#hispanic community

I'm a Hispanic-American woman who was raised in a predominantly white area. My entire life I've been made fun of by my cousins and the friends for loving musicals so much.

You see, my dad's never been a traditional machista Central American man. Back in his country, he remembers watching Grease on a friend's TV (they were too poor to own one in his house), and he loved it, despite not speaking English. He loved the music and dancing. 

Then he came to America in the 80s. Dirty Dancing and Footloose were released. By that point, he understood more English. He watched and loved both. When I was born, I grew up watching these as my dad's favorite movies. Since I was an infant, musicals have been a part of my life. My dad couldn’t afford Broadway or anything like that so he wasn't a fan of musical theater in that sense. But he was a huge fan of movie musicals so we watched pretty much all of them as kids. 

With things like Disney Channel and (later on) YouTube slime tutorials, I was exposed to more musical theater. I showed my dad so many videos about all of the shows I thought he would enjoy the most. He even took my siblings and I to Broadway multiple times now that we’re older and can afford that kind of stuff. He sat in the Circle in the Square and Walter Kerr Theatre in tears when we saw Once on This Island and Hadestown, respectively. Now he’s a fan of more traditional musicals thanks to the internet making it more accessible. Which is great! However, despite its accessibility improving…it’s still not common to see Hispanic men engaging with musicals.

Musical theater is objectively a white industry. The more I got into it, the more my friends and family would make fun of me. I never really cared or was even offended by it. I grew up hearing my cousins and uncles call my dad "gay" for liking those kinds of movies. He always went along with their jokes and never seemed bothered by it. As I got older and realized how problematic their statements were, it started to bother me more. 

Because my dad likes musicals, he has other be gay?

Because I like musicals, I have to be white?

How does that make sense? There's something wrong or othering about him because he's into musicals so he can't be a "normal" man therefore he has to be gay?????  I'm a woman so it's okay for me to like musicals but, actually...no because I'm a brown woman I can't????

Absolutely idiotic and bigoted.

Like I said, it used to never bother me because it never seemed to bother my dad. Even now, it's almost 2025 and he still says he doesn't care because he likes what he likes, no matter what people say. Which I love to hear and see. But at the same time, it bothers me greatly  that this has been a topic of discussion in my community for years.

Now it just makes me so happy to see other Hispanic men in musical theater making a space for themselves.