Identity without limits

In June 2002, the Spanish Pride movement celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. One of the striking contradictions that emerges from comparing the Anglo-American and the Spanish gay struggles is that whilst most Anglo-American societies have been traditionally more accepting of gay and lesbian people (hence many lesbian and gay Spaniards emigrate to the United Kingdom or to the States), 2 As argued by Richard Smith, ‘Homo to {itCatalonia}’, {itGay Times}, 249, 1999, pp.30-33, and also by Juan Vicente Aliaga and José Miguel G. Cortés, {itIdentidad y diferencia}: {itSobre la cultura gay en España}, Barcelona and Madrid, Egales, 1997, p.34. José Ignacio Pichardo Galán explores the links between emigration and sexual liberation in his article ‘Migraciones y opción sexual’, in Oscar Guasch and Olga Viñuales (eds), {itSexualidades}: {itdiversidad y control social}, Barcelona, Bellaterra, 2003, pp. 277-96. post-Franco Spanish law has been much more favourable in Spain than in Anglo-American countries. 3 Cleminson's collection of pre-Francoist anarchist texts is a good testimony of the existence of early discourses of homosexuality in the Spanish context. Richard Cleminson, {itAnarquismo y homosexualidad}: {itantología de artículos de ‘La Revista Blanca’, ‘Generación Consciente’, ‘Estudios e lniciales’} (1924–1935), Madrid, Huerga & Fierro Editores, 1995. See also his articles 'Male Homosexuality in Contemporary Spain: Signposts for a Contemporary Analysis', Paragraph, 22:1, 1999, pp. 35-54 and (co-authored with Francisco Vazquez GarcIa) ‘Los invisibles: hacia una historia de la homosexualidad en Espana, 1840–2000’, {itInternational Journal of Iberian Studies}, 13:3, 2000, pp.167-81. This paradox can find its logic in Foucault's belief that repressive power is not an oppressive force but a ‘productive network’ as indeed De Fluvia, Aliaga and Cortes, and Bergmann and Smith have noted. 4 Michel Foucault, {itThe History of Sexuality Volume} 1 (trans. Robert Hurley), London, Penguin, 1987 (1978), p. 94. Armand De Fluvià, ‘Los movimientos de liberación sexual en el Estado español‘, in M. S. Weinberg and C. J. Williams (eds), {itHomosexuales masculinos}, Barcelona, Fontanella, 1977. Aliaga and Cortés, {itIdentidad}, p. 30. Emilie L. Bergmann and Paul Julian Smith (eds), ¿{itEntiendes? Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings}, Durham and London, Duke University Press, 1995, p. 10. It was the existence of old discriminatory laws that encouraged the early lesbian and gay movements of the 1970s in Catalonia and the Basque Country. As observed by Llamas and Vidarte, the historical rejection of imposed identities in various regions of Spain underline the close relationship between nationalist, and gay and lesbian movements within the nation. 5 Ricardo Llamas and Francisco Javier Vidarte, {itExtravíos}, Madrid, Espasa, 2001, pp. 262-63. The diversity of (regional) identities within Spain is suggestive of the country's queer potential and yet, as these authors argue, those same principles, together with the nomadic nature of the lesbian and gay struggle, make it difficult to conceive a ‘national’ struggle or to talk about Spain in terms of a ‘queer nation’. 6 Llamas and Vidarte, {itExtravíos}, p. 263. Llamas has also suggested that the proliferation of various flags within the gay communities reflects a reaction against geographical frontiers and national flags. See Santiago Fouz Hernández, ‘Sociedad, cultura, política y teoría gay en España: entrevista con Ricardo Llamas’, {itJournal of Iberian and Latin American Studies}, 9:1, June 2003, pp. 81-97. A recent collection of essays on ‘queer globalizations’ seems to substantiate this point. See Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé and Martin F. Mananlansan IV (eds), {itQueer Globalizations}. {itCitizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism}, New York and London, New York University Press, 2002. A Spanish perspective on the issue of migration and sexuality is offered by Richardo Galán, ‘Migraciones’

Art · Emigration · Ethnology · Garcia · Homosexuality · Humanities · Lesbian · Political science · Pride · Queer · Sociology · Transgender · Gender and Feminist Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law

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