Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing

222 Pages·2011·1.51 MB·English

by  Lázaro Lima

Ambientes

E E S
N
M B I T
A
New Queer Latino Writing
Edited by
 
and
  
The University of Wisconsin Press
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Copyright © 2011
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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1 3 5 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
A version of “Magnetic Island Sueño Crónica” by Susana Chávez-Silverman first appeared as “Currawong
Crónica” in Chroma: A Queer Literary and Arts Journal6 (Spring 2007), reprinted by permission of the author;
“Haunting José” by Rigoberto González first appeared in Men without Bliss(Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 2008), reprinted by permission of the publisher; a version of “Shorty” by Daisy Hernández was first
published in Sinister Wisdom74: Latina Lesbians (2008), reprinted by permission of the author; “Arturo,
Who Likes to Shave His Legs in the Snow” by Lucy Marrero first appeared in Alchemist Review30 (April 2007),
reprinted by permission of the author; “Kimberle” by Achy Obejas first appeared in Another Chicago Magazine
50 (July 1, 2010), reprinted by permission of the author; “I Leave Tomorrow, I Come Back Yesterday” by Uriel
Quesada first appeared as “Salgo mañana, llego ayer” in Lejos, tan lejos(San José: Editorial Costa Rica, 2004),
translated into English by Amy McNichols and Kristen Warfield, reprinted by permission of the publisher; “La
Fiesta de Los Linares” by Janet Arelis Quezada first appeared in Women Writers(Winter 2001), www.women
writers.net, reprinted by permission of the author; “Porcupine Love” by tatiana de la tierra first appeared as
“Amor de puercoespín” in Dos orillas: Voces en la narrativa lésbica(Barcelona: Egales Editorial, 2008), edited by
Minerva Salado, and in English in Two Shores: Voices in Lesbian Narrative(Barcelona: Grup E.L.L.Es, 2008),
edited by Minerva Salado, reprinted by permission of the author; “Dear Rodney” by Emanuel Xavier first appeared
in If Jesus Were Gay and Other Poems(Bar Harbor, ME: Queer Mojo/Rebel Satori Press, 2010), reprinted by
permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ambientes: new queer Latino writing / edited by Lazaro Lima and Felice Picano.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-299-28224-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-299-28223-3 (e-book)
1. Hispanic American gays—Fiction.
2. American fiction—Hispanic American authors.
3. Homosexuality in literature. 4. Gays’ writings, American.
I. Lima, Lázaro. II. Picano, Felice, 1944–
PS647.G39A46 2011
813´.6080868073—dc22
2010041228
Contents
Editors’Note:The Name of las Cosas vii
     
Preface ix
  
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Genealogies of Queer Latino Writing 3
 
Kimberle 14
 
Pandora’s Box 27
 
Shorty 45
 
Puti and the Gay Bandits of Hunts Point 57
 -
Porcupine Love 75
    
The Unequivocal Moon 84
  
Dear Rodney 89
  
This Desire for Queer Survival 96
 .   
La Fiesta de Los Linares 112
   

v
Malverde 126
 
Aquí viene Johnny 137
 
Haunting José 144
 
Imitation of Selena 152
  
Magnetic Island Sueño Crónica 159
 - 
I Leave Tomorrow, I Come Back Yesterday 165
  
Six Days in St. Paul 178
  
Arturo, Who Likes to Shave His Legs in the Snow 196

   






