Copyright by David Luis Glisch-Sánchez 2015 The Dissertation Committee for David Luis Glisch-Sánchez Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “Listen to what your jotería is saying”: Pain, Social Harm, and Queer Latin@s Committee: Sharmila Rudrappa, Supervisor Néstor Rodríguez Sheldon Ekland-Olson Ben Carrington Susana Peña “Listen to what your jotería is saying”: Pain, Social Harm, and Queer Latin@s by David Luis Glisch-Sánchez, B.S.; M.PUB.POL. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2015 Dedication To those Brown Queer Souls whose pain is not seen, heard, or understood; this has always been for you. Acknowledgements A person does not and cannot complete a dissertation and Ph.D. program on their own. There are the obvious ways this is true: your teachers, dissertation committee, advisor, and sources of financial support. Beyond this however, there is a constellation of folks that you rely on and help you in so many unexpected but wonderfully kind ways. So, please allow me to indulge in the wonderful practice of acknowledging this long list of beautiful people and souls who have played an instrumental role in helping me, whether they realize it or not. My gratitude will always begin with the twenty-six TLGBQ Latin@s I interviewed who through their courage, vulnerability, kindness, and generosity entrusted me with their life stories and the knowledge, wisdom, pain, love, fear, and hope that was contained within. Thank you for all of the hours you spent talking with me. Thank you for taking a chance on a total stranger. Thank you for being you and sharing that with me. Although their presence in the dissertation is not as visible, I would also like to thank the seventeen stakeholder interviewees who volunteered their time and insights to talk with me and provide extremely useful contextual knowledge I would not have had otherwise. There are several organizations and institutions I must thank. I am grateful for the financial support I received from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health through their Harry E. and Bernice M. Moore Dissertation Fellowship program, UT-Austin’s Community Engagement Center, and the Department of Latina/Latino Studies (LLS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) who provided not just financial support but was a critical intellectual incubator for this project. Within LLS, I would like to especially thank Laura Castañeda and Alicia Rodríguez who provided constant support v and encouragement. Additionally, I am grateful to my LLS colleagues Sandra Ruiz, Alberto Brandariz-Nuñez, Julie Dowling, Jonathan Inda, Claudia Sandoval, and Ana Soltero-Lopez for the tremendous kindness and intellectual engagement they have provided. I am forever indebted to Allison Holladay in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIUC for the administrative support she gave, her professionalism and promptness was always extremely appreciated. I must thank the students in my class, LLS 396/GWS 395: Latin@ Genders & Sexualities, who made it a joy to come to class every week despite the stress of finishing this dissertation. So to these nine wonderfully brilliant human beings—Lisette Arzuaga, Bobi Benegas, LaDarius DuPree, Araceli Medrano, Ellie Morales, Kaitlin Penn, Sruthi Raman, Xavy Ramirez, and Flor Reza— thank you for being an oasis during such a crazy time. I am indebted to several community organizations/projects that supplied intellectual and spiritual inspiration that gave me the courage to blaze my own trail and remain grounded in a liberatory ethics and politics. These spaces and places are Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind, especially the Brilliance Remastered program and the Guardian Dead: Ancestor-Led Intellectual Practice retreat. Dr. Gumbs along with Guardian Dead co-facilitator Eric Darnell Pritchard and retreat participants have all taught me how to do this work without comprising our vision for justice and transformation. Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown and all the black girl geniuses of Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths (SOLHOT) have taught me the joy that comes with celebrating the brilliance and wisdom of black girls, Latina girls, and all girls of color. I thank Brilliance Remastered and SOLHOT for inspiring me to be a better person. This project would not have been possible without the various kinds of help and support I received from community organizations like the Esperanza Center for Peace and Justice, South Dallas Cultural Center, Anti-Violence Project of New York, Audre vi Lorde Project (especially, their Safe OUTside the System Collective), Make the Road New York, and the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference. These