Friday June 16, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 24 |
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Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
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ENTRE LATIN@S By Florentino M. Lopez |
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| BEING A LATINO LGBTQ IN THE U.S. - Our diversity is celebrated differently in this country | |
| by Florentino M. Lopez - Program Manager, Entre Hermons
To be Latino (and by Latino, I mean immigrant Latino) in the U.S. is to be someone who's different, arrived from afar, carrying our heritage on our backs, and yet somehow figuring out our new identity. We arrive in search of the American dream, which represents infinite possibilities-economic, social, amorous and personal freedom-yet often we don't know what moved us to leave our native lands in search of ourselves. We arrive wishing to transform our existence and that of our families with work, and we start learning the difficult process of being ourselves. Our new reality allows us to explore our sexuality, learn a new vision of masculinity and femininity, and gives us a new perspective on our sexual orientation. To be a Latino immigrant in this country means to become aware we're noticed by our color, our background, our language, and moreover, our race or ethnicity. It's to find yourself celebrated on Cinco de mayo, notwithstanding that if you're Mexican you celebrated the 15th of September; were you from another Latin American country, you're forced to find out what that date means and be ready to add yourself to the moment the Anglos make for us, often not knowing themselves what the party represents. But one thing is clear: It's party day, a day for Coronas, tequila, tacos, sombreros, and for the most daring, listening to Mexican music or mariachis. Nowadays, before we're LGBTQ, we're Latinos, and that works very well. Even though, before this society, we live with the conflict of whether to be honest with ourselves. Here we are, alone, rebuilding ourselves, looking forward to love freely. Those moments of loneliness, isolation, and feeling segregated and rejected are behind us. This adventurous new path brings us to a crossroads: To come out of the closet or remain in it forever. Truth be told, coming out publicly doesn't solve any problems, but it lightens emotional, social and family related loads. Often, the comfort of the closet blinds us against this definite, if not most important step. At least here, we can challenge our blindness and still remain relatively sure that we won't get hurt; we can even find that when we emphasize our sexual orientation we'll find a warmer (or at least less hostile) reception. We can judge the old conventions objectively, without dealing with the prejudices of our culture. In so many words, we can live more freely here being part of the LGBTQ community than in our countries of origin. However, bear in mind that, as the poet Cavafis says, "Wherever you go, you take Hell within." This makes us acknowledge that facing homophobia or resolving our sexual orientation is not easy, nor does it have preset solutions. We each lead our lives in different ways, and sometimes against our own interests. Many times, internalized homophobia imprisons us beyond our capacity to face life itself. So then, the path is a long one and learning one's self never ends. We're beings under constant construction, in search of our own voice. Courtesy of Entre Hermanos |
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International Readers |
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