Gabriel Flores painting of Juan Escutia could be found in the ceiling of el Castillo de Chapultepec in La Cuidad de Mexico. Escutia jumped from the castle to his death wrapped in the Mexican flag to prevent it from falling into U.S. hands, protecting his idenitiy. We must also protect our Queer Latinidad.
By: Myriam-Fernanda Alcala Delgado
Mexican Zerape Patchwork
Just a drive up the highway from beaming Hollywood starlight was Hector Martinez in Oxnard, Calif. discovering his passion for TV and film. Listing Mexican musician Juan Gabriel as one of a handful queer Latine icons Martinez grew up with, the importance of representation wasn’t a question.
As a producer and writer, Martinez is dedicated to creating and centering BIPOC queer stories. I asked which queer Latine icons he grew up with, Gabriel being a quick, obvious response. But in regards to TV, it took him a long breath before responding, “Naya Rivera in Glee.”
Santana Lopez, played by the late Rivera, was co-captain of the Cheerios in the hit show “Glee,” which ran on Fox from 2009 to 2015 and pushed what it meant to be queer. The show won a total of six emmys during its run. The character brought forth conflict of acceptance — specifically lesbianism — in Latine culture due to religious ideology and the cultural importance of manhood as Santana struggled with compulsively aligning herself with men for power and protection.
The existence of Santana Lopez on TV catapulted a yearning to be seen on screen. Not only in terms of queerness but in terms of Latinidad, “seeing a Brown woman was something I really loved and was able to connect with…she took no b.s,” Martinez said.
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Though an avid consumer of media, it was notable how long it took Martinez to even think of other examples of queer Latine representation in television. Since “Glee” there have been shows such as the 2017 sitcom “One Day at a Time” and the 2020 “Love, Victor.”
However, only 3% of TV characters shared the intersection of being queer and Latine from 2020 to 2023.
As time and TV move toward narratives better representing the queer Latine community, these first depictions of my intersecting identities still hold so much significance, despite their harm.
The historical tropes and stereotypes in television have impacted both the Latine and LGBTQ+ community. From narco portrayals to watered down coming out narratives, images of these communities have been shaped and perpetuated by Hollywood.
To get some sort of portrayal, even if inaccurate or stereotypical, was seen as a win for queer communities.
“Love, Simon.”
Adrian Salguero Guevara, senior political science student at the University of Sothern California, recalled the first gay movie he felt connected to, having seen it multiple times in theaters. In 2018, this movie was a milestone for queer media, it was the first major Hollywood studio film to center a gay teen romance.
The movie grossed $66 million at the box office and received a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. I even sat with my mom to watch this film.
“Love, Simon” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
It was a story about an upper middle class white liberal family, with one token gay and a central focus on coming out. It was seen as a win for the time but rewatching it now only makes me cringe in disappointment.
“The only challenge he faced was coming to terms and telling his parents,” said Salguero Guevara. “There's religious, ideological factors that make it harder for people to live with their identity. It was a great start, as far as telling LGBTQ+ stories, but there's more complex stories that should be told.”
“Love, Victor” was released in 2020. A spinoff show centering a gay Latino teen as he navigates his sexuality. In the show, Victor reaches out to Simon for advice and Simon offers his “lessons” of being queer for Victor to apply to his life.
It’s quite frustrating writers presume somehow Simon, a white middle class man, knows anything on how to navigate being Brown and gay.
Commentary on the show points to how historically white gay men willfully exercise power and privilege while ignoring and further marginalizing Black and Brown queer communities. Instead of creating a strong unique Brown gay character, “Love, Victor” recycles the lens of Simon’s queerness and applies it to Victor without cultural consideration.
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“Love, Victor” also continues the harmful trope of isolating queer people as he is the only gay person in his friend group. Rahim, who comes into the series in season two, marked some progress for Brown and queer representation in the show.
“Heartstopper” came out in 2022, the same year “Love, Victor” ended. By contrast, it offered a rich lens on queer friendships and relationships. Unlike Simon and Victor’s world which depicts one lens of coming out, the webcomic turned graphic novel turned show follows an entire queer friend group with different family backgrounds and struggles.
With gay, lesbian, trans, bisexual, acesexual representation, “Heartstopper” brought me to tears.
