Event recap of ‘Undesirables: A Queer History of Latinx Challenges to U.S. Immigration Policy’

On Friday, January 29th, 2021, Dr. Julio Capó, Jr. gave a talk as part of the Race, Gender and Sexuality Research Cluster speaker series organized by USC’s Department of American Studies and Ethnicity. In his talk, ‘Undesirables: A Queer History of Latinx Challenges to U.S. Immigration Policy,’ Dr. Julio Capó, Jr. took his listeners on a journey from the beginning of the 19th century to the present, highlighting the evolution of immigration policy and the ways immigration policy addressed gender and sexuality. Capó tackled how Latinx immigrants have “queered and challenged” U.S. immigration policy and how sexual “deviance” has been regulated at and within the nation’s borders.

Capó began his discussion with the history of Northern Bahamian men who migrated seasonally to the U.S. for work in the early twentieth century. When one Bahamian man was arrested for sodomy and sent back to the Bahamas, he was able to return to the U.S. the next season without any problems. Capó began with this population of immigrants to show, first, how long-standing the U.S.’s relationship is with the Caribbean, and, second, how disconnected immigration was from criminal records.

During this time period, immigrants did not have assigned attributes or social classes; thus, the man arrested was not assumed to be a homosexual or dangerous to the U.S. However, this universal acceptance did not apply to individuals who did not visually conform to the gender roles assigned by society. Northern Bahamian women, for example, were much less likely to be granted entrance to the U.S. because immigration officials assumed women who came alone or were unmarried were prostitutes. These assumptions of immigrant women persisted for decades and affected women from Caribbean and Latin American countries.

To elaborate on his description of how women were among those most barred from entrance to the U.S., Capó provided dates and explanations for changes to U.S. immigration policies. In 1875, immigration policy made clear that “importation into the U.S. of women for the purposes of prostitution” was strictly forbidden, but there was nothing else regarding the sexual expression or sexuality of immigrants mentioned. In 1917, the U.S. began using “psychopathic” as a term to describe the personalities or characteristics of unwanted immigrants. This vague term persisted in immigration policy to the 1950s, when homosexuality officially became defined as a mental disorder and when ‘homosexual’ was understood to be equivalent to ‘sexual pervert.’

Although the terminology used to qualify immigrants for entry was expanding, Capó clarified that the objection to homosexuality or breaking gender norms, labeled “sexual deviation” in 1965, mostly affected men; This characteristic was not assigned to immigrants from a certain country or region. It was not until the U.S. waged war against communism that politics began to influence how immigrants were perceived at the border. The ‘relationship’ between the U.S. and Cuba, referred to by Capó as “the U.S.’s playground” at the time, changed drastically when the Cuban Revolution began, shifting American acceptance of Cuban immigrants. Furthermore, the leader of Cuba at this time, in order to foster an image of unity and strength, began to degrade the Cubans who were leaving after the revolution had run its course. These immigrants were labeled as defective and criminals as well as homosexuals and prostitutes. Capó explained how 80% of “Marielitos,” in reference to people who left Cuba from the Port of Mariel in 1980 had no known criminal records; Even so, the label of “Marielito” is tainted to this day by the political circumstances of that time.

While the U.S. was fighting the Cold War internationally, social unrest grew at home. As if mirroring the directness of immigration policy, discrimination against the gay community was rising and known gay businesses or establishments became targets of police raids. One such establishment was the Stonewall Inn, where the anger and frustration of a police raid led to riots and the beginning of the battle for gay rights. Capó made sure to emphasize how the two prominent leaders of this movement were of minority groups and one was born of immigrants; Marsha P. Johnson was Black and Sylvia Rivera was Venezuelan and Puerto Rican. Another lesser-known raid at the Snake Pit Bar in 1970 is important to the discussion of queer Latinx immigrants, Capó said, because its one victim was a young Argentinian student. He died trying to escape the raid knowing, if he was arrested, he would be charged not only for “sexual deviation,” but for outstaying his visa. His death became more motivation to change laws and attitudes about the queer community.

It was not until 1980 that the Refugee Act was extended to include people “of a particular social class,” allowing immigrants to argue that their reason for leaving their country of origin was persecution because of sexuality. A decade later, the U.S. officially removed the ban on homosexuals from immigration policy. To conclude his talk, Capó reminded his audience of the all too known statement former President Trump made about the “kinds of people” that come from Mexico. To this day, immigrant identities are reduced down to their bodies and the politically strategic stereotypes created decades ago. This prejudice has not remained unchallenged, though. Capó made abundantly clear the resilience and power of immigrants from Latin America have helped establish and cultivate this country for over a century. His focus on queer Latinx immigrants showed how the social, political, and economic state of the U.S. has been imperative to the acceptance and rejection of certain groups or classes of immigrants.

Julio Capó Jr. is the author of Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami before 1940 and is a transnational historian who focuses on the U.S. relationship with the Caribbean and Latin America. He is currently an Associate Professor of History and the Deputy Director of the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab at Florida International University. Capó began his writing career as a journalist, and he continues to do work in public humanities and engagement.

About the author: