In a bigger way, it was present in the way they had a hard time expressing their emotions, like with their brother in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Pulse, which they describe in the book as “a different kind of home.” Gomez realized this theme of machismo was already present in so many of the stories he wanted to tell, like when his uncle took him to a cockfighting ring or hired a sex worker so Gomez could lose his virginity. Eventually, one of his professors urged them to highlight one of the themes already present in their stories: how their queerness pushes up against the machismo embedded in the Latinx culture in which they grew up. “I was just like, ‘Gay!’” he tells NYLON, laughing. One day while he was getting his MFA, he was sitting in a class and everyone went around the room and gave nuanced descriptions of their projects. Edgar Gomez didn’t know what book he was going to write.
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