Loud And Proud: Whither The Queer Latinas? Playwright Elisha Miranda Might Know

So now that Pride Week has wrapped up and you’re wondering how to get that 25 cent rainbow heart temporary tattoo off your left boob, we’re left with a burning question:

Will this come off in time for dinner with our aunt?

And, whither the queer latinas? We find that we hear, read, and are poked in the eye with great frequency about stories concerning gay Latinos, but not so much lesbians and bisexual or transwomen. It might be because, as an isolated yet indicative example, places like South Beach are forever full of hairless Latinos with the bodies of Greek Gods, walking their impossibly small dogs down Lincoln Drive while on rollerskates. We (rightly, we think) presumed they were making it known that, yes, they were gay. Yes, they were part of something. Yes, this was a community. Yes, they wanted you to know it. A queer Latina, be it because of biology, cultural mores, social conditioning or any combination therein, is much more difficult to instantly recognize or caricaturize. And while this might help avoid unsavory or limiting stereotypes, it does make it more difficult to easily point to a “scene” of (possibly) like-minded people.

Author Elisha Miranda has made a career our of asking the same question. Her latest work, “Pandora” is a play that seeks to portray Queer Latinas as they are rather than what is palatable on TV. To wit:

“[I was] frustrated by the way Latinas were depicted on ‘The L-Word,’” said Miranda, via e-mail, about the Showtime lesbian-themed series.

“They didn’t speak Spanish right and didn’t even cast Latinas,” she added. “I mean, it’s Los Angeles, there are plenty of Latinas to choose from.”

The fact that the show’s “Latina” character “Papi” is played by non-Latina actress Janina Gavankar is only one of Miranda’s beefs with the mainstream media, which, she says, only depicts the queer Latin experience in such stereotypes as “the tragic transgender female, the lesbian femme fatale or the campy Latino gay best friend.”

“We wanted to create a multimedia show that portrayed the queer Latino community in the way that we and many in our community have experienced it,” said the San Francisco-born Miranda, who lives in New York City.

So, tell us. Have you noticed the same trend, be it among people you know or what you glean from TV and the like? Do you hold / are you faced with certain preconceived notions of what a Queer Latina is like? Or when you think of a Queer Latina, is all you can muster up a picture of Michelle Rodriguez’s DUI mugshot?

Pandora’s’ — Queer eye for Latinas [NY Daily News]