Gil Cuadros
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Gil Cuadros (July 22, 1962 – August 29, 1996) was an American gay poet, essayist, and ceramist known for his writing on the impact of AIDS.


Biography

Cuadros grew up in
Montebello, California Montebello (Italian language, Italian for "Beautiful Mountain") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located just east of East Los Angeles, California, East Los Angeles and southwest of San Gabriel Valley. It is an indepen ...
with parents from Northern California. He attended
Schurr High School Schurr High School is a public high school in Montebello, California, United States, a suburb in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Part of the Montebello Unified School District, it has an enrollment of approximately 3,500 students in grades 9â ...
, where he met photographer Laura Aguilar, with whom he remained close friends throughout his life. After high school, Cuadros attended East Los Angeles Community College for one year before transferring to
Pasadena City College Pasadena City College (PCC) is a Public college, public community college in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. History Pasadena City College was founded in 1924 as Pasadena Junior College. It originally o ...
. Cuadros worked at a photo lab where he met his lover, John Edward Milosch. In 1987, Milosch died of AIDS and Cuadros was diagnosed with the disease. Laura Aguilar encouraged Cuadros to attend Terry Wolverton's writing workshops for people with HIV at the
Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center The Los Angeles LGBT Center (previously known as the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center) is a provider of programs and services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The organization's work spans four categories, including health, so ...
, which Cuadros did in 1988, igniting a passion for writing. Despite initially being told that he had six months to live, Cuadros lived for eight years after his diagnosis, stating that "writing literally saved my life or at least extended my life".. Cuadros won the Brody Literature Fellowship, in 1991 and he was one of the first recipients of
PEN Center PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...
USA/West grants to writers with HIV. Cuadros’ only book published during his lifetime was ''City of God'' (City Lights Publishers, 1994). A posthumous volume of stories and poems, ''My Body is Paper'', was published in 2024, also by City Lights, and was shortlisted for the 2024 '' POZ'' Award for Best Literature Cuadros died of AIDS at age 34, on August 29, 1996. Joshua Guzman writes that Cuadros' literature made an impact on the history of AIDS by providing a testimonial that "explores the impact that AIDS has had on the gay
Chicano Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...
community."


Themes

Cuadros' ''City of God'' (see below), and other early works are considered the first of their kind to serve as testimonials for Chicanos with AIDS. Throughout his works Cuadros gives visibility to two identities that are often denied within the Chicano community: homosexuals and people living with AIDS. Among other things, Cuadros's stories and poems address the themes of sex, death, Roman Catholicism, family relations, and the meaning of home.


Commentaries

Latinx ''Latinx'' is an English neologism used to refer to people with Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The term aims to be a gender-neutral alternative to ''Latino'' and ''Latina'' by replacing the masculine and fem ...
writers and scholars José Monteagudo, Rafael Ocasio, Raúl Homero Villa, and Rafael Pérez-Torres have expressed that Gil Cuadros' work has yet to be fully recognized and valued. Homero Villa has expressed that Cuadros literary output has given readers queer insights into the changing space of
East Los Angeles East Los Angeles (), or East L.A., is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) situated within Los Angeles County, California, United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, East Los Angeles is designated as ...
as well as its "fractured Chicano geography". Monteagudo published an influential early review of ''City of God'' (1994). Ocasio argued that the AIDS testimonial of Cuadros and those of Cuban exile writer,
Reinaldo Arenas Reinaldo Arenas (July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990) was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright who is known as a vocal critic of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution, and the Cuban government. His memoir of the Cuban dissident movement and of bei ...
, have both provided their respective communities narratives with a "foundation" that serves to empower. Rafael Pérez-Torres has asserted that Cuadros' work "is illustrative of the vexed intersection of race and queer sexuality."