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In the making of “Heartstopper,” authenticity and visibility was paramount in telling the story from a diverse, accurate perspective. LGBTQ+ consultant of the show, Jeffrey Ingold, explained how visibility creates normalcy.
“If you can’t see that when you’re growing up, you don’t think you can have it,” they said.
I imagined what it would have been like to grow up with a show like “Heartstopper” normalizing healthy queer relationships. I admit, I mourned a bit for a reality I wasn’t able to have.
Isolating queer characters such as Victor is just one pattern seen in TV as a way to make gayness “straight,” in stark contrast to “Heartstopper” which is for queer audiences.
So what about queer Latine audiences? Well, we have Glee.
The U.S. Latine population accounted for 19% of the U.S. population in 2022, according to Pew Research Center. In Los Angeles alone, the Latine community makes up about half of the county today. The growth and influence of Latinidad in culture could be seen with Bad Bunny, Karol G, Jenna Ortega, Rachel Zegler taking over Hollywood and music, just to name a few.
But in the last three years, only a total of 66 characters on this list of 360 queer characters shared the intersection of being queer and Latine; even fewer were the main storyline. That’s just 3%.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reported similar numbers for the past three years with representation in streaming, broadcast and cable being consistently under 20% for Latine characters.
Of the 13 shows reported as of October 2023, only six characters were queer and Latine.
Data Collection by Myriam-Fernanda Alcala Delgado
Juliana Amaya, a junior in speculative design at the University of California, San Diego, said good queer Latine representation on television is “few and far between.” Amaya only recalled a handful of characters "who are really developed, whose relationships are thoughtfully explored," citing Callie Torres of “Grey’s Anatomy” and Emma Hernandez of “Vida.”
Out of the shows Amaya has watched with queer Latine characters, most of their stories were not explored or simply sidelined. However, an always-present element of these shows is tragedy.
The bury your gays trope has been around for longer than any one queer character. Bury your gays refers to media’s pattern of killing off queer characters for no real reason, often also tragic.
The first time I remember seeing this trope in real time was at the age of eight watching the 2005 “RENT” movie adaptation. The musical follows a bohemian friend group in NYC during the AIDS epidemic, Angel, the only gender non-conforming character, dies.
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The character was also played by Mexican drag queen, Valentina, which brought forth a queer Latinidad intersection that was uncommon to see on screen back in 2005.
Although Angel’s death spoke to a larger issue of AIDS, it also unfortunately followed a trend where Hollywood uses queerness until it no longer suits the show and kills off these characters.
Even in 2020, television continued to kill or write off queer Latine characters. In the case of “Control Z” it was a trans woman.
The boiling point of bury your gays for sapphic media in particular came in 2016. The death of lesbian commander, Lexa, in the show “The 100” started internet upheaval and protest with the campaign Lexa Deserved Better trending.
Interview with Megan Van Der Toorn
In the midst of deaths harrowing queer characters in TV from “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The 100” and “Orange is the New Black,” the sit-com “One Day at a Time” was released just a few years later.
When the show popped up as a recommendation back in 2020, I was hesitant due to how corny it seemed. I was never a comedy lover. The show followed single mother and veteran, Penelope, and her multi-generational household living day to day. Her daughter, Elena, in the series began to understand herself and live authentically as both lesbian and Latina which informed my own journey of acceptance.
Episode 13 of the first season, “Quinces,” specifically looks at coming out to family and grappling with traditions such as a quinceñera, a coming of age celebration for 15 year olds. Elena chose to wear pants instead of a dress and struggled with religious ideology coming out to her father.
Elena addressed similar questions and fears I had, coming from a Mexican and catholic household. An informal focus group of college students found feelings similar to mine.
Amaya has a love-hate relationship with the show. Though cringe at times, seeing a lesbian and having Elena date a nonbinary lesbian was new, “seeing someone like me embrace being a lesbian meant so much,” said Amaya.
@luison.movie #titok #fypシ #foryou ♬ original sound - luisoyiuc4f
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“One Day at a Time” also talked about religion in nuance. For example, in one scene, Elena’s grandmother said something along the lines of “The pope doesn’t judge, who am I to,” recalled Shirley Estevez, a junior in Spanish Linguistics at UCSD. Even years later, Estevez remembers that scene vividly, it mimics so much of Latine dialogue around queerness.
