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Places of Latino LGBTQ Gathering Spaces

Facade of four-story, symmetrical white stucco building covered with vibrant mural celebrating women from various cultural and ethnic groups and across time
MAESTRAPEACE, Lapidge Street façade, mural on The San Francisco Women's Building, 18th and Valencia Street

Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010. All rights reserved. Mural images courtesy of the artists.

Gathering places such as parks, people’s living rooms, and city streets are foundational to identities and communities. In these spaces, LGBTQ Latinos formed groups, found refuge, resisted oppression, and created a deeper sense of what it means to be Latino and LGBTQ.

In spite of erasure and exclusion, the LGBTQ and Latino communities have preserved the symbolic and tangible remains of LGBTQ and Latino history. Even when historic places are no longer standing, art can document these stories and make the layers of history visible.

Explore the role of 6 historic places in celebrating Latino LGBTQ visibility and community in the US.

Map of the United States with blue numbered circles in the locations of the places featured in this article.
This map shows the locations of the different places featured in this article.
Depictions of 3 historical events: a police raid; 8 adult women and 1 baby seated around a table; a row of seated men facing a mirror in a dark room, wearing full face masks on the back of their heads
“Gay Rights,” detail from the 1950s section of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

Judith F. Baca©1983. “Gay Rights,” detail from the 1950’s section of the Great Wall of Los Angeles. Image courtesy of the SPARC Archives SPARCinLA.org.

1. Great Wall of Los Angeles (Mural)

Latinos played a pivotal role in early LGBTQ activism, including two pioneering gay rights organizations.

Mattachine Society

Cuban immigrant and organizer Gonzalo “Tony” Segura, Jr. helped grow the LA-based Mattachine Society into a national organization.

Angled view of long colorful mural on a low wall. The mural features representations of historical events from the 1940s. Concrete roadway visible in the foreground. Background features trees and a chain link fence.
Detail, longshot perspective of the 1940s section of the Great Wall of Los Angeles mural

Judith F. Baca©1983. Detail, longshot perspective of the 1940's section of the Great Wall of Los Angeles mural. Image courtesy of the SPARC Archives SPARCinLA.org.

Daughters of Bilitis

In 1955, Chicana activist Mary (last name unknown) cofounded the Daughters of Bilitis to create safe spaces for lesbians to socialize.

The Great Wall of Los Angeles mural depicts these events and other significant parts of LA’s history and culture. Between 1978 and 1984, Chicana muralist Judith F. Baca worked with a team of artists to create the 2,754-foot mural.

The Great Wall of Los Angeles mural was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

Three-story red brick building with brownstone elements. The facade is symmetrical and divided in three sections. There is a gay pride flag flying from the central window on the third floor.
The LGBT Community Center, 13th Street façade

Photo by Travis Mark. Courtesy of The LGBT Community Center. All Rights Reserved.

2. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Community Center

Since its founding in 1983, the LGBT Community Center in New York City has served as a gathering space for several LGBTQ groups, including the Lesbian Avengers.

Cofounded by Cuban activist and playwright Ana Maria Simo in 1992, the Lesbian Avengers used direct-action tactics (nonviolent demonstrations such as marches and kiss-ins) to increase lesbian visibility.

Group of women protestors. Individual on far left speaks into a bullhorn while reading off a page. Second and fourth from left hold large posters over their heads. Poster features cartoon skeleton with raised arms wearing fedora, suit jacket, and pants.
Ana Maria Simo (second from right) participates in an action with the Lesbian Avengers, working in coalition with Las Buenas Amigas (a Latina lesbian group) and African Ancestral Lesbians United for Social Change. The action opposed a homophobic, racist Spanish-language station.

Courtesy of The Lesbian Avengers. Photo by Morgan Gwenwald. All Rights Reserved.

Simo was an experienced activist. In 1976, she and actress-director Magaly Alabau created Medusa’s Revenge. It was the first lesbian theater in New York City and the world with a permanent home, founded by and for lesbian immigrant Latinas.

The LGBT Center was designated a New York City Landmark in 2019. New York City is a Certified Local Government.
Corner view of four-story, symmetrical white stucco building covered with vibrant mural celebrating women from various cultural and ethnic groups and across time.
MAESTRAPEACE, corner view, mural on The San Francisco Women's Building, 18th and Valencia Streets.

Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010. All rights reserved. Mural images courtesy of the artists.

3. The Women's Building

The San Francisco Women's Center (SFWC) emerged from radical and lesbian feminist movements in the 1970s. The SFWC purchased Mission Turn Hall in 1979 and renamed it The Women’s Building (TWB), a community landmark.

Many of the founding directors were women from various social and ethnic groups, including the late lesbian Puerto Rican activist Carmen Vazquez.

