ABSTRACT
This chapter is part of a larger oral history project on LGBTQ Latinx migration, for which I conducted fieldwork in Los Angeles and Mexico City between 2013 and 2016. I draw from ethnographies and oral histories of self-identified Latina migrant lesbians in Long Beach, California. I also borrow from scholarship on migration and from queer of color and queer migration studies to analyze how this group practiced community building in the context of structural violence. Specifically, I examine two spaces of belonging—lesbian bars and physical homes—to argue that the group used processes unique to their multidimensional locations to create community, and did so through, despite, and against the displacement, homophobia, and racism they faced. I conclude that creating and maintaining a sense of belonging was an important tool that the narrators used to survive in a context where queer migrants are targets of violence.
