Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual

Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities

Holly Cashman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317812029
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Sociolinguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Shortlisted for the 2018 BAAL Book Prize

This book is a sociolinguistic ethnography of LGBT Mexicans/Latinxs in Phoenix, Arizona, a major metropolitan area in the U.S. Southwest. The main focus of the book is to examine participants' conceptions of their ethnic and sexual identities and how identities influence (and are influenced by) language practices. This book explores the intersubjective construction and negotiation of identities among queer Mexicans/Latinxs, paying attention to how identities are co-constructed in the interview setting in coming out narratives and in narratives of silence. The book destabilizes the dominant narrative on language maintenance and shift in sociolinguistics, much of which relies on a (heterosexual) family-based model of intergenerational language transmission, by bringing those individuals often at the margin of the family (LGBTQ members) to the center of the analysis. It contributes to the queering of bilingualism and Spanish in the U.S., not only by including a previously unstudied subgroup (LGBTQ people), but also by providing a different lens through which to view the diverse language and identity practices of U.S. Mexicans/Latinxs. This book addresses this exclusion and makes a significant contribution to the study of bilingualism and multilingualism by bringing LGBTQ Latinas/os to the center of the analysis.

1 Introduction

Locating a Queer Latinx Phoenix¹

The Original Inspiration for This Book

One evening, while sitting with friends on the patio of a bar in Phoenix, Arizona, that caters to a predominantly lesbian clientele, a friend casually bemoaned the fact that her nieces and nephews were not learning Spanish, which they would be, presumably, if they were her children. Other friends chimed in with comments, and the conversation quickly moved on to other topics, but I was left wondering: what role would this friend, a lesbian, ever have in traditional research on language maintenance and shift? Where are the queer folks in the traditional three-generational family model of language transmission? Does anyone care what queer bilinguals do, or are they irrelevant because they often do not fit into a heteronormative family structure? Later searches would reveal that there is, in fact, very little sociolinguistically-oriented research on the language practices of queer bilinguals, and even less on queer Latinxs in the U.S. This chance interaction sparked a curiosity that would develop into a consuming passion and lead me to research and write this book.

Language Resources in the Construction of Queer Latinx Identities: An Illustration

It was June 2012. I only recently arrived in Phoenix to begin the bulk of my fieldwork, and I, somewhat at the last minute, charged a ticket to the Phoenix Pride Gala, cobbled together an outfit that could pass as sufficiently dressy, and braved the heat to which I still wasn’t accustomed for a short trip downtown. The wide hallway outside the ballroom at a major downtown Phoenix hotel was packed with a wide array of members of the LGBTQ community and community allies, from drag queens and kings representing the city’s many gay and lesbian bars to the Grand Canyon Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in full habits and makeup, from young student recipients of Phoenix Pride scholarships to older established LGBTQ professionals, from owners and employees of the many gay-owned businesses to representatives of all the various non-profit groups created by and for the city’s LGBTQ community. Also in attendance were the city’s mayor and his wife, who would be accepting an award for being outstanding allies of the LGBTQ community, along with the city’s chief of police. There was free champagne and good, loud conversation. A roving photographer captured candid shots, and a musical number erupted at the end of the corridor to mark the end of the reception and the time to move into the ballroom. Inside, the master of ceremonies greeted guests who were seated with friends and co-workers at large tables purchased by the various groups, bars, and organizations they were affiliated with, while I made pleasant small talk with the mishmash of last-minute ticket buyers at my table.

