Queer Latino Testimonio, Keith Haring, and Juanito Xtravaganza: Hard Tails (New Directions in Latino American Culture)

In the tradition of the Latin American testimonio, this is the story of Juan Rivera, a.k.a. Juanito Xtravaganza, a Latino runaway youth who ends up homeless in the streets of New York in the late 70s and becomes partner of the internationally famous 1980s Pop artist Keith Haring during some of the most frenetically productive years of his brief life, as told to the author and retold by him. A hybrid text - part testimonio, part linguistic and cultural analysis, and part art criticism - this is also a history of New York Latino neighborhoods during this period of devastating disinvestment and gentrification, as well as a personal, heart-felt meditation on the art of listening and the ethical limits of representing queer Latino lives. Listening speaks : an introduction The life & times of Juanito Xtravaganza / as told by Juan Rivera and retold by Arnaldo Cruz-Malave. Fly, robin, fly. Just telling stories . One of these days! Paradise. "I'm Juanito Xtravaganza" : an epilogue A radiated radiant baby : Keith Haring & an aesthetics of identification. Beginning with the end. Art is life. An energy called hip-hop. Clones go home! A radiated radiant baby. A love interlude : the paradise garage. Pop and the limits of universalism : Shibuya, Japan Listening speaks : testimonio, queer Latino representation, and shame What's in a name. The places: bathhouses, Coney Island. East Rock, New Haven. El Barrio/East Harlem. Loisaida, East Village, Times Square and the sex trade. The people: Florence Alexander, Yves and Debby Arman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Caroline of Monaco, Juan Dubose, John Gruen, Julia Gruen, David Hampton, Grace Jones, LA II, Larry Levan, Madonna, Kenny Scharf, Gil Vazquez. The terms: Arc, Cristal, dominant/passive, ecstasy, graffiti, Keith Haring Foundation, Page Six. Outlaw parties, spooking, timido (jibaro), wasting, Xtravaganza, the house of Spanglish glosses.

In the tradition of the Latin American testimonio, this is the story of Juan Rivera, a.k.a. Juanito Xtravaganza, a Latino runaway youth who ends up homeless in the streets of New York in the late 70s and becomes partner of the internationally famous 1980s Pop artist Keith Haring during some of the most frenetically productive years of his brief life, as told to the author and retold by him. A hybrid text--part testimonio, part linguistic and cultural analysis, and part art criticism--this is also a history of New York Latino neighborhoods during this period of devastating disinvestment and gentrification, as well as a personal, heart-felt meditation on the art of listening and the ethical limits of representing queer Latino lives.

"In the tradition of the Latin American testimonio, this is the story of Juan Rivera, a.k.a. Juanito Xtravaganza, a Latino runaway youth who ends up homeless in the streets of New York in the late 1970s and becomes partner of the intentionally famous 1980s Pop artist Keith Haring, as told to the author and retold by him. A hybrid text - part testimonio, part linguistic and cultural analysis, and part art criticism - this is also a history of New York Latino neighborhoods during this period of devastating disinvestment and gentrification, as well as a personal, heart-left meditation on the art of listening and the ethical limits of representing queer Latino lives."--Jacket