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tracithomas's review
5.0
More academics must pivot from boring to dynamic writing. Ocampo shows that the research is beautiful and worthy of public consumption and that it can be approachable for the non PhD’s among us. Really powerful ethnography.
lorayne's review
5.0
I really appreciated reading this book. It gave me a different perspective that while I'm not surprised by being a child of an immigrant family myself, helped me see the difficulties some of our young, queer men of color must navigate.
Every straight, cisgender person should read this book if you care about supporting our queer communities. Gay Latinos and Filipinos might also appreciate reading this to see their stories validated, but it might also feel a bit triggering. The book does end very positively, and I love the writers Ocampo cites as he wraps up the narratives.
I also took 2 very important things from Ocampo's calls-to-action specifically for teachers and other school staff: we must support and uplift our queer Black, Indigenous, Brown, and Asian students by updating our curriculum to challenge the status quo. Now more than ever, it is critical to include queer stories and images in every subject we teach, not just the humanities. Our science classes need to give verified, researched-based information (not pseudo-science) to help our queer students know how to be healthy. And as always, we must continue to fight the ever-uphill battle to disrupt/interrupt the bullying and harassment that continues to harm our queer students, especially those from our communities of color, especially our boys and trans students.
Every straight, cisgender person should read this book if you care about supporting our queer communities. Gay Latinos and Filipinos might also appreciate reading this to see their stories validated, but it might also feel a bit triggering. The book does end very positively, and I love the writers Ocampo cites as he wraps up the narratives.
I also took 2 very important things from Ocampo's calls-to-action specifically for teachers and other school staff: we must support and uplift our queer Black, Indigenous, Brown, and Asian students by updating our curriculum to challenge the status quo. Now more than ever, it is critical to include queer stories and images in every subject we teach, not just the humanities. Our science classes need to give verified, researched-based information (not pseudo-science) to help our queer students know how to be healthy. And as always, we must continue to fight the ever-uphill battle to disrupt/interrupt the bullying and harassment that continues to harm our queer students, especially those from our communities of color, especially our boys and trans students.
fherrera's review
5.0
I began reading this book with my morning coffee and realized I would need to reschedule everything else for the rest of my day. It derailed my Sunday in the most beautiful way.
Ocampo writes with care and precision about the lives of the gay sons of Latinx and Asian immigrants in LA. Though I'm not an Angeleno, I identified with so much that he captured in these pages. Methodologically, he uses interviews to develop narratives around growing up, education, kinship networks, socialization, and our own personal development. One of the things I most appreciated about his writing is that he was so careful not to develop stereotypes or even necessarily archetypes; rather, he draws on the narratives to notice the commonalities but leaves plenty of room for the digressions, exceptions, and more.
Over the years, I've read fewer and fewer books that rely on tropes of violence or suffering for people of color, queer people, or women. This book certainly avoids that pitfall. Perhaps my favorite thing about this book is that he and his interviewees acknowledge that there is violence and suffering, but are all deeply aware that we are not only the worst things that have happened to us. It was refreshing to read about how many other gay sons of immigrants went through some of the things I went through, how different some of their experiences were, and to see Ocampo's analysis and insights from these experiences.
Thankful for this book and for having read it. If you want to learn about these experiences, about what kind of complexities these groups are navigating, it's a great and highly readable choice. Weaves in culture, social media, and academic literature in just the right way (for me, at least) and made it a wonderful way to spend my Sunday.
Ocampo writes with care and precision about the lives of the gay sons of Latinx and Asian immigrants in LA. Though I'm not an Angeleno, I identified with so much that he captured in these pages. Methodologically, he uses interviews to develop narratives around growing up, education, kinship networks, socialization, and our own personal development. One of the things I most appreciated about his writing is that he was so careful not to develop stereotypes or even necessarily archetypes; rather, he draws on the narratives to notice the commonalities but leaves plenty of room for the digressions, exceptions, and more.
Over the years, I've read fewer and fewer books that rely on tropes of violence or suffering for people of color, queer people, or women. This book certainly avoids that pitfall. Perhaps my favorite thing about this book is that he and his interviewees acknowledge that there is violence and suffering, but are all deeply aware that we are not only the worst things that have happened to us. It was refreshing to read about how many other gay sons of immigrants went through some of the things I went through, how different some of their experiences were, and to see Ocampo's analysis and insights from these experiences.
Thankful for this book and for having read it. If you want to learn about these experiences, about what kind of complexities these groups are navigating, it's a great and highly readable choice. Weaves in culture, social media, and academic literature in just the right way (for me, at least) and made it a wonderful way to spend my Sunday.
agranados's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0