english

Compañeras in the Middle: Toward a History of Latina Lesbian Organizing in Chicago

Lourdes Torres

GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Volume 20, Numbers 1-2, 2014, pp. 41-74 (Article)

Published by Duke University Press

For additional information about this article

Access provided by The University of Iowa Libraries (5 Nov 2018 03:58 GMT)

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/536500

Compañeras in the middle toward a history of latina lesbian organizing in Chicago

Lourdes Torres

I remember Sandra Rodriguez, who was probably the geekiest of the

geeks, Puerto Rican, very low income, you know, she was just very,

very homely, very dykey. And I saw her, and brought her in the group

and within a year to see this girl with low self- esteem, glasses, short

hair — I mean she just started to glow because people recognized

her for who she was. And Sandra became like my bodyguard! And I

didn’t want that, but I think she felt so loyal that we would just say,

“come on,” no issues about your identity, what you looked like, how

much you make, what kind of work you had or you didn’t have . . .

—Marilyn Morales, LLENA member

We try to be mostly bilingual. Because I am not . . . my Spanish

language speaking skills aren’t that good. So some Spanish speakers

felt hurt with English. I think that’s really hard, that language stuff

is really hard. I think for some people who are second generation,

there’s a lot of stigma with the language. So, whenever you’re with a

Spanish- speaking group it may bring out unresolved issues. The way

to deal with it, is to try to deal with it. We tried to make sure that

meetings were in both languages so that you didn’t have to be called

out. But, that was not satisfactory to everybody; it’s labor and time

intensive and it produces some nuances. For those who were Spanish

speaking only, it was hard. For women who didn’t speak Spanish it

would be uncomfortable. It’s really interesting, I’ve been accused of

being too Latina and too white. But, we are who we are.

—Mona Noriega, LLENA and Amigas Latinas member

GLQ 20:1–2

DOI 10.1215/10642684-2370360

© 2014 by Duke University Press

42 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

This essay documents and explores the history of two groups in Chicago — Amigas Latinas, a Latina lesbian, bisexual, and transgender advocacy organi-

zation that was founded in 1995 and is still in existence, and LLENA, which

predated Amigas Latinas and existed from about 1988 to 1992.1 The collective

efforts of Latina lesbians to represent, define, and defend their identities and to

create and occupy public spaces are inherently political and have forever altered

the mainstream LGBT and Latino communities in Chicago. The women in these

organizations engaged with each other around the complexities of multiple identi-

ties, class, language, and other differences while building alliances across local,

national, and transnational lines. The models with which they experimented, and

the strategies they attempted, continue to be relevant today not only for Latinas

but for all progressive multiethnic organizations committed to creating inclusive

movements for social change.

Since the scholarship that exists on lesbian organizing in the Midwest

neglects to engage with the history of Latina lesbian organizing, this project

focuses on Latina lesbians as agents of change and active subjects of a multiracial

history of grassroots organizing that has yet to be written. My research methods

included conducting oral interviews with participants of the groups, studying their

archival records (minutes, flyers, newsletters, letters, and financial papers), and

examining all the media reports in the Chicago gay press.2 Participant observa-

tion research informs my analysis, as I was a member of the board of directors of

Amigas Latinas from 2006 to 2010.

In what follows, I describe the founding of LLENA and Amigas Latinas,

their efforts to create Latina lesbian visibility in both the “Latino” and “lesbian”

social and political cultures of Chicago, and their successful and unsuccessful

efforts to negotiate divergent national and ethnic histories, class and linguistic dif-

ferences, and the diverse political stances of their membership. I also look at the

coalition- building politics that the groups established with other Latino and queer

communities in Chicago and internationally, their strategies for sustainability, and

their enduring contributions. While critics suggest that social movements built on

identity politics are flawed because they are essentially apolitical and fail to effect

social change, I argue that through small and large efforts, both LLENA and

Amigas Latinas advance significant cultural and political change in Chicago.3

Both organizations carve a space for Latina lesbians to challenge the exclusionary

practices in their Latino communities and the mainstream lesbian and gay move-

ment, and to build a queer pan- Latina consciousness and movement.

Accounts of Latina lesbian organizing, and organizing by other people

of color around the United States, are sorely needed to expand the existing gay

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 43

and lesbian historiography by articulating how race and ethnicity shape this

vibrant history. While there is a growing body of literature on lesbian and gay

history in the United States, including the foundational work of John D’Emilio,

Estelle Freedman, Elizabeth Kennedy, Madeline Davis, and George Chauncey Jr.,

and more recent histories by Marc Stein and Elizabeth Armstrong, histories of

racial and ethnic queer activist groups are rare, and publications on Latina les-

bian organizing in the Midwest are almost nonexistent.4 My interest in document-

ing the history of Latina lesbian organizing in Chicago was sparked by Hora-

cio Roque Ramírez’s groundbreaking essay on the founding of the Gay Latino

Alliance, a San Francisco – based organization that formed in the late 1970s. No

such accounts exist of organizing by lesbian and gay Latinos in the Midwest; in

fact, as Bill Johnson González notes in this volume, the queer Midwest has been

largely ignored by both scholars of sexuality and Latin@ studies. My study seeks

to unearth the specific contributions of Latina lesbians to the history of queer

organizing in the Midwest. In addition to moving toward a more complete record of

queer activism in the United States that is inclusive of the participation of people

of color, such documentation is also vitally important to Latinas, and other queer

women of color, who do not see our specific issues and concerns addressed in

white gay and lesbian histories or in heterosexual Latino/a community narratives.

llena and amigas latinas — Beginnings

Both LLENA and Amigas Latinas were launched thanks to the powerful per-

sonalities and effective organization skills of two Latina lesbians. While María

Amparo Jiménez and Evettte Cardona did not develop the organizations on their

own, they had the vision to bring women together and the persistence to generate

excitement about the projects. When Jiménez moved to Chicago from Mexico City

in the mid- 1980s, she was surprised by the lack of visible Latina/o lesbian and

gay culture. A veteran activist, she was eager to find other Latina lesbian feminists

in her new community.5 She soon found a job advocating for Latino people with

AIDS. At a party, she complained to others that there was no Latina/o visibility

even in the gay press. One of the people who heard her was Tracy Baim, then and

still the publisher of one of Chicago’s most important gay newspapers, Outlines.

Baim challenged Jiménez, offering her space for a section on Latino/a gay and les-

bian issues.6 Her first column appeared in September 1988. Outlines became the

first gay and lesbian publication in the nation to feature a Spanish- language sec-

tion on Latina/o and Latin American issues. In one of her first “Bajo mi relieve”

columns that ran in the section titled “Encuentro Latino,” in November 1988,

44 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

Jiménez called for a meeting of Latina lesbians. The announcement in the paper

and a few phone calls brought together a group of ten women to the first meet-

ing on November 4, 1988; subsequent meetings in those early days often drew

between thirty and forty women. Marilyn Morales remembers that she came up

with the most popular name for the new group, “LLENA,” an acronym for Latina

Lesbians en Nuestro Ambiente (in our space): “LLENA was perfect because that’s

how it was at the beginning, we were in our own space and there was a sense of

completeness.”7

LLENA participants remember the initial joy of forming their group. For

many it was the first time they came together with other Latina lesbians outside of

the bars or meetings of small groups of friends. LLENA members recall the meet-

ings drawing all kinds of Latinas including first- generation, Spanish- speaking

immigrants like Jiménez and second- generation Latinas like Morales. LLENA wel-

comed all Latinas regardless of how they identified. The meetings attracted scores

of women of various Latin American national backgrounds (Puerto Rican, Mexi-

can, Cuban, Ecuadorian, Peruvian) and Chicanas. Women of all ages (from their

early twenties to their sixties) came, as did married or closeted women and women

who were just coming out, veteran dykes, professional women, and undocumented

women and women from all class backgrounds. Meetings were intense, bilingual,

and chaotic.8 They often lasted more than four hours, and after the meetings the

women would go out together to restaurants and bars. The group decided to con-

tinue meeting to create a safe space for Latina lesbians and to address issues of

homophobia in the Latino community and the invisibility of Latina lesbians in the

white mainstream queer community.9

Eight years later, during an intensely hot summer when Chicago was bak-

ing under record- breaking temperatures, Amigas Latinas formed. When Evette

Cardona, a Puerto Rican lesbian born and raised in Chicago, decided to again

organize Latina lesbians, LLENA no longer existed.10 As Baim documents in Out

and Proud in Chicago, a proliferation of queer people of color groups emerged in

the mid- 1990s.11 Affinity and Chicago Black Lesbians (two groups that represented

