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My Deep Dark Pain Is Love: A Collection of Latin American Gay Fiction
Book by Puig, Manuel, Arenas, Reinaldo
383 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1983
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November 15, 2025
(This anthology was one of many books seized as 'obscene' in 1984 in the UK. Please see, after my review, my discussion of this incident).
"This is an in-depth anthology of fiction on gay themes by twenty-four writers, among them the internationally acclaimed Manuel Puig (Argentina), Mario de Andre (Brazil), and Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba). The book presents Latin American gays as part of a lively, fascinating social reality - as soldiers, businessmen, office workers, students, cattle ranchers, circus performers...Included are two complete novellas - one about homosexuality in the marines, the other about a sexual encounter between two high-school boys; also the brilliant 'Orgy' - an erotic diary based on experiences in tropical Brazil. Almost 400 pages with thirty different selections by a dazzling array of talent." (From the back cover of the 1983 Gay Sunshine Press paperback edition).
The diversity and richness, in terms of the number of authors and work specially translated for this volume, is a startling reminder of a now vanished publishing world and a concept of 'gay' culture, literature, community, of so many things that put to shame the parochialism of today's outlook. I can't help but think that the 'gay' community that produced books like this would be unimpressed with what we have built on their foundations. This and Winston Leyland's other anthologies are a must for anyone who has an interest in exploring a continents of worth gay literature and experience. What is truly astounding is the frankness of so many of the contributions when compared to what was being published in the USA and UK at the same time. Most Latin American countries based their legal systems on the Code Napoleon which has no legal prohibition against homosexuality which created a very different atmosphere for writing about and discussing 'gay' themes (of course that lack of prohibition did not mean acceptance nor freedom from persecution or prosecution - there are many ways of repressing something without making it illegal).
But there was a different attitude towards the discussion and representation of homosexuality and the open publication of 'Bom-Crioulo' by Adolpho Caminha in 1895, the story of the relationship between an sailor and a cabin-boy, a black sailor and a white cabin boy at that, is just one example (it is not excerpted in this collection because it was available in translation from Gay Sunshine Press). Raul Pompeia's 'The Athenaeum' of 1888 (extensively excerpted in this anthology) about a Brazilian elite boarding school has no equivalent in English boarding school stories until probably the 1960's. Examples like these can be found throughout this anthology although as Leyland points out in his excellent introduction there are underlying tropes about masculinity and sexuality, very patriarchal and misogynistic, that underlies a great deal of the writing.
Masculinity, power and sex as a matter of dominance is present in many of these excerpts but rather then simply dismiss them as outdated it is fascinating to compare the use of similar themes in 'classic' and definitely non-gay works like Esteban Echeverria's 'The Slaughter Yard' a novel of politics and ideas set in 19th century Buenos Aires in which the protagonist faces being sodomised with a corn husk if he loses his debate with the slaughter yard workers. It is a national classic taught in all Argentinian school children. I often wonder how the school boards of so many parts of the USA would deal with a national 'classic' that almost inevitably might lead to the discussion of sodomy. All of this is salutary reminder that you cannot simply transfer the paradigms of gay experience from the English speaking world to counties with wildly different histories and experiences (that the paradigms don't even transfer between English speaking countries is too often forgotten as well).
A really remarkable anthology of great writing.
[Criticisms have been made about this volume and its companion 'Now the Volcano' by academics such as Jerry Zamotsky in his 2011 article 'Canon Formation and Diversity: Latin American Literature in the Global Market Place' (see: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41342245...) which at its simplest deals with the '...imperialist implications of Leyland's anthologies of Latin American gay literature...'. While accepting that there are complicated questions arising from outsiders looking in at another culture there is also a great deal of fatuous nonsense in presenting Winston Leyland's 1979 and 1983 anthologies as a form of imperialism/colonialism. Leyland was not an academic and Gay Sunshine Press, which published these anthologies, was not a subsidised University Press, but a small independent publisher. Leyland's love of Latin American literature, and willingness to make the financial commitment necessary for translation so many authors, created these anthologies. There have been no further anthologies like them from either mainstream publishers or academic presses. Rather than setting out to create a 'canon' of Latin American Literature his anthologies were opening salvo encouraging American readers to look outside what they knew. That nobody took up that challenge is hardly Leyland's fault.]
Attempts to ban this anthology:
This anthology was one of many 'imported' gay books which were at the centre of an infamous attempt to push UK gays back into the closet by the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Amazingly this event, important not only for gays but civil liberties in the UK, does not have any kind of Wikipedia entry. Because of this lack I have assembled links to a number of sites which anyone interested in free speech should read. If we don't remember our history we will be condemned to repeat it.
The genesis of the prosecution of 'Gays The Word' was the anger of homophobes to books like 'The Milkman's On His Way' by David Rees which were written for young people and presented being gay as ordinary and nothing to get your-knickers-in-a-twist over. Unfortunately there was no way to ban the offending books because censorship of literature had been laughed out of court at the 'Lady Chatterley Trial' nearly twenty years earlier. But Customs and Excise did have the ability to seize and forbid the import of 'foreign' books, those not published in the UK. As most 'gay' books came from abroad, specifically the USA, this anomaly was the basis for the raid on Gays The Word and the seizure of large amounts of stock. The intention was that the legal costs, plus the disruption to the business, would sink this small independent bookshop long before it came to trial. That it didn't is testimony to the resilience of Gay's The Word, the gay community and all those who supported them.
The best, not perfect, but only, guide to the event is at:
https://www.gayinthe80s.com/2012/10/1...
There follows a series of links to the event connected with an exhibition at the University of London:
The background:
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...
The 142 books seized:
https://exhibitions.london.ac.uk/s/se...
