ABSTRACT
In a way, this essay is an act of retrospection.1 Remembering a theater production staged fourteen years ago in Mexico City takes me back to a particular time within Mexican political life, but also to a time when attending that play was an act of identity-quest. In 1985, I was barely becoming aware of a thriving gay world in Mexico City. Tito Vasconcelos’ Mariposas y Maricosas (a play on words that roughly translates as “Butterflies and Fag-Things”) was to me an enthralling experience of seeing that homosexuality could be publicly and openly celebrated. Though the audience began as a primarily gay one, this long-running show soon became a “crossover” success and was attended by many heterosexuals, some of whom were brought by gay relatives as a way of coming out of the closet.
