Immigration LGBTQ in Buenos Aires
Even though I came out of the closet and everyone knows about my sexuality I feel trapped by my family culture. I miss my family, but here I do not have to explain to anyone, there is loneliness but there is also freedom.
Since I was a kid I knew I was gay, and as soon as I finished high school I wanted to immigrate, in search of a better future, but also in search of freedom.
In Peru and especially in the provinces, being gay is a taboo, there is a lot of discrimination, so in 2005 I was able to travel to Buenos Aires. Since 2017 I have been photographing boys residing in Buenos Aires, mostly from bordering countries and Latin America, their stories have similarities to mine … we all arrive in search of freedom.
For 8 years I have a relationship with Pablo, but my family who is in Colombia thinks he is a friend.
Rami and Adri are a couple of Colombians, since 3 years they live in Buenos Aires. For work they lived in several countries of Latin America and recently in Argentina. They feel comfortable with their sexuality.
Of all the countries of Latin America we would not return to Peru: “One morning we got beaten up very badly, my father broke his ribs and my right arm.” says Adrian.
I miss my country, but in Buenos Aires I have freedom. Here I can go down the street dressed as I want, there is freedom to be and use whatever I want.
I accepted that I was gay a long time ago, I really like men, only that ‘being gay’ is more like a lifestyle to which I feel half exposed to meet the guys I like … but, honestly, it’s basically for me that … the underground gay world seems frivolous and superfluous, full of little acceptance and discrimination disguised as a united community, if I could stop being gay, I would!
Immigration helped my freedom, but it was easy. Since I started dating men, we used underground to meet, it was difficult to go to hotels with another man
I do not want to go back to Peru, to return to Peru would be to renounce my identity, outside Miraflores I could not walk hand in hand with another boy.
When I arrived in Buenos Aires I was 23 years old, today I am 37, for the first time I could go to gay disco or enter a hotel with another man, in Peru I could not have done it.