organizations provided literal space for interviews or group meetings, a sounding board for ideas and observations, and/or insights into the local communities I was entering and attempting to work in. A very special recognition must be given to Priscilla Hale, Dr. Rose Pulliam, and all those that comprise the allgo community. You have given so much feedback, support, and many opportunities to share my work to a wider audience. Thank you so very, very much! I have had many teachers during my long academic journey, all of which have helped me learn important lessons and gain essential knowledge, but there are some in particular I must recognize. Thank you Paul Gessner for giving a precocious, loud, and opinionated queer cubanito license to be themself even when they didn’t always know what that meant. Gratitude does not begin to describe what I feel towards Shirley Minga, who for me is the embodiment of teaching excellence. Thank you for demanding the best from me and never allowing me to be intellectually lazy. Thank you for being a fair teacher who saw all of their students; you are the kind of teacher every child deserves and should have. Thank you Mr. Guardalabene for introducing a 16 year-old me to this thing called sociology and Dr. Enilda Delgado who gave me the first idea at 21 that maybe I would want to pursue a Ph.D. in sociology. Dr. Kara Lindaman is the reason I made it through the trials and tribulations of my undergraduate institution; she was a mentor and confidante par excellence. This project and its line of inquiry began many years ago in a graduate seminar on Queer of Color Theory at the University of Michigan, thank you so much Larry La Fountain-Stokes for introducing me to a body of literature that felt like safety and home. Your class and mentorship launched me onto a path I am so grateful for. Thank you Mary vii Corcoran for giving me the space to study public policy in a way that felt organic and true to me. Thank you Anthony S. Chen for taking me through my first two graduate sociology courses and giving me the opportunity to do archival research for the first time. Your encouragement and model teaching and research have left an important impression. During my tenure as a doctoral student, there has been a community of scholars who have so generously supported and encouraged me in a myriad of ways. It is hard to explain just how important support, kindness, and encouragement are to completing this process, but these folks provided it in spades: Jossianna Arroyo, Deborah Paredez, Frank Guridy, Stacy Macias, Rod Ferguson, and Deb Vargas. I want to thank Peter Ward, whose qualitative methods course demystified the research process for me, and gave me the confidence and belief that I could do this. In addition to this community of advanced and senior scholars, has been the intimate community of graduate school colleagues who have been like a second family to me. They have loved me, provided feedback, given advice, and been just really incredible people. So, with this said thank you so very much Jessica Dunning-Lozano, Sergio Cabrera, Aída Ramos, Claude Bonazzo, Elvia Mendoza, Esther Sullivan, and Andrea Henderson-Platt. Your courage, intelligence, kindness, and love have been life sustaining. I must take a moment and acknowledge the fellow dissertators who completed their projects and programs during my year at UIUC. It was a delight to be a witness to Delicia Greene, Durell Callier (Dr. D), and Kyle Mays Wabinaw becoming doctors. You energized and inspired me at a very critical moment! I must thank my family of origin and ancestral guardian dead. To Tata, Tío Fernando, Tía Esmi, Uncle Ed, y todos mis prim@s, especially Luis Mejia, Angela Mejia, and Isaac Glisch, thank you for your unconditional love and support in all of the obvious and not so obvious ways. Thank you for being a safe harbor in a world that is all viii too often cruel and mean. The depth of my gratitude for your presence in my life is infinite. Along with these wonderful people still with me, has been a legion of guardian angels, some who transitioned to this role during my doctoral process. I have felt their presence, wisdom, and protection throughout this journey. I name my guardian dead/angels here and send them in return the Light and Love they so generously shared with me: my abuelita (Carmen Sanchez), my abuelito (Luis Sanchez Gay), my great grandma (Ethel Kulwicki), my suegra (Kitty Pritchard), Nena (Irene Blanco, neé Sanchez), Coco (Manuel Blanco), Tía Rosita (Rosa Sanchez), Tío Ondin (Rolando Sanchez), Tía Mercedes (Mercedes Sanchez), and my primo Nelson. To my family of choice, you have sustained me and saved my life, you are a pure manifestation of love and joy in my life.