In case some Machas are enjoying Oaxaca City this summer, the second calenda is taking place this Saturday, July 10th. This year the motto is All people, all rights. Let’s celebrate being proud of who we are.

I think this will be an excellent opportunity to meet LGBT organizations based in that beautiful city.

The list of organizers is long: Red Oaxaqueña, Diáspora Feminista, Diversidades A.C., Colectivo Luzónica, Disidencia Queer, Colectivo Arcoíris, Red Nacional de Jóvenes Católicos por el Derecho a Decidir, CDD, Demysex Oaxaca, GLOBOCORPO, Sociedad Civil y Colectivo AAA.

Let us know how it was!

Segunda Marcha Calenda por la Diversidad Sexual, July 10th 2010, from Fuente de las 8 Regiones to the Zócalo, 12pm, Oaxaca City.

*Catron, thanks again for sharing information with us.

The main poster is after the jump, and if you look for more information about who is organizing this event click here. If you look for an after party, click here. Although you will have plenty of options, since people will share flayers about parties during the whole march.

Marcha del Orgullo LGBTTTI 2010, June 26th, departing from Ángel de la Independencia to Zócalo, 12hrs.

Calenda is defined by Wikipedia as “a kind of stick-fighting dance tradition commonly seen practiced during Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago“. This year, Luzónica, a GLBT group based in Oaxaca, is using the word to celebrate their gay pride event, the first gay pride in Oaxaca City–no less. It will take place this Saturday, the motto being Ser diferente es un derecho (Being Different Is a Right). The march will go from Paseo Juárez “El Llano” to the very Zócalo or downtown of the city.

Since this is the first time that an event like this will be celebrated in the Oaxacan capital, I really wish them luck for this and the upcoming years. Go, machas! Go!

Primera Marcha Calenda Por la Diversidad Sexual, June 27th, from Paseo Juárez “El Llano” to the Zócalo, 12 p.m., Oaxaca City.

As part of the annual GBLT Cultural Week, a series of activities will take place in Mexico City starting this month.

This annual event has had to deal with a series of obstacles since 2003, including the death of its original organizer, the activist José María Covarrubias, and the refurbishment of the Museo del Chopo, its original venue. The upside of this situation is that, over the years, the organizers had to look for other spaces taking the GLBT Week  to a broader cultural scene in the city.

This year, the program features photography, discussions about queer theory in Mexico, and the celebration of the Vampiro de la Colonia Roma, the traditional gay novel, writen 30 years ago by Luis Zapata. The entrance for all the activities is for free.

Here are some of the highlights:

Familias Mexicanas, by Óscar Sánchez, photographs documenting GLBT families in Mexico. Galería del Centro Cultural José Martí, Avenida Hidalgo y Doctor Mora, Metro Hidalgo. From June 5th to June 28th.

Lectures on Queer Theory in Mexico. Lecturers: Francesca Gargallo and Elsa Muñiz. Centro Cultural España, Guatemala No. 18, Col. Centro, right behind the cathedral, June 18th, 6 pm.

Happy Birthday, Vampiro, celebration of the 30th anniversary of El vampiro de la Colonia Roma, by Luis Zapata, Salón Marrakech, República de Cuba 18, Col Centro.

If you want to see the whole program, click here.

Some of my friends compare the gay parade with Christmas. I mean, a queer, festive Christmas during which the LGBT community seems to rise from darkness and gather together. During June, Mexico City seems unexpectedly full of festivals, parties, lectures and readings honoring queer pride.

Fortunately, the  meetings and festivals are not organized only in the DF. Other cities’ queer communities show their pride in the streets. Needlesly to say, every parade is organized in a different social context, different background, and faces different obstacles.

A clear example of this is the couple of parades scheduled for the next week. The first one will be on June 13th, in Guadalajara–also called Gaydalajara. The city is one of the busiest industrial and management hubs after Mexico City, and it’s considered the gayest city in Mexico.

A few hours away from Puerto Vallarta–a gay attraction, especially for foreigners in search for beautiful beaches–Guadalajara’s queer population still faces discrimination, double moral standards, and machismo.The motto of the parade is Derechos, Laicidad y Democracia (“Rights, Secularism, and Democracy’). If you want to make a stop before or after going to the beach, click here for more information.

The second parade will be in Monterrey, in the northern state of Nuevo León. Here, a young 9th Gay Pride will be celebrated on June 27th, with the motto Es nuestra elección (“It is our choice”). Monterrey is one of the richest cities in the country, due to its development as an industrial center. In spite of the young marketing and management students at the expensive Tecnológico de Monterrey university, society in Monterrey is still quite conservative, which, I think, makes the parade more meaningful. If you happen to be around, for more information and a clear map, please click here.

Pride in Mexico City will be on June 20th. It’s the oldest in the country and it has even considered the ‘national” pride, since a lot of people come from nearby states, such as Querétaro, Tlaxcala, and Hidalgo. More on that later.

Gay Parade in Guadalajara: June 13th, 3 p.m., Calle 28 de Enero No. 368 Barrio de Analco, Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Gay Parade in Monterrey: June 27th, 6 p.m., Metro General Anaya, Monterrey, Nuevo León.

From June 24th to 27th the Semana Cultural Lésbica-Gay will be celebrated in Mexico City. This year, the slogan is “Desvío en construcción” (Deviation or Detour under construction) and it will take place in many venues in the city.

The man in charge of this particular event was José María Covarrubias, a life-time activist during the tough seventies and eighties who fought against homophobia in Mexico. He used to organize the Semana Cultural Gay at the Museo del Chopo, which hosted the event for twenty years in a row. A big success, especially taking into account how difficult it was for scared gays and lesbians to come out of the closet and gather together. Also, one of his biggest battles was the series of public protests demanding to solve the assassinations of 14 transvestites in Chiapas.

