LGBT literature in Mexico began to flourish beginning in the 1960s, but came into its own in the 1980s. However, until then, homosexuality had rarely been addressed in literary works, except as something ridiculous, condemnable, or perverted, thanks to the homophobia that dominates Mexican society. In 1975, the activist and theater director Nancy Cárdenas and the writers Carlos Monsiváis and Luis González de Alba published the first manifesto in defense of homosexuals, published in the magazine and, in 1979, they organized the first gay pride march. Although some notable novels preceded it (like the 1964 , "The Diary of José Toledo," by Miguel Barbachano Ponce), the novel that marked a true change in direction regarding the scorn and silence around homosexuality was El vampiro de la colonia Roma by Luis Zapata Quiroz, published in 1978. After its publication, many authors had the courage to follow this path and take on the subject of homosexuality without reservations.Luis Ulloa, El tema homosexual en la narrativa mexicana del siglo XX, 2007. The 1970s then marked the beginning of a change in perspective in Mexican society with respect to homosexuality thanks to greater recognition and visibility of gay authors.
Even so, these works predominantly dealt with masculine homosexuality; female authors and lesbian themes have seen far less representation, despite the notable exceptions of the novels Amora by Rosamaría Roffiel and ("Infinite") by Ethel Krauze. The debate about the existence of homosexual literature in Mexico has sometimes played out publicly in Mexican media, as happened after the publication of the essay by José Joaquín Blanco in Unomásuno.
Twentieth Century
Early Twentieth Century Prior to the 1978 publication of Luis Zapata's , a number of works that deal with homosexuality stand out, although in some cases due to their openly homophobic positions, like ("The forty and one") by Eduardo Catrejón, who wanted to praise the proletariat and represent the aristocracy's corruption, alluding to what he considered the most morally repugnant: homosexuality. At the time, homosexuality was considered depraved, with connections to prostitution, and it was severely condemned by the narrator's strict moralism and homophobia.Rocha Osornio (2013). The story fictionalized a famous episode from the Porfiriato period known as the Dance of the Forty-One.
However, McKee Irwin (in Castrejón, 2010), comments that various novels from the 19th century maintain outlines of what homosexuality involves; for example, Castrejón cites the following works: by José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi by Altamirano by Del Castillo by Cuéllar by Payno
These works, upon re-examination, might surprise readers, given that they portray a clear homoeroticism, although the idea of homosexuality itself is far from the temporal mediations of each author.
Salvador Novo's (1904–1974) La estatua de sal ("The Salt Statue") was not published in its entirety until 1998, but its content had appeared in journalistic articles and fragments starting in 1945. Although large parts of his work take on the topic of homosexuality, like his book of poetry, ("Satire, the Ca… Book"), which contains "revelations" about many other authors. There are also Novo's essays ("The Crazy Women, the Sex and the Brothels"). Similarly, the Italian Carlo Cóccili (who later lived in Mexico) wrote Fabrizio Lupo 1952, which was translated to Spanish in 1953. Both Novo and Cóccioli were noted homosexual authors. However, these works have distinct intentions: exhibitionism and provocation (in the case of Novo, who intended to scandalize the reader and society), and more critically, with a dramatic and almost tortured background, in the case of Cócciolo. Fabrizio Lupo became the gay Mexican novel par excellence. The novel deals with the relationship between the Catholic Church and homosexuality, topics that other gay novels would tackle later on, like ("Father Prior," 1971) by Mauricio González de la Garza.
Salvador Novo's works contain more-or-less veiled allusions to homosexual love. The most explicit is El tercer Fausto, a short theatrical piece in the volume , which contained two other works, originally published in French in 1936. It was another 20 years before the Spanish edition was published. Much subtler in its approach to homosexuality was Xavier Villarrutia in the 1947 ("Invitation to death").
In the first half of the 20th century, there were several gay poets in the group Los Contemporáneos who alluded to the topic of homosexuality in their works. This was the case with Xavier Villarrutia and especially with Salvador Novo. Pellicer is also often mentioned from this group. The most notable poetry is from the book titled, ("From Dark Love"), which follows the tradition of Federico García Lorca's ("Dark Sonnets"), by an author identified only as A. R. Miguel Capistrán who compiled many personal texts (like letters) and news articles from the various members of and began publishing them in the 1960s.
The 1950s also saw notable works like the humorous story by Jorge Ferretis, (The Macho Goats), published in the book ("The Colonel who Murdered a Male Pigeon," 1952), and the novella ("The North") by Emilio Carballido, which tells of the relationship between a young man and an older man in Veracruz. According to Mario Muñoz, this novel was an influence on ("Green Fruit," 2004) by Enrique Serna.
