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White House Honoree Sings His Own 'Song,' Remembers Late Father With Moving Film

Chris Azzopardi

Photo: Liz Salinas


Marco Castro-Bojorquez was never very close to his father. They rarely spoke, especially about Marco's sexuality. Two years ago, though, on New Year's Eve, something changed.
His family went out that night, but not Marco, who stayed back home to spend time with his dad. Marco sipped a glass of white wine. His dad drank a cider. And because it happened so infrequently, he remembers the two "talked and talked." The next day, Castro-Bojorquez recalls, his father spoke these simple yet treasured – and now immortalized – words: "I really enjoyed talking with you last night. We should do that again."
Castro-Bojorquez's father, Camilo Castro Casarez, died on May 15, 2015, just days before Castro-Bojorquez completed "El Canto del Colibri" ("The Hummingbird's Song"), his beautifully rendered documentary portraying the stories of Latino immigrant fathers who've transcended racial stereotypes by showing their unconditional love for their LGBT children. The film is a tribute to Camilo.
"He was always very proud of me and my accomplishments and my independence, but we never really talked about me being gay openly until the very last month of his life," says Castro-Bojorquez, 48, noting that, together, they watched some of the unfinished film just before his death. "He was very interested in the film and we talked about it, and it's kind of symbolic because we had a great time."

Before "El Canto del Colibri," two moms of Somos Familia, a San Francisco-based educational support program for moms and their LGBT kids, were in pursuit of culturally relevant programming that reflected being the mother of an LGBT child. They found nothing, according to Castro-Bojorquez. But then they came to an LGBT youth conference that Castro-Bojorquez was involved with. If there was no programming, it would have to be created. And a leader, it just so happened, was there in their midst.
Castro-Bojorquez, along with fellow filmmaker Jose Alfaro, made the mothers' vision a reality when "Tres Gotas de Agua" ("Three Drops of Water"), a short doc featuring three Latina immigrant mothers pledging love for their LGBT children, premiered in 2011.
Then, Castro-Bojorquez says, people were asking: What about the dads? After all, Latino fathers, he states, are the ones historically generalized as being "macho, homophobic and transphobic by nature."
"I find that completely racist," he says, passionately. "If you really engage with people who are Latino, like the Latino immigrants in 'El Canto,' you find out that, of course they go through the same process – and some of them are not very accepting – but I think they have the capacity to transform."
Shedding light on a wide-range of issues, including immigration, faith and coming out, that transformation is poignantly captured in a series of emotional interviews with Latino fathers and their LGBT children. "El Canto" is both culturally specific and universally affecting, but beyond that, it's a powerful tool to bring fathers closer to their LGBT kids regardless of ethnic background. Castro-Bojorquez's creation is close to his heart – the documentary, he says, is a hopeful yarn championing positivity when so little of it seems to exist.
"We have been smacked in the media with anti-immigration sentiments," he says, "and there's a lot of stuff that we see or hear that is negative about us. I wanted to balance it out and provide something that they could feel proud of."
He breaks off, reckoning that, "I think that's why they cry… people cry in the film. And I did too."

Out for change

"It was hard," Castro-Bojorquez laments as he remembers the lab attendant who was "totally healthy" and then contracted HIV and died within days. It was the late '80s and AIDS was wreaking havoc. Castro-Bojorquez was on the frontlines, witnessing the agony of the AIDS epidemic while studying medicine at Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico. Castro-Bojorquez admitted many patients, including the lab attendant.
He recalls the horror: "I remember seeing the faces of these people arriving at the emergency room. I had to admit them, and I didn't even know who they were until they talked to me."
For him, the gay stigma of the virus only exacerbated his fears about coming out. While enrolled in med school, he told his mother, who would then inform his father, that he was gay.
"Coming out in Mexico, at least for me, with the lack of information and education and support, was trouble," says Castro-Bojorquez, who was born and raised on the Mexican Pacific coast but, for political reasons, moved to California. "It was very confusing because I didn't have anybody helping me to understand what it meant to be gay or queer. I had a couple of books and magazines, but I didn't know what it was like to come out."
It'd be reasonable to assume that Castro-Bojorquez's own coming-out journey was the catalyst for his educational and advocacy-related work as Community Educator in Lambda Legal's western regional office in Los Angeles, but he considers his actual muse to be his mother, a rural school teacher who died in 2000.
"Losing my mom prompted my work (with Lambda Legal)," he says. "To honor my mother's spirit and her legacy are the main reasons why I started to work with LGBT youth and their families."
Leslie J. Gabel-Brett, director of education and public affairs at Lambda, says Castro-Bojorquez has helped LGBT youth "live with pride and dignity."
"He uses artistic expression as a filmmaker and couples it with public education about the law to help advance our mission to secure equality and justice for LGBT people and people living with HIV," she says. "We need to reach everyone, and to use every voice and tool that we can."
In November 2015, the White House recognized Castro-Bojorquez as one of nine "Champions of Change" for being a staunch advocate of LGBT-related issues. Reflecting on the last time his efforts merited appreciation, when he competed in a singing competition during a Mother's Day celebration, he laughs: "I won a lollipop when I was in, like, elementary school!" Recognizing his distinct gift for combining legal information with advocacy and storytelling, Lambda Legal is "proud" that the White House thinks as highly of Castro-Bojorquez's work as they do.
"Marco has made a beautiful film that is a powerful tool for increasing understanding of the experiences of Latino immigrant families with LGBTQ youth," says Gabel-Brett, referencing "El Canto." "It is such a well-deserved honor for him, and an amazing opportunity to raise up the voices and stories of these families."
When Castro-Bojorquez received the White House's email praising him for "El Canto," he was "flattered." Who wouldn't be? What an honor. Dad would be proud. But Castro-Bojorquez is quick to note that his work represents the work of many.
"I'm very grateful and appreciative of people recognizing my work," he says. "But it's not only my work – it's the work of a team of people that have helped me for many years. Not only the people who did the film with me, but my mentors, the youth that I work with, the families. All of those people influence the things that we end up creating."

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