On Friday I went to the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center to hear
Charles Rice-González read from and talk about his new book and first novel,
Chulito (New York: Magnus Press, 2011).
Men of All Colors Together sponsored the event, and
Tom Wirth, a longtime MACT member and the editor of
Richard Bruce Nugent's
Gentleman Jigger (New York: DaCapo, 2008), and
Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent (Durham: Duke, 2002), introduced the event.
Chulito tells the story of a 16-year-old Bronx Puerto Rican-American native, a b-boy to the core, who falls in love with his childhood friend, Carlos, an academic pacesetter and Adelphia University student. Chulito struggles with his understandings of desire, masculinity and machismo, sexuality, and his own and others' homophobia, and must come to terms not just with himself but with the future he steps into once he openly avows his feelings toward Carlos. Rice-González captures the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, contemporary urban New York latino cultures, and the travails of youth in their rich particularities; above all he shows the reader the world of queer brown and black working-class outer-borough New York.
The narrative, a romance at its core, is enthralling, often funny, and deeply moving, particularly at those moments when Chulito must confront and overcome his fears. Rice-González not only selected and read sections that showed the novel to its best effect, but he animated in a way I wish more writers would when reading their work. The story came to life right there in the Center. Before the event he talked about growing up queer and latino in the Bronx and the City, his work at the
Bronx Academy of Art and Design, and the background to his work on the novel, and after he read he answered questions from the audience, including one about a potential movie. There isn't one slated yet, but there should be. In the meantime I cannot wait to read more works from this author.
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| Charles Rice-González |
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| Charles Rice-González |
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| Rice-González reading |
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| Tom Wirth introducing Rice-González |
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