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From DallasVoice.com News Lead Story Jesus Chairez, ‘godfather’ of LGBT Latino movement, leaving Dallas
Chairez, a Texas-born Latino, said he planned to meet “a gringo friend” at a bar one night. But when Chairez got there, he was told he would need two forms of ID to get in. “I was too naïve at that moment to think anything negative about it,” Chairez recalled. “I was young and had not experienced hidden discrimination before.” As Chairez, who had only one ID, was leaving the bar, he stopped at the door wondering how he would explain to his friend that he hadn’t stood him up. That’s when Chairez overheard the cashier say to someone nearby, “That’s another Mexican down.” “Those words would forever be burnt in my mind,” Chairez said. Chairez contacted what was then called the Dallas Gay Alliance about the incident, but he said the president of the alliance didn’t seem interested. So Chairez and some friends decided to form their own group, the Gay & Lesbian Hispanic Coalition of Dallas. In 1982, Chairez became the group’s first president. Twenty-six years later, the 54-year-old who’s been called the “godfather” of the local gay Latino movement is leaving Dallas and moving to Mexico City. Chairez hosted the country’s first gay Latino radio show, “Sin Fronteras” on KNON 89.3 FM, for 12 years. He became a well-known artist and photographer, promoting Latino culture through his own work and exhibitions, many of which were at his Old East Dallas apartment, “ArteFacto.” Chairez was the first bilingual emcee of Dallas’ gay Pride parade, and he introduced his well-known “Lucha Libre” masked wrestling character at the event. Chairez said he plans to return to Dallas for the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade each year. He also said he plans to continue writing. His columns have been published in Dallas Voice and The Dallas Morning News, and he started one of Dallas’ first gay blogs. “I don’t really look at it as leaving,” Chairez said in a e-mail this week from Mexico City, where he is working to get his immigration paperwork finalized before returning to Dallas to pick up the remainder of his stuff. “The world has gotten smaller. Though my neighborhood may not be Oak Cliff or Old East Dallas, I am only two hours away by airplane. And with the use of the Internet and the lots of stories that need to be written, people in Dallas hopefully will be reading my special contributions and opinions.” ‘Los quatro jotas’ Jose Plata, who became Dallas’ first openly gay school board member in 1997, said he met Chairez after moving to Dallas to start his teaching career in 1979. Plata said Chairez, a second-generation American, was a “gringo Mexican guy” who didn’t learn Spanish until later in life. When Plata met him, Chairez was known as Jesse Chairez. Chairez said he changed his name to Jesus after his first visit to Mexico City in 1986. Plata said he, Chairez and two other friends named Jesse and Joe became known as “the four jotas.” “Jota” means “J” in Spanish, but it’s also a diminutive term for “sissy,” Plata said. “We were involved politically, and we were involved civically,” said Plata, who now works as a political consultant. “We were a force to be dealt with. Because of our activities back then, we opened the doors for a lot of other activities for folks who came along after that.” In a recent column for Dallas Voice, Chairez said despite early gains, the Hispanic Coalition of Dallas faded away in the late 1980s due to the impact of AIDS, burnout among leaders and the fact that there was no Internet. In 1993, Chairez launched “Sin Fronteras,” or “Without Borders,” a one-hour weekly radio show on KNON. The show began with things like interviews on gay Latino issues and HIV prevention, but eventually changed format and was expanded to two hours because listeners wanted more music and entertainment. John Loza, a gay Latino and former Dallas city councilmember, said the show was an important outlet at a time when there wasn’t a lot of organization in the community. Loza said the show raised awareness about the “duel discrimination” faced by gay Latinos. “That was one of the things that kind of kept the community together,” Loza said of the show. “You faced discrimination because you were gay or lesbian, but you also faced discrimination because you were Latino, and even sometimes from members of our [the gay] community. I’m not saying that’s completely gone away, but things are certainly a lot better than they were 10 or 15 years ago. He was one of the first ones to bring those issues to the surface.” Today, Dallas County has a lesbian Latina sheriff in Lupe Valdez. The president of North Texas’ largest LGBT political group, Jesse Garcia, is also Latino. Another gay Latino, Juan Ayala, is president of Dallas County Young Democrats. Two gay Latino political groups, the LULAC Rainbow Chapter and Valiente, have formed in Dallas in recent years. And the gay Latino community, which got its first bar in the late 80s, now has four. “We are having our voices heard,” Chairez said in the recent Dallas Voice column. “Though there may be similarities with today’s GLBT Latino activist groups and those of the past, this time it looks like we have endurance.” Garcia, president of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, said he gives much of the credit for that to Chairez. “Jesus Chairez is literally the godfather to all our local LGBT Latino movements,” Garcia said. “His unapologetic, in-your-face way of calling out injustices within the LGBT community back in the 1980s and 1990s helped LGBT communities of color, specifically Latinos, achieve respect and success. … We have arrived at this point thanks to the hard work of people like Chairez, who not only looked out for the Hispanic gay American but the immigrant gay as well.” ‘Santo Gay’ Chairez’s last radio show aired in 2005. In 2006, he accepted an early buyout and retired from his job with the federal government, which he had worked for since 1973. Despite all the progress he’s witnessed, Chairez lamented the continued lack of a gay Latino journalist in Dallas. He said the community needs someone who “can speak with and through two cultures” and “see life outside the gayborhood and into the barrio as well.” Chairez also said he thinks it’s time for another gay Latino radio show. “Radio is a way of reaching many low to moderate income Latinos, most especially the immigrants, many of whom don’t have computers or access to the Internet,” Chairez said. “If I did it alone, I think with two Latino GLBT groups in Dallas, it can happen again.” Chairez said he’s leaving Dallas due to a lack of affordable housing. He said the apartment building where he’s lived for the last 16 years in Old East Dallas will soon be torn down to make way for redevelopment. On his pension, he said, he can’t afford the condominums that will replace it. In Mexico City, Chairez said, he can remain in the inner city for less. He said his new apartment is in an artsy, bohemian area near the gay central district that’s comparable to New York’s SoHo neighborhood. In a parting jab at his native state, the longtime activist also said Mexico is more accepting of LGBT people. Mexico allows civil unions, and Chairez said LGBT men and women freely embrace and kiss on the streets in the city of 23 million. “What I see here by caring, loving GLBT people with each other in public is more than I ever see in Dallas or most Texas cities, and this is another reason I am moving — to be more liberated as a gay man,” Chairez said. “Though I will miss Dallas, especially my friends, I won’t miss the not-so-friendly Texas hospitality our GLBT community gets from Texas’ conservative community.” While there’s homophobia in Mexico City like anywhere else, Chairez said, there’s also a Lucha Libre, or masked wrestler, to fight it. Chairez said he met “Super Gay,” a Mexican wrestler who doesn’t fight in the ring but battles homophobia on the streets, at Mexico City’s Pride celebration in 1997. Super Gay was the inspiration for “Santo Gay,” Chairez’s Lucha Libre persona for fighting homophobia and providing visibility to LGBT Latino issues and concerns. Chairez not only brought the character to Dallas’ gay Pride, but he made it the basis for his blog, Si Soy Gay, which he plans to continue. “I meet with Super Gay on Friday to join forces so I will see how that goes,” Chairez said. E-mail wright@dallasvoice.com This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 28, 2008. © Copyright by DallasVoice.com |
