Ellie D. Hernandez - Transmovimientos: Latinx Queer Migrations, Bodies, and Spaces

A critical and timely set of subjects, especially given the rampant and castigating racism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia against the Latinx LGBTQI communities in the United States and throughout other countries at this time. The coeditors have brought together important, established, and emerging voices in an exciting manner.

Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz, author of Wild Tongues: Transnational Mexican Popular Culture

Expanding Frontiers: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Series Editors:

Karen J. Leong

Andrea Smith

Edited by Ellie D. Hernndez, Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., and Magda Garca

University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln

2021 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska

Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press.

A version of chapter 6 was originally published as Katherine Steelman, Home(Bodies): Transitory Belongings at LAs Oldest Latina/o Drag Bar, Graphite: Transit 10 (2019): 11828, https://issuu.com/graphitejournal/docs/graphite_sendtoprint05.03.19__1_.

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hernandez, Ellie D., editor.

Title: Transmovimientos: Latinx queer migrations, bodies, and spaces / edited by Ellie D. Hernndez, Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., and Magda Garca.

Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [2021] | Series: Expanding frontiers: interdisciplinary approaches to studies of women, gender, and sexuality | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020047083

ISBN 9781496225894 (hardback)

ISBN 9781496226754 (paperback)

ISBN 9781496227140 (epub)

ISBN 9781496227164 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH : Transgender peopleUnited States. | Gender-nonconforming peopleUnited States. | GaysUnited States. | Latin AmericansUnited States.

Classification: LCC HQ 77.95. U 6 T 74 2021 DDC 306.76/8dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047083

Frontispiece: Amor Eterno by Olivia Levins Holden.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

We dedicate this book to Zoraida Reyes, whose memory reminds us that we must always move toward justice.

Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., Magda Garca, and Ellie D. Hernndez

Joanna Nez, Jasmine Rubalcava-Cuara, and Anita Tijerina Revilla

Jos Manuel Santillana

Carlos Ulises Decena

Omar Gonzlez

Carlos-Manuel

Katherine Steelman

Bamby Salcedo

Nicholas Duron

Lorena Muoz

Vernica Mandujano

Ellie D. Hernndez, Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., and Magda Garca

One never journeys alone. Our book is a voyage rarely traveled. I wish to recognize the various people who have made this book project possible. I embarked on this journey not alone but with two of the most talented and respected people in academe today. Magda Garca, PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., assistant professor of Chicana/o studies at Cal State Fullerton, have been a joy to work alongside. Their prescience and acumen grace this book. We all felt a deep commitment to organize a book about the intersectionality of LGBTQ immigrant experience, and I am truly grateful for their dedication to this book.

I wish to acknowledge the fine people at the University of Nebraska Presss Expanding Frontiers series for their dedication and commitment to our book. The coeditors and I believe we are expanding the frontiers of our own thinking and trying to create a path for others to follow. Emily Wendell, assistant editor, carried us to the finish line. A great deal of thanks goes out to the dean of social science, University of California, Santa Barbara, Charles Hale, for providing funding assistance for production costs and graduate assistance. Thank you also to the Chicana/o Research Institute for providing funding for graduate assistance in the early stages of the book project. This funding support has been helpful for completing our project. I also want to thank the contributors to this book. They have been patient and honored all of the aspects of the revision process. This book is about these thinkers and scholars who feel the urgency to write about a major issue in Latinx studies.

I offer recognition of the many trans immigrants who travel the long, arduous road of self-fulfillment. I am inspired by the many people who inhabit the space of the trans world. The search for home is necessary and imperative and a life-changing experience.

First, I want to thank my parents: my father, Eddy Francisco Alvarez Sr., who I know watches me from wherever he is, and my mami, Ramona, whose undying and unconditional love heals and cradles me as it did during my time away from California. To my sisters, Gabriela and Patricia: life is unimaginable without our daily texts and doses of memes and chisme, especially during these pandemic moments and on the days when life feels too hard. On the days when academia feels like I am in a bad movie, you remind me of why life is so precious. To my nieces and nephews: your laughter, funny antics, and intelligence are healing, and they give me hope for the future! Undoubtedly, there are so many people to acknowledge and not enough space. Please know that even if you are not named explicitly here, your brilliance, bravery, camaraderie, kindness, and generosity helped usher this project into being.

Horacio Roque Ramrez, presente! You believed in me from day one, fought for me even, and for that I am eternally grateful. Bamby Salcedo, you have inspired me since the day we met, and you continue to do so. Eres una guerrera siempre en movimiento. I love you very much!

To my hermanxs from the Association for Jotera Arts, Activism, and Scholarship: gracias for showing me how to think in comunidad, organize, and imagine through an ethic of friendship and love!

To my friends from graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara: weve been through a lot together. Your cario, support, brains, and laughter sustain me.

Chela Sandoval, thank you for reminding me of the power of revolutionary love!

I must express my gratitude to my former students at SUNY Oneonta and to my former students and colleagues at Portland State University. I am a better scholar and teacher because of all of you! Kara Jinks and Leith Ghuloum, thank you for your skills and dedication as research assistants.

When this project started I was finishing graduate school and was an adjunct at California State University, Fullerton, in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. Today, I am back there in a tenure-track position and among familia. I feel blessed for the nurturing and encouragement of my colleagues at Fullerton.

To my coeditors, Ellie and Magda: I have grown so much in your company through the process of assembling this transformative project. I will always be grateful for this journey.

Lastly, Jorge, Oscar, and Maggie, our nest and our rituals are sacred and a reminder of the beauty of everyday life and of the power of love.

I want to begin by thanking my coeditors, Ellie Hernndez and Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., for inviting me to partake in this meaningful and powerful project. I am incredibly grateful and forever indebted to jotera scholars, activists, and writers for maintaining the liberatory visions of queer 1980s Chicana feminists such as Gloria Anzalda alive and growing. Thank you to all the mentoras who have gifted me with community throughout my intellectual growth as a first-generation Tejana/Chicana: Norma Cant, Sonia Saldvar-Hull, Norma Alarcn, and Chela Sandoval. Many thanks to Larissa Mercado-Lpez, Jason Trevio, Sara Ramrez, Michael Lee Gardin, Christy Gutirrez, and Micah Garza for their friendship, which sustains me. Always, gracias to mis queridos Roberto, Archie, and Paloma, who are my home.