Taller de jovenes gays

So today I decided to go to the taller de jovenes gays put on by MUMS (Movimiento por la Diversidad Sexual). First things first, their building is off of calle "Ricardo Cumming." Immature to laugh at, probably, but who (in the English-speaking world) wouldn't have an immature moment walking on that calle or entering the estación metro Cumming.

The taller was supposed to start at 16:00 and I arrived at 16:05. It was raining out so the taller was going to be indoors. For about an hour, we just sat around and talked. There were lots of "weon's" and "weona's" being thrown around. I look around and see all the Chilean women are pretty butch with the exception of one. I was so nervous and knew that, if I said anything longer than a few words, they would know I was a gringa.

Finally, we started by doing an exercise where we had to go around and decide on "date" times with various people. Then, we had to sit with each person and answer specific questions according to the time of the "date" we decided. Most of them were pretty normal questions about our favorite movies, least favorite food, etc. Then we got to the strange ones. ¿Qué es su fantasia erótica? ¿Dónde ha sido el lugar más extraño en lo cual tuviste sexo? So awkward and TMI. Also the second question assumes that we have had sex, which seems strange considering that it's a taller de jovenes and the youngest were 16. Most of the time I just ended up answering the same questions anyways: ¿De dónde eres? ¿Porqué estás en Chile? ¿Hace cuanto tiempo has estado acá? ¿Qué estudias? etc. etc.

We introduced ourselves and most of us were between 18 and 20 in colegio or uni, with two 16-year-olds and a few mid-20s. I learn that the only other non-butch woman in the taller is the heterosexual gemela of a lesbian attending the group.

Next we did one of the strangest exercises I have ever done in my 19 years. And believe me that I have done my fair share of strange group exercises.... We wrote our names with our bodies on one of the walls of the room. Basically we just saw everyone's asses moving around in the shape of letters.

We took a cookie and coffee break and I suddenly found everyone around me wanting to know about my experience in Chile and  being a lesbian here. About all of the girls that ask multiple times if I'm a lesbian or not and don't believe me when I say that I am. I guess I'm just too "pretty."

In the group room again, I heard about people's coming out experiences in their families and colegios. This is really what I came to hear. I want to know how LGBT life is for Chileans. What surprised me was the amount of people using "maricón," but I guess Spanish-speaking LGBT people can use it the same way English-speaking LGBT people sometimes refer to themselves as fags, dykes, queers, etc. It takes the power away from the word.

Two of the girls got expelled from their colegios for being lesbians. One when she was only 14 and just because she was hanging out with a known lesbian, not because she actually admitted to being lesbian or got caught in a lesbian act. How ridiculous! And how unfortunate considering that Chileans usually attend the same colegio from ages 5-18. On a lighter note, Sebastían's dad said he knew his son was gay because "fumais como maricón." What in the world does that mean? Other than the fact that he smokes a lot, he seems to smoke pretty normally to me.

We ended the group by doing some weird singing in a circle activity where I was so close to people I passed even the sardine level of rush hour in the Santiago metro. After the taller, we all pitched in to buy some beer and vodka and hung out in the building, listening to music and dancing for the next two hours.

I'm really happy I did this today. I got several things I wanted out of it--to listen to Chilean LGBT experiences, meet people from the community in a non-disco/bar setting, and create some possibilities for friends or activities.