African American lesbians), Khuli Zaban (a group that represented South Asian

and West Asian queer women), and ALMA (Association of Latino Men for Action)

formed during this time. Amigas Latinas, like many of these other organizations,

was actually a splinter group that developed from a larger, multiethnic group,

Women of All Colors and Cultures Together (WACT) that hosted potluck lunches

once a month throughout the 1990s. In late spring 1995 Cardona, who had recently

come out as a lesbian, was yearning for a Latina lesbian community and noticed

that there was a large representation of Latinas at the WACT potlucks. She asked

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 45

the women if they would like to meet as a separate group, and a few months later

Amigas Latinas had its first meeting in the home of Christina Garza.12

Aside from LLENA, another source of inspiration for bringing Latina lesbi-

ans together was ALMA, a group that began organizing Latino gay men in the early

1990s.13 Cardona consulted the leadership of ALMA for advice on how to mobilize

Latinas. Initially conceived of as a support group for lesbians and bisexuals, Amigas

modeled its programs on WACT’s successful formula of bringing together women

to share a meal and engage in discussion. The plática topics were announced and

advertised through flyers and word of mouth. Topics included queer- themed issues

such as coming out and dealing with family, safe sex, and legal rights for lesbi-

ans, as well as more general issues such as spirituality, financial planning, and

understanding racism and classism (see Figures 1 and 2). Pláticas were facilitated

by Amigas Latinas leaders and invited guests, but the topics for each month’s

meetings were chosen through group consensus. The question of creating Latina-

only spaces was not uncontroversial. Some women had partnerships with women

from other cultures, and they wanted their partners to attend. The politics around

who could attend the meetings was an ongoing issue across the years. The same

issue was debated in LLENA, and both groups agreed that Latina- only spaces

were necessary.

When it became clear that some of the women who came to the pláticas

were recent immigrants or monolingual Spanish speakers, bilingual pláticas were

initiated. Throughout its history, like LLENA, Amigas Latinas leaders have been

committed to providing support to Spanish- speaking women. In 1998 Amigas

started a support group for monolingual Spanish speakers that was facilitated by

two Spanish- dominant Amigas leaders, Mary Torres and Juanita Crespo. While

Cardona always consulted with a small group of women about Amigas processes

and programs, it was not until after LLEGÓ, the national gay Latino organization,

held its annual conference in Chicago in 1998 that Amigas formed its first official

steering committee. Planning for the large conference helped Amigas’ participants

understand that they could accomplish more through a formal structure, so in

1998 they created a steering committee.14

latina lesbian Visibility

While both organizations increased Latina lesbian visibility in Chicago, an impor-

tant difference between LLENA and Amigas Latinas was the political context

from which each group emerged. During the late 1990s and early 2000s Chi-

cago was a much friendlier place for Latino gays and lesbians than it was in the

46 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

Figure 1. Flyer promoting an Amigas Latinas’ bilingual plática held on February 21, 1989.

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 47

Figure 2. Flyer promoting an Amigas Latinas’ bilingual plática held on March 16, 1997.

48 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

1980s. Reflecting on this difference and LLENA’s contribution, Morales (a mem-

ber of both LLENA and Amigas Latinas) notes that it was risky being out in the

mid- 1980s:

We put Latina women on the map in terms of what was going on in the 80s

as far as the gay scene, I mean there’s Boystown, you had all these gay

groups, it’s all white affiliated. . . . It was not easy being gay, in the 80s.

The gay scene was like, no one talked about it in the Latino community, it

was horrible. . . . So I think that LLENA really kind of cemented that there

is this population in the Latino community that is gay, and we are here.15

Those advocating for visibility were committed to making sure that Latina lesbi-

ans had a presence in both the mainstream LGB culture and within their Latina

communities. For these women, that was an important goal of coming together.

LLENA’s bylaws suggested that visibility was a goal of the group, but this did not

preclude disagreements about the extent to which LLENA should have a public

face.16 Some professional women, married women, and others who were undoc-

umented resisted public exposure. Jiménez recalls that often she was the only

one willing to participate in public or political meetings as an out lesbian. There

were also debates about whether the group should march in gay pride events or

as a contingent in the Mexican or Puerto Rican day parades. Usually those who

were out represented the group at such events and the closeted women avoided

such spaces.17

Some LLENA participants took the lead in demanding that public spaces

that claimed to be for all lesbians live up to this commitment. For example, sev-

eral women were tired of frequenting and financially supporting lesbian Chicago

bars such as Paris, Susy B’s, and CKs but never being able to hear Latino music.

Women approached the DJs and asked for Latino music. They were told that the

bar did not have such music, and when the women offered to bring some they were

still ignored. LLENA members approached the owners to declare that unless they

started playing Latino music Latinas would boycott their establishments. This

strategy worked, and they soon “Latinized” the spaces, one bar at a time. One

woman credits LLENA not only with the introduction of Latino music to the bars

but also the tradition of having weekly or monthly salsa nights.18 However, not

everyone agreed that this was progress. In October 1989 Jiménez published a

scathing analysis of the idea of “Salsa Night” in her “Bajo mi relieve” column. It

begins, “El día que haya ‘noches para mujeres blancas’ en los bares, me sentiré

a gusto de asistir a las ‘noches para mujeres de color’ ” (The day that they have

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 49

“nights for white women” at the bars, I’ll feel good about attending “nights for

women of color”).19 She discusses an incident after a queer conference when she

and twenty Latina lesbians decided to go dancing at a gay bar. They asked man-

agement to play Latino music and were denied, so they left. The next day Jiménez

called up the owner of the bar, who apologized and offered free admission to all

those who had left the bar. The owner also asked Jiménez to bring Spanish music,

since the bar did not have any. Jiménez and company showed up with their LPs,

only to encounter reluctance. Finally, the DJ stopped the music and announced

that salsa would be played. Even on so- called Latin nights, women were asked to

bring their own music, since the clubs did not stock Latino music. Jiménez found

such practices degrading: “Somos una comunidad en pleno crecimiento y aún nos

falta mucho por andar, pero no somos idiotas que podamos permitir que se nos

humille, mientras toman nuestros dólares y se dan crédito por ‘incluirnos’ ” (We

are a growing community and we have a long way to go, but we are not idiots who

can permit others to humiliate us while they take our money and give themselves

credit for “including us”).20 As with other issues, this debate captures the diver-

gent political views on visibility that coexisted in LLENA.

Visibility in both the mainstream, mostly white LGBTQ movement and in

the Latina community was an early and important goal of Amigas Latinas. To pro-

mote such visibility, Amigas began participating in both gay and lesbian marches

and in pride day marches in Chicago’s Latino communities. In 1998 Amigas Lati-

nas participated in its first gay pride march down Halsted Street and the first

Puerto Rican day pride parade in Humboldt Park, a predominantly Puerto Rican

neighborhood. In previous years, the Puerto Rican parade committee had excluded

gay and lesbian contingents.21 In September 2000 Amigas Latinas marched in the

26th Street Mexican Independence parade through Chicago’s Mexican La Villita

community. As the 2000 Amigas Latinas newsletter states, “This public exposure

served two purposes: exposure of Latina LBQ women to the broader LGBT com-

munity and the recognition that within the broader Latino community there exist

women who are also lesbian and bisexual.”22

But as with LLENA, visibility was not an option for all the women who

sought Latina lesbian sisterhood through Amigas. In fact, Amigas Latinas con-

fined most of its early activities during the first few years to the monthly pláticas

rather than public exhibitions of lesbian pride. But in these spaces of communion,

the issue of promoting lesbian visibility within the family and the Latino com-

munity certainly was debated in difficult dialogues. For example, a plática in the

early 2000s dealt with the subject of Latina lesbians in relationships with clos-

eted, married women. Fourteen amigas showed up for the discussion. The plática

50 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

lasted over four hours as women discussed their anxiety about being involved in

such fraught and sometimes dangerous relationships. Women who were married

spoke of fear of financial ruin, vindictive husbands, and of losing their children

if their lesbianism became known. One woman spoke of engaging in a dual life

for over twenty years. An article summarizing the plática cautioned readers not

to judge closeted married women too harshly and suggested that condemnation

belonged not on the women but on our homophobic society that makes it difficult

for women to alter their situations.23

A central concern of Amigas has always been to help participants navigate

coming out to their families. While some recent research on Latina/o lesbian and

gay men suggests that they often coexist in contexts where families have a tacit

understanding rather than open recognition of queer family members, Amigas has always advocated for visibility while respecting the need for some lesbians to be

closeted.24 A goal of family- related programming listed in a 1999 newsletter was

“to help normalize for children the realities and normality of living in lesbian/

bisexual headed household.”25

As many Amigas Latinas have children, early on the organization initi-

ated family- oriented events and activities. In addition to events like pool parties,

bowling, and trips to museums, Amigas also focused some of their pláticas on

challenging the silence around sexuality that too often prevails in all families. On

December 14, 2003, Amigas held a holiday brunch for members and their fami-

lies. The event produced both heartbreaking and uplifting conversations. A father

sadly reported that he did not think his wife would ever accept their daughter’s

relationship with another woman. On the other hand, one mother declared that her

daughter’s sexual identity did not matter to her as long as her daughter was happy.

