ABSTRACT
This article aims to investigate the concept of queer latinidad in Phoenix, Arizona in an attempt to understand how queer Latin@s1 in Phoenix see themselves in relation to Latino communities, queer communities, and a queer Latino community. This exploration will be linked to contemporary sociopolitical concerns in Arizona and in the USA more
Department of Languages, Literatures, & Cultures, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
broadly, including (im)migration, anti-immigrant legislation (e.g. SB1070), and equal rights (e.g. marriage equality, non-discrimination legislation). Participants’ engagement in anti-racist/anti-heterosexist activism, the researcher’s engagement with the communities’ sociopolitical concerns, and the fundamental question of self-constructing practices in and through research will be explored. While questioning received notions of ‘community’, we look at how queer latinidad is constructed or rejected by queer Latinas/os in Phoenix at the dawn of the twenty-first century precisely as national attention has been focused on the state of Arizona, and how this negotiation might blur traditional notions of community and question boundaries between communities by highlighting the racial and ethnic diversity of the (presumed Anglo) LGBTQ community, as well as the gender and sexual diversities of the (presumed heterosexual) Latino community.