Estevez also reflected on how Elena’s mom struggled with acceptance though not in the way you’d expect. Penelope, Elena’s mom, wasn’t homophobic but rather sat with her struggle to try and understand it. It wasn’t black and white.
“It’s one of the most accurate representations of a queer Latine household,” said Estevez.
Not only do these types of representations impact how a person sees themselves, these media representations of queer Latine life also inform non-queer Latine community members.
Kobe Zarco, fashion design junior at El Camino College, explains “if someone has never met a queer person before,” he said, “all they have to base their knowledge on are those representations.”
Thus looking back at historically harmful tropes and deaths of beloved characters, it becomes apparent how tragedy on screen has influenced a “don’t say gay” type mentality in Latine culture. We don’t see it, so we don’t talk about it.
The rise of queer Latine representation, even if only accounting for 3%, has already struck conversation as seen with “One Day at a Time.” Adding to the conversation are nuances that haven’t been tackled before like centering Brownness, Latinidad and gender expression.
This is a feat Martinez tackles in his own projects which focus on queer BIPOC storytelling. Hardship and facing struggle are natural parts of building characters, Martinez mentions, though effective storytelling comes from writers who share similar experiences to their characters rather than simply inflicting drama because their character is queer and/or BIPOC, “they [the characters] come first.”
Martinez’s junior thesis at the USC School of Cinematic Arts premiered over a year ago. It was an example of how TV and film writing could center queer Latine stories other than tragedies and coming out narratives.
“What a Drag” follows a Latino character who wants to pursue drag whose mother had passed away. The story is about friendship and finding acceptance in found family.
"What a Drag" production. (Courtesy of Hector Martinez)
Though Martinez attempted to streamline a queer BIPOC narrative, he faced pushback from other people on the project. While working on casting, he had to fight for the main character to be a real Brown Latine queer person while others wanted a white or straight man to fill the role to “make it easier,” he said.
“That story isn’t really mine anymore,” said Martinez. “Those are not the stories I’m trying to tell.”
Unfortunately Martinez’s struggle in getting a queer Latine story made is also felt in Hollywood. Around 20% of all directors in 2020 were from BIPOC backgrounds according to the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. The initiative did not report the numbers of LGBTQ+ directors and producers, although it does track LGBTQ+ stories on screen.
GLAAD offers the solution of hiring more LGBTQ+ people in the writers room and behind the screen who also have a BIPOC intersection. And although an important goal, the concept seems a long way away considering the numbers.
“Love, Victor” and “One Day at a Time” with their own impacts, shortcomings and place in the recent history of queer media are proof that the TV landscape is changing, it has been since Santana Lopez in “Glee.”
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Ten years ago, there would not have been a spin-off of a beloved Latin soap opera, “Rebelde” with multiple queer and gender expansive characters.
Partial shortcoming in having rich and bountiful queer BIPOC representation as a whole could be attributed to Hollywood not caring enough. After two seasons "Rebelde" was canceled in May 2023, once again sidelining queer Latine stories.
Even with a push for diversity on and off screen suggesting improvement in Hollywood wanting to tell our stories, the fact is we are still at 3%.
Data Collection Methodology
It’s hard for Martinez to watch “What a Drag” now as it brings him back to that period in time working with people who don’t really care about his story. Since, Martinez’s approach to producing and writing with empathy has extended to work with people who have similar intentions. “If you’re working with me, it's not an option to be pro people of color [and/or] pro queer stories or anything like that,” Martinez said.
Heightened criticism of Hollywood in the months long SAG-AFTRA negotiations along with Taylor Swift’s "Era’s Tour" movie show a shift in who has power to tell stories. In the case of the Eras movie, Swift bypassed Hollywood studios and went straight to AMC to negotiate a deal complying with strike guidelines to show the movie.
This offers a possible blueprint to decentralize Hollywood and reclaim queer Latine storytelling. The need for representation was never a question. With a lack of change in how queer Latine characters are told even in 2023, maybe it's time to pose a bigger question:
Do we want Hollywood?
Recorded in June of this year, Hector Martinez talks on Queer Latinidad in TV and Film.
