ARRIBA Y ARRIBA

“SEEING MYSELF PHYSICALLY BECOME THE PERSON I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE... MADE ME FEEL INVINCIBLE.”

Though many long-held traditions in Mexican-American culture can be comforting and beautiful, there are unfortunately others that have become outdated and harmful. The perseverance of Latino machismo—and the misogynistic and homophobic attitudes it generates—can, combined with a heavily Catholic influence, have negative effects on the LGBTQ youth who grow up in the culture.

For Latino singer-songwriter and activist Gio Bravo, it was exactly these invisible but very real cultural attitudes that kept him in the closet about being transgender. Bravo says