In an honest appraisal of the event that poignantly captures the difficulty of being

out even for those who are lesbian leaders, the Amigas newsletter noted that many

of the board members themselves did not ask their parents to the brunch even

though they were out to their families: “The thought of being in a room full of les-

bians was overwhelming for family members and for ourselves and most decided

to wait until next time.”26 This brunch was followed up several months later with

a plática titled “Talking to Your Kids about Being a Lesbian.” Twenty- five women

and ten youth participated in this session where kids discussed their experiences

as children of lesbian moms. In the second half of the plática, moms and kids role-

played being the other and asked each other difficult questions. According to the

Amigas newsletter, one lesson learned was the following: “You would never apolo-

gize for being Latina, don’t apologize for being lesbian.”27 However, this is not to

suggest that such honesty comes easily or is without costs. One woman explained

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 51

that her children chose to live with their father when she came out to them. For-

tunately, the children returned to her care years later because they felt that she

was a more caring parent; nonetheless, she suffered gravely during the years of

separation. In 2004 Amigas board member Aurora Pineda joined with leaders of

ALMA to start a Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)

group in Spanish to provide education and support of families and friends of queer

Latinos.28 Amigas’ efforts may not seem revolutionary on a large scale, but they

provided a space for Latina lesbians to safely work through issues of visibility and

to decide for themselves, without judgment, the degree to which they wished to

make their sexuality known inside and outside their families.

Amigas Latinas has also been involved in public protests against homo-

phobic practices, enhancing Latina lesbian visibility both within the Latino com-

munity and in the LGBTQ mainstream. For example, in October 2003 represen-

tatives from Amigas Latinas and ALMA met with Rafael Pulido (El Pistolero), a

popular DJ of an FM radio morning show, El Pistolero y Memín, on La Que Buena

WOJO. The gay activists accused Pulido of perpetuating homophobia through his

offensive gay jokes and slurs.29 While Pulido did not apologize for his language,

the activists felt that the meeting was productive. Aurora Pineda, an Amiga Lati-

nas board member, reported that she felt that she made an impact when she talked

to the DJ about her experiences as a Latina from a local Mexican community:

I told him how I live in Little Village; he seemed to really pay attention.

They didn’t seem bad; they were willing to listen to us. I didn’t expect a lot.

This is the first time this has ever been done. The Latino LGBT commu-

nity has not addressed this before. For them to be open to us was a positive

outcome for myself. We cannot expect the Latino community to change

overnight. But the way they paid attention was good for starters.30

Like LLENA, Amigas Latinas used a range of strategies to enhance Latina les-

bian visibility both in Latino families and communities and in the wider main-

stream LGBT context.

Building local Connections

Both LLENA and Amigas Latina were committed to building alliances with other

organizations. They worked with other queer and Latino organizations on issues

that affected the Latino LGBTQ communities. As in the example above, both

confronted Latino organizations and businesses engaged in homophobic practices

52 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

and challenged mainstream gay and lesbian organizations when they excluded or

ignored Latino issues. They also formed coalitions with other groups around com-

mon causes.

A strategic move by LLENA to meet within a dominantly heterosexual

Latino space demonstrates that many in the organization were interested in estab-

lishing a public Latina lesbian presence in spaces that had previously been closed

to them and in forming coalitions with progressive organizations in the Latino

community. Initially, LLENA met every Friday at Horizons, a gay and lesbian

center, on Sheffield Avenue on the city’s North Side. After a while, however, some

members of the group advocated for holding meetings in one of the Latino neigh-

borhoods. In addition, some LLENA members were starting to feel unwelcome at

Horizons, a space dominated by white gay men. One LLENA member remembers

being made to wait outside on a cold winter’s day because the men would not open

the space for the women to enter before the scheduled meeting time.31 Another

member affiliated with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Humboldt Park talked

to José Lopez, the executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, to see

if they could meet there. This idea was not universally supported because some

women preferred to meet outside the Latino community, since they were closeted,

and others were reluctant to meet at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center because of

its radical reputation for activism around the independence of Puerto Rico dur-

ing the late 1980s and early 1990s when the center was a frequent target of FBI

surveillance and harassment. Nevertheless, when Lopez extended a written invita-

tion to the group offering space, the offer was accepted.32 In his invitation letter

dated January 5, 1990, Lopez points out that both LLENA and the Puerto Rican

Cultural Center are allies that must work together to break the silence that exists

in the Puerto Rican community around issues of sexuality, and he states that the

center looks forward to working with LLENA toward these ends (see Figure 3).

While the center had a mixed history in dealing with feminism, in this instance,

it acted in a supportive and collaborative way that foreshadows other progressive

steps toward acknowledging queer Puerto Rican community members.33

LLENA’s orientation toward coalition building corresponded to the femi-

nist politics and organizing sweeping the United States in the 1980s. At that time

there was much excitement about the possibility of creating a Third World women

of color feminist movement, evident in the writings by lesbian feminists of color in

the United States such as the Combahee River Collective, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria

Anzaldúa, and others.34 Many of LLENA’s leaders were reading this literature at

the time that they were organizing their group. LLENA had an ambitious vision

of what it was and was clearly committed from the beginning to building bridges

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 53

between Chicago Latina lesbians and other women, both women of color and white

women locally, nationally, and internationally. The following text, excerpted from

a flyer announcing a cultural event organized in 1989, one year and a half after

the groups’ founding, explains the organization’s focus:

LLENA es una organizacion joven, fundada para ofrecer un espacio a las

Latinas Lesbianas de Chicago y suburbios. En casi un año y medio de

Figure 3. Letter to LLENA members from José Lopez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. Lopez welcomes the women to the center and states that he looks forward to working with LLENA to break the silence around sexuality that exists in the Puerto Rican community.

54 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

existencia, LLENA ha organizado eventos culturales y sociales que consti-

tuyeron exitos completos y que tuvieron la concurrencia de mujeres Lati-

nas, Negras, Asiaticas, Nativas Americas y Anglas, todas compartiendo la

emocion y las esperanzas de nuestra organizacion que esta aqui para que-

darse, y que coninuara presentando el desafio de existencia, no solo a la

comunidad Latinoamericana de Chicago, sino a la comunidad en general,

de esta cuidad, el pais y el extranjero.35

[LLENA is a young organization, founded to provide a space

for Latinas Lesbians of Chicago and the suburbs. In almost a year and

a half of existence, LLENA has organized very successful cultural and

social events which have brought together Latinas, Blacks, Asians, Native

Americans and White women, all sharing the excitement and hope for our

organi zation that is here to stay, and that will continue to present a chal-

lenge because of its existence, not just in the Latino community in Chi-

cago, but the community in general, of this city, the country and abroad.

(my translation)]

LLENA was especially interested in building coalitions with women of

color, but it also worked with white women. The fall 1990 issue of the bilingual

newsletter Lesbiana (see Figure 4) highlights LLENA’s expansive conception of

what it was as an organization and makes a clear commitment to enacting an inclu-

sive and pluralistic Latina lesbian feminism.36 An article states, “Inasmuch as this

newsletter will contribute to our visibility and further enrich the lesbian commu-

nity in Chicago, we also hope that it will help build bridges between our commu-

nity and the Asian, African American, and white/Anglo lesbian communities.”37

One of LLENA’s most successful coalitions with other lesbians was its col-

laboration with other groups to organize the International Women’s Dances in the

late 1980s and early 1990s (see Figure 5). These massive events brought together

thousands of women. The first dance was held in 1989 at the Electrical Work-

ers Union Hall on South Ashland. As attendance at the dances grew, the event

was moved downtown to the Congress Hotel on Michigan Avenue, attracting over

fifteen hundred women. This recurring fundraising effort led to the building of

working relationships, networking, and friendships among women of many dif-

ferent backgrounds who organized the dances.38 Among the other cosponsoring

organizations were progressive groups of working- class women of color such as the

Chicago Women in Trades, Literary Exchange, the Mozambican Women’s Support

Project, and Women United for a Better Chicago. Only organizations whose mem-

bership included at least 75 percent women of color were invited to cosponsor.39

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 55

While there was some debate as to whether to advertise the event as a

lesbian or a women’s dance, the organizers decided that it would attract more par-

ticipation if it was promoted simply as a women’s dance. A heated discussion sur-

faced every year about whether to allow men to attend the dances. Some women

felt strongly that all their events should be exclusively women’s spaces, while oth-

Figure 4. The first and only issue of Lesbiana — a newsletter produced by LLENA’s members in 1990.

