Department of History

Joaquín Marreros Núñez (he/him) conducts research on the history of gender and sexuality in Modern Latin America. Specifically, he focuses on the history of sexual deviancy in Peru during the 20th century. He earned his BA in History from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú with a thesis on the prime generation of the Homosexual Movement of Lima (MHOL), the first organization founded by sexual deviants in the Andean country during the 1980s. This research had the opportunity to be published in book format under the title HomoGénesis: Una historia del Movimiento Homosexual de Lima en los años 80 (Gafas Moradas, 2022).

During his time at Brown, Marreros Núñez aims to write the first comprehensive history of sexual deviancy in Modern Peru. Tentatively titled Peruvian Maricones: Queer Urban Life, Race, and Violence in Twentieth-Century Peru, this research seeks to understand the historical process of Peruvian non-conforming sexualities by considering various regional urban dynamics, indigeneity and mestizaje, and the non-progressive evolution of violence against dissenting bodies. The research argues that, although most Latin American countries shared similar patterns of criminalizing and medicalizing dissenting bodies until the 1940s, Peru experienced a different trajectory in the early years of the Cold War. While the moralizing forces of the Cold War had a profound impact on sexual deviants across Latin America, Peruvian maricones were not fully impacted by this moralizing discourse. Additionally, while the end of the Cold War led to a shift toward the recognition of rights for non-conforming sexualities in many post-dictatorship Latin American countries, Peru entered a more conservative historical phase that has persisted into the present day.

Marreros Núñez has presented progress on his work at various conferences in the United States, Peru, and Spain. He has also contributed to his field in the UNESCO-PUCP Chair and in the book “Nosotros también somos peruanos”: La marginación en el Perú, siglos XVI al XXI (PUCP & JNE, 2024).