Those postcards, and the ones Mike Nichols gave us in his 1990 film, enlighten me to share some information from Guatemala, my homeland. The country has been known as “the land of eternal spring” and shown as a postcard, an idyllic depiction since Eadweard Muybridge´s photographs in 1875. More recently, by mid-1980s Jean Marie Simon refers to it in her photographic essay “Guatemala, Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny” where she provides images of our  history

To Queerguru, “Postcards from Guatemalan / Saint Sebastian” has two perspectives, both under the benevolent gaze of the Martyr carved in wood,who embellishes the main altar of the church after the saint.

Parish of Saint Sebastian is located in downtown Guatemala City, and was the scene of a crime on April 26th, 1998.  It has been said “reality is stranger than fiction”… to learn more about the infamous incident,that made headlines questioning Bishop Gerardi´s death as a homosexual crime of passion, you may read Francisco Goldman´s book “The Art of Political Murder” (Grove Press, 2007) or watch the HBO production of the same name, made in 2020 and directed by Paul W. Taylor.

#TodosSomosSanSebastian is a group show (visual arts and performance) inspired in the Pretorian Christian saint and martyr as a homoerotic ideal or a portrait of tortured closet case.With the participation of artists from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala the show opens on January 22nd from 7 – 10 p.m. at Pink Flamingos gallery in Guatemala City, up toFebruary 28th, 2022. To be updated you may follow at Instagram @lafanzinegt@pinkflamingosgt

You are invited! I wish you are curious enough and visit the show. Some excerpts of the press release:

#TodosSomosSanSebastián, is an artistic project launched by the visual artist Natalia Alejandrina Blancothrough La Panorámica Editorial and the support of the cultural project La Fanzine.

Saint Sebastian has been one of the fundamental characters within popular religiosity since the first centuries of Christianity, becoming an emblematic catholic icon infinitely represented in art throughout history.

Over time, the LGBTIQ+ community appropriated this saint, thus turning it into a perfect allegorical reference welcomed by queer art. Saint Sebastian has become an emblem of physical beauty and homoeroticism, but also an image of pain and suffering for the injustices that are experienced day by day in a society that marginalizes and excludes those who live under their own convictions and conditions, thus breaking conservative and traditionalist schemes. Therefore, it makes sense to feel identified with a beautiful figure but attacked and martyred by strangers and even acquaintances, in a reality that many – outside the bubble of Western consumerist comfort painted with colorful flags – continue to face. And it is that the most common causes for which people in the LGBTIQ+ community die continue to be hate crimes, the lack of specialized medical care, as well as the indifference of a society that prefers to evade the current scenario, to the point of edging many to despair and worse still, to suicide.

#TodosSomosSanSebastián brings together various artistic representations of this icon from different disciplines and techniques to celebrate the different views and perceptions. The event also intends to take advantage of this artistic extravagance to metaphorically lead these sharp arrows to a much deeper reflection on a world that, although it seems who has wanted to move forward and see other truths, still refuses to respect the differences, making the story of Saint Sebastian and his martyrdom more relevant than ever as it reflects our own story as a community.

This project was born from the health contingency due to COVID-19 in Saltillo Mexico as part of the activities to celebrate the 2020 LGBTIQ+ Pride. Artists from everywhere were invited to present an interpretation of the saint.

For this second edition, more than 20 visual artists from Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador gather for a collective exhibition that will include visual arts, performances, projections and music at the Pink Flamingos gallery. To support the project, an art/object box has been made consisting of 15 pieces simulating Catholic prints with a text about Saint Sebastian by the writer Federico García Lorca.

… lo que a mí me conmueve de San Sebastián es su serenidad en medio de su desgracia, y hay que hacer constar 
que la desgracia es siempre barroca; me conmueve su gracia en medio de la tortura y esa carencia absoluta 
de resignación que ostenta su rostro helénico, porque no es un resignado sino un triunfador…

Federico García Lorca

Epistolario completo 1910-1936

Location: Pink Flamingos, Vía 6, 3-56 zone 4 Cuatro Grados Norte, Guatemala City