Contributors 201

vi
Editors’ Note
The Name of las Cosas
Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing seeks to provide a timely and
representative archive of queer Latino literary and cultural memory in
order to enact a more inclusive “American” literary canon that can
apprehend the present and the future of queer Latino literary practice. We
have assembled a diverse and representative sample of contemporary
queer Latino writing in order to provide a source of pleasure for readers
as well as a resource for instructors and students who have too often
been deprived of this crucial though underanalyzed component of
national literary culture.
Consistent with our belief that Spanish is not a foreign language in
the United States, we have not italicized words in Spanish. Those words
that do appear in the anthology in italics, whether in Spanish or not,
have been italicized by the authors and usually connote emphasis but
not a different linguistic register or the notion that Spanish is a foreign
language in this country. In keeping with standard Spanish grammatical
usage, the singular “Latino” or plural “Latinos” in the preface and the
introduction refer to both sexes and allow us to avoid the graphically
more sluggish “Latina/o,” Latina/os,” or “Latin@s.” In doing so we
also suggest the obvious: to believe that graphic characters can reform
inequality, linguistic or otherwise, is a fatuous proposition if structural
inequalities are not concomitantly addressed. Further, taking Spanish
seriously in the United States requires understanding its structures,
its speakers, the colonial legacies that haunt both, and why Spanish
continues to be classed as “inferior.” When we consider that the United
States is the third-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world (out of
twenty-one countries whose official language is Spanish plus the U.S.
territory of Puerto Rico), then we must confront the language issue
with urgency and creativity.
In both the preface and the introduction we refer to Latinos as
persons of Latin American ancestry living in the United States. Certainly,
Spanish is not the only language in Latin America, but r egrettably

vii
majority culture still incorrectly racializes and classes many Latinos as
“foreign,” and, too often, as just Spanish speaking (read: “Mexican”).
When we consider that, aside from Mexican and Central American
migration and immigration to the United States, Brazilians constitute
the third-largest migrant or immigrant group, then it becomes expedient
to include Brazilians—who often have to learn Spanish and, eventually,
English to enter local economies—under the admittedly less than
precise but necessary rubric “Latino.”
We received many fine submissions for this anthology in both
English and Spanish. The best of both were included in Ambientes. Those
submitted in Spanish have been translated into English in order to
entice a broader readership into seeking out the Spanish originals,
perhaps even encouraging them to learn the other unofficial national
language. As readers demand more of queer Latino writing and cultural
production, we hope that the Latino Brazilian experience also makes its
way into the futures of Latino literary and cultural production.
Finally, we hope you enjoy reading Ambientes: New Queer Latino
 Writing. Please visit the book’s website for research ideas, additional

 readings, links to authors’ websites, as well as teaching suggestions and

class projects based on Ambientes: www.myambientes.com.
’







viii
Preface
  
The two young men at the back of the library had been there early, and
they dawdled after everyone else at my reading and talk had left. They’d
been silent and attentive throughout, almost extra-alert, but now that
they were standing before me they relaxed and they gushed. Among the
things they said in their enthusiasm was this: “We’re so proud to have
someone of Latino extraction as an openly out gay writer.”
I looked at them more closely. This close up, I could see that both
appeared to be Latino. Clearly, they thought that I, with my vowel-
filled name and my large brown eyes, was also Latino. And, in a way, I
am. My father was born in the town of Itria in an area of Central Italy
about forty miles east of Rome, the area known as Latium, from which
the Latin tongue took its name. So, in fact, he, and I through him, was
an original Latino.
Only I’m not Latino the way those young men thought: they felt
proud of having a Latino gay man so out, so prominent, to represent
them. A few generations ago, I might have been one of those young
men, attending a rare reading of an Italian American author. Those
certainly were rare in the past, and people of Italian heritage were
mostly unassimilated into the American mainstream until the middle of
the last century, in a way similar to how many younger Latinos feel to
not be part of our wider culture today. As the result of discovering an
unsolved murder in my family—through being a writer—I’ve been
delving into my own family history. In New England in the 1920s and
early 1930s, anti-Italian sentiment reached an all-time high, especially
after the farce of the Sacco-Vanzetti trial. Elderly people in Rhode Island
told me in interviews that as teens they would have to go to church and
school in groups no smaller than ten because they were so often physically
attacked. While still a youth, I personally remember experiencing anti-
Italian prejudice, including at an Ivy League school. During an interview
for a Woodrow Wilson graduate scholarship at Princeton in 1964, as I

ix