The Language of (In)Visibility: Using In-Between Spaces as a Vehicle for Empowerment in the Family

Abstract

Drawing on 40 in-depth interviews with sexually nonconforming Latinas, this work looks at how these women negotiate family and achieve empowerment both through visibility and invisibility. This work explores the experiences of Latinas who verbally articulated their sexual nonconformity to their families as well as those who chose to maintain their relationships tacit. I offer that study participants found empowerment and agency not only through verbal articulation but also through tacit relationships and that sexually nonconforming Latinas inhabited an “in-between space” with their families that gave them the flexibility to pursue or not pursue visibility as they desired.

Keywords:

• family
• in-between spaces
• Latina sexualities

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the special issue's guest editors, William Leap and Denis Provencher, for their feedback, patience, and support in my completion of this article. I would also like to thank my research assistant Heidi Krajewski for her assistance in this process. Last, but not least, I would like to thank the women who participated in this study. Without them none of this would be possible.

Notes

1. Marielito is a term used to describe the Cuban exiles that left Cuba in 1980 from Mariel Harbor for the United States. Among them were many whom Castro deedmed social deviants including gay and transgender individuals.