56 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

ers felt comfortable with supportive male family, friends, and allies. In fact, the

degree to which the group should work and form coalitions with men at all led to

fierce debates. In terms of the International Women’s Day Dance, the members

decided that they would welcome the financial support of men but made it clear

that they preferred that men not attend the dances. The policy that prevailed was

that “men would be allowed but not encouraged.”40

Figure 5. Flyer promoting the International Women’s Day Dance held on March 16, 1991. LLENA was one of the co- organizers of this annual event.

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 57

In another example of coalition building, LLENA supported black women

protesting against Mountain Moving Coffee House, a feminist performance space,

when it booked a show featuring white Olivia Records singer Dianne Davidson

on October 28, 1989. Protesters took exception with Davidson’s remarks in inter-

views about “Heroes,” one of her songs that she described as a tribute to the black

women who took care of her when she was a child in the South. Women of color

and women from the organization CLEAR (Chicago Lesbians Emerging Against

Racism) called for a boycott charging Davidson with racism. Some women claimed

that she seemed to be celebrating rather than critiquing a social and economic

context that forced poor black women to act as caretakers of wealthier white fami-

lies. In essence, Davidson was accused of romanticizing a profoundly unequal sys-

tem. While women repeatedly brought up these criticisms in numerous settings,

including the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Davidson refused to acknowledge

that her song was offensive. The collective that ran Mountain Moving Coffee House

did not cancel the event but allowed protesting women to make statements before

the concert and held a workshop on racism afterward. Among the women speaking

before the show was the feminist philosopher Maria Lugones, representing LLENA.

She stated,

I am here to express our outrage and sense of betrayal. In this woman-

only space we will not tolerate Dianne Davidson or anyone else who would

objectify and romanticize slavery. We can accept no excuse from the cof-

feehouse or from Olivia Records for participating and rewarding — as

opposed to confronting and demanding change in racist behavior. The only

appropriate action would have been to cancel the appearance. . . . To have

her perform, and then have a discussion about racism, repeats the pattern

of speaking about racism as a way of making racist behavior acceptable.

We will not be fooled. As a part of the lesbian community we absolutely

demand respect.41

Eventually, the Collective of the Coffee House issued an apology to all women of

color, including LLENA, and agreed that the concert should have been canceled.42

Amigas Latinas also engaged in coalition building around pressing social

and political issues. They have collaborated for over a decade to build relation-

ships with other organizations to stop violence against women in lesbian relation-

ships. Since many of the women in leadership positions in Amigas had social work

and/or women’s health and social advocacy credentials, they facilitated work-

shops for mainstream agencies on intimate partner violence in an effort to get

these organizations to incorporate this dimension in their work. In 2001 Amigas

58 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

received a $10,000 grant to support efforts to build capacity among mainstream

service workers to understand the specific issues involved when Latina lesbians

are involved in intimate partner violence. The grant also supported Amigas’ com-

mitment to developing bilingual materials on same- sex partner violence in Latina

communities. These materials provided information on how and where to access

services and the legal rights of women in abusive relationships. Additionally, Ami-

gas leaders served on the board of a national project, Proyecto Basta, which was

committed to stopping such violence.43

Amigas Latinas also has a long history of working with other Latino gay

organizations around common issues. In 1998 Amigas Latinas joined with other

local groups ALMA and ALAS (a short- lived Latina lesbian social action group)

to bring the annual conference of LLEGÓ (the National Latina/o Lesbian, Gay,

Bisexual, and Transgender Organization) to Chicago. This was the sixth annual

meeting of the national organization, and because of the strength of such organi-

zations as Amigas Latinas and ALMA, the national conference was held in Chi-

cago in 1998.44 Over the years, Amigas also has worked with ALMA to cosponsor

dances and other events to bring together Latino gay men and lesbians. Plática

discussions have sometimes been cofacilitated with Amigas leaders and knowl-

edgeable persons from other organizations. For example, pláticas on health have

been cofacilitated with representatives of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project,

and representatives of Lambda Legal have led pláticas on legal issues.

More recently, Amigas Latinas’ coalitional efforts have centered on advo-

cating for the rights of undocumented lesbian immigrant women who arrive in

Chicago seeking economic survival and freedom to express their same- sex ori-

entation. In 2000 the Amigas Latinas newsletter noted a 50 percent increase in

the number of Spanish monolinguals who were calling their hotline and seeking

support. In addition to organizing bilingual pláticas, starting a Spanish-language

PFLAG, and facilitating coming- out groups in Spanish, Amigas Latinas is the

only organization in Chicago that provides support for monolingual queer Spanish

women and connects them to a host of relevant services. Given its commitment

to queer immigrants, Amigas spearheaded the creation of the Chicago LGBTQ

Immigrants Alliance (CLIA) in 2005 to address the needs of US- based LGBTQ

immigrants and all immigrants.

This network of activist groups addresses the issues of queer immigrants

who face the multiple pressures of homophobia, racism, sexism, and classism.45 In

the United States, the immigrant advocacy movement is almost exclusively cen-

tered on heteronormative paradigms and a narrow reading of family in its approach

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 59

to arguing for citizenship rights.46 The mainstream LGBTQ rights movement, if

it addresses immigration at all, focuses exclusively on immigrants whose part-

ners are US citizens. This leaves out queer Latinos who are not in homonormative

relationships or who are single. The Alliance has organized town hall meetings

to bring together queer and immigrant communities and organizations that pro-

vide immigration services. By providing resources and support networks for queer

immigrants and their allies and advocating for progressive immigration laws, the

Alliance articulates an intersectional analysis of Latino queer immigration that

can challenge interlocking systems of domination. Linking seemingly unrelated

issues can be challenging especially for those who have a narrow understanding of

immigration or LGBT politics. The Alliance sought to establish a queer presence

in the immigration marches that began in Chicago in 2006 and spread across the

country as a way to make such connections visible. Over five hundred thousand

people rallied in defense of immigrant rights in Chicago on May 1, 2006, dur-

ing one of the early megamarches. Many members from the Alliance participated

in solidarity with immigrants. Unfortunately, some Latina lesbians experienced

homophobic taunts from other immigrant marchers. One Amigas member, Nicole

Perez, spoke out against this treatment in the gay media:

Although I was completely impressed and inspired by the amount of peo-

ple and support at the march, my partner and I had an extremely nega-

tive experience there. While we were walking throughout the march

(holding hands) we were stared at constantly and got a number of rather

nasty and hostile looks from people. On top of this, some guy actually had

the nerve to come up to my partner and I and began personally insulting

us. He called us a bunch of faggots, told us we made him sick, and said

that queers have no right to be at this rally because it’s not a gay rights

march, and told us we should all just go home.47

Following the march, the Alliance (CLIA) began working with leaders of the

immigrants’ rights movement to initiate dialogue around homophobia within the

immigrant movement and also with LGBTQ groups to encourage them to show

up in force at the marches and support immigrant issues. This strategy proved

effective, and antagonistic incidents have not been reported again since 2006; in

fact, subsequent years have seen the participation of larger LGBTQ contingents in

immigrant marches.

60 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

transnational efforts

The vision and mission of LLENA and Amigas Latinas encompass a transnational

focus that attempts to forge links between US Latina and Latin American lesbian

and queer activism. Both LLENA and Amigas Latinas, while based in Chicago,

have sought to bridge differences between US- based Latina and Latin American

lesbians and develop cross- border relationships. Both organizations have made

efforts to advance transnational work and to enact a Latina/Latin American hemi-

spheric vision.

In the essay “Translating the Global: Effects of Transnational Organizing

on Local Feminist Discourses and Practices in Latin America,” Sonia Alvarez

suggests that local organizations seek transnational connections for two central

reasons: first, “to (re)construct or reaffirm subaltern or politically marginalized

identities and to establish personal and strategic bonds of solidarity with oth-

ers who share locally stigmatized values or identities,” and second, “to attempt

to expand formal rights or affect public policy,” for example, by forming coali-

tions with various organizations to put pressure on states or governmental bod-

ies to change problematic policies.48 LLENA and Amigas Latinas share these

goals to forge transnational connections, since many of the organizations’ mem-

bers are first- generation immigrants who, although in the United States, remained

connected and committed to Latin American lesbian feminist politics.