In 2003, la Pepa, as some of his friends called him, locked himself in a hotel room, wrote a posthumous note and saved himself from a torturous death caused by HIV, as an impoverished man who could not afford medical treatments.

In 2006, Altarte, a new gay organization took over the Semana Gay, facing a big obstacle: the Museo del Chopo is being remodelled, hence, there can’t be an “official” venue where the Semana can take place.

However, the inconvenience soon proved to be a better way to find people willing to host different events all over the city. As a continuation of Covarrubias’ work, but I would say even better because of the circumstances and the changes that have taken place in some sectors of Mexican society, the Semana Cultural Lésbica-Gay now celebrates its XXI edition. The program includes conferences, dance, book readings, photography, music and a series of performance acts “lo que se ve no se juzga”.

All of this sounds like a happy-ending story, but still there is a lot to do. The Semana Cultural ends with the gay parade as its main event. This year, one of the demands is to categorize violence against LGBT people as hate crimes in the local and federal scene.

To see the complete program of the Semana click here

June 28th marks Mexico City’s 30th annual gay pride march (and my first “pride” in Mexico City).

The march starts at the Angel de Independencia in the Zona Rosa and ends at the Zócalo, where free musical and theatrical performances will take place on the main stage. These shows were coordinated by lesbian activist Martha Cuevas. A full description of artistic events can be found (in Spanish) at http://eventoslgbt.blogspot.com/. The schedule is tentative, and I will update this post as I know more.

2:15–Avenida Q

Excerpts from the Mexican production of the hit musical, Avenue Q, currently staring openly gay former Rebelde member, Christian Chávez. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never seen the English or Spanish versions of this show, though I hear it’s fabulous.

2:30–Grupo Destino

2:45–Hijas de Safo (Saffo’s Daughters)

This trio of lady performers do a very campy song and dance routine, each parodying a lesbian or Mexican architype (a machota in a leather jacket, a cowgirl, Adelita…). The photo below does not do their live performance justice. For those who don’t speak Spanish, a lot of the jokes go by very quickly, but the visual theatricality is charming, even for those who can’t keep up. (I include myself in that last category.)

3:00–Foreños

I know nothing about this group, except what I read on the pride events blog (link above) and from their own website, but Foreños appears to be a gay, rachero boy band. Need I say more?

3:15–Las Reinas Chulas

This group of lesbian performers are based out of the Coyoacán performance venue El Vicio (formerly El Hábito). I have been meaning to go to one of their shows for the past two years, and shame on me for not yet doing so. I’ve only heard good things.

3:30–Regina Orozco

This comic singer is a gay icon in Mexico. Think Bette Midler, but with opera.

3:45–Oracio Franco

4:00–This time slot is reserved for “political discourse” which involves inviting gay activists and political figures to the stage. As of yet, no specific names have been offered.

4:15–Raquel Bigorra

4:30–Tito Vasconcelos

This gay actor and activist is a bit of a Mexico City legend. In addition to having a long career as an actor, perform, and theater teacher, Tito Vasconcelos is the entrepeneur behind the successful Cabaretito chain of gay clubs. Not only have his clubs been hard by the recent gentrification of the Zona Rosa, but Vasconcelos himself was arrested for trumped up charges, punishment for not playing along with police and city officials.

4:45–Sissa

I can’t seem to find a website for this performer, a drag artist and “sophisticated androgine” who has appeared in Rent (I’m assuming the Mexican production) and other musicals and dance performances. Anyone know more information?

5:05–Astrid Hadad

Another living legend. Her website gives this musician and performance artist a good taste of her style. (Also, I was fascinated by the design of her website.)

5:30–Susana Zabaleta

This rock singer will be crowned “queen” of this year’s pride celebration.

5:45–Ari Borovoy

6:00–Amandititita

Amandititita is a player in the current wave of what I would call Mexican electroclash (think Casio beats with more traditional Mexican instruments layered in, with rapping/shouting/singing vocals delivering bratty vocals on top of that). I have never seen her, but hear she puts on a good show.

Footage of the backstage of last year’s pride stage is posted below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEWi4o7kn6E&hl=en]

The concept of “family” has been changing over the years. Around the globe, the traditional model of dad-mom-children is not the only example to follow anymore, and Mexico is not an exception in this trend.

An example of this is the series of photographs taken by Óscar Sánchez since 1996 of queer families living in Mexico City. Twelve of them are being exhibited in the Centro Médico subway station, as part of the Semana Cultural Lésbica Gay 2008 (Gay and Lesbian Week, 2008). The series represents a useful effort to documenting the changes that are taking place in Mexico regarding the practice of shaping alternative families, in the outskirts of society. The exhibition works to move these families closer to the mainstream.

It is worth to mention that in 2007, Mexico City’s congress passed leyes de convivencia or “the law of cohabitation,” in order to make official the unions of same-sex couples. Supposedly, this new legal status would empower gay and lesbian couples, giving them the same rights that straight couples enjoy. However, the law was mainly symbolic, and didn’t make significant changes to rights that queer couples already had. For instance, they were already allowed to leave possessions to the same-sex partner when they die, and could make medical decisions if their partner goes into a coma. The paper work that has to be done is the same as before.

These images will force subway passengers to face a reality that is often ignored by the mainstream media, who chose not to keep up with the transformations of society.

Mexican Families; Centro Médico subway station, from 6th to 30th June 2008.