Breakthrough Black and Latino Roles on the Big Screen

Diaz goes one step further than Duque and says he has not “seen any good, positive depictions” of gay Latinos from Hollywood. “Even on American television, the closest you have to a positive gay Latino role model is 13-year-old Justin on ABC's Ugly Betty or Jai Rodriguez on Queer Eye. No other guys immediately come to mind.”

“Look at the character played by Hank Azaria in The Bird Cage (1996), or Antonio Banderas in the 1993 movie Philadelphia. All these actors could have been playing the same role.”

For this reason, many gay Latinos often look to nearby Latin America or to Spain for their film role models. “Especially in movies by Pedro Almodóvar, you see a range of gay Latino men,” Diaz adds. “They are masculine and yet some are feminine, or drag queens. They are educated while others are street hustlers. They are tortured yet complicated souls. Latin American cinema, I think, shows more of a diversity of gay men compared to American films, which fall into long-held stereotypes. You'd think it would be the other way around, no?”

“BEFORE NIGHT FALLS”

Before Night Falls (2000) is the film adaptation of the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas autobiography of the same name. The story describes his life in Cuba, the sexual revolution of the 1970s and, later, his persecution and imprisonment under Fidel Castro. The critically acclaimed biopic was directed by neo-expressionist painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, and Javier Bardem was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Emanuel Xavier is one of the principal figures in the queer people of color literary arts and spoken word movement. The co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, and acted in Maurice Jamal’s The Ski Trip.

“Before Night Falls is my favorite depiction of an openly gay Latino character in film,” Xavier tells AfterElton.com. “Reinaldo Arenas was most definitely worthy of a cinematic tribute, and Javier Bardem was an excellent choice to portray him.”

“Considering how many gay Latino men actually live in this country, Hollywood has a very long way to go,” the poet says, echoing the complaints of Andrés Duque and Johnny Diaz. “It's interesting that countries supposedly plagued by religion are putting out the most provocative cinema [for gay Latino roles].”

“OUR LADY OF THE ASSASSINS”

Most of the mentioned films did not see wide distribution in the States. One film that did and has been well received was Our Lady of the Assassins (2000), directed by Barbet Schroeder and filmed in Colombia. The film portrays the relationship between an older man who falls in love with two teen assassins. The plot is worthy of a Greek tragedy, so we won’t give it away, and was filmed in HD video, creating a gritty style that approached cinéma vérité.

The movie was also shot in Andrés Duque’s hometown of Medellín, Colombia. “The setting is a Latin American country and most of the actors Latino,” Duque explains. “That changes the dynamics completely as their background becomes secondary to the story and they are allowed to develop more fully into complex characters.”

Duque does not totally discount Hollywood’s portrayals of Latino gay men. "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995) is notable for Latinos for John Leguizamo’s turn as a drag queen,” he notes. Ditto for Kiss of the Spider Woman, the 1985 Brazilian-American production where actor William Hurt took home the Oscar… the first time an actor won for playing gay.

Quinceañera (2006) won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Participation Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The small, independent love story was directed by out couple Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland and tells the story of two Mexican-American cousins who become estranged from their families: Magdalena due to her pregnancy and Carlos due to his sexuality.

Carlos, the gay Latino character, “is the object of lust for a white gay couple in the film,” Andrés Duque notes. “But there is nuance to this characterization. At least the actual producers, who are a gay white couple, have been candid in interviews in saying that it's a dynamic that they wanted to put in the film because they've seen it themselves, as a white gay couple moving into a mostly Latino neighborhood that is being gentrified. They not only acknowledge the objectification, but they go beyond it and expose it as well.”