LLENA built coalitions with women of color and those working with a

transnational focus as well as with white women who had an inclusive vision of

feminism. Some members, like Jiménez, focused on advancing a transnational

perspective in their organizing and creating opportunities for dialogue between

Latin American and Latina women in Chicago. Jiménez regularly participated in

the lesbian encuentros in Peru and Costa Rica and came back to Chicago ready

to share her experience with LLENA and her readers in Outlines.49 LLENA par-

ticipants recall that there were various responses to these political presentations.

Within the group some women were primarily involved in the organization to

advance Latina and Latin American feminist politics and others were exclusively

interested in the organization as a social space.50

Over the years, Jiménez used her “Encuentro Latino” page in Outlines to

educate Latina lesbians and others about politics in Latin America and the United

States. Jiménez also invited Latin American feminist activists to write in Outlines.

For example, “Mujeres refugiadas en México,” by A. C. Calyolohti, tells of her

experiences as a Salvadoran refugee living in Mexico. She explains that because

of US aid to the repressive government in El Salvador, she and many like her are

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 61

forced to flee their countries. She calls on readers to send aid to the women’s group

that is trying to subsist in Mexico and asks that readers pressure their govern-

ment to end support of a murderous regime.51 The March 1989 edition of Outlines

includes a letter to Jiménez and “Encuentro Latino” from a lesbian feminist in

Costa Rica who is eager to continue a transnational connection with women of

LLENA. The letter, signed by “Rose Mary,” states the following: “Gracias por

intentar una comunicación con países como el nuestro. Yo pertenezco al grupo

‘Las Entendidas’ y les cuento que seguimos trabajando por una consciencia Lés-

bica Feminista. Les envío un ejemplar de nuestro boletín”52 (Thank you for trying

to maintain communication with countries such as ours. I belong to the group ‘Las

Entendidas’ and I want to share with you that we continue to work for a lesbic,

feminist consciousness. I am enclosing a copy of our newsletter”).

LLENA also hosted events that enabled transnational queer conversations.

On June 17, 1990, the event “Word and Images by Latina Lesbians” was held at

the Mexican Fine Arts Center, in the heart of Pilsen, a predominantly Mexican

area in Chicago, that brought together an internationally renowned Mexican femi-

nist writer, Rosamaria Roffiel, and five Chicago- based Latina lesbian poets (Car-

men Abrego, Diane Gomez, Amparo Jiménez, Irma Jiménez, and Patty Pedrozo).

Roffiel is the author of many feminist works including Amora, the first lesbian

novel to be published in México.53 The fact that this Latina lesbian event was held

in the most important cultural center in the Mexican community was a milestone

for LLENA.

Amigas Latinas, with its primarily Latina leadership, seems to have had

fewer and mainly symbolic moments of transnational collaborations. One collab-

orative effort occurred in 2005 when both Amigas Latinas and ALMA united to

support the queer movement in Nicaragua. A local organization, Centro para la

Educación y la Prevención de Sida (Center for Education and the Prevention of

Aids) (CEPRESI), was working to fight legislation passed in 1992 in Nicaragua

that criminalized same- sex acts with a sentence of three years in jail. The group

wanted to hold a gay pride march but did not have a banner. In a gesture of soli-

darity, the online travel organization Pink Agenda sent the group a large banner,

and Amigas Latinas and ALMA raised money to buy small rainbow flags for all

the marchers.54

Like LLENA, Amigas Latinas has also made an effort to participate in

the periodic gatherings of lesbian feminist organizations in Latin America. In con-

junction with the last gathering, the eighth Encuentro Lésbico de Latinoamérica

y el Caribe, which took place in Guatemala City in October 2010; ConMujeres,

the Consortium of Latin American Women’s Funds; and Astraea Foundation for

62 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

Justice sought to create a context to discuss tensions and possibilities for coalition

among women across the American hemisphere. They hosted a one- day gather-

ing billed as a South- North activist exchange. This unique event brought together

activist groups committed to transnational activism on LGBTQ issues with a belief

that organizational and regional movements on both sides of the border would be

strengthened as a result of this exchange. Forty- eight activist organizations from

Canada, the United States, and Latin America participated in the gathering,

including Amigas Latinas board president, Rosa Yadira Ortiz.

While such meetings provide opportunities to build sustained connec-

tions between groups working on similar issues, the challenges are enormous. As

in previous encuentros, language was an issue. Many US Latina activists did not

have the requisite Spanish- language skills to engage in serious political dialogue.

There was also a profound lack of knowledge about the specific contexts from

the range of countries represented at the gathering. Stereotypes about communi-

ties had to be constantly challenged. For example, the southern activists often

assumed that northern activists were privileged and did not always consider how

race, ethnicity, and class circumscribe the lives of women of color living in the

United States. Preconceived ideas on the part of US Latinas were also challenged.

For example, many were shocked to learn that many of the activists present at the

encuentro were able to live as open lesbian activists in their communities. This

challenged their often static and totalizing notions of conditions for women and

lesbians in Latin America.55

Despite such difficulties, all agreed on the importance of learning about

each other’s work and developing networks around similar causes. One goal of

the meeting being developed is the formation of a Latin American/Latina hemi-

spheric lesbian network that can be activated for support when a local crisis

surfaces. Other smaller cross- border networks around specific issues and projects

also resulted from the exchange.56

Both LLENA and Amigas Latinas have operated under the premise that

working across borders, struggling together, helps Latina and Latin American

queer feminist activists develop a shared understanding of the intersection of the

various systems of oppression that condition their lives and allows them to develop

progressive strategies of resistance. However, connections cannot be assumed;

they must be continually built and reinforced, and require sustained effort if they

are to strengthen social justice movement work across the continent. While both

LLENA and Amigas Latinas made efforts in this regard, these connections were

more present in LLENA’s history than in Amigas Latinas’ experiences that have

been centrally grounded in the Chicago context.

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 63

sustaining the movement

Grassroots groups do not tend to last long. While many groups begin with great

enthusiasm and promise, the hard work of sustaining an organization over the long

haul is extremely challenging. Lack of resources, inexperience, burnout of lead-

ers, and the inability to negotiate disagreements about group goals and strategies

are some reasons why groups self- destruct. On the other hand, the fact that an

organization lasts only a few years does not mean that it was not significant or did

not make substantial contributions.

While LLENA lasted only three to four years, it made a huge difference

in the lives of the women who participated, and it also put Latina lesbians on the

map in terms of queer politics in Chicago.57 Former members stressed the impor-

tance of LLENA, which for many was their first attempt at organizing, and while

they remember making many mistakes, they treasure the community that they

built and the skills that they developed, including organizing events in the Latino

community, forming coalitions with other groups, garnering media attention, and

fundraising. Participants put these skills to use as they moved on to other organiz-

ing efforts.58 Most women noted that while there was never a consensus about the

organization’s goals and objectives, participants were pleased that they had formed

a community outside the bars. LLENA brought together a very mixed group, and

the leaders had little understanding of how to deal with these differences. They

had a strong sense of their mission, but were less sure of how to develop and nour-

ish the organization.59 Many of the original organizers grew frustrated and left,

one by one. The tension between women who defined themselves as feminist les-

bian activists and those who were just being introduced to these conversations was

never resolved or dealt with directly. Jamie Jiménez, who came to the group when

the founders were departing, noted in retrospect, “there is a certain way of pre-

senting information so people could feel that they have a stake in the discussion,

people didn’t know how to balance where people’s levels of awareness and educa-

tion were.”60 Class and education differences were also identified as causes of the

divisions.61 Jiménez observed, “Women with more privilege and education were

more closed- minded to the ideas of other women, they had stronger personalities.

Their suggestions got knocked out, the educated had to run everything.”62 Looking

back, Jiménez takes some responsibility for not being more sensitive to the women

who were less politicized: “Yes, some of us wanted more visibility, we should have

done more mentoring in a nurturing kind of way, but some of us have an edge, the

fact that some were in the closet and others were not was frustrating.”63

Despite the challenges, LLENA unquestionably expanded the options for

64 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

Latina lesbians in Chicago. It was the first organization in the city to offer Latina

lesbians a space (outside bars) to meet other queer Latinas and to discuss issues

central to their lives. With its incredibly diverse membership that included immi-

grant, Spanish monolingual first- generation Latinas; second- generation, English-

dominant women; married, older closeted women; twenty- somethings; baby

dykes, and so on, LLENA worked to bring a complex community together with

its vision of a transnational, global lesbian feminism. While LLENA was not suc-

cessful at mediating all its internal group dynamics and differences, it indisput-

ably set the stage for future Latina lesbian organizing and inspired the efforts of

Amigas Latinas.

