LGBTQ literature in El Salvador consists of literary works written by Salvadoran authors that involve plots, themes or characters that are part of or related to sexual diversity. Until the 21st century, El Salvador did not have its own tradition of LGBTQ literature,Borja, 2021, p. 2-3. although there were some representations of themes related to sexual diversity in previous years. One of the oldest was the verse story "La corrección de menores", published in 1923 by humorist Francisco Herrera Velado, which tells the story of a boy who is raised as a woman and lives in constant transition between the two genders.Lara Martínez, 2012, p. 146-153. A similar character later appeared in the novel ¡Justicia, señor gobernador! (1960), by Hugo Lindo.Lara Martínez, Rafael (September 12, 2012). «Travestismo e identidad en Hugo Lindo». Contra Cultura. Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Accessed on September 5, 2022.
In 2004 the collection of poems Injurias y otros poemas was published, by writer Ricardo Lindo Fuentes, and it is traditionally considered the first Salvadoran work with openly homoerotic themes.Arévalo, 2022, p. 258.Arévalo, 2022, p. 274-275. The publication of Injurias y otros poemas opened the door for several other LGBTQ works in subsequent years, including novels such as Ángeles caídos (2005), by Carlos Alberto Soriano, and Heterocity (2011), by Mauricio Orellana Suárez.Kafie, Javier (November 5, 2018). «Mauricio Orellana Suárez: «El diálogo con nuestras problemáticas nos permite ser creativos». Revista Factum. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Accessed on September 4, 2022. The latter, in particular, was well received critically and was awarded the Mario Monteforte Toledo Central American Novel Prize. Other authors of LGBTQ works of notoriety include the storyteller Jacinta Escudos and poets such as Alberto López Serrano, Silvia Matus, Kenny Rodríguez and Marielos Olivos.Pleitez Vela, Tania (2022). «Trastocar la herida, gestionar el sufrimiento: Rebeldía en la poesía de autoras lesbianas salvadoreñas». Whatever. A Transdisciplinary Journal of Queer Theories and Studies (5). doi:10.13131/2611-657X.whatever.v5i1.178. Accessed on September 4, 2022.«Alberto López le canta a sus muchachos con su nuevo libro». Diario1. December 27, 2017. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Accessed on September 4, 2022.Arévalo, 2022, p. 256.
As for transgender literature, since the 1990s literary works with trans representation have become more common, although they have almost always been accompanied by tragic denouements, with death as the usual ending for these characters. This trend has continued up to the present day, with works including the novel El verbo J (2018), by Claudia Hernández, where an immigrant transgender woman experiences conditions of exclusion and violence for most of her life.Arévalo, 2022, p. 287-290.
Background
Nahuat-Pipil literature As a result of the transcriptions of Pipil myths published by the German explorer Leonhard Schultze-Jena in 1930,Lara Martínez, 2012, p. 7 there are literary depictions of same-sex sexual relations in the Náhuat-Pipil language. One example is the myth of "La boda del vagabundo," which tells the story of a father who decides to deceive his daughter's suitors by declaring that whoever could drink the water from a well until he could get a piece of cheese from the bottom could marry her. When a vagabond realizes that it was actually the reflection of the moon in the water, he decides to trick the father by opening a channel for the well to dry up. Overconfidence leads the father to promise that he would also turn himself in if the vagabond won, so when the watercourse dries up the well, he has no choice but to allow the vagabond to penetrate him through the anus, which causes him intense pain. The following day, the vagabond marries the daughter, who unlike her father, enjoys sex with him.Lara Martínez, 2012, p. 77-86.
As can be seen in the story, rather than an act of sexual pleasure, anal penetration is shown as a form of humiliation of the defeated. This idea of domination on the basis of sex is repeated in other Pipil myths, where emasculation is a common way of exercising power over defeated men. Also notable is the fact that having sex with other men does not grant "homosexual" status to the vagabond or the father in the eyes of the daughter.
20th century Although not many works of Salvadoran literature during the 20th century are known to have explored themes related to sexual diversity, there are some exceptions. In 1923, the writer and humorist Francisco Herrera Velado published the work Mentiras y verdades, which recounts popular legends and anecdotes in verse. One of them is "La corrección de menores", where he tells the story of Luis/Luisa, a man who is raised as a girl and over the years lives in constant transition between both genders. Among his partners is a woman identified as a lesbian who takes on the role of "Romeo", while Luis becomes his "Juliet". Subsequently, Luis becomes a poet and decides to write the story of his "old life as a transvestite".«Francisco Herrera Velado: “La corrección de menores” o la educación de un travestí del siglo XIX (poesía / cuento)». La Zebra. July 1, 2016. Archived from the original on October 1, 2020. Accessed on September 4, 2022.
