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Uñas Pintadas de Azul/Blue Fingernails is a sexually explicit  fiction novel by  Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes. This is an experimental novel in which magical realism, explicit sexual fantasies, narrative, and poetic styles of writing converge to tell unique stories of queer Latino/a American and Puerto Rican experiences in a postmodern, ever-shifting world. The novel consists of fourteen different stories that take place in different locations such as - Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and New york - all of which are just a few that are mentioned, but are the focus in the book. Historically, researchers of migrations and cultural studies did not take into account sexuality as a contributing factor that influences many Puerto Ricans and Latin Americans to migrate out of their country. However, La Fountain-Stokes is breaking that silence, or a taboo as he calls it, because in the Latino American culture homosexuality is not embraced enough. La Fountain-Stokes has written this novel with the attempt that it will act as "un puente" between the queer community and Latin American countries so that their stories are no longer ignored or silenced.

Background
Uñas Pintadas de Azul/Blue Fingernails was written sparingly throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s. During this time, La Fountain-Stokes was able to develop his writing skills in a creative writing workshop at Columbia University taught by Chilean writer Diamela Eltit. It was in this workshop where he discovered that he did not have to write his novel in an autobiographical form and became more inventive in his writing technique. He describes Uñas Pintadas de Azul/Blue Fingernails as an experimental piece that he wrote as an attempt to break away from the limitations of writing in the academic world. La Fountain-Stokes also notes his friend Puerto Rican poet, novelist, professor of literature, and literary critic Mayra Santos-Febres as a key motivator for the production of this novel. At the time of the novel's development, Santos-Febres referred to his short stories as an exploration that is distinct from other pieces written in Puerto Rico and encouraged him to finish the novel.

Topics and Themes
Uñas pintadas de Azul/ Blue Fingernails interlaces science fiction, queer, and cultural studies topics such as migration and diaspora with a focus on the Puerto Rican community. La Fountain-Stokes wanted show the intersectionality of race and sexuality as contributing factors to migration. He states that sexuality and sexual orientation are rarely connected to patterns of migration when discussing Latin America. Due to this lack of representation, he wanted to write about the queer Latino/a experience with a futuristic spin. Common themes in the stories are transvestism, identity, queerness, language. These taboo themes offer a humorous and alternative outlook on marginalization and queer fiction and give a voice and visibility to the issues that are viewed as obscure and often ignored in queer Latino/a dialogue.

In the short story, My name, multitudinous mass La Fountain-Stokes writes about having various identities. This story is the most autobiographical from the novel because he includes his name is this narrative and treats this story as a representation of his poetic and artistic influences. The story describes him as having secret identities and feeling a void in his life and wanting to find meaning and ultimately finding meaning and identifying with intellectuals, artists, and writers.

Such themes can be viewed in the short story, My name, multitudinous mass in which La Fountain-Stokes writes about having various identities. This story is the most autobiographical from the novel because he includes his name is this narrative and treats this story as a representation of his poetic and artistic influences. The story describes him as having secret identities and feeling a void in his life and wanting to find meaning and ultimately finding meaning and identifying with intellectuals, artists, and writers many of whom are queer. This story relates to the topics of identity, queerness, and diaspora in the Latino/a community. La Fountain-Stokes attempts to place his identity as a queer Latino living in the United States from a Puerto Rican background. This story attempts to reflect and existential and identity crisis that affect U.S. born Latino/as in the never-ending journey to self-discovery. Topics of queerness and love are also very pertinent in the novel. In Intergalactica de amor/Love is Intergalactic, is full of futuristic words, concepts, and identities in a distant “post-Earth” in the year 2073 where the Arab empire reigns supreme as the new world order. this post-Earth, interplanetary travel and migrations, cyborgs, and all things virtual are the norm and the Spanish language is antiquated and seldom used. Intergalactica de amor/Love is Intergalactic is a love and fantasy narrative full of futuristic and science fiction inspired terminology that focuses on the interaction between a post-Puerto Rican queer male named Jerry with a neo-Dominican plumber named Betances. Their encounter begins when Betances goes to Jerry’s apartment to fix the futuristic toilet and they both speak to each other using Spanish phrases, which at this point in the future are deemed as antiquated since the primary language is post-English which is slightly Arabic. Their encounter brings up topics such as identity and queerness because Jerry attempts to hide his blue fingernails from Betances in an attempt to conceal his sexuality. Through this short journey through the mind of Jerry,La Fountain-Stokes describes Jerry’s romantic and sexual fantasies with Betances. This narrative offers a coming-to-terms with one’s queer sexuality through the focus of painted fingernails and its connotations and potential identity signifier.

Topics such as prostitution and marginalization can also be seen in the story De un pajaro a las dos alas in which La Fountain-Stokes's story reads as a personal account and experience. In the story La Fountain-Stokes discusses his trip to Cuba  during the time of the Special Period. ]] During this time Cuba was very poor and in the book details the change in currency and how Cuba now has both pesos and dollars and shows the divide in the country that now seems disillusioned. Prostitution is a focus of this story and shows the degree to which the Cuban people have become marginalized and poverty and unemployment are common to Cuba during this time period.

Key Terms

 * Borinquen
 * Quisqueyano
 * Fantasy/Desire
 * Queerness/Homosexuality
 * Sexuality
 * Identity
 * Diaspora
 * Language
 * Politics
 * Marginalization/subaltern/ crime/drugs
 * Love
 * Science Fiction
 * Transvestism
 * Multiculturalism

Influences

 * Manuel Ramos Otero
 * René Marqués
 * Federico Garcia Lorca
 * Reinaldo Arenas
 * Jose Lezama Lima
 * Severo Sarduy
 * Jean Genet
 * William Burroughs
 * Truman Capote
 * David Wojnarowicz

Historical References

 * Jose Marti
 * Nuestra América
 * Love in the Time of Cholera
 * Fidel Castro
 * Cuban Revolution
 * Mariel boatlift
 * Special Period

Popular Culture References

 * Chi Chi LaRue
 * Blood Wedding (play)
 * Blue Velvet (film)
 * The Beat Generation