Eithne Luibheid in the essay "Looking like a Lesbian" and Susana Peña in “Visibility and Silence: Mariel and Cuban American Gay Male Experience and Representation” analyze different aspects of the way homosexuality of Latinos is viewed in terms of immigration and its influence. They study the attitudes toward Latino immigrants to the United States, and the factors that have been influencing these attitudes in media, among public officials and the population. Lubheid and Peña successfully examine the problem of biased treatment of homosexuals from different perspectives, as Peña concentrates on the study of Cuban gay male representation and analyzes their societal impact, while Luibheid addresses Mexican immigration and border procedures that are mostly affecting lesbians.
Both authors successfully address the issues connected with homosexual Latino immigration, as they put the emphasis on different period, gender and treatment of the issue. First of all, Peña analyzes Mariel mass migration in 1980s and the influence it has on Miami, while Luibheid’s point of study is the doubtful Mexican border procedures concerning lesbian identification, which are studied through the prism of Sara Quiroz’s experience of questioning and deportation in 1950s, because of “the suspicion that Quiroz was a ‘sexual deviate’” (Luibheid 84). If Peña’s essay is mainly covering the impact of the gay male migration, Luibheid’s main theme is more related to the attitudes and interpretation what homosexuality, and lesbianism in particular, in terms of Mexican immigration. The time frame and gender are used to narrow the scope of the study to a single event, and provide the ground to see the issue from different perspective by putting the event in larger social context.
The studied attitudes toward the homosexuality are efficient in providing the broad picture of improvement that has happened in the way both male and female homosexuals are perceived and treated in the society. As demonstrated in the essays, for a long time “queer Latino immigrants have had to contend with exclusionary politics around their immigration status in the country” (Roque Ramirez 164). However, it is possible to see the transition from the 1950s approach to homosexuality as a psychotic disorder to much milder reaction to Mariel mass immigration in 1980s. Both authors outline the changes that were introduced to queer migration policies, after the described event to show the progress the society have managed to make in the last decades.
The visibility and silence are also important factors that are used by the authors to explicate their interpretation of policies and attitudes toward Latino homosexual immigration. Luibheid and Peña show how presuppositions and stereotypes are shaping not only public opinions, but may largely influence policy-making. As discussed by Luibheid the state has mechanisms to make the visible markers of homosexuality invisible by polices and social control, while “contrasted with the practical invisibility of lesbians, the political nuance of this situation comes into focus” (Peña 131). It is also addressed by Peña, as the vague assumptions on what lesbian should look like shaped the strategy of immigration-service officer that led to court proceeding and deportation. Considering homosexuality antisocial and harmful has created the situation in which immigrants apart from other struggles, have to deal with the social exclusion based on the appearance that is claimed to define a person as a homosexual.
Luibheid and Peña efficiently examine the issue of homosexuality and its perception in the society from different perspectives, but their findings are interrelated. The prejudiced treatment of queer immigrants and its implication in the society has greatly changed over the last decades, but it still remains an important issue today. The biased attitudes place double load on queer immigrants, as they have to cope with unjust treatment based on their immigrant status and sexuality. Luibheid and Peña put the issue in the broad social context to show the implication such attitudes have both on immigrants and the society in general.
Works Cited
Luibheid, Eithne "Looking Like a Lesbian: The Organization of Sexual Monitoring at the United States-Mexican Border.” Journal Of The History Of Sexuality 8, 1998. Web.
Peña, Susana. “Visibility and Silence: Mariel and Cuban American Gay Male Experience and Representation.” Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings. Eithne Luibheid and Lionel Cantú, eds. University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Web.
Roque Ramirez, Horacio N. “Claiming Queer Cultural Citizenship Gay Latino (Im)migrant Acts in San Francisco.” Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings. Eithne Luibheid and Lionel Cantú, eds. University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Web.
