“And for many, this is as much intimacy as they’ll be able to find. The closest they can be to their respective islands, the safest they can feel in public holding another man. What is longing and systemic oppression when you have the dance floor?…
‘It’s not Spanish.’ It is a reflex, to correct him. He feels dread rising as soon as he does so but can’t stop himself from talking. ‘It’s Latino if you’re speaking generally; Dominican, Puerto Rican, whatever, if you want to be specific.’”
I think in this passage, it is talking about the connection that people feel with each other, the unification of the dance floor. But the author makes sure to remind the reader that just because they come together as one to dance, they are not a ‘they.’ Each person or music has its own traditions and culture behind them. This passage reminds me of the movie, Dirty Dancing. In the movie they use dancing as a metaphor for freedom and its ability to unite people over their social differences.
Even in this space where they feel safe, there are people who still enter it and act like they are in charge, that they are the ones who run the show. This person is clearly an outsider, perhaps not in regards to sexuality, but in regards to race. Eli Clare talks about how a person is extremely intersectional, how you can not separate your identity because each facet impacts the others. I think this passage is an example of that phenomenon. Sal is both Latin and queer. He is finding identity with others on this dance floor because they share common roots or identities. But there are also subcategories, for lack of a better term, to being Latin.
I connected these two passages because I think it links the systemic oppression that he is talking about in the first quote and portrays it in the form of ignorance. The fact that he notes, “he can’t stop himself from talking” and the “dread rising” signals to me that this is a conversation that he has had to have before. As a result of the systemic oppression, people are ignorant to the other cultures around them. This space that he has deemed safe and a place where people can be themselves, the outside world can still infiltrate even the most sacred spaces for people. It speaks to how pervasive and complete oppression is in everyday life.