Explore Latine LGBTQIA+ Gathering Spaces
Step into the rich history of gathering spaces where LGBTQIA+ Latines met, organized, and made history.
National Park Service, Museum Management Program
Melissa Hurtado, Heritage Education Fellow; Jade Ryerson, Resource Assistant (Intern)
Cover photo attribution: MAESTRAPEACE, Lapidge Street façade, mural on The San Francisco Women's Building, 18th and Valencia Streets, Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010
Explore the role of 6 historic places in celebrating Latine LGBTQIA+ visibility and community in the US.
Gathering places such as parks, people’s living rooms, and city streets are foundational to identities and communities. In these spaces, LGBTQIA+ Latines formed groups, found refuge, resisted oppression, and created a deeper sense of what it means to be Latine and LGBTQIA+. (The term Latine is used throughout this exhibit as a gender-neutral term for the word Latino.)
In spite of erasure and exclusion, the LGBTQIA+ and Latine communities have preserved the symbolic and tangible remains of LGBTQIA+ and Latine history. Even when historic places are no longer standing, art can document these stories and make the layers of history visible.
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Great Wall of Los Angeles (Mural) (1983) by Judith F. BacaOriginal Source: Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
Latines played a pivotal role in early LGBTQIA+ activism, including two pioneering gay rights organizations. The Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis.
Mattachine Society
Cuban immigrant and organizer Gonzalo “Tony” Segura, Jr. helped grow the LA-based Mattachine Society into a national organization.
Daughters of Bilitis
In 1955, Chicana activist Mary (last name unknown) cofounded the Daughters of Bilitis to create safe spaces for lesbians to socialize.
Great Wall of Los Angeles (Mural), "gay rights" detail (1983) by Judith F. BacaOriginal Source: Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
The Great Wall of Los Angeles mural depicts these events and other significant parts of LA’s history and culture. Between 1978 and 1984, Chicana muralist Judith F. Baca worked with a team of artists to create the 2,754-foot mural.
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The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center
New York City, NY
New York City Landmark, 2019; New York City is a Certified Local Government
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center by Travis MarkThe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
Since its founding in 1983, the LGBT Community Center has served as a gathering space for several LGBTQIA+ groups, including the Lesbian Avengers.
Lesbian Avengers action (circa 1992) by Morgan GwenwaldOriginal Source: Lesbian Avengers
Cofounded by Cuban activist and playwright Ana Maria Simo in 1992, the Lesbian Avengers used direct-action tactics (nonviolent demonstrations such as marches and kiss-ins) to increase lesbian visibility.
Simo was an experienced activist. In 1976, she and actress-director Magaly Alabau created Medusa’s Revenge. It was the first lesbian theater in New York City and the world with a permanent home, founded by and for lesbian immigrant Latinas.
MAESTRAPEACE, Lapidge Street façade, mural on The San Francisco Women's Building, 18th and Valencia Streets, Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010 (1994-2000) by Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene PerezOriginal Source: Maestrapeace Artworks
The San Francisco Women's Center (SFWC) emerged from radical and lesbian feminist movements in the 1970s. The SFWC purchased Mission Turn Hall in 1979 and renamed it The Women’s Building (TWB), a community landmark.
Many of the founding directors were women from various social and ethnic groups, including the late lesbian Puerto Rican activist Carmen Vazquez.
MAESTRAPEACE, corner view, mural on The San Francisco Women's Building, 18th and Valencia Streets, Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010 (1994-2000) by Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene PerezOriginal Source: Maestrapeace Artworks
In 1994, the building's facade transformed.
A group of 7 women muralists painted the Maestrapeace Mural on the building — weaving together art, history, fiction, gender, race, class, and sexuality.
MAESTRAPEACE, detail of lesbian couple, mural on The San Francisco Women's Building, 18th and Valencia Streets, Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010 (1994-2000) by Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene PerezOriginal Source: Maestrapeace Artworks
Since 1979, TWB has stood as a gathering hub for groups, such as Somos Hermanas, Ellas en Acción, and Gay Latino Alliance, who achieved and continue to achieve social and gender equality for the community.
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Edificio Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico [Gay Pride Community Building of Puerto Rico] (2017-04) by Ian PoelletNational Park Service, Museum Management Program
The Edificio Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico was the home of Puerto Rico’s first gay liberation organization between 1975 and 1976. It paved the way for LGBTQIA+ visibility on an island with deep colonial ties to machismo and anti-homosexuality.
The organization provided educational and community services and published the magazine Pa'fuera! out of Casa Orgullo’s second floor. The magazine was distributed in gay libraries like Oscar Wilde Library in Greenwich Village and Lambda Rising in Washington DC.
Orgullo Boquerón (2013-05) by Jerjes Medina AlbinoNational Park Service, Museum Management Program
Casa Orgullo’s backyard extended into the city streets by hosting public events and social celebrations. These parades, pageants, and protests were key to establishing a larger community and launching the gay liberation movement in Puerto Rico.
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Aerial view of Little Havana (2013) by B137National Park Service, Museum Management Program
The Mariel Boatlift contributed to monumental change in US immigration reform and Miami's LGBTQIA+ history.
From the early 1900s, the US denied entry to LGBTQIA+ immigrants, but the US also opened its doors to anyone fleeing communism, including LGBTQIA+ Marielitos who were deemed “unrevolutionary” and exiled by the Castro regime.
Mariel Boatlift (1980) by Raymond L. BlazevicNational Park Service, Museum Management Program
With the Immigration Act of 1990, the US amended its immigration policy to accept LGBTQIA+ immigrants and remove homosexuality as grounds for denying entry to the US.
Marielitos established themselves within neighborhoods like Little Havana, working in department stores and hanging out in public spaces.
The visibility of the trans and gay community became more prominent as Marielitos and LGBTQIA+ immigrants from across Latin American and the Caribbean continued to make Miami home.
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Chicago City Hall-Cook County Building
Chicago, IL
Chicago Landmark, 1982; Chicago is a Certified Local Government
Chicago City Hall-Cook County Building (2008-03) by Joseph ANational Park Service, Museum Management Program
After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, Puerto Rican and Mexican political cartoonist Daniel “Danny” Sotomayor combined art with activism. He published over 200 cartoons criticizing government officials’ refusal to acknowledge AIDS and barriers to research funding, drug trials, and treatment.
Sotomayor also took to the streets as a cofounder of ACT UP Chicago. On April 24, 1990, over 5,000 demonstrators gathered to protest the American Medical Association and insurance industry’s response to AIDS. Sotomayor and other ACT UP Chicago leaders entered the Cook County Building. They hung a banner over the entrance to demand equal healthcare access for AIDS patients.
The content for this digital story was written and researched by Melissa Hurtado, Heritage Education Fellow, and Jade Ryerson, Resource Assistant (Intern), with the National Park Service Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.
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