“In Praise of Latin Night at the Queer Club”
One thought on “Justin Torres’ Response to Orlando Shooting, 2016”
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“In Praise of Latin Night at the Queer Club”
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What strikes me most about Torres’s piece is the fact that his writing style is so cohesive and recognizeable, and that all the qualities that make it effective in the context of We The Aniamsl also make it effective in this context. This piece, for me, is so powerful because it stresses the personal and rejects the political. Torres specifies his audience, addressing “papi,” “mamacita,” “hijos,” “mariposas,” though he surely does not describe the average Washington Post reader with thes terms. He also expresses the joys and beauties of this space without any direct mention of the shooting, but he does broadly contextualize the queer club in terms of safety from systemic violence and political apathy. This refusal to let the shooting penetrate the beauty and “sacredness” of the space is another reflection of its importance to Torres and the aspect of the space that he tries to convey to his broader audience.