GAY LATINO WOPS AND THE DAMNED BY VISCONTI

He used to say that he did not have that many Latino friends (as if not hanging out in New York City with Latinos was a measure of some form of social standing), much less Puerto Rican friends (though it was obvious, when he had them, it was to take advantage of them). The gay world where he lived was one where to be fabulous and felt to be “in”, the “mostest of the mostest” (o algo así), “de rigueur” (quizás así), was made up of a certain type of gay man. He only invited the suburban "white gays", petite, very petite bourgeoisie, new first generation residents of the City, to his dinner parties in downtown’s “cafės de moda”. It all stopped when he was arrested by an immigration agent and placed in a cell full of Mexicans, Hondurans, Salvadorans, with a Puerto Rican guard watching them. He had seen the movie The Damned by Visconti, forgotten it until he met the new Latino Wops in a federal prison in New Jersey.