Amigas Latinas has successfully sustained its organization by offer-

ing a wide range of programs for the diverse constituents of the Chicago Latina

queer community and has also worked to bridge national and international issues

through its work around immigrant rights. It continues to meet the challenges

posed by differing agendas and shifting identifications. Amigas Latinas has sur-

vived because it recognizes that Latinas are not a monolithic group, and it pro-

vides a structure to deal with this diversity. Amigas attempts to make a place for

Latinas of different nationalities, language preferences, age groups, and sexual

identifications. It provides regular programming to Latinas with diverse interests.

Its programs for youth, older women, and families, as well as social and educa-

tional events, attempt to bring all these interests together.

Significantly, the founder of Amigas had a background in social work and

had experience facilitating groups. Mona Noriega, who was a participant in both

LLENA and Amigas Latinas, commented on how important this experience was

for the success of Amigas Latinas:

I would say that because Evette had an MSW, her skill was in setting up

discussion and developing safety. Whereas with LLENA, we didn’t have an

idea of safety. We didn’t know when we were hurting each other’s feelings . . .

because of the drinking and because . . . you came to a group where proba-

bly for the first time you were surrounded by something that was an answer

to something you didn’t know. People were out of control with happiness,

but probably hurting each other’s feelings as well. The thing is that Evette

would have structure. Here is the beginning, here is the end. With Amigas

it was like we have an agenda, you come at this time, we’d discuss how to

be respectful with each other. We’d come up with group norms . . . and she

negotiated conflicts and in here with LLENA I don’t know . . . I think there

were many conflicts and nobody would deal with them. People didn’t know

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 65

how to deal with them . . . It’s not like Evette would get into people’s busi-

ness. I felt like that she knew how to help people negotiate boundaries.64

Undoubtedly, this experience with managing group dynamics contributed to the

group’s sustainability. Other Amigas Latinas’ steering committee members, like-

wise, had experience facilitating groups, and together they contributed to a health-

ier organization that dealt with problems directly instead of avoiding them.

Another factor that has helped sustain the organization is that since 2003

it has been incorporated as a not- for- profit 501c3 corporation that is board driven.

This has meant that Amigas Latinas can more easily access foundation funding

that subsequently enabled it to acquire paid staff and office space. While there

are certainly critiques about how this type of institutionalization of grassroots

groups depoliticizes their impact , it is clearly one of the reasons that Amigas has

been able to persist and expand its mission and programs.65

Amigas also regularly surveys its membership about the direction the

group should take. Participants fill out evaluations at most of its programs. More

recently, in 2007, Amigas Latinas undertook the Proyecto Latina: Descubrién-

donos survey project, which sought to identify the unique experiences and chal-

lenges that Latina lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning

(LGBTQQ) women face in the Chicagoland area to make their experiences visible

and to better serve their needs.

Proyecto Latina ran from January 2007 through the summer of 2007.

It involved marketing and distributing an extensive survey tool (299 questions)

available both on paper and online, in English and Spanish. The survey questions

asked women about various aspects of their lives including demographics, issues

related to sexuality and gender identity, parenting, physical health and health

behaviors, medical services, emotional well- being, and satisfaction with services

provided by Amigas Latinas. The project’s objectives were to assess the experi-

ences that Latina queer women have with oppression, violence, and discrimina-

tion; to address issues of accessibility (or inaccessibility) to health care; to address

issues related to physical health and health behaviors among Latina queer women;

to provide information to service providers and policymakers both in the Chicago-

land area and nationally; to generate publications in an attempt to inform a wider

audience of these issues; to spark critical dialogues and raise consciousness of

issues among community members; and to guide Amigas Latinas to identify and

meet the needs of its members and underserved populations (i.e., transgender and

bisexual women).

66 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

Three hundred and five people between the ages of thirteen and sixty com-

pleted the survey (262 in English and 43 in Spanish). The respondents varied in

terms of racial/ethnic identity, sexual or gender identity, education, employment,

income, relationship status, immigration or citizenship status, age, and geographic

locations.66

The results of the Proyecto Latina reveal that Latina LGBTQQ women

in the Chicagoland area have had significant experiences with discrimination,

oppression, and violence throughout their lives. The data speak to the prevalence

of racism, homophobia/heterosexism, and domestic violence in women’s lives, and

suggest that Latina queer women experience these harmful attitudes and behav-

iors from numerous communities and environments. In the survey, participants

also identified the negative impact that prolonged exposure to discrimination and

violence has had on both their mental and emotional well- being.67

After gathering this essential information, Amigas Latinas has engaged

Latina lesbian, bisexual, and transgender participants in conversation about the

demographics, experiences, and needs made apparent in this survey. Amigas

Latinas has developed targeted programming around the most pressing discover-

ies from the survey results and has encouraged and supported the emergence of

leadership teams to address these urgent issues. Together with leadership teams,

Amigas Latinas has facilitated the development of an action plan. The goals are to

encourage the mainstream Chicagoland Latino communities to address the needs

of Latina lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, queer, and questioning women within

their communities and concurrently to pressure the mainstream gay, lesbian,

bisexual, and transgender community to address the needs of Latinas.

While Amigas Latinas has been in existence for over seventeen years, this

is not to suggest that attempts to navigate differences do not sometimes challenge

the group cohesion. For example, in 2007, some board members lobbied to modify

the organization’s mission to include transgender Latinas.68 At that time, Amigas’

mission specified that the organization advocated for lesbian and bisexual rights.

Not everyone agreed, but the majority of the board voted to change the mission to

also represent and advocate for transgendered Latinas, and to run programs edu-

cating the membership about the issues of Latinas who identified as transgender.69

This was a top- down decision that was not met with universal approval by the

board and the membership, but most of the group’s board members felt that this

was the right thing to do. It challenged the organization, but once again the group

had the tools to negotiate compromise among diverse viewpoints.

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 67

Conclusion: significance of llena and amigas latinas

Both LLENA and Amigas Latinas expanded the social, cultural, and political

options for Latina queer women in Chicago. They offered (and Amigas Latinas

continues to offer) a space for queer Latinas to meet other queer Latinas and to

discuss issues central to their lives; for all the women interviewed this experi-

ence was revolutionary and life changing. LLENA and Amigas Latinas provided

a space for women to come together, find friends and lovers, and consider what

being lesbian meant in their personal and public lives. Through meetings, cultural

events, and parties they provided women who preferred to stay closeted a place to

meet other lesbian women outside the bars. They helped women gain a political

perspective on their sexuality that in some cases helped women decide that they

needed to have a visible queer presence in their families and in their communities.

Both organizations worked hard to be inclusive of all types of Latina

queer women, including women who spoke only English or only Spanish. They

were the only spaces in Chicago for Spanish- monolingual Latin American immi-

grants attempting to deal with their lesbianism. While this was not easy to do and

resulted in some difficulty, both organizations labored consistently to provide a

bilingual and bicultural site for queer women. Also, LLENA and Amigas Latinas

successfully brought persons of different nationalities to the table. While politi-

cal differences sometimes created conflict in the organizations, no national group

ever dominated either organization, and issues of nationalism never came between

the members.

Both organizations helped mold leaders. Many of the women in the leader-

ship of Amigas Latinas and LLENA went on to assume other leadership positions

both in the queer movement and in the Latino community. Amparo Jiménez left

Chicago to head a gay and lesbian newspaper, La Confidencial, in Costa Rica.

Jamie Jiménez went on to assume a leadership position in INCITE! Women of

Color Against Violence. Mona Noriega became the coordinator of the Midwest

office of Lambda Legal and then in 2011 became the highest- ranking queer offi-

cial in Rahm Emanuel’s administration as the Chicago Commissioner for Human

Rights. Aurora Pineda left Amigas Latinas in 2009 to build “Entre Familia,”

the PFLAG en español group that she founded. Evette Cardona has held sev-

eral leadership positions in organizations in Chicago and has been a member of

many boards, including the board for the Center on Halsted and the Chicago His-

tory Museum. Alica Vega assumed many leadership positions and most recently

became the executive director of a social service agency in Chicago, the Southwest

Youth Collaborative.

