From Ghetto to Gay Village. Chueca in the Media (1960-2010)

Abstract

This work aims to study media representations of Chueca since the sixties, in order to describe how they contributed to the contemporary image of Madrid’s ‘gay village’. The transformation of Chueca neighborhood both in the national press and in the lesbian-gay magazines, is a consequence, in some part, of the changes in the ways and spaces of male socialization that VIH/sida’s health crisis initiated. The conjunction between militant discourses and commercial propaganda strategies turned Chueca in a national representation space for sexual minorities. The construction of a ‘gay village’ in Madrid was been supported not only by the minority concentration in this area and the increasing commerce strategies, but also by the new images that were created in the media and their role in the ‘revitalization’ of the city.