Another case of a male character who is raised as a woman is found in the novel ¡Justicia, señor gobernador!, published in 1960 by the writer Hugo Lindo. The work, which is considered a precursor of testimonial literature in El Salvador, tells the story of a trial in which a transvestite named Mercedes López Gámez is accused of rape and murder of a young woman. Through Mercedes' conversations with lawyer José Amenábar, the reader discovers that Mercedes was assigned male at birth, but that her mother had decided to raise her as a girl. Although in her village she enjoyed being treated as a woman and receiving compliments from men, upon moving to San Salvador she encounters a community in which "homosexuality does not exist," and the rage leads her to the act of sexist violence that results in the trial discussed in the novel.
It has also been mentioned as a precedent the novel Íngrimo (1970),Arévalo, 2022, p. 257. by Salvador Salazar Arrué, which explores the construction of the identity of an adolescent boy who, at one point in the novel, states:Chacón, 2017, p. IV, 27.
A common characteristic in some Salvadorean Spanish-language works of the time is that, as in "La boda del vagabundo", anal penetration is shown as a symbol of humiliation towards other men. One case is found in the novel One Day of Life (1980), by Manlio Argueta, which includes a scene where a priest is sodomized with a stick by a group of soldiers as a form of domination. Transvestism is also used as a symbol of social degradation in some writings of the time, as in the memoirs of the guerrilla Alfonso Hernández, who recounts in a poetic tone a youth in San Salvador in which his friends disguised themselves as prostitutes to "satirize the dregs of society...".Lara Martínez, 2012, p. 217-229.
Narrative After the end of El Salvador's Civil War in 1992, more representations of LGBTQ characters began to appear in narrative works, particularly of transgender women. However, several of these characters met tragic ends, as in the short story "Santiago, la Bellita" (1995), by writer René Rodas, whose protagonist, known as la Bellita, is murdered by one of her clients in the brothel where she served as a sex worker. The novel Putolión (1997), by David Hernández, is notorious for offering an overview of the spaces occupied by LGBTQ people during the second half of the twentieth century. The work recounts how, since the 1950s, a sector of San Salvador known as La Praviana was very popular among LGBTQ people, particularly those who worked as prostitutes. Because the novel suggested that an important figure in Salvadorean politics was homosexual, the publication of Putolión was controversial and the authorities pressured the publisher to withdraw all copies from circulation and destroy them shortly after their appearance.Arévalo, 2022, p. 266-267.
In 1997, Jacinta Escudos published a book of short stories, Cuentos sucios, which included one of the first stories to explore lesbian attraction. In later years, Escudos entered into transgender literature with the stories "Memoria de Siam" (2008) and "Nights in Tunisia" (2010).Chacón, 2017, p. 53. In the case of "Memoria de Siam", Escudos took fantastic features to narrate the transformation that a woman undergoes to become a man to enter into a sentimental relationship with the woman she loves, although at the same time she reproduces traditional discourses on the roles of men and women. At the end of the story, the protagonist ends his transformation by exclaiming, "I like being a man.".Arévalo, 2022, p. 290-291.
21st century The first Salvadorean novel with a gay protagonist was Más allá del horizonte (Beyond the horizon) (2002), by Julio Leiva, which tells the story of Salvador, a gay boy who decides to join the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front during the time of the civil war. Salvador goes by the name of Jesus during his time in the guerrilla and when his comrades find out about his sexual orientation, they "promote" him to command in the front line of combat, as a way for him to be killed for his sexuality. Jesus manages to survive and, as a reward, he is sent to spy on an army colonel, but is captured and tortured. When his captors learn about his homosexuality, Jesús is victim of gang rape, but he does not confess to being part of the guerrilla.Arévalo, 2022, p. 269-273.Lara Martínez, Rafael (August 18, 2021). «Testimonio de (pos)guerra. «Hacerse hombre» en la violencia y en la censura». El escarabajo. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Accessed on September 5, 2022.
In 2005, Carlos Alberto Soriano's novel Ángeles Caídos (Fallen Angels) was published. The plot of this work follows the story of Nicolás, Anselmo and Renato, three gay men living in a city that resembles San Salvador in the early 1990s.Lara, Álvaro Darío (September 4, 2022). «Los ángeles caídos de Luis Alberto Soriano». Diario Co Latino. Archived from the original on January 4, 2020. Accessed on September 4, 2022. The novel also portrays the cases of extreme violence against trans women at the time, who in the plot are attacked by members of youth gangs and by unknown men who shoot them from vehicles.Arévalo, 2022, p. 276-277. Some publications of the time continued to portray LGBTQ people in a pejorative way, such as the novel Cualquier forma de morir (2006), by Rafael Menjívar Ochoa, whose gay protagonist is described as "mentally ill" and a pedophile.Velázquez, 2015, p. 52.