In Finitude: Being with José, Being with Pedro

Through an engagement with José Esteban Muñoz’s writings on queer-of-color counterpublicity, this essay proposes that we participate in his legacy through acts of methexis—or “group sharing”—rather than mimesis. Muñoz and Pedro Zamora are two figures from the Miami-based Cuban exile community who subvert the clichéd image of that community as a conservative force in US politics and culture. Rereading Muñoz’s writings on Zamora of The Real World, season 3, and recounting how Zamora shared out the unsharable experience of his death, the essay discusses three engagements with Zamora’s memory: a 2000 graphic novel, a 2008 biopic, and a 2014 performance by the art collective My Barbarian.

Tavia Nyong'o

Tavia Nyong’o is William Lampson Professor of American Studies at Yale University and curator of public programs at the Park Avenue Armory. A scholar of performance, race, and aesthetics, he is author of The Amalgamation Waltz: Race, Performance, and the Ruses of Memory (2009), Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life (2018), and Black Apocalypse: Afrofuturism at the End of the World (2025). He is a member of the Social Text editorial collective.