Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men

by Hector Carrillo

With Pathways of Desire , Héctor Carrillo brings us into the lives of Mexican gay men who have left their home country to pursue greater sexual autonomy and sexual freedom in the United States. The groundbreaking ethnographic study brings our attention to the full arc of these men’s migration experiences, from their upbringing in Mexican cities and towns, to their cross-border journeys, to their incorporation into urban gay communities in American cities, and their sexual and romantic relationships with American men. These men’s diverse and fascinating stories demonstrate the intertwining of sexual, economic, and familial motivations for migration.

Further, Carrillo shows that sexual globalization must be regarded as a bidirectional, albeit uneven, process of exchange between countries in the global north and the global south. With this approach, Carrillo challenges the view that gay men from countries like Mexico would logically want to migrate to a “more sexually enlightened” country like the United States—a partial and limited understanding, given the dynamic character of sexuality in countries such as Mexico, which are becoming more accepting of sexual diversity.  Pathways of Desire  also provides a helpful analytical framework for the simultaneous consideration of structural and cultural factors in social scientific studies of sexuality.  Carrillo explains the patterns of cross-cultural interaction that sexual migration generates and—at the most practical level—shows how the intricacies of cross-cultural sexual and romantic relations may affect the sexual health and HIV risk of transnational immigrant populations.

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2018

Reviews

[Michelle Simoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I can give half’s with my reviews . I would give this book 3.5 stars! It’s a great book! It def is more study based , it brought me back to school when I read studies . I learned so much about Mexican gay men culture and I liked learning why some folks migrate for sexuality reasons . I think this book was great at explains the rich lives of gay men in Mexico along with why they moved . I feel a lot of old books would depict Mexico as very conservative values; But I feel that is America not wanting to actually dig into the culture of folks migrating. In pathways of desire I learned a lot of the rich gay culture in Mexico! And in fact ppl migrate for many reason with their sexuality . It isn’t bc a country is more or less accepting, in fact some of the folks interviews would say Mexico was more accepting . It was such a good read, I would suggest it to friends who love reading studies . It was a bit dense at times tho , overall very informative and I really enjoyed myself .

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough look at sexuality in migration

[Emmanuel Macías Navarrete · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the study focus; it’s not often you see Mexican gay men as the prime subject. If you like academic, research text, this will be up your alley.

[FrankieMcFitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing take on the Latin gay culture which has migrated north, to hot spots like Miami, LA and anywhere else you can smell the fresh empanadas.

[Andrew Kondraske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un verdadero librazo. Carrillo ha realizado un estudio muy sensible y revelador.