68 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

Finally, LLENA and Amigas Latinas have made it impossible for main-

stream LGBT organizations and Latino communities to ignore the presence, con-

tributions, and concerns of Latina lesbians in the political landscape of Chicago-

land. Additionally, as demographic shifts suggest that intra- Latino communities

are becoming more and more common, this Midwest example of pan- Latina orga-

nizing can be illustrative for women of color organizing across the country. Many

of the internal and external battles that LLENA and Amigas Latinas waged, the

conflicts that they faced, and the contradictions that they confronted both within

their communities and within the mainstream LGBT movements persist today. We

would do well to look to LLENA and Amigas Latinas for the positive and nega-

tive lessons they offer on the complexities of organizing for social justice across

national, linguistic, and class differences.

notes

1. This article is an extension of an earlier cowritten article on historical and cultural

aspects of Latino lesbian and gay history in Chicago. See Lawrence La Fountain-

Stokes, Lourdes Torres, and Ramón H. Rivera- Servera, “Towards an Archive of

Latina/o Queer Chicago: Art, Politics, and Social Performance,” in Out in Chicago:

LGBT History at the Crossroads, ed. Jill Austin and Jennifer Brier (Chicago: Chicago

History Museum, 2011).

2. My thanks to all the women who agreed to interviews: Carmen Abrego, Carmen Agui-

lar, Dina Ahsmann, Evette Cardona, Amparo Jiménez, Jamie Jiménez, María Elena

Martínez, Marilyn Morales, Mona Noriega, Aurora Pineda, Rosa Yadira Ortiz, and

Karen Rothstein.

3. Jean Cohen, “Strategy or Identity: New Theoretical Paradigms and Contemporary

Social Movements,” Social Research 52 (1985): 663 – 716; Mary Bernstein, “Identities

and Politics: Toward a Historical Understanding of the Lesbian and Gay Movement,”

Social Science History 26, no. 3 (2002): 531 – 81.

4. For important LGBTQ histories, see John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Com-

munities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940 – 1970

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman, Inti-

mate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (New York: New York University

Press, 1988); Elizabeth Kennedy and Madeline Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of

Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); George

Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay

Male World, 1890 – 1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994). More recent contributions

include Marc Stein, The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Love (Chicago: University of

Chicago, 2000); and Elizabeth Armstrong, Forging Gay Identities: Organizing Sexu-

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 69

ality in San Francisco, 1950 – 1994 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2002). On queer

Latino organizing, see the pioneering work of Horacio Roque Ramírez, “ ‘That’s My

Place!’: Negotiating Racial, Sexual, and Gender Politics in San Francisco’s Gay

Latino Alliance, 1975 – 1983,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 12, no. 2 (2003):

224 – 58; Luis Aponte- Pares, “Outside/In: Crossing Queer and Latino Boundaries,”

in Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York, ed. Agustín Laó- Montes and

Arlene Dávila (New York: New York University Press, 2001), 145 – 68; Luis Aponte-

Pares and Jorge Merced, “Páginas Omitadas: The Gay and Lesbian Presence,” in

The Puerto Rican Movement, ed. Andres Torres (Philadelphia: Temple University

Press, 1998), 296 – 305; Manuel Guzmán, “Pa’ la escuelita con mucho cuida’o y

por la orillita’: A Journey through the Contested Terrains of the Nation and Sexual

Orientation,” in Puerto Rican Jam: Rethinking Colonialism and Nationalism, ed.

Frances Negrón- Muntaner and Ramón Grosfoguel (Minneapolis: University of Minne-

sota Press, 1997), 209 – 28; Frances Negrón- Muntaner, “Echoing Stonewall and Other

Dilemmas: The Organizational Beginnings of a Gay and Lesbian Agenda in Puerto

Rico, 1972 – 1977 (Part 1),” Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies 4,

no. 1 (1992): 76 – 95; Lawrence La Fountain- Stokes, “Cultures of the Puerto Rican

Queer Diaspora,” in Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration, ed. Brad Epps, Keja

Valens, and Bill Johnson González (Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for

Latin American Studies and Harvard University Press, 2005), 275 – 309; and Juanita

Ramos, ed., Compañeras: Latina Lesbians (New York: Routledge, 1994). Finding the

Movement by Anne Enke (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007) and Are We

There Yet? A Continuing History of Lavender Women, a Chicago Lesbian Newspaper,

1971 – 1976, ed. Michal Brody (Iowa City: Aunt Lute, 1985) describe lesbian organiz-

ing in Chicago but contain almost no mention of Latina activism. Queer Twin Cities

by the Twin Cities GLBT Oral History Project (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota

Press, 2010) describes an oral history project in the Twin Cities but again does not

mention Latina lesbians.

5. According to one of Jiménez’s columns in Outlines, first she formed a women of color

group composed mainly of African American women and one other Latina. She

decided that she needed to organize a Latino group and tried to start a group for

Latina lesbians and gay men with James Balcazar. They envisioned a Latino Lesbians

y Gays Unidos (LLGU) organization with the idea that they would have separate gay

and lesbian groups that would also meet together on occasion. Neither the general nor

the Latino gay male group materialized, but a Latina lesbian group did form (Amparo

Jiménez, “Bajo mi relieve,” Outlines, November 1989).

6. Windy City Times was founded in September 1985, and it merged with Outlines news-

paper, which was founded May 1987. Despite not reading Spanish, Baim accepted

Jiménez’s wishes for a Spanish- language section in the newspaper (A. Jiménez, inter-

view by author on Skype, August 7, 2010).

70 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

7. Marilyn Morales, interview by author, Chicago, February 27, 2009. The name was

sometimes reproduced entirely in Spanish as Lesbianas Latinas en Nuestro Ambiente.

8. LLENA was committed to ensuring that all its meetings were accessible to both

monolingual Spanish- speaking and monolingual English- speaking women. All meet-

ing minutes were issued in both Spanish and English.

9. María Elena Martínez, interview by author, Los Angeles, January 7, 2011. 10. An ad placed in the May 31, 1995, issue of Niteline (a gay and lesbian newspaper)

read, “Are you a Latina lesbian looking for a group specific to your needs? A new

organization, hoping to follow in the footsteps of the defunct LLENA group is forming.

Send inquiries to Latinas, Box 100 c/o Outlines/Niteline.”

11. Tracy Baim’s Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City’s Gay Community

(Chicago: Surrey Book, 2008) is the first book to document Chicago’s queer history

through a rich archive of photos and incisive essays by key journalists and scholars.

The book is a companion piece to a documentary of the same name that explores the

history of Chicago’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens from the Civil

War to the present.

12. Evette Cardona, interview by author, Chicago, February 8, 2010.

13. Evette Cardona, comment at Out @ CHM event, Chicago, March 4, 2010. ALMA had been meeting since 1991.

14. LLEGÓ was a Washington- based national network of organizations that sought to

address the concerns of lesbian and gay Latinas(os) locally, statewide, and nationally.

The organization ran from 1987 to 2004. Amigas Latinas’ members participated and

helped plan the 1988 LLEGÓ national conference in Chicago. Among the members

of the first Amigas Latinas’ steering committee were Alicia Amador, Evette Cardona,

Aixa Diaz, Mona Noriega, Rose Paredes, and Mary Torres.

15. Morales, interview by author.

16. According to the bylaws the organization’s purpose was “a) to create an environment

where members can find self acceptance as Lesbians and Latinas; b) to identify as

a group and as individuals politically, legally, culturally, and socially; c) to network

with other affinity groups; d) to educate its members and the public on the political

and cultural issues affecting Latina Lesbians; e) to find empowerment both as indi-

viduals and as a group in our community.”

17. A. Jiménez, interview by author, Chicago, August 7, 2010.

18. Morales, interview by author.

19. Amparo Jiménez, “Bajo mi relieve,” Outlines, October 1989.

20. Jiménez, “Bajo mi relieve.”

21. En La Vida, July 1999.

22. Amigas Latinas Newsletter, 2000.

23. Amigas Latinas Newsletter, July 2001 – January 2002.

24. For more on tacit understanding, see Carlos Ulises Decena, Tacit Subjects: Belonging

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 71

and Same- Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men (Durham, NC: Duke Univer-

sity Press, 2011); and Manolo Guzmán, Gay Hegemony/Latino Homosexualities (New

York: Routledge, 2005).

25. Amigas Latinas Newsletter, 1999.

26. Amigas Latinas Newsletter, Spring 2004.

27. Amigas Latinas Newsletter, Spring 2004.

28. Aurora Pineda, interview by author, Chicago, October 2011.

29. Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation representatives and the station man-

ager also attended the meeting.