The history of the prosecution:
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...
The fight to clarify the law after the prosecution was dropped:
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...
"This is an in-depth anthology of fiction on gay themes by twenty-four writers, among them the internationally acclaimed Manuel Puig (Argentina), Mario de Andre (Brazil), and Reinaldo Arenas (Cuba). The book presents Latin American gays as part of a lively, fascinating social reality - as soldiers, businessmen, office workers, students, cattle ranchers, circus performers...Included are two complete novellas - one about homosexuality in the marines, the other about a sexual encounter between two high-school boys; also the brilliant 'Orgy' - an erotic diary based on experiences in tropical Brazil. Almost 400 pages with thirty different selections by a dazzling array of talent." (From the back cover of the 1983 Gay Sunshine Press paperback edition).
The diversity and richness, in terms of the number of authors and work specially translated for this volume, is a startling reminder of a now vanished publishing world and a concept of 'gay' culture, literature, community, of so many things that put to shame the parochialism of today's outlook. I can't help but think that the 'gay' community that produced books like this would be unimpressed with what we have built on their foundations. This and Winston Leyland's other anthologies are a must for anyone who has an interest in exploring a continents of worth gay literature and experience. What is truly astounding is the frankness of so many of the contributions when compared to what was being published in the USA and UK at the same time. Most Latin American countries based their legal systems on the Code Napoleon which has no legal prohibition against homosexuality which created a very different atmosphere for writing about and discussing 'gay' themes (of course that lack of prohibition did not mean acceptance nor freedom from persecution or prosecution - there are many ways of repressing something without making it illegal).
But there was a different attitude towards the discussion and representation of homosexuality and the open publication of 'Bom-Crioulo' by Adolpho Caminha in 1895, the story of the relationship between an sailor and a cabin-boy, a black sailor and a white cabin boy at that, is just one example (it is not excerpted in this collection because it was available in translation from Gay Sunshine Press). Raul Pompeia's 'The Athenaeum' of 1888 (extensively excerpted in this anthology) about a Brazilian elite boarding school has no equivalent in English boarding school stories until probably the 1960's. Examples like these can be found throughout this anthology although as Leyland points out in his excellent introduction there are underlying tropes about masculinity and sexuality, very patriarchal and misogynistic, that underlies a great deal of the writing.
Masculinity, power and sex as a matter of dominance is present in many of these excerpts but rather then simply dismiss them as outdated it is fascinating to compare the use of similar themes in 'classic' and definitely non-gay works like Esteban Echeverria's 'The Slaughter Yard' a novel of politics and ideas set in 19th century Buenos Aires in which the protagonist faces being sodomised with a corn husk if he loses his debate with the slaughter yard workers. It is a national classic taught in all Argentinian school children. I often wonder how the school boards of so many parts of the USA would deal with a national 'classic' that almost inevitably might lead to the discussion of sodomy. All of this is salutary reminder that you cannot simply transfer the paradigms of gay experience from the English speaking world to counties with wildly different histories and experiences (that the paradigms don't even transfer between English speaking countries is too often forgotten as well).
A really remarkable anthology of great writing.
[Criticisms have been made about this volume and its companion 'Now the Volcano' by academics such as Jerry Zamotsky in his 2011 article 'Canon Formation and Diversity: Latin American Literature in the Global Market Place' (see: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41342245...) which at its simplest deals with the '...imperialist implications of Leyland's anthologies of Latin American gay literature...'. While accepting that there are complicated questions arising from outsiders looking in at another culture there is also a great deal of fatuous nonsense in presenting Winston Leyland's 1979 and 1983 anthologies as a form of imperialism/colonialism. Leyland was not an academic and Gay Sunshine Press, which published these anthologies, was not a subsidised University Press, but a small independent publisher. Leyland's love of Latin American literature, and willingness to make the financial commitment necessary for translation so many authors, created these anthologies. There have been no further anthologies like them from either mainstream publishers or academic presses. Rather than setting out to create a 'canon' of Latin American Literature his anthologies were opening salvo encouraging American readers to look outside what they knew. That nobody took up that challenge is hardly Leyland's fault.]
Attempts to ban this anthology:
This anthology was one of many 'imported' gay books which were at the centre of an infamous attempt to push UK gays back into the closet by the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Amazingly this event, important not only for gays but civil liberties in the UK, does not have any kind of Wikipedia entry. Because of this lack I have assembled links to a number of sites which anyone interested in free speech should read. If we don't remember our history we will be condemned to repeat it.
The genesis of the prosecution of 'Gays The Word' was the anger of homophobes to books like 'The Milkman's On His Way' by David Rees which were written for young people and presented being gay as ordinary and nothing to get your-knickers-in-a-twist over. Unfortunately there was no way to ban the offending books because censorship of literature had been laughed out of court at the 'Lady Chatterley Trial' nearly twenty years earlier. But Customs and Excise did have the ability to seize and forbid the import of 'foreign' books, those not published in the UK. As most 'gay' books came from abroad, specifically the USA, this anomaly was the basis for the raid on Gays The Word and the seizure of large amounts of stock. The intention was that the legal costs, plus the disruption to the business, would sink this small independent bookshop long before it came to trial. That it didn't is testimony to the resilience of Gay's The Word, the gay community and all those who supported them.
The best, not perfect, but only, guide to the event is at:
https://www.gayinthe80s.com/2012/10/1...
There follows a series of links to the event connected with an exhibition at the University of London:
The background:
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...
The 142 books seized:
https://exhibitions.london.ac.uk/s/se...
The history of the prosecution:
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...
The fight to clarify the law after the prosecution was dropped:
https://www.london.ac.uk/news-events/...
Displaying 1 of 1 review