Quo Vadis, Queer Vato? Queer and Loathing in Latino Cinema

Abstract

The theme of ethnic identity is often paramount in Latino/a narratives, and the same is true of the four independent films depicting queer Latinos in this analysis. Two of the films explore the Anglicization and gentrification of traditionally Latino barrios [neighbourhoods] by economic privilege. In On the Down Low (director, Taedo Garcia 2004), Quinceañera (directors, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland 2006)¹ and La Mission (director, Peter Bratt 2009), the Latinos are members of established population groups, and more properly called Chicanos, whereas the protagonists of The Day Laborers (director, Lane Shefter Bishop 2003) are new arrivals, as the film opens with them crossing the U.S.—Mexican border into California. While the theme of ethnic identity tends to frame these films, there is a strong subtext in each film addressing sexuality and sexual identity; these characters have to negotiate their sexual identity within their own culture and in relationship to the dominant white culture. Interestingly, to make these films palatable, or marketable to, a heteronormative audience, the gay relationships are often framed by, or subsumed within, a hetero-based relationship, the dynamics of which often run counter to the values of the queer relationships in that these are frequently based on love, not sex, while the inverse is true of the heterosexual frame narratives.