Etiqueta: migraciones

L.A.’s queer Latino bohemia: ‘We are not the footnote’

Reynaldo Rivera didn’t pick up a camera with the intention of making art. The Yashica he retrieved from a pile of his father’s things was a way of bringing order to a peripatetic life that had him bouncing between the care of his mother, his grandmother and his father, between Mexicali and Los Angeles, between Stockton and San Diego de la Unión, a small, agricultural outpost in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato.

“I did it out of this need to have something stable in my life,” he says. “Photography makes time stand still. And for someone who has had a crazy life, hectic and moving (I left home when I was very young), it gave me some kind of normalcy. … It allowed me to freeze time in moments that were special to me, and I was able to relive them over and over.”

continue reading: Los Angeles Times (Carolina A. Miranda)

 

Alex: Refugiada por motivos de género / LGTBI

+ info: El País 

Fui la primera trans en Sudán que salió con ropa de mujer a la calle

ALEX:

Edad: 24 años
Origen: Jartum (Sudán)
Residencia: Carabanchel (Madrid)
Formación: Cantante y bailarina
Ocupación: Cocinera en el restaurante Refusión

Alex dejó el colegio en Jartum cuando era adolescente para dedicarse a cantar. “Los conciertos en mi país no son como aquí, se celebran en la calle. Te contrata alguien y vas con tu grupo y tocas en la puerta de la casa”, rememora. “Venía a verme el barrio entero. Más de 100 personas. Ganaba bastante dinero”, explica mientras mezcla garbanzos con ajo y perejil para elaborar falafel.
Un día estaba cantando en una fiesta en Jartum, vino la policía y me detuvo. Me acusaban de ser homosexual y de actuar como las mujeres. En el calabozo me golpearon y me violaron. Conseguí un pasaporte falso por 700 euros y huí a Madrid. En Sudán te matan si perteneces al colectivo LGTBI

«Immigrants on Grindr. Race, Sexuality and Belonging Online», Andrew DJ Shield (2019)

+ info: Plagrave Macmillan

This book examines the role of hook-up apps in the lives of gay, bi, trans, and queer immigrants and refugees, and how the online culture of these platforms promotes belonging or exclusion. Within the context of the so-called European refugee crisis, this research focuses on the experiences of immigrants from especially Muslim-majority countries to the greater Copenhagen area, a region known for both its progressive ideologies and its anti-immigrant practices. Grindr and similar platforms connect newcomers with not only dates and sex, but also friends, roommates and other logistical contacts. But these socio-sexual platforms also become spaces of racialization and othering. Weaving together analyses of real Grindr profile texts, immigrant narratives, political rhetoric, and popular media, Immigrants on Grindr provides an in-depth look at the complex interplay between online and offline cultures, and between technology and society.

Andrew D.J. Shield is Assistant Professor at Leiden University, Netherlands, where he specializes in sexuality, migration, and diversity studies. He is the author of Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution (2017), and co-founder of the Leiden Queer History Network. He lives and bikes in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.