Abstract
This essay examines the film Mulata (1954) starring Cuban vedette Ninón Sevilla through the various performances of mulata identity featured in the film. By introducing the theory of hip(g)nosis and the sentience corpo-mulata, these theoretical models demonstrate how a body racialized as mulata choreographs identity through gestures, bodily articulations, and socio-historically inscribed movement repertoires associated with this particular corporeality. The development of these terms intends to show the complexities that bodies add to history, as well as their impact on cultural production and notions of territoriality, nationalism, and citizenship. These terms also highlight the pleasure, sensuality, and affect involved in identity construction. Finally, by providing examples of these theories through a close reading of Ninón Sevilla’s performances of the title character in the film Mulata, the essay provides a way to re-think the mulata as something other than “tragic.”