4 jMSt out • juiy 18. 2003
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S ergio U rzua
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M ario M artinez
Poder Latino de Oregon Board of Directors
Oh, the humanity!
To the E ditor :
’m writing regarding the July 4 letter “Docs
Anybody Care?” and newsbrief "Latina
Claims Bias Among Portland Poder.” Both
Poder to the people
struck to the heart of what 1 have observed and
To the E ditor :
experienced as a lesbian and a person with
brown skin.
oder Latino de Oregon focuses on devel
oping leadership in the lesbian, gay, bi
I grew up in Los Angeles and had a multi
and trans community by organizing social, cultural upbringing. Some members of my fami
educational and HIV prevention events. Our
ly pride themselves in speaking Spanish fluent
objectives:
ly; others do not.
1. To promote health and well-being in the
Back in those days, my father identified as
Latino communities.
Mexican American and spoke Spanish because
2. To create a place that we can he proud of my grandparents knew it hut also spoke English
and feel safe.
because that is what is spoken in the United
3. To focus and promote our group among
States and by my mother. Living this heritage, 1
the Latino communities.
learned that speaking Spanish in this country is
This letter is to clarify allegations made
fraught with emotional, political and societal
about our group in Just Out regarding the
implications.
“exclusion” of Ms. Gay Latina Oregon Mizz
I agree with Mizz Monique Mcxire and David
Monique Mcxire and Mr. David Zambrano’s Zambrano that the kind of discrimination she
involvement in the matter [“Latina Claims Bias encountered from a predominantly immigrant
Among Portland Poder,” July 4|.
Mexican community, glossily labeled as Litino,
First of all, Poder Latino de Oregon is a
comes from ignorance. But 1 also believe that
nonprofit group and has no affiliation with
such circumstances result when labels are adopt
the Mr. and Ms. Gay Latino Oregon pageant
ed without a specific “ethnic membership list.”
or its organizer, Zambrano. He was first con Moore, growing up brown in this country, has
tacted May 4 by one of our members, Mario shown me that the demographics in these eth
Martinez, regarding his interest in participat nic categories are continually shifting and that
there was no way for me to keep track of all the
ing on our float and was asked to attend one
of our meetings, at which time he was given
boxes to check to meet the requirements for
membership.
all the information needed: time, date, place
and people to contact with questions regard
As for food-poisoned Dy Gulotta: Hey, I hear
ing the event. He made no attempt in any way
you! I’ve been in Portland for more than a year
to contact our group.
and have been completely ignored hy my sister
Two of our members, Rufino Gonzalez and
lesbians and brother gays at event after event
Martinez, approached Moore the night she was even without the extra agony you experienced
crowned May 25 to invite her to he on our float
at the last Gay Pride. If you are alone at these
for Pride. Her only response was she could not
events, g<xxl luck trying to penetrate a well-
comment, and she referred us to Zambrano,
established clique!
I therefore making herself unreachable.
Both of these items helped me see that I am
One of our merhbers spoke June 9 with Zam
not the only one who has these experiences. I
believe that as much as labels such as "gay” or
brano regarding the participation of Mixire in
“Litino" may create an instant community for
our float, at which time he said that she would
he entering the Ms. Pride Pageant, that it all
some, the opposite edge can cut to the core, as
what has happened to you and me.
depended on the outcome of the contest and
Labels can be divisive if, with your lesbian
that he would let us know either way. Three
I
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To the E ditor :
K. That’s it. I have HAD IT with every
one in Queendom who wants to collect
their politically correct brownie points at
Marty Davis’ expense. I don’t agree with her
editorials 90 percent of the time, but 1 am
deeply grateful that she has opted to forego a
lucrative career in corporate America in order
to provide the queer community with a quality
newspaper.
It is one thing to respectively disagree with
the perspective of an editorial; it is another
thing altogether to personally attack someone
who is making a major contribution to our com
munity for the sake of feeling smugly superior.
People who want to offer a different, broader,
perhaps more educated perspective on an
important issue are doing the community a
favor, but this can be done without resorting to
character assassination. A personal attack on a
fellow member of the community just for the
sake of being politically correcter-than-thou is
bullshit.
People who don’t like Marty’s editorials
should consider writing a guest editorial. Peo
ple who don’t think there are enough articles
in Just Out that are all about them should sub
mit their own articles. People who don’t like
Just Out should start their own newspaper.
People who want to attack a valuable queer
institution in our community and a contribut
ing member of it just for the sake of indulging
in their own histrionic need to be victims
should FUCK OFF.
days later June 12, our group decided we no
longer could wait to hear from Zambrano and
elected to have instead Marida on our float as
Ms. Poder Latino de Oregon, not as Ms. Gay
Latina Oregon.
A Poder Latino member and Zambrano
ran into each other June 14, at which time he
was informed as to the group’s decision to
have Marida representing Poder Latino de
Oregon.
A committee of about six people came to our
float June 15 as we were getting ready to take
our place in the parade, demanding that Mcxire
should be on our float. We explained again of
our decision and that she was more than wel
come to walk with the float. The committee
declined on her behalf.
Since the beginning, our group has never
canceled any of our meetings. They have always
been every other Thursday.
In closing, our mission as a group is to build
community, not separate. In the past two years
we have successfully reached the Latin com
munity through events. All of this with a
team of volunteers. There was never an issue
of miscommunication, as stated bv the editor
of Just Out.