Gay, Mexican and immigrant: intersecting identities among gay men in Los Angeles

Abstract

This paper draws on a multi-sited ethnographic research study of sexual identity formation among self-identified gay Mexican men in Los Angeles, Mexico City and Cuernavaca. Relying primarily on in-depth interviews with 24 gay immigrant men and extensive participant observation in Los Angeles, this research explores the intersection of sexuality, social class, ethnicity and immigration in the participants' daily lives and identity formation processes, the potential ways that transnational social networks shape their identities, and the ways that sexuality impacts the contours of their transnational networks. This article argues that the participants' identities as gay men are best understood as hybrid constructions that integrate elements of the gender-stratified activo/pasivo model of homosexuality and the object-choice gay model of homosexuality, and that the integration of these models into their identities is impacted by social class, geography, and immigration. Further, this paper argues that the subjectivities of the gay immigrant men in this study are best understood within a transnational intersectionality framework which conceptualizes identities as hybrid constructions that are produced through the interaction of several salient social forces.

Keywords:

• gay men
• intersectionality
• transnationalism
• Mexican immigration

Notes

1. The term ‘biological sex’ is problematic given the important work of feminist and queer theorist who illustrate the limitations of the categories ‘women’ and ‘men’ (Butler, 1999) and those who theorize the social construction of the binary male/female sex-category system. Contemporary medical models of transgender people suggest that variation among hormone, chromosomes, gonads, reproductive capacities, genitals etc. reveal that differences among men and among women call the male/female binary into question (see Fausto-Sterling, 1997; Kessler, 1990; Kessler & McKenna, 1978).

2. This research was conducted according to human subject guidelines and was granted approval by the University of Southern California's Institutional Review Board (IRB). All participants were given pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality and to protect their anonymity.

3. The secundaria and the preparatoria are equivalent to middle school and high school, respectively, in the United States.

4. According to Sigmund Freud – whose research on sexuality provides the basis of the binary sexual classification system (heterosexual/homosexual) dominant in postindustrial western societies – homosexuality is not intrinsic or inborn, but rather, is a result of a failure to develop the opposite sex as the object of sexual desire. Sexuality, then, according to the object-choice model is determined by the sex of intimate partners and discrete personages are differentiated according to sexual preference (Weeks, 1991). The activo/pasivo paradigm, conversely, categorizes sexuality according to the role played in the homosexual act (i.e. activos want to penetrate thus they are ‘normal’ men, pasivos want to be penetrated, thus they are homosexual) (Almaguer, 1993).

5. Several participants (especially those from large urban areas) read local gay guides in adolescence. Further, several reported reading gay publications such as Adonis and Boys and Toys.

6. Puto and Maricón are colloquial derogatory terms which connote both gender non-conformity and homosexuality.

7. Mayate is a colloquial reserved for (some) activo or ‘normal’ men who have sex with jotos. According to several researchers, and as evidenced in this research, the term mayate often implies some sort of exchange of either money or other resources to the active partner by the queer partner (Alonso & Koreck, 1993; Cantú, 2009; Carrier, 1995; Prieur, 1998).

8. Baile folklorico, literally ‘folkloric dance’ in Spanish refers collectively to traditional Latin American dances that blend local folk cultures with elements of ballet. Interestingly, several of the immigrant and non-immigrant men participated in baile folklorico during their youth and some continue to do so.

9. Quinceañeras are coming-of-age celebrations held on a girl's 15th birthday.

10. Gay bars, as many scholars have noted, are integral institutions for the development of individual and collective gay identities and for the development of queer communities. There is a long history of studies that examine the role of gay bars in the identity formation processes of gay men. See Dank (1998) of early examples of this work. See LaguardaLaguarda (2009) for a discussion of the role of gay bars played in the development of gay identities among gay men in Mexico City in the 1970s.

11. Diego was unable to recall any specific names of the magazines that he read during adolescence (some of which were pornography magazines). He did, however, mention that ‘they had American reports … they were in Spanish but with articles about gay life in the United States.’

12. Coyote is a term that refers those who transport immigrants across the border without inspection or documentation.