''City of God'' (1994)

''City of God'' consists of short stories and poems. The title of the book alludes to the theological masterpiece of Church Father
Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...
, ''
The City of God ''On the City of God Against the Pagans'' (), often called ''The City of God'', is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. Augustine wrote the book to refute allegations that Christian ...
'', published in 426 AD. In his treatise, Augustine examines the conflict between the "City of Man" (an earthly city) and the holy, eternal "City of God." Cuadros's choice of title bespeaks a similar dichotomy, inviting readers to view his stories and poems from both an earthly and eternal perspective. Cuadros's ''City of God'' is presented in two sections: part 1 (stories) and part 2 (poems). Thematically, part 1 is broken into three groups of three. Each group depicts different ages and phases of a single life lived by different characters. The first three stories "Indulgences", "Reynaldo", and "Chilvalry" talk about issues of origin. That is, how childhood experiences shape "sexual and gender identification". Furthermore, these first three stories depict the Chicano family and growing up queer in Los Angeles. The next group, "My Aztlan: White Place", "Unprotected", and "Holy" speak about the difficulties that arise when homosexuality intersects with the Chicano self such as familial opposition. The last three stories "Baptism", "Letting Go", and "Sight" discusses the transformation the Chicano body undergoes as it faces the effects of a ravaging disease. The book, Rafael Pérez-Torres states, that the stories trace the "development and transformation of a new
mestizo ( , ; fem. , literally 'mixed person') is a term primarily used to denote people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry in the former Spanish Empire. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturall ...
subject, one forced to accommodate an ethnic identity and experience with an alienating but crucial sexual identity". Overall, ''City of God'' provides its readers a personal understanding of the historical background of
HIV/AIDS in the United States The AIDS AIDS epidemic, epidemic, caused by HIV, found its way to the United States between the 1970s and 1980s, but was first noticed after doctors discovered clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in Gay men, homosexual men in ...
during the 1980s and 1990s. Beyond that, ''City of God'' presents its readers with a unique perspective on Chicano gay history in relation to the
Chicano Movement The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento (Spanish for "the Movement"), was a civil rights movements, social and political movement in the United States that worked to embrace a Chicano, Chicano identity and worldview that combated ...
.


AIDS and Los Angeles

The book not only depicts the characters' experiences shaped by their surroundings but also invites readers to see his characters "merge with the city." For Cuadros (the fictional character), the city is his Aztlán, or Mecca. Although "
Aztlán Aztlán (from or romanized ''Aztlán'', ) is the ancestral home of the Aztec peoples. The word "Aztec" was derived from the Nahuatl a''ztecah'', meaning "people from Aztlán." Aztlán is mentioned in several ethnohistorical sources dating from t ...
" refers to the mythical Aztec homeland that the Chicano Movement in the 1960–1970s ascribed to as a place of communal belonging, Cuadros paints Aztlán, or Los Angeles, as a dystopia. In the story, any representations of Los Angeles are analogous to that of the character's AIDS-infected body. For example, "I look like the city, / only bare bones of what I used to be". Los Angeles is also portrayed through Saint Augustine's "earthly city of eternal misery." The queer community in Los Angeles is also depicted to reflect the dominant culture of the white middle class.


Works


Books

*''My Body is Paper: Stories and Poems'', published by City Lights Publishers. 2024. *''City of God'', published by City Lights Publishers. 1994.


Appearances

*''Indivisible: New Short Fiction'' ''by West Coast Gay and Lesbian Writers'' (1991) *''High Risk 2: Writings on Sex, Death and Subversion'' (1994) *''Blood Whispers: L.A. Writers on AIDS'', Volume 1 (1994) *''The Soho Press Book of 80s Short Fiction'', Dale Peck, Ed, Soho Press (2016)


Further reading

* *


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuadros, Gil LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American people Hispanic and Latino American poets American writers of Mexican descent American gay artists American male poets 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American poets 1962 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American male writers American male essayists 20th-century American ceramists AIDS-related deaths in California 20th-century American LGBTQ people