Julián Delgado Lopera

Julián Delgado Lopera
Born	(1988-06-04) June 4, 1988 (age 36) Bogotá, Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Occupation(s)	Poet, literary performer, bilingual writer, lgbt activist, oral historian
Years active	2015–present
Notable work	¡Cuéntamelo! , Fiebre Tropical
Awards	National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2024)
Website	juliandlopera.com

Julián Delgado Lopera (born June 4, 1988) is a queer Colombian writer and performer. They are the author of ¡Cuéntamelo! an illustrated collection of queer immigrant histories in the United States during the 1980s.^[1] They use creative expressions, such as writing, queer literary performance, and bilingual poetry to advance LGBT activism projects across the Bay Area. Delgado Lopera serves as the Executive/Artistic director for the nonprofit organization Radar Productions since 2015.^[2]

Early life and education

Julián Delgado Lopera was born in Bogotá, Colombia and immigrated with their family to the United States in 2003 when they were fifteen-years-old. They first moved to Miami, Florida, then relocated to the Bay Area to find their queer home.^[3]

Delgado Lopera attended the University of California Berkeley where they earned a Bachelor's degree in Women and Gender Studies in 2011.^[3] They continued their education at San Francisco State University and graduated with a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 2015.^[3]

Notable works

Delgado Lopera has been published by Four Way Review, The Bold Italic, Weird Sister, Revista Canto, Transfer Magazine, Raspa Magazine, Black Girl Dangerous,and SF Weekly.^[4]

¡Cuéntamelo! Oral Histories by LGBT Immigrants (2014)

¡Cuéntamelo! (tell me about it) was published in 2014. The book is a collection of oral histories featuring Latino, queer, Immigrants over the age of forty-five.^[1] All of the histories are illustrated and are available in English and Spanish. One of the subjects in ¡Cuéntamelo!, Adela Vazquez, a transgender immigrant woman of Cuban descent, influenced Delgado Lopera's interest in these untapped stories during a class presentation.^[1] Delgado Lopera first published four stories in the magazine SF Weekly titled "Cuentamelo: An Oral History of Queer Latin Immigrants in San Francisco" on June 26, 2013.^[5] They then received two creative writing awards from Galería de la Raza and the Queer Cultural Center,^[6] which allowed them to continue finding more histories speaking on the issues of homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and the AIDS pandemic.^[7] ¡Cuéntamelo! is credited with bringing histories of identity intersection like queer, immigration status, gender and age to light.^[8]

Quiéreme (2017)

Quiéreme (like me or love me) was published in March 2017. Quiéreme is a collection of essays documenting the experience of longing for love. Delgado Lopera plays with language in Quiéreme to create a mixed combination of English and Spanish into "Spanglish" as a form of bilingual literature.^[9]

Fiebre Tropical (2020)

Main article: Fiebre Tropical

Delgado Lopera's first novel debuted in March 2020 to positive critical reception.^[10][11] It was a finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Fiction^[12] and in 2021, won the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction^[13] and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction.^[14]

Activism

Radar Productions

Julián Delgado Lopera became the Executive/ Artistic director role of the Nonprofit organization Radar Productions in 2015.^[2] Writer, Michelle Tea, founded Radar Productions back in 2003, its mission is to commission and offer queer performers, from diverse backgrounds, spaces to tell their LGBTQA experience.^[4] Radar Productions is based in San Francisco and organizes queer literature performances around the Bay Area that are open freely to the public.^[2]

Julián Delgado Lopera initiated "Queering the Castro" soon after becoming Executive and Artistic Direction of Radar Productions. "Queering the Castro" was a yearlong project with a mission to revive the Castro's queerness through a series of panel discussions, poetry readings, queer intimacy, drag queen storytelling, and bilingual performance.^[15][4] Under Delgado Lopera's leadership, Radar Productions received $25,000 from San Francisco's Grants for the Arts.^[15] Their mission for "Queering the Castro" sought to revive the queer culture and to make it more inclusive of communities of color through art exhibitions, poetry readings, and literary awards.^[15] They collaborated with Magnet, the gay men's health center in the Castro, the San Francisco Public Library's Eureka, Valley/ Harvey Milk Memorial Branch Library, and the GLBT History Museum run by the GLBT Historical Society.^[15]

