This groundbreaking book reframes five hundred years of western Nicaraguan history by giving gender and sexuality the attention they deserve. Victoria González-Rivera decenters nationalist narratives of triumphant mestizaje and argues that western Nicaragua’s LGBTQIA+ history is a profoundly Indigenous one.

In this expansive history, González-Rivera documents connections between Indigeneity, local commerce, and femininity (cis and trans), demonstrating the long history of LGBTQIA+ Nicaraguans. She sheds light on historical events, such as Andres Caballero’s 1536 burning at the stake for sodomy. González-Rivera discusses how elite efforts after independence to “modernize” open-air markets led to increased surveillance of LGBTQIA+ working-class individuals. She also examines the 1960s and the Somoza dictatorship, when another wave of persecution emerged, targeting working-­class gay men and trans women, leading to a more stringent anti-sodomy law.

The centuries prior to the post-1990 political movement for greater LGBTQIA+ rights demonstrate that, far from being marginal, LGBTQIA+ Nicaraguans have been active in every area of society for hundreds of years.

Victoria González-Rivera is an associate professor of Chicana/o studies at San Diego State University. Her most recent book is Before the Revolution. Women’s Rights and Right-Wing Politics in Nicaragua, 1821–1979.

"González-Rivera’s authoritative and insightful book is an encompassing look back at LGBTQIA+ history in Nicaragua, from the Spanish conquest to the end of the Somoza dictatorship. She takes an original approach that is broadly inclusive of the complex entanglements of race, gender, class, colonialism, and imperialism in the fates of LGBTQIA+ individuals. A knowledgeable guide, this veteran Nicaraguan American historian leads us on a revealing new historical path that counteracts the too-often ahistorical approach to Latin American LGBTQIA+ politics and society."—Lorraine Bayard de Volo, University of Colorado, Boulder, author of Women and the Cuban Insurrection: How Gender Shaped Castro’s Victory

“'Western Nicaragua’s LGBTQIA+ history is a profoundly Indigenous history,' concludes Victoria Gonzalez-Rivera. A new approach to historicize LGBTQIA+ diversity and resistance in Nicaraguan history arises with this book."—Juan Pablo Gómez Lacayo, University of Oklahoma, author of Autoridad/Cuerpo/Nación: Batallas Culturales en Nicaragua, 1930-1943— -