30. Tracy Baim, “Activists Meet with Latino Radio Station,” Windy City Times, October

2003.

31. Carmen Abrego, interview by author, Chicago, January 29, 2010.

32. Abrego, interview by author.

33. For a discussion of tensions around feminist issues within the Puerto Rican Cul-

tural Center, see Erika Abad, “La Voz de Quién?,” Diálogo, no. 12 (Summer 2009):

28 – 34.

34. Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds., This Bridge Called My Back: Radical

Writings by Women of Color (New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1983)

was one of the first collections that highlighted the writings of feminist women of color

and offered a rebuke of white mainstream feminism while promoting the building of a

Third World women’s movement that would offer a more- nuanced analysis of multiple

identities, the simultaneity of oppression, and the urgent need for coalitional politics

and organizing. Other texts with a similar analysis include Combahee River Collec-

tive, “The Combahee River Collective Statement,” in Home Girls: A Black Feminist

Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith (New York: Kitchen Table — Women of Color Press,

1983); Cherríe Moraga, Loving in the War Years (Boston: South End, 1983); Glo-

ria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute

Books, 1987).

35. LLENA event flyer, 1989. The quote is reproduced as it appeared without any accent

marks.

36. Only one issue of the newsletter was published.

37. La Lesbiana, 1990. The LLENA April 1990 minutes describe a presentation to the

group by Sarah Hoagland, a noted white feminist philosopher who was then leader

of a group called CLEAR (Chicago Lesbians Emerging Against Racism). CLEAR

was a white, feminist, lesbian separatist group that offered to fundraise to send some

of the Latinas to the Fifth Feminist (V Encuentro Feminista de América Latina y El

Caribe), a gathering of Latin American feminist women held in Argentina in 1990.

LLENA members recall that there were various responses to these political presenta-

tions. Some women actively engaged with the ideas presented, while others listened

politely but were more interested in socializing with their Latina lesbian sisters rather

72 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

than listening to white lesbians discussing feminist separatist politics (Mona Noriega,

interview with author, Chicago, July 22, 2008, and Jamie Jiménez, interview with author, Chicago, November 21, 2008).

38. According to LLENA’s November 1991 minutes, the goals for the dance were “1) to

network/connect with other women’s organizations, 2) to publicize each organization,

3) to work together acknowledging and respecting our differences, 4) to do something

fun/social, 5) to celebrate international women’s day, and 6) to work cooperatively

sharing the benefits and work.”

39. Quoted from LLENA minutes, December 12, 1989; see also Abrego, interview with

author, and A. Jiménez, interview with author.

40. Abrego, interview with author.

41. Jorjet Harper, “Mountain Moving Apologizes after Davidson Concert,” Outlines,

December 1989.

42. Harper, “Mountain Moving,” 22, 48.

43. Amigas Latinas Newsletter, 2001.

44. LLENA participants also worked with LLEGÓ. At one point in the late 1980s,

Amparo Jiménez was a member of the LLEGÓ board.

45. CLIA existed for several years and has recently morphed into a broad- based political

action group that includes Latino organizations such as Amigas Latinas and other

LGBTQ and immigrant organizations working toward comprehensive immigrants’

rights legislation.

46. See Eithne Luibhéid, “Sexuality, Migration, and the Shifting Line between Legal

and Illegal Status,” GLQ 14, nos. 2 – 3 (2008): 289 – 315; and Luibhéid, “Heteronor-

mativity, Responsibility, and Neo- liberal Governance in U.S. Immigration Control,”

in Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration, ed. Brad Epps, Keja Valens, and Bill

Johnson González (Cambridge, MA: David Rockefeller Center for Latin American

Studies and Harvard University Press, 2005), 69 – 104.

47. Amy Wooten, “Couple at Immigration March Share Experience to Create Awareness,”

Windy City Times, May 12, 2006.

48. Sonia Alvarez, “Translating the Global: Effects of Transnational Organizing on Local

Feminist Discourses and Practices in Latin America,” Cadernos de Pesquisa, no. 22

(PPGSP/UFSC, 2000): 1 – 27.

49. Latin American and Caribbean feminist encuentros (or region- wide feminist meetings)

have taken place every few years since 1981, and the lesbian feminist encuentros

have been held since 1987. Both have helped create a strong regional feminist politi-

cal identity. They have led to the establishment of feminist networks around specific

issues such as violence against women and struggles for economic justice. US Latinas

have participated in these encuentros over the years, but as Norma Mogrovejo and

Juanita Díaz- Cotto document, not without reoccurring tension around US Latinas’ rel-

atively more- privileged position in the United States. See Norma Mogrovejo, Un amor

toWard a historY oF l atina lesBian orGaniZinG in ChiCaGo 73

que se atrevió a decir su nombre (Mexico City: Plaza y Valdés, 2000); and Juanita

Díaz- Cotto, “Lesbian- Feminist Activism and Latin American Feminist Encuentros,”

in Sexual Identities, Queer Politics, ed. Mark Blasius (Princeton: Princeton Univer-

sity Press, 2001), 73 – 95.

50. A. Jiménez, interview with author; Martínez, interview with author; and J. Jiménez,

interview with author.

51. A. C. Calyolohti, “Mujeres refugiadas en México,” Outlines, December, 1988.

52. Rose Mary, letter to the editor, Outlines, March 1989.

53. David William Foster, Gay and Lesbian Themes in Latin American Writing (Austin:

University of Texas Press, 1991), 115.

54. Carlos Mock, “The Power of the Internet in Latin America,” Windy City Times, May

1, 2005.

55. Rosa Yadira Ortiz, interview with author, Chicago, December 2010.

56. Summary notes from South- North Activist Exchange provided by Rosa Yadira Ortiz.

57. Participants in LLENA disagree about the date of its demise. Some remember that it

lasted only two years (Martínez, interview with author), while others remember that

it continued to exist until 1992 (Abrego, interview with author; J. Jiménez, interview

with author.) One explanation for the different recollections is that people left LLENA

at different times and had no contact with the group after they left.

58. Noriega, interview with author.

59. Noriega, interview with author.

60. J. Jiménez, interview with author.

61. Martínez, interview with author; J. Jiménez, interview with author; Abrego, interview with author.

62. J. Jiménez, interview with author.

63. J. Jiménez, interview with author.

64. Noriega, interview with author.

65. See, for example, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, The Revolution Will

Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non- Profit Industrial Complex (Cambridge, MA: South

End, 2007). Interestingly, this type of institutionalization was never a source of con-

tention in Amigas Latinas. The members of the founding board of directors were

Evette Cardona, Gaby Caro, Aurora Pineda, Karen Rothstein, Norma Seledon, Edith

Torres, Mary Torres, Marina Vasquez, and Urzula Urzua.

66. Although efforts were made to ensure that the survey reached all types of Latinas, the

survey is skewed toward women who are more educated and who have access to com-

puters and telephones. Of the 305 participants, 25.3 percent had some college, and

47 percent had a college degree. This is not representative of Latinos; according to

the National Council of La Raza, in 2005 only 12 percent of Latinos twenty- five years

and older have received a bachelor’s degree or higher (A. Kohler and M. Lazarín,

“Hispanic Education in the United States,” Statistical Brief [Washington, DC:

74 GlQ: a JoUrnal oF lesBian and GaY stUdies

National Council of La Raza, 2007] 8, 1 – 15. ) Similarly, although Amigas Latinas

sought to document the experiences of respondents who identified as bisexual, trans-

gender, queer, or genderqueer, as well as lesbians, the vast majority of the women who

responded to the survey identified as lesbians.

67. For a discussion of the survey results, see Lourdes Torres and Nicole Perez, “Queer

Women in Chicago,” in The Latina Portrait: A Report by Mujeres Latinas en Acción,

2011, www.mujereslatinasenaccion.org/resources/LatinaPortrait.html.

68. While LLENA did not take on the issues of transsexuals in their organization, Jimé-

nez created a space for them in her “Encuentro Latino” pages in Outlines. For exam-

ple, the well- known transsexual performer, Miss Ketty, occasionally wrote for the

section. One article, “Los latinos del Norte los latinos del Sur,” bemoans the many

divisions in the Latino community in Chicago, including divisions between Latinos

who live in the North Side and those that live in the South Side, Latino heterosexuals

and gays and between Latino gays and transsexuals. She calls for unity among all

these communities (Outlines, April 1990).

69. The board never specified whether it intended to advocate for both male- to- female

and female- to- male transgender people.