THE MUSTACHE is where they met. The Chino and gay-liberatn movements of the late 1970s weren’t closely aligned polilly, but the artists Joey Terrill and Teddy Sandoval, whose liv the movements tersected, found the nex already d onto their bodi. Cholo and clone me together right above their lips.Terrill’s mtache was the first thg I cised at the exhibn “Axis Mundo: Queer Networks Chino L.A.,” produced by Pacific Standard Time and curated by C. Onde Chavoya and David Evans Frantz, which traveled this summer to New York’s Hunter College Art Galleri.
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In the late 1970, young gay men om the Eastsi found their inty on the dis dance floors of Hollywood. * chicano gay *
Durg the early 1970s-90s, Los Angel was home to an unrground movement of queer Mexin-Amerin artists which channelled lived experienc of Chino Civil Rights, Gay Liberatn, and Women’s Liberatn movements, as well as the impact of Ameri’s 80s HIV/Aids epimic, across a variety of mediums.
Documentatns of artist Mundo Meza and Cyclona’s drag guerilla performanc that fied Chino machoism are also on display – cludg an illegal, staged gay weddg on the mp of California State 1971.
Anton Viego, The Place of Gay Male Chino Lerature Queer China/o Cultural Work, Disurse, Vol. 21, No. 3, LATINA/O DISCOURSES IN ACADEME (Fall 1999), pp. 111-131 * chicano gay *
David Frantz: The perd charted Axis Mundo saw the emergence of the Chino civil rights, women’s, and gay liberatn movements, and later, polil activism around the Aids epimic. Photograph om an unprted negative for The Gay Essay, 1969–73Gift of Anthony Friedk. For example, he did a performance once wh Cyclona at Cal State uni mp 1971 where they staged a gay weddg when somethg like that was legislatively and culturally unimagable, yet they were stagg to liberate the mp.
Those beme some of the first imag of Chinos to really circulate a broad natnal and ternatnal ntext through their publitn the early gay liberatn magaze, Gay Sunshe. A., and for the first time the cy’s history predomantly gay and straight Chino youth flood Hollywood’s dance floors. We beme fast iends, me out to each other, and started planng to transform our liv by visg a gay club we had heard about om a iend of a the journey om East Los Angel to Hollywood was a few short , to me seemed much further bee my fay never left the Eastsi, and I didn’t have a Friday eveng, feelg bold, I left my fay, who were watchg TV the livg room.
* chicano gay *
As I looked around, I noted how, the midst of all of downtown’s activy, this rner gave off s own gay vibe.
On one si of the tersectn was the notor gay cisg ground of Pershg Square, and on Fifth Street there was a bookstore where you uld peek at magaz like Physique Pictorial and After Dark. Here we vad the quiet world of mastream gay whe culture.
There were no rabow flags or other obv ditors of a gay space.
A PST: LA/LA exhibn anized by the ONE Natnal Gay & Lbian Archiv and the Mm of Contemporary Art looks at the wi reach of queer Chino artists of the '70s and '80s. * chicano gay *
The dis was not a space of tellectual but of visceral experienc; at that time our liv we were not able to talk about our sexual inty, but we uld perform on the dance floor while burng off our youthful Friday night trip to the Other Si was my quceañera, my g out where I was iated to gay life on my own terms. The timate 18-and-over gay clubs that lnched Hollywood’s and Wt Hollywoo’ds revalizatn were disappearg, makg way for new vtments and velopments. Untilized old dtrial buildgs and vant storeonts uld fd new of all we learned how to create a vibrant, endurg, muny out of the margs by fg our Lato cultural valu wh the predomant gay whe male landspe.