QUEER RICAN

1
QUEER RICAN

• A Case Study in Sexual Identity Formation

2
PUERTO RICAN QUEER DIASPORA

• Generalized intolerance of homosexuality and
  increased awareness and organization within the
  LGBT community in the U.S. have led, particularly
  since World War II, to massive geographic
  displacements, especially towards large urban
  enclaves on both coasts (La Fountain-Stokes
  280).
• General social intolerance of homosexuality in
  Puerto Rico has had an impact on specific
  expectations of behavior, at least as far as
  middle and upper-class individuals are concerned.
  These patterns of behavior include secrecy or
  nondisclosure of personal matters in familial,
  professional, and social environments as well as,
  at the opposite end of the spectrum, voluntary,
  encouraged, or even forced migration (La
  Fountain-Stokes 280).

3
SEXUAL MINORITIES IN 1970S PUERTO RICO

• Seen through the lens of nationalist, lesbians
  represented a foreign influence and were a threat
  to the nation and to the movements that claimed
  to represent national aspirations. Moreover,
  their sexuality was represented as a result of
  bourgeois decadence and was associated with U.S.
  feminism (Crespo-Kebler 205).
• Many feminists attempted to distance themselves
  from positions that could identify them as
  lesbians (Crespo-Kebler 206).
• 1974 Alianza de Mujeres de la Comunidad de
  Orgullo Gay
• Para estimular a las mujeres gay a
  liberarsecomo gays y como mujeres.

4
LEGACY OF COLONIALISM ON IDEAS ABOUT FAMILY

• Legal marriage may also have been one of the
  ways in which Puerto Ricans distanced themselves
  from the racial and cultural inferiority ascribed
  to them in the U.S. Marriage was seen as a
  symbol of respectability and whiteness and was
  identified with modernization and progress, while
  consensual unions, female-headed households and
  extended families were seen as backwards and
  associated with poverty and blackness (Safa 35).

5
JORGE STEVEN LÓPEZ MERCADO

• Last November, his body was found burnt and
  dismembered.
• Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act

6
LEGITIMATE PERIPHERAL PARTICIPATION IN
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

• High school
• Girlfriend and her friends
• The L Word
• College
• Neighbor Introduction to the community
• Roommate Questioning her sexuality
• Friends in Puerto Rico Who is not part of the
  community of practice?
• First serious relationship with a woman
• Coming out to sister and parents

7
I REALLY THINK THAT WAS A BIG, BIG PART OF IT

• Seeing it on TV and seeing it be okay, and
  seeing, you know, what do lesbians do? How do
  you meet other lesbians? I was like, oh my God,
  I need to move to California or something!

8
DIFFERENCES IN ARTICULATION OF IDENTITY

• Puerto Rico

• United States

• Sister Youre not gay, you just like both
  sides.
• También me gustan las muchachas.
• Siento que en Puerto Rico, my identidad ya está
  formada. Es otra parte de quien yo soy.

• Gay
• Bisexual
• Of course Im bisexual, but its not my
  all-inclusive identity.

9
I THINK ITS GOING TO BE REALLY HARD FOR THEM

• Porque es una familia católica, de como que
  Cidra, de campo.
• Describes the friend who was not okay with her
  sexuality in Spanish.

10
RACIAL V. SEXUAL MINORITY CODE SWITCHING

• Play clip 11040
• Struggling with their identity refers mostly
  to sexual identity
• Tener que bregar con being gay on top of
  thatcomo que minority on top of a minority. I
  think thats mucho, mucho más difícil.

11
SELF-REFLECTION

• Nosotros no sabemos hablar esto en español y no
  hay background para hablar de estoy mucho menos
  en Puerto Rico.
• Toda mi historia en college fue en inglés. Y a
  veces lo pienso en inglés y lo siento en inglés
  porque fue donde lo pude expresar.