Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing

by Lázaro Lima (Editor), Felice Picano (Editor)

Overview

As the U.S. Latino population grows rapidly, and as the LGBTQ Latino community becomes more visible and a more crucial part of our literary and artistic heritage, there is an increasing demand for literature that successfully highlights these diverse lives. Edited by Lázaro Lima and Felice Picano, Ambientes is a revolutionary collection of fiction featuring stories by established authors as well as emerging voices that present a collective portrait of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience in America today. With a preface by Picano and an introduction by Lima that sets the stage for understanding Latino literary and cultural history, this is the first anthology to cross cultural and regional borders by offering a wide variety of urban, rural, East Coast, West Coast, and midwestern perspectives on Latina and Latino queers from different walks of life. Stories range from sensual pieces to comical romances and from inner-city dramas fueled by street language to portraits of gay domesticity, making this a much-needed collection for many different kinds of readers. The stories in this collection reflect a vibrant and creative community and redefine received notions of “gay” and “lesbian.”

Finalist, Over the Rainbow selection, American Library Association

Finalist, LGBT Anthology, Lambda Literary Awards

Best Special Interest Books, selected by the American Association of School Librarians

Best Special Interest Books, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299282240
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	06/27/2011
Edition description:	1
Pages:	220
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Lázaro Lima is the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in the Liberal Arts and professor of Latin American and Iberian Studies and American Studies at the University of Richmond. He is author of The Latino Body: Crisis Identities in American Literary and Cultural Memory.


Felice Picanois an accomplished author, editor, publisher, journalist, screenwriter, and playwright, and is one of the founders of the Violet Quill.

Table of Contents

Editors' Note: The Name of las Cosas

    Lázaro Lima and Felice Picano

Preface

       

    Felice Picano

Acknowledgments

       

Introduction: Genealogies of Queer Latino Writing

   
   
    Lázaro Lima

Kimberle

       
    Achy Obejas

Pandora's Box

   
   
    Arturo Arias

Shorty

   
   
    Daisy Hernández

Puti and the Gay Bandits of Hunts Point

   
   
    Charles Rice-González

Porcupine Love

       
    tatiana de la tierra

The Unequivocal Moon

       
    Elías Miguel Muñoz

Dear Rodney

   
   
    Emanuel Xavier

This Desire for Queer Survival

       
    Horacio N. Roque Ramírez

La Fiesta de Los Linares

       
    Janet Arelis Quezada

Malverde

       
    Myriam Gurba

Aquí viene Johnny

   
   
    Raquel Gutiérrez

Haunting José

   
   
    Rigoberto González

Imitation of Selena

   
   
    Ramón García

Currawong Crónica

       
    Susana Chávez-Silverman

I Leave Tomorrow, I Come Back Yesterday

       
    Uriel Quesada

Six Days in St. Paul

       
    Steven Cordova

Arturo, Who Likes to Shave His Legs in the Snow

   
    Lucy Marrero

Contributors   

Editorial Reviews

“With this collection, queer Latina/o writers claim their place in the variegated terrain of contemporary American fiction. Ranging from the erotic to the elegiac, the fantastic to the frighteningly real, these stories entertain our senses and challenge our notions of what it means to be a queer person of color.”—Israel Reyes, Dartmouth College

 

The stories presented in Ambientes are as varied as their authors, but the over-arching theme is one of otherness within our own communities. It’s that shared otherness, however, that promises a powerful cultural unity. By collecting these early stories, Lima and Picano have taken that first step toward transmuting our individual experiences into a larger cultural legacy, and, in turn, opening the door to a broader, more inclusive national identity.”—Lambda Literary

“Ambientes is a timely contribution at this point in history during which demographic shifts are literally changing the face of America. The stories in Ambientes provide a significant model for GLBT Latinos in the U.S., giving them the tools to find their own voice by uncovering a community that has long been neglected and silenced.” —The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide

From the Publisher