Photo: via Centro Cultural Fotográfico

GLBT families seem not to exist in Mexico. The queer community is still conceived as a social group with no children, nor the ability to have a family of its own.  A year ago, Mexican  photographer Óscar Sánchez Gómez proved this idea wrong with an exhibition in the Centro Médico subway station. His work is a series of portraits of GLBT families in Mexico that show a sweet intimacy of their lives. Fortunately, Sánchez Gómez work is part of the Segunda Cultural Lésbica Gay this year, and will be on exhibition at the Centro Cultural José Martí.

What inspired you to make this project? The idea came after seeing that most of the references to the gay and lesbian population in media are negative, stigmatizing, devalueing, and denigrating. My goal was to show a positive way of exercising the sexuality, of understanding love and creating families. I thought it was important to show that this family structures are far away from hetero-sexist and patriarchal structures. There is a popular saying that states “what can’t be seen, doesn’t exist”, and that’s exaclty why I wanted to do with this photographic essay, to shed light to something that does exist, and that is another aspect of the human being.

What was your goal when you decided to make this series of photographs? To show new family structures that were and still are invisible, to give them a presence in our society with the portraits I make of them.

Who are these families, how did you get in contact with them? They are families that live in Mexico City. As soon as I found a couple on the street I immediately asked them if I could  include them in my project. There were many rejections, but at the beginning I approached especially to those who participated with the homosexual liberation movement, or those who were activists of other groups, because they had already come out of the closet. They knew beforehand that the photographs were going to be published.

How long did it take you to make this series? When did you decide that they were enough and why? I’ve been documenting this kind of family for about 12 years. I have documented about 60 different famillies, and I still feel that there are some photos to be taken, I still don’t close the production of this work.

A year ago, this exhibition was held in a very crowded subway station, how can you describe that experience? Everything was fine in that exhibition, there were no protests or anything. Sometimes I went to take a peek to the passers-by reaction. It was very satisfactory to see how people stopped to see the photos with attention. I even saw mothers with their little children looking at the exhibition.

Is it common to see this kind of families in Mexico? What problems do you think they have to face, specifically in the Mexican context? It is more common to see them. Actually, there is a group of families, about 20, who hang out together. The objective is visibility.

Was there any obstacle that you had to tackle during the process? It’s been more about time and resources. Otherwise, ther have been no other.

What did you enjoy more of doing this work? To share space and time with the families.

How would you describe these Mexican families? They are families that, with no doubt, are built around love.

After having this experience, how would you define the family? As something diverse, that every one constructs in a different way.

Familias Mexicanas, Centro Cultural José Martí, Avenida Hidalgo at Doctor Mora, Hidalgo subway station. From June 5th to June 28th. If you want to contact Óscar Sánchez, please write to sagoscar@gmail.com.

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.