The
historical
Latino
presence
in
the
District
has
been
a
strong
and
conflicted
one,
and
in
a
new
exhibit
presented
at
the
Center,
D.C.’s
gay
community
center,
the
Latino
GLBT
History
Project
hopes
to
reveal
the
contributions
made
by
gay
Latinos
to
the
city’s
storied
past.
The
exhibit,
which
opens
with
a
reception
at
6
p.m.
on
Friday,
Sept.
15
,
consists
of
eight
large
panels
full
of
documents,
banners
and
photographs
chronicling
the
history
of
D.C.’s
gay
Latino
population.
Available
to
the
public
for
the
first
time,
newsletters
and
documents
of
LLEGÓ,
a
national
organization
for
gay
Latinos
that
ceased
operating
in
2004,
are
much-anticipated
highlights
of
the
exhibit.
“This
is
one
of
the
most
important
exhibits
in
the
country,”
says
José
Gutierrez,
the
founder
of
the
Latino
GLBT
History
Project
and
organizer
of
the
event.
“I
have
been
receiving
emails
from
everywhere
—
San
Francisco,
Seattle,
New
York,
Texas
—
from
people
who
are
coming
to
see
the
exhibit.”
The
Center,
located
at
1111
14th
St.,
NW,
became
involved
after
Gutierrez
approached
the
board
about
hosting
the
exhibit,
which
runs
until
October
15
as
the
focus
of
Hispanic
GLBT
Heritage
Month.
“We
see
the
role
of
the
Center
as
a
networking
hub
for
the
community,”
says
Joseph
Palacio,
presently
the
only
Latino
member
of
the
Center’s
board.
“We
have
the
elders’
outreach
group,
we’ve
done
youth
things
—
this
was
natural
for
us
to
continue
our
role
as
bringing
people
together.
José
put
this
thing
together,
and
we
provided
the
networking
hub.”
Gutierrez
collected
the
gay
Latino
memorabilia
starting
in
1997
when
he
moved
to
the
District
from
Atlanta.
“People
know
that
I’m
collecting
the
history,”
says
Gutierrez,
42.
“People
started
giving
me
things
from
organizations
and
groups…pictures,
brochures
and
posters
that
I
was
keeping
in
a
trunk.”
GUTIERREZ
DOESN’T
JUST
plan
on
revealing
paper
artifacts
at
the
exhibit’s
opening.
The
Latino
GLBT
History
Project
will
honor
various
gay
Latino
leaders
who
helped
to
contribute
to
what
he
calls
a
“national
platform”
of
gay
Latino
issues.
One
of
the
honorees
is
Yolanda
Santiago,
a
founder
of
D.C.’s
first
gay
Latino
organization,
Enlace.
“[Enlace
was]
to
become
a
bridge
between
our
two
identities,”
says
Santiago,
57.
“We
were
very
proud
to
be
Latinos
in
the
gay
community
and
gays
in
the
Latino
community.
We
would
not
compromise
those
two
powerful
identities.”
Founded
in
1987,
Enlace
worked
with
straight
and
gay
political
and
social
organizations
to
further
awareness
of
D.C.’s
gay
Latinos
and
build
bridges
between
the
city’s
ethnic
groups
and
those
who
identified
as
gay.
“We
established
the
first
hotline
for
Latino
gays
in
the
whole
U.S.,”
Santiago
says.
“It
was
bilingual,
in
cooperation
with
Whitman-Walker
[Clinic].
We
received
phone
calls
from
Spain,
Argentina,
Mexico.”
One
of
the
most
popular
events
of
Enlace
was
a
series
of
social
dances
the
group
produced
for
the
city’s
gay
Latinos.
Letitia
Gomez,
one
of
the
upcoming
honorees
at
the
Center
and
a
past-president
of
Enlace,
remembers
the
very
beginning
of
the
dances,
which
debuted
in
1988.
“The
reason
we
started
those
dances
was
because
we
went
to
a
bar,
and
they
didn’t
want
to
play
our
music,
although
they
advertised
it
as
a
Latino
dance,”
says
Gomez,
52.
“The
D.J.
didn’t
want
to
play
our
music
and
said,
‘You
have
to
consider
who
our
clientele
is.’”
Shortly
thereafter,
the
group
held
its
first
event,
La
Fiesta
Tropical,
at
a
usually
straight
club
called
Cities.
Many
of
the
subsequent
quarterly
dances
were
opened
to
people
of
all
ethnicities
as
a
further
way
to
build
a
larger
community.
“People
who
dance
together
don’t
kill
each
other,”
Santiago
says.
THE
DISPLAY
OF
gay
Latino
political
and
social
activism
at
the
Center
is
meant
to
be
both
a
nod
to
the
past
and
a
hopeful
kick-start
to
the
future.
“Now,
it’s
cool
to
be
GLBT,”
says
Santiago.
“It’s
so
cool
[gay
people]
don’t
want
to
protest
or
rock
the
boat
or
create
consciousness
to
reach
other
people.
People
forget
that
there
are
a
lot
of
issues
in
our
community
—
domestic
violence,
drugs,
alcohol,
class
issues,
race
issues,
age
issues,
gender
issues.”
In
line
with
Santiago’s
statement
that
modern
gay
people
possess
a
shallow
worldview,
Palacio,
a
professor
of
sociology
at
Georgetown
University,
says
the
larger
gay
culture
pigeonholes
Latinos
as
sexual
commodities.
“I
think
people
look
at
Latinos
as
hot
Latinos,”
Palacio
says.
“In
general,
there’s
a
romanticization
and
fetishization
of
Latinos.
I
would
like
to
see
this
minimized
through
education.
I
think
people
will
see
a
broader
sense
of
who
the
Latino
community
is.”
The
need
for
increased
visibility
is
a
recurring
theme
among
these
past
and
current
Latino
leaders,
and
Gomez
says
the
exhibit
headed
by
the
Latino
GLBT
History
Project
will
hopefully
provide
a
historical
context
for
D.C.’s
gay
Latinos.