Artistic contributions

As a Queer, Transgender, People of Color (QTPOC) activist, Delgado Lopera collaborated in "Noche de Ambiente" (night of atmosphere) a multimedia exhibition available to the public from October 2016 to February 2017 at the GLBT History Museum.^[16] "Noche de Ambiente" offered a glimpse into the life of LGBT Latino identities in San Francisco from the 1970s to the 1990s.^[16][7] Delgado Lopera volunteered at the GLBT History Museum, and during their time there, they were asked to participate in the "ambiente" exhibition. The term "ambiente" has been informally used as code for Latino queerness/resistance and as an introduction to the Latino LGBT social scene.^[17] Delgado Lopera collaborated in the exhibition to use art as a tool to educate the public about queer Latino History in the Bay Area, particularly in San Francisco. They recognize the importance of making room for multi-national and inter-generational queer Latino History and the need to extend the term Latinidad in the U.S.^[18][16][19]

Performance

Sister Spit

A performer of Sister Spit, a feminist, queer, comedic poetry roadshow, Delgado Lopera travels around the country.^[2] Sister Spit emerged during the 1990s as a weekly open-mic poetry slam retaliation against the wave of misogynistic poetry prominent around the San Francisco area at the time.^[2] Sister Spit now tours yearly after experiencing a revival as "Sister Spit: the next generation" in 2007. They were invited to participate in 2016 and continues to tour alongside Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Cathy de la Cruz, Celeste Chan, Virgie Tovar, Maya Songbird, and Denise Benavides.^[2]

Other locations

Delgado Lopera has performed in various venues throughout the Bay Area and across the US. including Action Fiction!, Red Light Lit, Beast Crawl, Lit Quake, and has lectured at Wayward Writers.^[4]

Awards and honors

The San Francisco Foundation named Delgado Lopera the winner of the Joseph Henry Jackson Award in 2014.^[6] They also received an award from the Regen Ginaa Artist Fund from Galería de la Raza in 2013^[20] and the National Queer Arts Festival Grant from the Queer Cultural Center in 2014.^[6] Delgado Lopera was the recipient of a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing.^[21]

See also

• Spoken Word
• Latinidad
• Faux queen
• Prose poetry

References

1. O'Neal, Lauren (March 12, 2015). "An Interview with Juliana Delgado Lopera, Author of ¡Cuéntamelo!". The Toast.
2. "Sister Spit". RADAR PRODUCTIONS.
3. Delgado Lopera, Juliana. Personal interview. April 11, 2017.
4. Santiago, Roberto (September 28, 2015). "An Interview with Juliana Delgado Lopera". English Kills Review.
5. Delgado, Juliana (June 26, 2013). "Cuentamelo: An Oral History of Queer Latin Immigrants in San Francisco". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
6. Larena S. Burno (8 November 2014). "A Seat at the Writer's Table: Juliana Delgado Lopera". sff.org. Archived from the original on 27 April 2016.
7. Hames-García, Michael; Martínez, Ernesto Javier (April 13, 2011). Gay Latino Studies: A Critical Reader. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4955-6.
8. Boffone, Trevor (Fall 2015). "Tragic Bitches: Queer Xican@ Performance Acts against Oblivion". Rocky Mountain Review. 69 (2): 148–164. doi:10.1353/rmr.2015.a603912. JSTOR 24642021. S2CID 146538622.
9. Lopera, Juliana Delgado (2017). Quiéreme. Nomadic Press. ISBN 978-0-9981348-4-0.
10. Garner, Dwight (March 2, 2020). "In 'Fiebre Tropical,' a Colombian Teenager Moves to Miami and Comes of Age". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
11. Orl, Florencia; oni (April 3, 2020). "This Is Your Home Now: On Juliana Delgado Lopera's "Fiebre Tropical"". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved February 5, 2021.
12. FIEBRE TROPICAL | Kirkus Reviews.
13. Gentes, Brian (June 2, 2021). "2021 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced". Lambda Literary. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
14. Cleghorn, Elinor (May 13, 2021). "Awards: Triangle Winners; Firecracker Finalists". Shelf Awareness. Retrieved January 10, 2022.
15. Bajko, Matthew S. (October 15, 2015). "Program Aims to 'Queer' the Castro". Bay Area Reporter. Vol. 45, no. 42.
16. Staver, Sari (October 27, 2016). "Museum Exhibit Looks at LGBT Latinx Life". Bay Area Reporter. Vol. 46, no. 43.
17. Garrido, Anahi Russo (January 15, 2010). "El Ambiente According to Her: Gender, Class, Mexicanidad, and the Cosmopolitan in Queer Mexico City". NWSA Journal. 21 (3): 24–45. ISSN 2151-7371 – via Project MUSE.
18. Rodríguez, Juana María (2003). Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-7549-3.
19. Rivera-Servera, Ramon (October 26, 2012). Performing Queer Latinidad: Dance, Sexuality, Politics. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-05139-7.
20. "Galera de la Raza's 2013 REGEN & GINAA Funds Open – deadline extended!". Galería de la Raza. October 9, 2013.
21. "Julián Delgado Lopera". www.arts.gov. Retrieved September 8, 2024.