in Mexico and Colombia: Forms of Protest and Resistance.” Diálogo 22, no. 1 (2019): 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1353/dlg.2019.0004.
Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad. “Preparan elaboración de ‘La biodiversidad de Guerrero. Estudio de Estado’ con primer taller para autores”. Gobierno de México, 21 April 2023. https://www.gob.mx/conabio/prensa/preparan-elaboracion-de-la-biodiversidad-de-guerrero-estudio-de-estado-con-primer-taller-para-autores.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Robert Hurley, Mark Seem, and Helen R. Lane. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
Esch, Sophie. “In the Company of Animals: Otherness, Empathy, and Community in De fronteras by Claudia Hernández.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 51, no. 3 (2017): 571–93. https://doi.org/10.1353/rvs.2017.0057.
Fornoff, Carolyn. “La carne que habla: filosofía y poesía mè’phàà en la obra de Hubert Matiúwàa.” Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 46, no. 91 (2020): 121–38. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27041837.
García Hilario, Fabiana, Juana Cruz Morales, Adriana E. Castro Ramírez, Tim R. Trench Hamilton, and Cutberto Pacheco Flores. “Crisis del sistema milpero: la erosión biológica y cultural en San Juan de las Nieves, Malinaltepec, Guerrero, México.” Revista de Geografía Agrícola no. 57 (2016): 113–23. https://doi.org/10.5154/r.rga.2016.57.003.
Gaussens, Pierre. “La otra montaña roja: El cultivo de la amapola en Guerrero.” Textual: Análisis del Medio Rural Latinoamericano, no. 71 (2018): 33–69. https://doi.org/10.5154/r.textual.2017.71.003.
Halkias, Alexandra. “Tracking Love in the Wild: From San Diego to Athens, Greece and Beyond.” Imaginations 10, no. 1 (2019): 147–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.CR.10.1.6.
Halwani, Raja. Philosophy of Love, Sex, and Marriage: An Introduction. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2018.
Haraway, Donna. When Species Meet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
Hernández Zamora, Araceli. “El matrimonio infantil es delito grave y está penado: Eufrosina Cruz.” W Radio México 26 April 2023. https://wradio.com.mx/programa/2023/04/26/asi_las_cosas/1682524767_412815.html.
Kowaleski Wallace, Elizabeth. “‘The True State of Our Condition,’ Or, Where are Robinson Crusoe’s Insect Companions?” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 30, no. 2 (2023): 470–88. https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isaa207.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. “The Boy” / “Adà.” Translated by Paul M. Worley. Broadsided, 11 December 2021. https://broadsidedpress.org/broadsides/the-boy-ada/.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. Mañuwìín / Cordel torcido. Guadalajara, Jalisco: Editorial Universidad de Guadalajara, 2018.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. Mbo Xtá rídà / Gente piel / Skin People. Guerrero: Gusanos de la Memoria, 2020.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. Tsína rí nàyaxà' / Cicatriz que te mira. Mexico City: Pluralia Ediciones, 2018.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. Túngaa Indìí / Comisario Jaguar / Jaguar Commissioner. Guerrero: Gusanos de la Memoria, 2021.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. Xó nùnè jùmâ xàbò mè’phàà / El cómo del filosofar de la gente piel. Malinaltepec: Gusanos de la Memoria, 2022.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. Xtambáa / Piel de tierra. Illustrations by Alec Dempster. Mexico City: Pluralia Ediciones, 2016.
Matiúwàa, Hubert. Xùkú xùwàá / Entre escarabajos. Mexico City: Oralibrura, 2021.
Oerlemans, Onno. “Animal Allegory from Chaucer to Gray.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 20, no. 2 (September 2013): 296–317. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44087229.
Oikión, Verónica. “El Estado mexicano frente a los levantamientos armados en Guerrero: el caso del plan Telaraña.” Tzintzun: Revista de estudios históricos, no. 45 (2007): 65–82.
Ó Maoilearca, John. All Thoughts Are Equal: Laruelle and Non-Human Philosophy. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 2015.
Ó Maoilearca, John. “Non-Human Philosophy.” In The Edinburgh Companion to Animal Studies, edited by Lynn Turner, Undine Sellbach, and Ron Broglio, 367–79. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018.
Picq, Manuela. “Decolonizing Indigenous Sexualities: Between Erasure and Resurgence.” In The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics, edited by Michael J. Bosia, Sandra M. McEvoy, and Momin Rahman, 169–184. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Picq, Manuela, and Josi Tikuna. “Indigenous Sexualities: Resisting Conquest and Translation.” E-International Relations, 20 August 2019. https://www.e-ir.info/2019/08/20/Indigenous-sexualities-resisting-conquest-and-translation/.
Piña-Domínguez, Irving A., Eliel Ruiz-May, Dolores, Hernández-Rodríguez, Rossana C. Zepeda, and Guiomar Melgar-Lalanne. “Environmental Effects of Harvesting Some Mexican Wild Edible Insects: An Overview.” Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 6 (2022): 1021861. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.1021861.
Sánchez-Bayo, Francisco, and Kris A.G. Wyckhuys. “Worldwide Decline of the Entomofauna: A Review of Its Drivers.” Biological Conservation 232 (2019): 8–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.01.020.
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 10, fol. 25r. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/10/folio/25r.
Tuck, Eve. “Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities.” Harvard Educational Review 79. no. 3 (Fall 2009): 409–427.
“‘La violencia en Guerrero ha aumentado’: Hubert Matiúwàa, poeta ganador del PLIA.” Aristegui Noticias, 31 August 2017. https://www.aristeguinoticias.com/3108/kiosko/la-violencia-en-guerrero-ha-aumentado-hubert-matiuwaa-poeta-ganador-del-plia/.
Viveiros De Castro, Eduardo. Cannibal Metaphysics. Translated by Peter Skafish. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Alethia Alfonso-García (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
