Metroimperial Intimacies

"Metroimperial Intimacies is a magisterial work of cultural and historical scholarship, and one of the best books about Philippine cultural exigencies in the early twentieth century to come out in recent years. Wielding an expert and elegant hand, Victor Román Mendoza deploys a queer of color perspective and relocates it outside of American shores into its colonial frontier. An exciting, intricately argued, and pathbreaking book, Metroimperial Intimacies marks a major turn." - Martin F. Manalansan IV, author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora

"In this deft and thought-provoking book, Victor Román Mendoza sets forth detailed and lucidly theorized accounts of archives of neglected state and cultural intimacies that move from the colony to the imperial metropole, from the Philippine-American War to its afterlife within the broader iterations of U.S. empire. Tracking the manifold uses to which genres of fantasy-making were deployed during the period, Mendoza shows how sexual and racial fantasies founded the emergence and resilience of U.S. empire. This move radically centers Philippine colonial history as not peripheral to studies of U.S. empire, but indeed as constitutive of its very heteromasculine and genocidal form."  - Anjali Arondekar, author of For the Record: On Sexuality and the Colonial Archive in India

"... Metroimperial Intimacies demonstrates the multifaceted ways in which the United States attempted to manage the chaotic categories of race and sex in the new colony. Although not the first scholar to examine political cartoons and pensionado writing, Mendoza treads new ground in his attention to how male same-sex intimacy registered in these genres, enlarging our understanding of how colonial anxieties about race and sex shaped the social, legal, and cultural spaces of U.S.–Philippine relations." - Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Victor Román Mendoza demonstrates that the history of American empire in the early-twentieth century Philippines can indeed be queered through intrepid research and savvy analysis. . . . [T]he analysis ranges from pathbreaking to brilliant." - Kristin Hoganson, Canadian Journal of History

"At his best, Mendoza extracts rich detail from his sources, adding lucidity and evidential weight to his theoretical sophistication.... Mendoza paves the way for important future work." - Tom Smith, History

"... [A] significant contribution to US empire, Philippine, and gender and sexuality studies. . . .  [A] book whose many revelations will appeal to queer, postcolonial, and Asian/American studies scholars alike." - Martin Joseph Ponce, Journal of the History of Sexuality

"Using a queer of color critique, Metroimperial Intimacies provides an innovative and much-needed study of social and sexual intimacies within the context of the early years of U.S. imperial colonialism in the Philippines." - Genevieve Clutario, Journal of American History

"This monograph forges an intersection of US imperial history, queer of color critique, and critical ethnic studies. . . . This work richly builds on the existent literature on US imperialism." - Mark John Sanchez, History: Reviews of New Books