The Valley’s hidden LGBTQ+ history
Museo 956, a civil rights museum located in San Juan, has offered the Rio Grande Valley community to learn about the land they live on and what it is today.
Museo 956 offered Gabriel Sanchez space in the museum to display their LGBTQ+ exhibit, which tells the history of queer life in the RGV.
“I grew up not knowing anything about the queer community or the queer and trans history of this region and not really being able to like see myself living in the Valley,” Sanchez said, “I always thought I’d have to leave to live a life authentically.”
Luis Ocana | Pulse magazine
They said in 2012, after moving back home from college, they had a hard time finding queer communities in the Valley.
Sanchez said they started volunteering at the Valley Aids Council to find a sense of community and became curious about activism in the community in previous decades.
They said another influence was their late uncle, Leonardo Mena Caraza Barrera. Barrera was murdered in the early ‘90s as a result of a hate crime.
“He was murdered when I was a baby in the early ‘90s, so I don’t have any memories of him. But I only ever heard that he was queer and he was murdered,” Sanchez said. “When I started to interview people, I wanted to learn more about his life and the world he must have lived in, being a queer person here in the Rio Grande Valley.”
Luis Ocana | Pulse Magazine
It was through extensive research and interviews with family and friends that he found out his uncle was very influential in the community.
“He owned one of the first gay bars in the Rio Grande Valley. He was a mentor to a lot of the drag queens that started performing in the 70s and 80s, and he helped plan the first pride celebration in the Valley in 1992” Sanchez said.
They said this made him wonder how many other stories were not being documented. Sanchez wanted to capture those stories.
“There’s a lot that our history could teach us, in terms of how to deal with different challenges and I want other people to learn our histories, especially here in the Rio Grande Valley,” he said. “So that they know that they can live here, that they can be a part of the Valley as all of who they are, and that they’re not alone.”
Luis Ocana | Pulse Magazine
The exhibit has various displays telling the history of LGBTQ+ residents. In Donna, there was a warehouse that acted as an LGBTQ+ lounge that was never advertised as such and was considered a “if you know, you know” place.
Vanessa Cruz, a volunteer for Museo 956, said the Valley needs spaces like Museo 956 to educate the community.
“We need these representations in the Valley. They need to be voiced. Not only racial violence but also the queer community. We need safe spaces for this information, this history to be shared,” Cruz said.
Carmen Gonzalez, a design technical theater senior, said Museo 956 was very informative.
Gonzalez said she found it very informative and didn’t know about the San Juan hotel and the LGBTQ+ history in the Valley.
“I think people should visit it so that they can actually know about what we have lived through,” she said.
Museo 956 is free admission, and profits from merchandise are used to keep Museo 956 open. They are open Friday through Sunday from 1-2 p.m. Sanchez’s RGV LGBTQ+ exhibit is available to view until Nov. 22.