1960s and 1970s: Emergence of the homosexual novel In the 1960s, two novels were published that had little impact but that, for some authors, signaled the true beginning of homosexual Mexican literature. Miguel Barbachano Ponce's El diario de José Toledo ("The Diary of José Toledo," 1964) and Manual Aguilar de la Torre's ("41, or the Boy who Dreamed of Ghosts," 1964), which was written under the pseudonym Paolo Po. discusses the suicide of the titular character, a 20-year-old young man feeling spiteful after his lover rejected him, whose story is narrated through the pages of his private diary and comments by an anonymous, third-person omniscient narrator. The novel provides a detailed description of the protagonist's social world (with a powerful description of the everyday homophobia in Mexico). According to Antoine Rodríguez:
In 1962, Juan Vincente Melo published his story ("The Friends"), which was full of subtle homoeroticism. Carlos Fuentes dared to show a homoerotic relationship in his novella ("To the Sea Viper") 1964.
In 1968, ("The Unstable Ones") was published by the author Alberto X. Teruel, a name which may have been a pseudonym. Schneider (1997) commented on the work, stating:Schneider, Luis Mario (1997). La literatura mexicana entre el petróleo, la homosexualidad y la política. Nueva Imagen.
The year 1969 saw the publication of ("After Everything") by José Ceballos Maldonado, an author from Uruapan. The novel, told from two locations—the provinces and Mexico City—is the story of a man who defines his essence based on criticism and established double standards, who only follows orders. However, the protagonist, Javier Lavalle, makes his own way and affirms that the only important thing is learning to be proud of who you are.
Carlos Monsiváis was one of the most well-known and most committed gay writers. He took great interest in studying and disseminating the work and life of Los Contemporáneos, a group of Mexican modernists and a magazine of the same name, so he told the story of male chauvinist persecution and homophobia that they suffered at the hands of the Stridentists and the muralists in the book ("Lost Love," 1977). He also wrote a work about one of the most well-known of the Stidentists, Salvador Novo: ("Salvador Novo, Centering the Marginalized"). Another of Monsiváis' important works in denouncing chauvinism in Mexican society was ("Scenes of Shyness and Frivolity," 1988). Heriberto Yépez synthesized Monsiváis’ contribution towards gay visibility in Mexico, stating:Téllez-Pon (2010)
Monstaváis was later honored with gesture of recognition for gay visibility when the LGBT flag was placed over his coffin in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico in 2010.
Jorge Arturo Ojeda wrote various novels on this subject of homosexuality including ("Lonely Boy," 1976; 1987) and Octavio (1982). One novel that some consider a seminal work is ("The Diary of José Toledo") by Miguel Barbachano Ponce, published in 1964. For some historians, this novel marked the true birth of the Mexican homosexual novel. Others point to the 1978 publication of El vampiro de la colonia Roma by Luis Zapata Quiroz as the start of queer literature in Mexico. was supposed to be quite an event and, in the words of the academic León Guillermo Gutiérrez, it shed light on:
In the 1970s, three important stories with homosexual themes appeared: ("Raccoon," 1975) by Jorge Arturo Ojeda, ("The Princess’s Shoes," 1978) by Guillermo Samperio and ("Seven Times the Dream," 1979) by Luis Arturo Ramos. Additionally, the first fully gay work of theater in Mexico debuted in 1974, thanks to the work of Nancy Cárdenas. However, this was not a work written by a Mexican author, but was an adaptation of The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley.
1980s and 1990s: LGBT literature flourishes Gay literature flourished in the 1980s, in large measure because AIDS made homosexuality visible during this period, and institutions had to run campaigns directed at this community, thus provoking interest in modes of communication that informed about the community's customs, needs, and characteristics and, in any case, began to uncover old topics and open new perspectives. This included ending the use of traditional derogatory terms (like ) and starting to popularize the neutral term gay. This decade also saw increased circulation of works in Spanish by gay authors (with the tactics of the so-called Latin American Boom), like the Argentine Manuel Puig, the Colombian Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal, the Chilean José Donoso, or the Cuban Reinaldo Arenas.
Among later authors, critics have highlighted ("The Pubescent Kanephoros") by José Joaquín Blanco, published in 1983, for its quality. In the same decade, other noted works from Luis Zapata came out ( in 1989, in 1985, and in 1989). Other novels from Mexican authors in this period include Octavio (1982) by Jorge Arturo Ojeda, ("About this Stone," 1982) by Eduardo Turón, and ("Gay Utopia," 1983) by José Rafael Calva.
is a humorous work, structured in long interior monologues that describe the relationship between male lovers, Carlos and Adrián, the latter of which becomes pregnant. This is an activist novel, pushing for the acceptance of homosexuality and the renunciation of the heteronormative mentality and the homophobia then present in society. It also reclaims a model of homosexuality that is cut off from femininity or promiscuity, showing a stable, committed, lasting relationship, in which pregnancy does not signify feminization. However, this rejection of the feminine causes some parts of the text to come off misogynistically.
Juan Carlos Bautista is a multifaceted author, with audiovisual and narrative works, but who is most of all known for his poetry collections (1992, reprinted in 2007), ("To Sing of Marrakesh," 1993, 2004) and ("Bestial," 2003).
José Dimayuga won multiple prizes for his theatrical work ("Affectionately, Your Godmother," 1992), a comedy about a young transvestite and a school teacher. Homosexuality is a recurring theme in his work, although according to the author, he looks for universal themes, as in the case of his work ("The Exact Way to Notice Things"), which is about the breakup of a gay couple that could have just as easily been heterosexual.