Som@s Latinas Presents the Fourth Annual Latino Pride
The Greater Boston area will celebrate Latino Pride with film, panel discussions, pageantry, and more May 10-20.
The Fourth Annual Latino Pride in Boston is gearing up for a week and a half of events, celebrations, and, of course, the annual Miss Massachusetts Gay Latina Pageant.
Latino Pride is planned and produced by organizations from several states, including Massachusetts' Somos Latin@s LGBT Coalition, as well as organizations from Connecticut and Rhode Island.
"Somos Latin@s LGBT Coalition began the organization of Latino Pride back in 2003. Our organization has been formalized a couple of years back, but as a group of community leaders we have been conducting events since 1998," Wilfred Labiosa, co-chair of Somos Latin@s, told EDGE.
"This is the fourth Latino Pride Celebration," Labiosa continued. "It began as a weekend, and due to the request of community leaders we expanded the week to include a very diverse group of activities. We do monthly events as part of our group, and what we decided four years ago was to bring the big events into a week and showcase it as Latino Pride."
The event has drawn celebrants from all over in its four years. Said Labiosa, "Latino Pride quickly brought in folks from all walks of life, allies, GLBT folks, and Latino/as from as far as Puerto Rico and New York. We quickly became known among Latino GLBT community. Now we are the longest and the oldest Latino Pride celebration in the nation." Added Labiosa, "Other Latino Pride celebrations are held in Texas, Chicago, Seattle, and LA. These are just weekend celebrations called Latino Pride Weekends."
The Latino Pride festivities commence May 10 when Carlos Portugals' debut film East Side Story is screened at 7:45 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as part of the MFA's Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. May 13 sees the MFA's 6 p.m. screening of short films on gender expression, including Carmen Oquendo Villar's Mizery and Amy Andre's En Mi Piel (In My Hair).
But the centerpiece of Sunday night on May 13--and a jewel of the entire 10-day program of events--will be the 9th Annual Miss Massachusetts Gay Latina Pageant, hosted by Fran's Place in Lynn. Labiosa explains the pageant, saying, "The title is from a national competition, Gay USA, but for the past couple of years we decided not to send a representative to the national competition for financial reasons." However, a separate contest, the Queen of Queens Pageant, slated for May 19 at the Radisson, will name a winner who will be sent to the national pageant in Seattle next month.
The pageant is not limited to drag artists. "We're very happy to say that we are one of the few pageants in the area to include transgender [competitors], cross-dressers, and transsexuals," Labiosa told EDGE. The doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. pageant start. (Note that this is an 18 and older event and ID will be required for admission.)
Other events throughout the week will include panel discussions on elections, immigration, health issues in the Latin community, and transgender rights laws, a veritable orchard basket of political and social issues. "At Latino Pride we made a conscious decision," Labiosa said. "We don't have a parade, and we don't want one. And we don't have a festival. But what we do have are panel discussions. This year we wanted to address the issue of immigration. And we wanted to address government: are [our representatives] democratic enough for us? And do they include the Latino voice? And then we have transgender issues. We do need to support our transgender brothers and sisters who are Latino as well."
Setting out the reasons why a separate Pride celebration for the Latino Community is needed, Labiosa said, "We believe that Latino Pride targets a different audience [of Boston Pride] at the same time of showcasing and educating others about the diversity of the Latino GLBT Community. We bring together 'our' community in comfortable and safe spaces were they can explore more in-depth who they are as Latino/a GLBT folks."
Media pundits have taken note over the last several years that the Latino voting bloc is the swiftest growing demographic, and therefore is a politically powerful force that is already reshaping the American political and social landscape. Latino Pride, Labiosa said, exists "as a bridge between the two" subcultures of Latinos and the LGBT community, and that the two subsets overlap.
To that end, Latino Pride will include a Proclamation of Latino Pride by The Honorable Felix Arrroyo, appearances by State Senator Jarret Barrios and Latino GLBT Pride dances, balls, and Pride Nights. Latino Pride will wind up with a "Gathering for Justice" at the Rotunda on the Boston Common at 1 p.m. May 20. "We don't like to use the word 'picnic' because it has negative connotations," Labiosa explained, "so we use the word social gathering. The concept is a social gathering where we can partake of food and storytelling. It's [a setting for] a very informal conversation on the Boston Common."
As part of Latino Pride each year, Somos Latin@s honors supporters and allies of gay LGBT and Latino causes at a "Our Pride of Latinos Reception." This year's reception is scheduled for 6 p.m. on May 19 at the Radisson Hotel. "In the reception we are honoring our straight allies as well," Labiosa made a point of telling EDGE. "One of them is the mayor of Boston. The other is Giovanna Negretti."
Negretti, a Jamaica Plains resident, is the founding executive director of Oiste, which serves "to advance the political, social and economic standing of Latinos and Latinas in the state." Negretti also serves on the Executive Committees of several national organizations concerned with immigration rights and Latino issues. A native of Puerto Rico, Negretti is also president of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights.
Thomas Menino, mayor of Boston since 1993, has been a long-time supporter of gay and lesbian rights, launching the Safe Schools program, convening a 2000 meeting of representatives from the health departments of ten major American cities to examine LGBT health issues and supporting marriage equality in Massachusetts.
Somos Latin@s is active throughout the year in providing a forum and a safe space for LGBT Latinos throughout the state, scheduling social gatherings and cultural events on a monthly basis.
The full schedule for this year's Latino Pride is available at www.somoslatinoslgbt.org.