Leche no es 'Milk': Resisting White Queer Framings of the Joto

• In Event: ¡Jotos Así! Teoría, que somos pocos pero locos

Abstract

This past winter, I went to see Milk as the sole person of color within an all-White group of friends. I was disappointed that no Latina/o queers were prominently triumphant in the bio-pic. Were no jotos living and working in San Francisco at that time? More disappointingly, the most visible joto, Jack Lira was insultingly known by Harvey Milk as “Taco Bell.” The off-accent, the conflicting emotions, the arrhythmic protocols—Jack’s maladjusted characterizations signaled that his lover-relationship with Harvey was doomed to fail. Using Jack Lira as muse, in this essay I read jototería through a White queer work so as to demonstrate the racialization of queerness. I also use Harvey as a way to understand the White queer’s relational and abusive relations with the joto. Via this cross reading I reconsider the postionality of the joto while also conceiving of how jotos might read and articulate ourselves anew by understanding and celebrating our “iterative hesitancies” (Calafell and Moreman 2009).

Author

• Shane T. Moreman, California State University, Fresno