(Re)locating the gay Filipino: resistance, postcolonialism, and identity

This paper attempts to critically analyze issues of postcolonial displacement, immigration, and homosexuality by examining the works of two Filipino gay immigrant writers, John Silva and Ralph Peña. Using postcolonial and critical theories, anthropological studies, and ethnographic fieldwork in New York City, this paper focuses on the role of language, memory, the body, race/ethnicity, and social class in the narrative strategies of the two writers. This paper argues that gay postcolonial writers such as these two relocate and reconfigure homosexual/gay identity in the face of new and oppressive hierarchies, identities, and practices.