SYNOPSIS
Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) was founded in 1981,
only a dozen years after the Stonewall rebellion and only a couple of years before the HIV/AIDS pandemic began to ravage LGBTQ communities. GLLU was the greater Los Angeles area’s first major Queer Latin@ organization, and the film chronicles events surrounding GLLU at a pivotal time in the history of LGBTQ equality, women’s rights, and civil rights movements that shaped the destinies of
GLLU’s communities for decades to come.
Historical Context and Background
Post Stonewall, Los Angeles saw the rise of many LGBTQ+ people of color organizations such as Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU). GLLU’s members fully claimed their rich ethnic, gender, gender identity, multi-racial, and multi-geographic heritage, leaving none of it behind. GLLU filled the void left by its Queer Anglo-focused counterparts, who mostly rallied around sexual orientation identity, with little attention to the dynamic and mushrooming diversity within its ranks and the diverse concerns that later shaped both the equality, women’s, and civil rights movements. With a few exceptions, GLLU’s constituents at that time were also categorically marginalized by Latin/Chican@ liberation movements and organizations, and frequently by their own birth families, having no place of their own to call home.
The trajectory of this Latin@ Pride movement—a story that has never been told before in film and rarely mentioned in literature such as history books—left a rich leadership legacy that has barely been explored that included the founding of statewide and nationwide organizations, vibrant multi-gender artist collectives, the largest Latin@ HIV/AIDS provider in the nation, and the impact that its hundreds of members, now in their late 50s and 60s, have made in various fields including philanthropy, higher education, the arts, non-profit, healthcare, and the equality and civil rights movements to name a few.
Equally important, GLLU created a dynamic synthesis that was revolutionary for its time that affirmed as well as synergized the multiple identities of being LGBTQ+, Latino, immigrant and undocumented, class and color diversity, Latin American and Chican@ nationalities, and trailblazing pioneers in empowering the blossoming Latin@ and Queer movements.
UNIDAD:
GAY & LESBIAN LATINOS UNIDOS
Documentary - Short Film - 40 minutes
Directed, Produced by Gregorio Davila, L.A. A Queer History Productions
Executive Produced by Roland Palencia, Palencia Productions
Produced by Mario J. Novoa in association with Film Bliss Studios
FEATURING
David Gonzales
Geneva Fernandez
Laura Esquivel
Louis Jacinto
Lydia Otero
Rita Gonzales
Veronica Flores
Roland Palencia