12 Books About Queer Latinx History You Should Read

LGBTQ+ History Month is celebrated every October, this is a time of year to honor the contributions, experiences, and lives of LGBTQIA+ icons. As always, it’s important to acknowledge that these monthly celebrations often prioritize queer white communities, leaving out or erasing altogether the history of queer BIPOC. In every aspect of our lives, white supremacy is the norm and it’s our responsibility to seek out and celebrate the intersections between ethnicity, race, sexuality, and culture. That’s why we decided to put together a list of books focusing on queer Latinx history, stories that so often go unnoticed and underrepresented. These books explore what it means to move through the world as a person of Latin American descent, how to navigate cultural homophobia, family, acceptance, and coming out, and hopefully you’ll feel seen or learn something new in these books. Read on to learn more about books about queer Latinx history you should read during LGBTQ+ History Month and all year round.

Compañeros: Latino Activists in the Face of AIDS by Jesus Ramirez-Valles

Compañeros: Latino Activists in the Face of AIDS by Jesus Ramirez-Valles is a collection of stories from 80 LGBTQIA+ Latinx activists. Spanning from North America to South America, the book focuses on how the queer Latinx community has been affected by the AIDS epidemic: oppression, stigma, low self-worth, feelings of loss, isolation, and loneliness. But there is also boundless beauty that they experience through family connection, recovery of self-esteem, community connection, and genuine relationships with other community members. Ultimately, despite the homophobia, gender discrimination, racism, poverty, and forced migration, these are stories of hope.

Queer Latino Testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza by Arnaldo Cruz

Queer Latino Testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza by Arnaldo Cruz tells the extraordinary true story of Juan Rivera, also known by his drag name Juanito Xtravaganza, who ran away from home and ended up homeless in 1970s New York. Soon after, however, he became the partner of Keith Haring, an international celebrity, pop artist, and rising icon of the ’80s. Using direct testimony from Rivera as well as the author’s own interpretation, the book presents a powerful hybrid structure – part storytelling, part linguistic and cultural analysis, and part criticism. Ultimately, this is not only the story of Juan’s life but also the story of New York and its Latinx neighborhood, of disinvestment and gentrification, and the importance of queer Latinx lives.

Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics by José Esteban Muñoz

Disidentifications by José Esteban Muñoz is a fascinating exploration of how race, culture, and sexuality all intersect in the queer Latinx community and in the communities of all those who don’t fit into the mainstream mold. Throughout, Muñoz keeps returning to the concept of “disidentification,” a process where marginalized people transform exclusionary works and practices for cultural reasons rather than fighting against or adopting it. He also insists that it’s a form of performance, one where a queer world – and new identities – is created against mainstream society to reclaim queerness and maintain survival. Calling on the work of filmmakers, performance artists, ethnographers, museum curators, photographers, drag queens, and television stars, the book explores the groundbreaking work of queer Latinxs, from Marga Gomez to Felix Gonzalez-Torres to Pedro Zamora, and the impact they have made on queer history and modern-day queer communities.

Queer Natives in Latin America: Forbidden Chapters of Colonial History by Fabiano S. Gontijo, Barbara M. Arisi, and Estêvão R. Fernandes

Queer Natives in Latin America by Fabiano S. Gontijo, Barbara M. Arisi, and Estêvão R. Fernandes explores and defies mainstream stereotypes about Native peoples in North and South America, and their beliefs about sexuality. In contrast to what has been widely believed, the authors argue that many groups were non-heteronormative in nature well before colonization. Using data, readings, and field research, they provide a guide to queer traditions from different Native tribes in Mesoamerica, the Amazon, the Andes, and more. Even more than that, they demonstrate how colonization led to an oppressive heteronormative system that dictated Native sexual expression and now-traditional family units through forced labor, marriages, and other tools of colonization.

Amigas Y Amantes: Sexually Nonconforming Latinas Negotiate Family by Katie L. Acosta

Amigas Y Amantes by Katie L. Acosta explores an unprecedented area of focus in academia: sexually nonconforming Latinas and their relationship to the traditional family unit. Using 43 ethnographic interview from queer Latinas and observations from 14 months of attending queer Latina events in the northeast, Acosta demonstrates how queer Latinas balance the different relationships in their lives: with their families, their partners, their children, and their friends. As they do so, they are tasked with navigating cultural expectations, heteronormativity, emotional labor, and family tensions and divides. But not only do they preserve biological family ties, but they also redefine femininity, religion and faith, interracial and interethnic relationship, and motherhood and childrearing – creating brand new, unique, and powerful lives for themselves.

Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men by Héctor Carrillo

Pathways of Desire by Héctor Carrillo spotlights the often invisible and uncelebrated lives of Mexican gay men who leave their home country to find freedom and autonomy across the border in the U.S. Using ethnographic interviews and research strategies, readers are told extraordinary stories about their lives: how they grew up in Mexican cities and towns, discovered their identities, migrated from one country to another, began anew in urban cities, found community, and embarked on sexual and romantic relationships with gay American men. At the same time, however, Carrillo rejects the idea that Mexican men see the U.S. as more sexually free; instead, he demonstrates how Mexico has its own understanding and acceptance of sexuality, sexual diversity, and sexual expression. He also studies the impact of AIDS and HIV on queer immigrant populations, who have largely gone underserved and erased.

Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora by Lawrence Martin La Fountain-Stokes

Queer Ricans by Lawrence Martin La Fountain-Stokes studies the migration of queer Puerto Rican communities from the Caribbean to the U.S. in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco. Not only does he focus on the discrimination they faced on the island and the mainland, but he also shows how queer Puerto Rican identity has changed over time. Starting with the 1960s and ending in the ’90s, readers travel from NYC to Philadelphia, New Jersey to Chicago, and end with Chicago, exploring how each decade has been shaped by gender, history, and generational trauma. Ultimately, he shows how, for so many, queerness and Puerto Rican identity are intrinsically tied and defined by the other.

When Language Broke Open: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Black Writers of Latin American Descent edited by Alan Pelaez Lopez 

When Language Broke Open edited by Alan Pelaez Lopez is a collection of creative work from 45 queer and trans Black Latin American poets, writers, and artists in order to bring a new face to what it means to be queer and Latinx. Featuring poetry, autobiography, short stories, diaries, memoir, and original artwork, the book explores themes including memory, care, future, and legacy, always centering and celebrating Black Latin American personhood. There are established as well as up-and-coming writers included in the collection, all exploring and resisting everything we think we know about gender, sexuality, race, and queer life.

Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. by  C. Ondine Chavoya

Axis Mundo by  C. Ondine Chavoya celebrates and spotlights the work of queer Chicano artists across three decades of Los Angeles history. Featuring 400 illustrations and 10 essays, the book starts with the ’60s and ends with the ’90s to tell a story of artistic experimentation, collaboration, and exchange. From print media to alternative spaces, punk music to fashion, performance to AIDS, readers will walk away longing to know even more about these amazing artists.

Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism edited by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz 

Queer Brown Voices edited by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz is a history of queer Latinxs who have faced discrimination over the last three decades of the 20th century, from the ’70s to the ’90s. In doing so, they explore how queer Latinxs were often rejected from the Latinx community at large, as well as the mainstream LGBTQIA+ community who didn’t recognize or value key differences among those of different ethnic and racial background. As a result, queer Latinxs made their own spaces and communities, organizing themselves on local, state, and national levels and rejecting cycles of sexism, racism, and homophobia. They fought for the equal rights and embraced their ethnic and sexual identities. Using essays and oral history interviews, the book documents the lives and efforts of 14 queer Latinx activists from these eras: how they created and operated life-saving organizations, were racialized and discriminated against, fought for healthcare, and struggled for awareness. Despite the fact that they were erased from history, readers will learn how they paved the way for future generations and ensuring that their contributions are still felt.

Compañeras: Latina Lesbians, An Anthology by Juanita Ramoz

Compañeras: Latina Lesbians, An Anthology by Juanita Ramoz was originally published in 1987. Now in a new revised edition from 2004, the book features the voices of Latina lesbians of various LATAM descent and national origin including Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, Chilean, Honduran, Brazilian, Colombian, Argentine, Peruvian, Costa Rican, Ecuadorian, Bolivian, Dominican, and Nicaraguan. In each essay, readers will witness powerful journeys of liberation, self-discovery, affirmation, identity, unity, political activism, and commitment to ending all forms of oppression for everyone. The book calls us to learn more about the queer history of the community and invent new ways to define freedom for ourselves as well.

Loving in the War Years by Cherrie Moraga

Loving in the War Years by Cherrie Moraga features Moraga’s classic memory The Last Generation: Poetry and Prose, originally published in 1993, as well as her additional miscellaneous writings from the ’90s. Despite how long ago it was written, this book is nonetheless incredibly relevant today. Throughout, Moraga explores the intersections of her Chicana and lesbian identities, linguistics and language, personal reflections, and political thought. Using poetry and prose, Spanish and English, she documents her early life and looks forward to how to form connections between her cultures, languages, family, and self. As she touches on themes of self-awareness, self-compassion, and global solidarity, she lays the groundwork for how we understand intersectional politics today.