Oye Loca: From the Mariel Boatlift to Gay Cuban Miami

4. Pájaration and Transculturation: Language and Meaning in Gay Cuban Miami

77 The gay Mariel migration is one of many migrations that contributed to (gay) Miami in the 1990s. Other migrations from Cuba prior to Mariel (“Golden Exiles”) and post-Mariel (“los balseros”), as well as migrations from other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean , contributed to a transcultural and diverse gay culture in this U.S. city. In this chapter and those that follow, I analyze the Cuban American gay cultures that emerged in transcultural Miami since the 1990s. As a hub of globalized labor, cultural projects, information, and capital, Miami is a site of multilingual gay cultures historically linked to U.S. urban gay life and Latin America. In discussing the globalization of gay culture, scholars such as Dennis Altman have focused primarily on the influence of Western, Anglo gay culture on the third world and developing nations.1 I prefer the approach of Richard Parker, who in his work on gay cultures in Brazil focuses on how Anglo-European gay culture is selectively used and transformed in non-U.S. contexts. He argues that the “importation of international gay styles and symbols . . . within the Brazilian gay world is a good deal more than just an unconscious extension of international capitalism or a sign on Anglo-European cultural imperialism. The appropriation of such signs and symbols . . . is a far more complex and dialectical interaction than simplistic notions of external imposition would otherwise suggest.”2 He argues that Brazilian gay men “adapt the signs and symbols of international gay life . . . to create a repertoire of symbolic resources that build meaning and make sense of the world around them, and to imagine and ultimately manipulate other worlds in other places.”3 In this chapter, I analyze a different side of these globalization processes—the impact of immigrant, transnational, and minority gay 4 PÁJARATION AND TRANSCULTURATION Language and Meaning in Gay Cuban Miami 78 pájaration and transculturation cultures on a U.S. urban setting. Specifically, I use language to discuss the meaning-making and selective adaptation of Cuban American gay men living in Miami since the 1990s and ask how the migration of people from throughout Latin America to the United States through entry cities like Miami influence U.S. gay culture. In this multicultural and transnational context, how is language used to construct gay and ethnic communities? Through their use of language, we can observe the cultural negotiations and innovations made by different groups of Cuban American gay men. Latino gay men who are monolingual Spanish speakers, monolingual English speakers, and multilingual speakers with different levels of proficiency communicate with one another, have sex with one another, and create communities separately and together. Culture is literally made in and through these interactions. Power is not absent , of course. For example, the choice to speak English or Spanish in a particular setting is not available to monolingual speakers. Not demonstrating cultural competency in a job interview that requires strong English skills can cost someone a much-needed job. In Miami, not speaking Spanish can cost someone a job as well, and there are other cultural costs to limited Spanish-language proficiency. I explore how Cuban American gay men draw from U.S.- and Cuban-based cultural and linguistic histories and use Cuban Spanish, English, and Spanglish to construct gay communities and transnational identities.4 I analyze how urban Anglo gay culture and language are incorporated, used, rejected, or rearticulated in a multilingual U.S. city increasingly defined by immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. While the influence of U.S.-based ways of organizing and naming homosexuality is irrefutable, I argue that transculturation provides the best theoretical mechanism for understanding the linguistic and cultural transformations in which gay men of Cuban descent participate. Language Autonomy: Spanish in a U.S. Context While Spanish had gained a measure of acceptance, if not dominance, in Miami since the 1990s, it is important to situate Spanish-language use in Miami in national and historical contexts. In the national context , the use of Spanish is a highly politicized issue, and the struggle for language autonomy has been a primary battleground for U.S. Latino communities. English Only legislation, antibilingual education initia- pájaration and transculturation 79 tives, and informal stigmatization of the Spanish language have all been used throughout the country to veil anti-immigrant attitudes, limit the incorporation of Latino immigrants as...