Detail of mural featuring two dark-haired, women embracing. The woman on the right is smiling and the woman on the left kisses her on the cheek. To their left is a South Asian deity wearing a three-pronged crown and ornamental earrings and jewelry.
MAESTRAPEACE, detail of lesbian couple, mural on The San Francisco Women's Building, 18th and Valencia Streets.

Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman, Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010. All rights reserved. Mural images courtesy of the artists.

In 1994, the building’s façade transformed. A group of 7 women muralists painted the Maestrapeace Mural on the building — weaving together art, history, fiction, gender, race, class, and sexuality.

Since 1979, TWB has stood as a gathering hub for groups, such as Somos Hermanas, Ellas en Acción, and Gay Latino Alliance, who achieved and continue to achieve social and gender equality for the community.

The Women's Building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

Two-story apartment house painted light blue with white trim. The facade features two projecting balconies with front openings that are framed by an upper horizontal beam.
Edificio Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico, façade on Saldaña Street.

Photo by Ian Poellet. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

4. Edificio Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico

The Edificio Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico in San Juan was the home of Puerto Rico’s first gay liberation organization between 1975 and 1976. It paved the way for LGBTQ visibility on an island with deep colonial ties to machismo and anti-homosexuality.

The organization provided educational and community services and published the magazine Pa'fuera! out of Casa Orgullo’s second floor. The magazine was distributed in gay libraries like Oscar Wilde Library in Greenwich Village and Lambda Rising in Washington DC.

City street lined with businesses and densely packed with crowds of people. Gay pride flags and other rainbow items protrude from the crowd.
Community members attend Boquerón Pride [Orgullo Boquerón] in 2013.

Photo by Jerjes Medina Albino. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported.

Casa Orgullo’s backyard extended into the city streets by hosting public events and social celebrations. These parades, pageants, and protests were key to establishing a larger community and launching the gay liberation movement in Puerto Rico.

Edificio Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Boat arriving in Key West Harbor with Cuban refugees during the Mariel Boatlift. Two smaller boats are visible in the background. Two small islands covered with trees near the horizon line.
Boat arriving in Key West Harbor with Cuban refugees during the Mariel Boatlift in 1980.

Image courtesy of Florida Keys Public Library. Photo by Raymond L. Blazevic. Creative Commons — Attribution 2.0 Generic — CC BY 2.0.

5. South River Drive Historic District

The Mariel Boatlift contributed to monumental change in US immigration reform and Miami's LGBTQ history. From the early 1900s, the US denied entry to LGBTQ immigrants, but the US also opened its doors to anyone fleeing communism, including LGBTQ Marielitos who were deemed “unrevolutionary” and exiled by the Castro regime. With the Immigration Act of 1990, the US amended its immigration policy to accept LGBTQ immigrants and remove homosexuality as grounds for denying entry to the US.

Aerial view of Little Havana neighborhood in Miami, showing Marlins Park at the right, the Coral Gables skyline in the background, and Coconut Grove at the left. Two bridges over a river are visible in the foreground.
Aerial view of Little Havana neighborhood in Miami, showing Marlins Park at the right, the Coral Gables skyline in the background, and Coconut Grove at the left.

Photo by B137. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Marielitos established themselves within neighborhoods like Little Havana, working in department stores and hanging out in public spaces. The visibility of the trans and gay community became more prominent as Marielitos and LGBTQ immigrants from across Latin American and the Caribbean continued to make Miami home.

South River Drive Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

Eleven-story light-colored building split into three sections. The bottom floors feature smooth exterior walls and thirteen-bays. Middle section features twelve Corinthian columns. Top section consists of the cornice and roofline.
Chicago City Hall-Cook County Building, Clark Street façade from Washington Street

Image by Joseph A. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

6. Chicago City Hall-Cook County Building

After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, Puerto Rican and Mexican political cartoonist Daniel “Danny” Sotomayor combined art with activism. He published over 200 cartoons criticizing government officials’ refusal to acknowledge AIDS and barriers to research funding, drug trials, and treatment.

Sotomayor also took to the streets as a cofounder of ACT UP Chicago. On April 24, 1990, over 5,000 demonstrators gathered to protest the American Medical Association and insurance industry’s response to AIDS. Sotomayor and other ACT UP Chicago leaders entered the Cook County Building. They hung a banner over the entrance to demand equal healthcare access for AIDS patients.

Chicago City Hall-Cook County Building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1982. Chicago is a Certified Local Government.

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The content for this article was researched and written by Melissa Hurtado, Heritage Education Fellow, and Jade Ryerson, Resource Assistant (Intern), with the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.

Bibliography

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Last updated: August 24, 2022