For Julio Salgado, the multi-platform artist, activist and mentor, having pride is where his queer identity and undocumented status intersect.”I had to come out twice,” Salgado has previously expressed, referring to openly coming out as queer and also as undocumented.
For LGBTQ Pride Month, Salgado sat down with CALÒ News to look back at the way his queer-undocumented status shaped his identity and drive through different stages of his life.
Salgado was born in Ensenada, Mexico, in 1983. As a result of having visas, Salgado and his family grew up traveling back and forth from Mexico to San Diego because of his father’s job.
He never expected to live in the U.S., until in 1995 a family emergency unfolded on one of their many trips. Salgado’s younger sister was admitted to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with a life-threatening kidney disease that landed her in dialysis in 1995. Salgado’s mother was able to donate one of her kidneys to her daughter, but the doctors told the family that traveling back to Mexico could result in his sister's death and mother's health complications.
The family overstayed their visa and did not return to Mexico after that, leaving Salgado with an undocumented immigrant status.
“I always wanted to live in Mexico,” Salgado said. “At a young age, I had to understand that we were here because it was a necessity, because of my sister’s health … it all happened so fast.”
Salgado attended David Starr Jordan High School in Long Beach and months before graduating from the class of 2001, Salgado realized how much his undocumented status could impact his future in higher education, as his status prevented him from qualifying for federal financial aid. Salgado said those years were difficult as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy, also known as DACA, was not yet in existence.
“For me, it was easier to say and come out as undocumented than it was to come out as queer,” Salgado recalls. “I came out as undocumented to a teacher and then to a counselor, but being queer, it was still something that at the time had a huge stigma, so I kept that part to myself.”
After high school, Salgado took on various low-paying jobs, including work as a dishwasher, construction worker and food service worker, to pay his way through California State University, Long Beach. “I took so much time to finish college. I was a super senior,” he said.
Salgado said that in college, he continued to feel more comfortable coming out as undocumented to his peers, friends and even online, but afraid of insults and rejection, he maintained his queer identity hidden until later years.
In 2010, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. During his time in school he began his artistic career as the editorial cartoonist for the Daily 49er newspaper at CSU Long Beach, where his drawings were heavily political. During the same time, the Dream Act movement took force and Salgado’s passion for art and equity was channeled into “artivism.”
Through Facebook, he recalls seeing the immigrant rights movement taking full effect and the first wave of organizers that were trying to move forward with DACA legislation. “I was watching this happen in real time and I thought of how I could make sure that I documented what was happening. I had a degree in journalism, and while I couldn't legally work in a newspaper or even in an internship, I started sharing art, which was inspired by the work that a lot of young undocumented students were doing at the time,” he said.
Salgado began creating art projects that aimed to give young undocumented and undocumented queers a chance to come out of the shadows and share their experiences, like the “I Am UndocuQueer!” series, in collaboration with the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (QUIP).
“After some time and before I knew it, people were reaching out to me for my art. People that were in danger of deportation proceedings, or people that were helping stop deportation, they would hit me up and ask me if I could curate an art piece for that,” Salgado said. “I accidentally became someone that people will come to for art. I felt like my art was being of service. My challenges as an undocumented person, as a queer person, were pushing me to be outspoken through my art.”
With his love for art and holding both his queer and undocumented identities close, Salgado is the co-founder of DreamersAdrift, a YouTube channel with skits about being undocumented and queer. Salgado is also a Migrant Storytelling Manager for The Center for Cultural Power, an organization that offers fellowships, training and opportunities for youth to create intersectional stories and content addressing issues of migration, climate, gender and racial justice.
As part of the Center for Cultural Power, Salgado co-created the Disruptors Fellowship, a program for emerging television writers of color who identify as trans/and or non-binary, disabled, undocumented/formerly undocumented immigrants. The Disruptors Fellowship, which began in 2019 and is currently accepting applications through June 15. “There's so much talent in our community, but a lot of the times there's not enough spaces where folks can work on their craft. Our youth need to be invested in both economically and socially, and this space does that,” Salgado said.
For Pride Month, Salgado collaborated with Chispa, an online dating app excessively used by Latinos. Salgado, who describes himself as a “modern-day romantic,” met his current partner on a dating app, which made him excited about the project.
Salgado created “Pride Power,” a collection of five Pride-themed in-app stickers exclusively for Chispa users, designed to reflect the diverse experiences and identities of LGBTQ Latinos.
Salgado also talked about the monetizing and commercialization of big brands and companies during Pride Month.
“In many corporations, we do not see any LGBTQ presentations until June rolls around. A lot of the time what happens is that these brands only hit you up when it is Pride Month and many of these brands are not part of or advocate for the community outside of this month,” he said. “With Chispa, it wasn’t like thaThey respected my identity and told me to be myself, as queer people, that means a lot to us. A lot of the times, when you're queer, it feels like you need to show up a certain way.”
Salgado said working with a queer team in Chispa is what also made the collaboration meaningful. The stickers feature different types of flowers with words and phrases such as “bisexy,” “rainbow rebel,” and “fluid,” among others. The incorporation of flowers in the sticker collection is a nod to the subtle language of flowers historically used by LGBTQ communities to broadcast solidarity or personal identity.
“When I was a kid I didn't have dolls but I loved playing with flowers, especially those known as Noche Buenas. I used to put them upside down and pretend they were ballerinas,“ he said.
For Chipa users who use the stickers on the app profile, Chispa will donate $1 per sticker to the Human Rights Campaign during Pride month.
Although the Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that over 2.3 million Latinos identify as LGTBQ, Salgado believes celebrating and protecting the community is vital to the well-being of communities, people and youth.
The latest data published last November by L.A. County’s Commission on Human Relations Hate Crime Report reported that hate crimes in L.A. County rose to their highest level in 21 years in 2022, jumping 18% from the previous year. Many of these crimes are LBTQ hate crimes and incidents. The same report stated that 18% of hate crimes were motivated by sexual orientation and 81% of these crimes targeted gay men. In addition, there were 44 anti-transgender crimes, the largest number ever documented, and 91% of those were violent.
“We need to continue to speak up and celebrate ourselves, celebrate our communities because, because there are people who are still afraid to come out to their families, to their friends, to their co-workers, to their neighbors, because of fear that there might be consequences,” Salgado said.
June is officially Pride month, but Salgado said being who we are is something that is celebrated daily. “Pride to you could look like going out, being part of a parade, or also it could mean creating art and putting your thought on what it means to be queer out there,” he said. “There's not one way to be proud of being who you are.”
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