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Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (Volume 23)
Exploring cultural expressions of Puerto Rican queer migration from the Caribbean to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes analyzes how artists have portrayed their lives and the discrimination they have faced in both Puerto Rico and the United States.
Highlighting cultural and political resistance within Puerto Rico’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender subcultures, La Fountain-Stokes pays close attention to differences of gender, historical moment, and generation, arguing that Puerto Rican queer identity changes over time and is experienced in very different ways. He traces an arc from 1960s Puerto Rico and the writings of Luis Rafael Sánchez to New York City in the 1970s and 1980s (Manuel Ramos Otero), Philadelphia and New Jersey in the 1980s and 1990s (Luz María Umpierre and Frances Negrón-Muntaner), and Chicago (Rose Troche) and San Francisco (Erika López) in the 1990s, culminating with a discussion of Arthur Avilés and Elizabeth Marrero’s recent dance-theater work in the Bronx.
Proposing a radical new conceptualization of Puerto Rican migration, this work reveals how sexuality has shaped and defined the Puerto Rican experience in the United States.
Highlighting cultural and political resistance within Puerto Rico’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender subcultures, La Fountain-Stokes pays close attention to differences of gender, historical moment, and generation, arguing that Puerto Rican queer identity changes over time and is experienced in very different ways. He traces an arc from 1960s Puerto Rico and the writings of Luis Rafael Sánchez to New York City in the 1970s and 1980s (Manuel Ramos Otero), Philadelphia and New Jersey in the 1980s and 1990s (Luz María Umpierre and Frances Negrón-Muntaner), and Chicago (Rose Troche) and San Francisco (Erika López) in the 1990s, culminating with a discussion of Arthur Avilés and Elizabeth Marrero’s recent dance-theater work in the Bronx.
Proposing a radical new conceptualization of Puerto Rican migration, this work reveals how sexuality has shaped and defined the Puerto Rican experience in the United States.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
12 books4 followersLawrence La Fountain-Stokes (born April 10, 1968) is a gay Puerto Rican author, scholar, and performer. He is better known as Larry La Fountain. He has received several awards for his creative writing and scholarship as well as for his work with Latino and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. He currently resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
La Fountain-Stokes was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, specifically in Miramar, a traditional neighborhood located in the central district of Santurce. He was adopted at birth by Donald and Ramona La Fountain, and is the brother of the ESPN newscaster Michele La Fountain. He has written about his childhood experiences in an essay called "Los nenes con los nenes y las nenas con las nenas" [Girls with Girls, and Boys with Boys], where he describes his childhood home as bilingual and bicultural, as he was raised speaking English and Spanish. His essay "Queer Diasporas, Boricua Lives: A Meditation on Sexile" also discusses some of these early experiences.
La Fountain-Stokes received all of his primary and secondary education at the Academia del Perpetuo Socorro, an elite bilingual school run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. He graduated from high school in 1986. He then studied at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Hispanic Studies in 1991. While in college, La Fountain-Stokes spent a year and a half studying at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. He later went on to obtain a Master’s degree and Doctorate in Spanish from Columbia University in New York City.
La Fountain-Stokes started his teaching career as an assistant professor at the Ohio State University (1998–1999) and then taught at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey for four years (1999–2003). Since 2003, he has taught Latino studies, American studies, and Spanish at the University of Michigan, including courses on queer Hispanic Caribbean culture, LGBT studies and Latino literature, theater, performance, and film. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2009. His interviews in Spanish with leading Latino artists, journalists, and scholars such as the Uruguayan novelist and pop singer Dani Umpi and the Los Angeles Times journalist Sam Quiñones appear on the "University of Michigan in Spanish" channel on YouTube and on iTunes U.
La Fountain-Stokes was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, specifically in Miramar, a traditional neighborhood located in the central district of Santurce. He was adopted at birth by Donald and Ramona La Fountain, and is the brother of the ESPN newscaster Michele La Fountain. He has written about his childhood experiences in an essay called "Los nenes con los nenes y las nenas con las nenas" [Girls with Girls, and Boys with Boys], where he describes his childhood home as bilingual and bicultural, as he was raised speaking English and Spanish. His essay "Queer Diasporas, Boricua Lives: A Meditation on Sexile" also discusses some of these early experiences.
La Fountain-Stokes received all of his primary and secondary education at the Academia del Perpetuo Socorro, an elite bilingual school run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. He graduated from high school in 1986. He then studied at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Hispanic Studies in 1991. While in college, La Fountain-Stokes spent a year and a half studying at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. He later went on to obtain a Master’s degree and Doctorate in Spanish from Columbia University in New York City.
La Fountain-Stokes started his teaching career as an assistant professor at the Ohio State University (1998–1999) and then taught at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey for four years (1999–2003). Since 2003, he has taught Latino studies, American studies, and Spanish at the University of Michigan, including courses on queer Hispanic Caribbean culture, LGBT studies and Latino literature, theater, performance, and film. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2009. His interviews in Spanish with leading Latino artists, journalists, and scholars such as the Uruguayan novelist and pop singer Dani Umpi and the Los Angeles Times journalist Sam Quiñones appear on the "University of Michigan in Spanish" channel on YouTube and on iTunes U.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 30, 2024
Such an important critical academic text of queer Puerto Rican cultural studies, looking at a variety of media by queer Puerto Ricans primarily in diaspora. La Fountain-Stokes is such a skilled reader of these artists and their works, never shying from being critical when their politics or creative practice falls short in terms of quality or complexity. What LFS stresses is the heterogeneity of the works he analyzes, bringing in important historical and critical contexts for approaching these as works of queer PUERTO RICAN literature (as opposed to generally Latine). Thus each chapter really works well on its own, though he does bring up earlier chapters and figures as points of comparison and contrast. My only “criticism” (if you can call it that) is that, as such, the book lacks a central unifying thesis that ties it together except to say that queer PR artists are so diverse that can’t be synthesized in the way that typical academic monographs usually demand of their subjects. It feels silly taking off a star for it, so know that I do so for myself and not as commentary on the quality of this work. For those looking to research queer PR studies, this *is* the place to start.
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May 19, 2015I am the author of this book on Puerto Rican queer culture and migration.
August 23, 2025
super interesting! it’s always good to read scholarly texts on diasporic puerto ricanness (bonus points for queerness!) that actually touch on the nuances of that experience, rather than flattening them!! this was pretty dry, though. *sigh* back to my hunt for some more engaging, non-pedantic queer PR scholarly work in english RIP :’)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews