Tag: throwback

  • Throwback: Easter 1994

    Throwback: Easter 1994

    we weren’t catholic, but easter was still a big thing in our family. and by that, i mean, we got new clothes to show off while doing what we did every other day – sit on the damn steps. we didn’t get easter baskets. we didn’t go to sunday mass.…

  • The Day I Was Santa

    The Day I Was Santa

    growing up i knew that i could and would be anything i wanted – as long as i could get access to resources and shit. i imagined that i would be a backup dancer for janet jackson or paula abdul. i daydreamed about being a famous pop artist. i even had…

  • Throwback: David Sell

    Throwback: David Sell

    Growing up, I was apart of a very small family, my household consisted of myself, two sisters and our amazing mother (may her soul continue to rest in paradise). In order to get my sisters and I more accustomed to my father’s side of the family (and to get a…

  • THROWBACK: MY 25th ANNIVERSARY

    THROWBACK: MY 25th ANNIVERSARY

    in 1995 i was a at a crossroads. i was an 18 year old high school drop out with a 8th grade education. my mother had moved out of the dilapidated house we called home leaving me and my brother younger brother nicholas to fend ourselves. i was still holding…

  • TBT: Louie & Robert

    TBT: Louie & Robert

    chyle, we didn’t have a car so didn’t take day-trips out of the city, we took them to the franklin mills mall, philadelphia’s largest mall – via public transportation.  anyone who grew up in philly in 1990s, knows that catching public transportation to franklin mills (now called philadelphia mills) was…

  • THROWBACK |My Brother Nicholas

    THROWBACK |My Brother Nicholas

    today would have been my brother’s 40th birthday. growing up with mother struggling with addiction often meant that christmas and birthdays were no different from tuesdays and thursdays. so we never learned how to celebrate occasions but nicholas and i spent those days together alone as we got older. i…

  • THROWBACK: marcos

    THROWBACK: marcos

    Photo Title: Kindergarden Graduation ’89 In this picture, I’m 5 years old in Matamoros Mexico, graduating from Kindergarten, feeling like the happiest kid next to my mother and father. I remember when I was this age, I always wanted to be around my parents, especially my mother. Being close to…

  • THROWBACK: Jae W Brown | New York, NY

    THROWBACK: Jae W Brown | New York, NY

    Sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods. Ten years ago, I lost my mother; the second photo is of my mother, my grandmother, my Titi, and Pepi, the most wonderful pup I had ever met. These women shaped my life. My mother was selfless, loving, giving, and incredibly kind.…

  • throwback: Julio Salgado

    throwback: Julio Salgado

    1996, somewhere in hollywood, ca with my tio chicho. he was the first gay man i ever met. i never came out to him but in his own way he introduced me to the concept of family and queerness. it is because of him that my own family didn’t have…

  • Throwback: Raffy, Bronx, NY

    Throwback: Raffy, Bronx, NY

    I was about 9 or 10 years old, and apart of the Side Street Kids (SSK) Dance Academy, a non-profit founded in the Bronx that taught kids how to dance Salsa On2 (aka New York Style), while creating a family-oriented atmosphere that was invested in seeing each kid doing well…

  • Throwback: Jesús, Los Angeles, CA

    Throwback: Jesús, Los Angeles, CA

    I still remember this day like it was yesterday. I never imagined myself publicly speaking about my undocumented status nor even speaking of being gay.  It took me a while and some courage to speak out of the injustice every single undocumented individual faces on a daily basis, many of…

  • throwback: deivid rojas

    throwback: deivid rojas

    abuelo, instead of asking, ‘¿why did diosito give me a gay grandson?’ ask  ‘how will my grandson survive in this world’?‘how can he risk it all everyday to be his true self’?‘how does he have the courage to go against what I want, what our family wants from him?’‘how can…