The key was in the eñe. The exceptional nature of that lyric, unique in Spanish and added to a string of others, also accounted for the exceptional nature of the meeting. For the first time, literature in Spanish written by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and collective queer She has gathered to talk about herself, but also about what surrounds her: the language, the taboos, the commitment, the dissidence, the responsibility with those who come. And it has done so far from its usual center (Spain, probably) and its logical peripheries (Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, almost any Latin American country). It has been the city of Los Angeles, in California and with a 51% Latino population, that has given home to this inaugural meeting, almost experimental, but which represents only the first chapter of many to come.
The writer Luisgé Martín, who has directed the Cervantes Institute in the city of Los Angeles for two years, is the one who gave life to the meeting, called LGBTQ+Ñ, the first literary festival in Spanish. The Madrid author has been the brain and home of this unique occasion that has brought together the authors Felipe Restrepo, Gabriela Wiener, Pablo Simonetti, Boris Izaguirre, Claudia Salazar, María Mínguez Arias and Nando López for three days. The heart of the meeting could seem to be the dozen workshops on various topics, along with the two photographic exhibitions by Liliana Hueso and Gonza Gallego, the screening of films and short films and the performances by Alejandro Córdova, La Taylorbut its true soul was observing different authors, of diverse origins (Spain, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru…) debating the state of affairs not only of letters, but of the entire LGBTQ+ culture.
The idea arose years ago, in a meeting in Costa Rica, between Martín and Simonetti. “This LGBTQ+ festival, with the eñe added as a symbol of Spanish, began to take shape long before I was director or the Cervantes of Los Angeles existed, at a dinner where we talked about how good it would be to bring together authors who could contribute their point of view in a precise way,” explained the director, who opened the Los Angeles center in the fall of 2022, in his inaugural speech. Beyond an eminently educational task—the children learning Spanish mix with the writers who come to give their talk—, The winner of the Herralde Novel Prize always knew that he wanted to give the center a cultural facet.
As he later explained to EL PAÍS in one of the rooms at the center, located north of Hollywood, very close to the white letters of the famous cartel, this has been “the star project” of these two years in office. There is no similar festival in Spanish, and he was clear that this place could be a good meeting point: “I saw it as coherent to do it in Los Angeles, because this is everyone’s land and no man’s land.” The writers have had local audiences as an audience and also the students and professors of the Los Angeles City College, which hosted the first two days of the talks, Thursday the 3rd and Friday the 4th, while on Saturday the 5th they moved to the Cervantes.
Martín was clear in his presentation, exposing three of the reasons for the need for such a festival. “If you let me start with frivolity, but no, because we are the most fun, the ones who add a little color to life, the playful and the vindictive. Secondly, because literature is a political act, one of our objectives is to be a sounding board, for equality, for emancipation; The future of the world depends on these causes. It is not true that LGBTI battles are distorting other battles, they have always been the same. And thirdly, because part of the new ideas that have fueled the world in our societies come from the LGBTI community and feminism, two great axes of looking at the world. We are not more intelligent or more sensitive, that is an elitist theory. It only has to do with marginality. If something makes us look at the world differently, it is that marginality; thinking from perplexity always helps to think. Our gaze comes from fear, confusion, rebellion, and that helps us think.”
If Martín has regretted anything about the experience, it is that there were authors who were left out. “This congress should have arrived earlier because there are many people who have not been able to be here: Eduardo Mendicutti should have been one of the guests, Cristina Peri Rossi, Fernando Vallejo, Vicente Molina Félix, Reyna Barrera,” listed Martín, who has also reflected on the lack of trans writers among the guests. “It’s not that it has been less represented, it’s that it hasn’t been,” she laments. “There were three, four possibilities, some even said yes, but it didn’t work out in the end.” “In addition, I think that right now trans literature is at the forefront,” he reflects, “the most interesting thing is being done from trans literature, because it is also the most disruptive, also the least assimilated and what needs more pedagogy.”.
María Mínguez Arias stated during the first panel, dedicated to Spanish as a language with a sexist undertone, that she was “probably the most enthusiastic person at this meeting.” Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the writer stated: “I have been writing here for 25 years and there has never been an opportunity like this. At some book fair I have offered a panel, I propose things like that, they think it’s good but they never know who to call, and they are always subspaces within something broader. Now I can speak from the point of view of writing in Spanish here. Digital has democratized production and distribution, you no longer depend on publishers, and then people like me emerge, immigrants from Latin America (there are four of us from Spain). This has come to be called the New Latino Boom. It queer It is on one side, but we are gaining space. My editor is a trans woman, there is already the first women’s literary magazine in Spanish. Spaces have to be created.”
Among some of his reflections, Pablo Simonetti observed that “marginality will always give strength to assault the center.” “Borges said that this eccentricity gives us a greater right to assault the center than that of the center,” said the Chilean writer. “It doesn’t always have to be the expression of frustration; There is a hurt and strange literature, but also a dandy, dissident-contestant literature… You have to aspire to be in the center while being on the margin. There are and should be representations on television, film, video games… but I don’t think that will lead to absolute normalization because that would be nirvana.”
Nando López highlighted the marginality in education: “Our presence in the educational system is a paragraph in the last subject of the second year of high school, which no one reads.” Felipe Restrepo spoke of the “danger of making everything commercial” in literature, film, television, in themes in general: “It is the same formula of selling a commercial story, but with a gay boy or a trans girl. “We should seek a break, not fall back into the same traditional stories.” “Like Corín Tellado’s?” Boris Izaguirre asked, to the laughter of the room.
The Venezuelan columnist, screenwriter and writer explained how it is still difficult for a great story to stop being classified as minor because it is part of the collective: “(The director and screenwriter) Alfonso Albacete and I are making an adaptation about the evolution and phenomenon of Shangay magazine”, a pioneer for the LGBTQ+ community in Spain, with interviews and trend reports. “We have presented it on many of those platforms that you have mentioned. In all of them we have found the negative response that it is too niche. This is a reality and you have to accept it. You sit in a meeting and watch how you try to separate the niche from something that is a niche story. The story of how a magazine manages to transform a demonstration of 150 people in 10 years into one of a million people and that is a global reference for our activism, such as gay pride in Madrid,” he asked.
Gabriela Wiener spoke of “how feminism has opened the way for others, especially lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, thanks to platforms with bookstores, fairs, events, festivals… A world is no longer conceivable where there are no black, brown, queer… It is seen in series on television platforms and in books,” he says. “We are told: ‘They are jumping on the bandwagon’: no, it is a question of human rights. They are own stories that come from lived experiences. Mario Vargas Llosa opens one of his new books with a lesbian scene: who gets on the bandwagon? The importance of feminism was supported by fellow Peruvian Claudia Salazar, who spoke of how “activism, especially feminism” has given visibility to stories that were hidden half a century ago. Pablo Simonetti also stated it: “You cannot be an LGBTQ writer ignoring feminism.” “Not even ignoring lesbians,” Boris Izaguirre stressed.
Luisgé Martín insisted and insists: “I tried from the beginning to have a 40-40-20 presence,” in terms of gays, lesbians and transsexuals. “But it was impossible. Gabriela Cabezón had to cancel because of a wedding; In Mexico there were two very important poets, one could not travel for health reasons and the other for visa reasons… In any case, its intention is continuity. The festival aims to perpetuate itself over time, grow, seek sponsors, expand, explore new voices and new names. Always with the Ñ in front. “And we can be founding partners,” Simonetti joked. They all said yes.