In addition to the bestowing of recognitions and the public awarding of scholarships, the main event of the Phoenix Pride Gala was the raffle and auction. While a professional auctioneer was present for the latter, the master of ceremonies turned over the microphone to local celebrities for the picking of winning raffle tickets, and it was then that Grecia Montes-D’Occa, the reigning Miss Phoenix Gay Pride 2012, took the stage with the reigning Mister Phoenix Gay Pride 2012. They arrived at the podium on stage, and they were momentarily lost, taking a minute to find their page in the common script. Upon finding the right spot, Grecia exclaimed in her Spanish-accented English, “Oh, this is in English! Where is the Spanish version?” The audience roars with laughter, and she jokingly insisted, “I’m not joking!” Grecia played with the audience, explaining that she needs the Spanish version “because I’m a little bit bilingual. Un poquito español”. (The last phrase was rendered in heavily English-accented Spanish, complete with aspiration of the voiceless stops and dipthongized /oʊ̯/.) One of several raffle items the pair would award included a trip to “Rocky Point” (Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mex.), a favorite vacation destination for Phoenix residents. When Grecia drew the ticket for this prize, she read the number in English and Spanish, adding to the winner, “I hope you’re not Mexican! If you are, just mention my name to the coyote”. Again, the crowd erupted in laughter. The event’s master of ceremonies, returning to the stage after the Pride Parade royalty had finished their work, remarked, with some discomfort, “I think it’s funny to hear Grecia talking about being illegal with the mayor and police chief in the room. I guess we’re just lucky Sheriff Arpaio isn’t here”, referring to the county’s well-known, anti-immigrant crusader and head of law enforcement, who is reviled by many and beloved by the majority of voters who elected him for six terms of office (between 1993 and 2017).

Just a few months earlier, in February 2012, a crowd had gathered at the Tempe Center for the Arts to crown Miss Phoenix Gay Pride. In the audience was a group wearing matching aqua T-shirts and cheering for 29-year-old Javier, whose drag persona is Grecia Montes-D’Occa. Grecia is the reigning Miss Apollo’s, representing a bar—Apollo’s—that is not one of the two most closely associated with a Latinx clientele. That same year, Javier marked 10 years in the business of drag performance, according to a magazine cover story that featured him and 15 years since his family, consisting of his single mother, grandmother, and siblings, came to the U.S. from the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. It had also been ten years since he had come out to his family. The aqua-clad support crew included Javier’s family, from his 72-year-old grandmother to his 2-year-old niece. They cheered and beamed with pride when the coveted crown, probably the most prestigious drag title in Phoenix, went to Grecia.

Javier, as Grecia Montes-D’Occa, dedicated himself to the role of Miss Phoenix Gay Pride, doing an overwhelming number of shows and appearances and raising a great deal of money for the Phoenix Pride Scholarship Program. He saw himself as doing double duty as both a representative of the LGBTQ community and, within the LGBTQ community, a representative of the Latinx community. He took both roles very seriously and was widely applauded as a crossover success, transitioning from performing for a majority Mexican/Latinx² audience in a predominantly Mexican/Latinx gay bar to performing for majority Anglo³ audiences in gay bars with a predominantly Anglo clientele.

Fast-forward to April 2013. Grecia, the reigning Miss Phoenix Gay Pride is at the microphone, hosting the competition for her replacement. Circulating through the crowd, she stops by the table of the sponsors of one of the contestants, Deborah K, Miss Krazzy Latinos. Unlike other contestants who represent bars, Deborah K represents a non-profit organization, Krazzy Latinos, founded by two Mexican immigrants. Playing to the majority Anglo crowd, Grecia looks at the people seated around the table and jokes, “Ay, no. The Mexicans.” The joke gets a big laugh, but members of the group and some other Mexicans/Latinxs in the crowd feel hurt, put down, and disrespected, seeing Grecia’s comment as a betrayal. Although Miss Krazzy Latinos does not win, the winner is the drag queen who represents the premier Mexican/Latinx gay bar in Phoenix. In June 2013, Grecia accepted the Community Spirit award at the 2013 Phoenix Pride Gala in recognition of her outstanding service and dedication to the LGBTQ community.

