Embedded Files
Gay Print Culture: A Transnational History of North America
In this book, I investigate the relationship between transnational gay liberation politics, periodicals, and images in Mexico, the United States, and Canada from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. I examine the production, content, circulation, and reception of leading gay periodicals published in these countries, including community-based gay liberation publications and commercially oriented gay lifestyle and erotic magazines. I demonstrate how they aimed to visualize the political goals of gay liberation, particularly those concerning the liberation and celebration of homoerotic desires. I contend that visualizing these goals allowed activists, editors, publishers, and artists to foster the formation of gay communities and identities while advancing gay liberation movements at the local, national, and international levels. In so doing, I further understandings of the transnational nature of gay periodicals, the relationship between gay liberation politics and visual culture, and the existing tensions between the liberation of some and the oppression of others across the American continent.
Peer-reviewed Articles & Book Chapters
Mezo González, Juan Carlos. “Tracing Transnational Histories of Gay Periodicals from Written, Oral, and Visual Records.” American Periodicals 35, no. 2 (2025): 178-181.
Mezo González, Juan Carlos. “La prensa de liberación homosexual en la Ciudad de México: una lectura transnacional (1979-1983)” / “The gay liberation press in Mexico City: a transnational study (1979-1983).” Historia Mexicana 74, no. 3 (January-March, 2025): 1317-1360.
Mezo González, Juan Carlos. “Consuming the Mexican Body: Gender, Race, and the Nation in Macho Tips, 1985-1989.” Hispanic American Historical Review 100, no. 4 (2020): 655-687.
*Awarded Honorable Mention by the Research Society for American Periodicals.
Mezo González, Juan Carlos. “Desnudos sudamericanos: masculinidad, homoerotismo, y el trazo de una identidad queer a través del cuerpo del hombre” / “South American Nudes: Masculinity, Homoeroticism, and the Writing of a Queer Identity Through the Male Body.” In Nuevas Cartografías de la Sexualidad, Carmen Gregorio Gil, Ana Alcázar Campos, and José María Valcuende Del Río, eds., 351-364. Granada, Spain: Universidad de Granada, 2020.
Mezo González, Juan Carlos. “Contested Images: Debating Nudity, Sexism, and Porn in The Body Politic, 1971-1987.” Left History 23, no. 1 (2019): 28-61.
Co-authored Publications
Elspeth Brown, Cait McKinney, Dan Guadagnolo, Sajdeep Soomal, Juan Carlos Mezo González, Sid Cunningham, Caleigh Inman, Zohar Freeman, Amal Khurram, Alisha Krishna, and Mac Stewart. “Transmediation as Radical Pedagogy in Building Queer and Trans Digital Archives.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 16, no. 2 (2022).
Public History
“ONSTAGE/OFFSTAGE: A Conversation with Curator Jordan King.” LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, September 8, 2023.
“Beefcake: An Exhibition on Physique Photography at the University of Toronto.” LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, August 11, 2023.
“A Conversation with Alex Ketchum about the Directory of LGBTQ+ Archives.” OutHistory, July 31, 2023.
“A Conversation with Dr. Alex Ketchum about her Directory of LGBTQ+ Archives.” LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, July 21, 2023.
“Dignified Lives: A Digital Archive for Preserving Trans Memory in Mexico.” LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, June 23, 2023.
“Macho Tips: revista pionera de la prensa gay mexicana.” / “Macho Tips: A Pioneering Magazine of the Mexican Gay Press.” Letra S, Salud, Sexualidad y Sociedad, Mexico City, May 2, 2019.
“Macho Tips: The Erotics of the Mexican Body in a Gay Magazine.” NOTCHES: (re)marks on the history of sexuality, September 18, 2018.
Digital Exhibitions
Mezo González, Juan Carlos and Zohar Freeman. “Mapping Foolscap: Gay Oral Histories, 1981-1987.” The ArQuives (Canada’s LGBT+ archives) & LGBTQ Oral History Digital Collaboratory, Toronto, 2017.
Google Sites
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