Companeras: Latina Lesbians (An Anthology)

Rating:
Summary: a pioneering book
Review: This book was made in the mid-80s. On the one hand, it feels a little dated, but on the other, the reader can tell how much it has thoroughly influenced many of the anthologies of lesbian and gay writing of color to come after it. This book is a smorgasbord of poems, essays, diary entries, and other writings from Latina lesbians. It has some cheesy, Cocteau-influenced pencil drawings too, which I won't bother to discuss. In the style of Anzaldua and Moraga, this is another book which celebrates bilingualism and has essays in English and Spanish, without translations, by the way. However, unlike the two previously mentioned Latina lesbian authors, there is little "Spanglish" here. Unlike Latino collections, that focus upon Mexican-Americans, this book has a healthy selection of writings from Puerto Ricans, especially Black Puerto Ricans. I'm sure this is due to the New York residence of the editor, but I was loving it regardless of its reasons. Also, this is one of the few Latino anthologies which includes writings from Brazilian-Americans. Unlike so much lesbian writing where the narrator is always the blameless heroine, the authors here lead real lives: they make mistakes and write about stuff that could make many readers uncomfortable. Unfortunately, there are many essays that say little about race and also many that say little about sexuality. In this book, women are much more likely to say they are lesbians who have had sex with men than to identify as bisexual and this may rub some bisexual readers the wrong way. Whereas the writers had much to say about sexism of men and homophobia in communities of color, they said little about racism in the gay community and I tend to think this was done purposely because the authors may want to encourage a large white lesbian readership. Many of the authors only use their first names; this type of anonymity would be seen as closet-y and shocking nowadays. Still, even today, there is not enough Latina lesbian writing out there. So this is a precious, early effort at filling the void. I did enjoy reading this book, even as it sometimes felt rough around the edges.

Rating:
Summary: a pioneering book
Review: This book was made in the mid-80s. On the one hand, it feels a little dated, but on the other, the reader can tell how much it has thoroughly influenced many of the anthologies of lesbian and gay writing of color to come after it. This book is a smorgasbord of poems, essays, diary entries, and other writings from Latina lesbians. It has some cheesy, Cocteau-influenced pencil drawings too, which I won't bother to discuss. In the style of Anzaldua and Moraga, this is another book which celebrates bilingualism and has essays in English and Spanish, without translations, by the way. However, unlike the two previously mentioned Latina lesbian authors, there is little "Spanglish" here. Unlike Latino collections, that focus upon Mexican-Americans, this book has a healthy selection of writings from Puerto Ricans, especially Black Puerto Ricans. I'm sure this is due to the New York residence of the editor, but I was loving it regardless of its reasons. Also, this is one of the few Latino anthologies which includes writings from Brazilian-Americans. Unlike so much lesbian writing where the narrator is always the blameless heroine, the authors here lead real lives: they make mistakes and write about stuff that could make many readers uncomfortable. Unfortunately, there are many essays that say little about race and also many that say little about sexuality. In this book, women are much more likely to say they are lesbians who have had sex with men than to identify as bisexual and this may rub some bisexual readers the wrong way. Whereas the writers had much to say about sexism of men and homophobia in communities of color, they said little about racism in the gay community and I tend to think this was done purposely because the authors may want to encourage a large white lesbian readership. Many of the authors only use their first names; this type of anonymity would be seen as closet-y and shocking nowadays. Still, even today, there is not enough Latina lesbian writing out there. So this is a precious, early effort at filling the void. I did enjoy reading this book, even as it sometimes felt rough around the edges.