The story of Javier/Grecia is one relatively public example of the complicated interaction of sexual identity and ethnic identity, and of the choices that LGBTQ Mexicans and Latinxs make in navigating the complex sociopolitical and linguistic terrain of queer mexicanidad/latinidad⁴—or Mexican/Latinx queerness—in the U.S. Southwest during a period of extreme backlash against Mexican immigrants. Javier is bilingual and uses Spanish in most domains of his life. Only one person in his social network, his boyfriend, speaks no Spanish. Javier is out in every area of his life, even in the construction industry/roofing inspection job that he had only recently left when we met. As he described his move from a predominantly Mexican/Latinx bar to a predominantly Anglo one (and the subsequent move of a non-Spanish-speaking drag queen into the Mexican/Latinx bar), it is clear that he is very aware of the pitfalls and possibilities of crossover. He is passionate about representing the Mexican/Latinx community well within the broader LGBTQ community, and he is equally passionate about educating the Mexican/Latinx community about gay people. He believes in supporting the queer Mexican/Latinx community in Phoenix, but he prioritizes dedicating himself to breaking down the barriers between Anglos and Mexicans/Latinxs. His drag persona, Grecia Montes-D’Occa, uses both Spanish and English in the public sphere without apology and takes advantage of bilingual word play to make jokes that monolingual English speakers in the audience might not understand, but at the same time she relies on stereotypical ideas about Mexicans, even making fun of other Mexicans in the crowd, to elicit laughter from audiences. Javier’s story is one that illustrates some of the main themes of this book, which will be explored in the chapters that follow through the analysis of an eclectic body of data from interviews to recordings of spontaneous interaction, from questionnaires to participant observation.

The Social and Political Context: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Arizona is one of four states—together with California, to the west, and New Mexico and Texas, to the east—that border Mexico on the United States’ southern border. The physical proximity to and prolonged contact with Mexico has certainly profoundly impacted the state’s history, social character, and demographic profile. Although the territory that comprises Arizona belonged to Mexico until its annexation via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), which ended the war between the U.S. and Mexico, and the subsequent Gadsden Purchase (1853), the Anglos who moved to populate the territory after the war managed to impose Anglo and English hegemonic rule and exclude the Mexican population, whom the border had crossed, and their language, Spanish.⁵

The Contemporary Demographic Profile of Arizona

Compared to the other three aforementioned southwestern states, Arizona remained less developed during Spain’s colonial period and later during that of Mexico. While California (39 million) and Texas (27 million) are the first- and second-most populous states in the U.S. today, Arizona’s population is far smaller at just over 6.8 million people (U.S. Census Bureau 2015a). Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa County, in which the state capital Phoenix is located, boasts more than 4 million people. The population of the city of Phoenix is over 1.5 million (U.S. Census Bureau 2015b).

The ‘Hispanic or Latino’⁶ population in Arizona is estimated to be at just over 30% of the state’s total population, or over 1.9 million individuals (U.S. Census Bureau 2014a). The overwhelming majority of the ‘Hispanic or Latino’ population in Arizona is of Mexican descent; in fact, over a quarter (27%) of the state’s total overall population is of Mexican descent. Arizona has smaller than national average ‘Black or African American’ population (4.2%, as compared to 12% nationally) and a larger than national average ‘American Indian and Alaskan Native’ population (4.4%, as compared to 0.8%; U.S. Census Bureau 2014a). It has been projected that the Arizona public school system will become a majority-minority system (50% ‘Hispanic or Latino’ students) by the year 2020 (Arizona Chamber of Commerce 2015), and the state is projected to become a majority-minority state (i.e. less than 50% ‘White alone’ population) by the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Transcription Conventions
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction: Locating a Queer Latinx Phoenix
• 2 Queering Bilingualism
• 3 Representing Selves and Others in Coming Out Stories
• 4 Resisting the Imperative: Stories about Non-disclosure
• 5 Susana, A Translatina Collage
• 6 Doing Identity, Making Community
• 7 Summary and Final Reflections
• References
• Index