Roland Palencia: UNIDAD, Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos
In this week’s episode, Ximena hosts professor, activist, and filmmaker Roland Palencia. We talk about Roland’s most recent documentary UNIDAD: Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU), a film which chronicles the early 1980s queer Latino activism in Los Angeles. It is a conversation about the need to belong, about being uprooted from your homeland, only to find roots in a foreign land. It is a conversation of how we can find ways to share our stories that unite and glue us together and keep us together. How can future generations of gay and lesbian Latinos continue to spread their roots?
Roland Palencia, MA, is a Professor at California State University Northridge’s (CSUN) -Tseng College in the Diverse Community Development Leadership MA program, and an award-winning filmmaker. He is the former Community Benefits Director and corporate trainer at L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest public health plan in the nation. He is also the former Executive Director of Clinica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero and Equality California, and former multi-County Regional Director at The California Endowment and Chief of Operations and Vice-President at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
In 2001, he was honored as a “Local Hero” by KCET (PBS affiliate) and Union Bank of California. In the early 1980s, he became one of the founders and a pioneer of the blossoming LGBTQ Latine movement in the greater Los Angeles area, including co-founding Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) and VIVA!, a Queer Latine artist collective. Palencia has been featured in a number of books and publications such as “Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians” by Stuart Timmons and Lilian Faderman (2006). “Central Americans in Los Angeles” by Rosamaria Segura (2010); and “The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle” by Lilian Faderman (2015).
The 165-page Master thesis by David Guzman, M.A., (CSUN 2014) records Palencia’s life journey as a Guatemalan political refugee and community activist. His Executive film Producer credits include “TransVisible: Bamby Salcedo’s Story,” a documentary depicting the life and activism of the nationally renowned Trans Latina activist Bamby Salcedo,“UNIDAD: Gay & Lesbian Latinos Unidos,” which chronicles the early 1980s queer Latino activism in Los Angeles, and “Art as Activism,” which depicts the history of Self-Help Graphics & Arts, the seminal East L.A. based arts organization founded in 1970. Palencia received a B.A. in History from UCLA and a Masters in Depth Psychology & Creativity from Pacifica Graduate Institute based in Montecito, CA.
Thank you for listening to this episode. I am so thrilled and honored to be sharing stories about the Soul of Place and what we can each do to reconnect to our roots. I would love to get your feedback and opinions. Please share this episode with anyone who may need to hear this message. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen to podcasts. My name is Ximena Dussan-Aya Pearson. Until next time! Keep inviting the soul of the world into your lives!
You can find me at www.ximenapearson.com
