Latin 101

If a 28-year old European man lives with his mother, people ask “What’s wrong with the mother?”

If a 28-year old Norteamericano lives with his mother, people might ask “What’s wrong with the guy?”

If a 28-year old Latin American is living with his mother, people say “What’s wrong with that?”

It’s perfectly natural that when 28-year old Roberto Alvarez, a Santiago Chile chemical engineer won a million Chilean pesos in a national contest (about 1600 U.S. Dollars) mom was there to cheer him on… and bask in the reflected glory. The only notable thing about this is that Roberto is the first Mister Gay Chile.  (Sombrero tip, and photo courtesy of, Opus Gay — which should win some recognition just for coming up with such a witty name in a country where a radically conservative Catholic Church was able to prevent the country from even passing a law legalizing divorce  until three years ago as of next week.)

It’s too much to expect Chile to recognize same sex marriages, though gay couples have limited “civil union” rights, and in the last Presidential election, both the Socialist winner and her conservative opponent were open to gay marriages.  Uruguay and Ecuador also offer “civil unions,” as do Cuba, Honduras, a few states in Brazil and the Federal Districts of Mexico and Argentina.  Gay marriages performed in the Mexican state of Coahuila MAY be valid anywhere else in the Republic, but there hasn’t been a test case on that.  The Federal District (Mexico City) Assembly is expected to take up a bill to allow full civil marriages this session, although naturally, PAN — which seems to be emulating the now-discredited pracitice of the U.S.  Republican Party when it comes to making social issues poltical ones — naturally plans to introduce a bill defining marriage as “one man-one woman”.

Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil and Cuba (CUBA!) are all considering legalizing same-gender marriages.  In the meantime, Roberto’s gonna have to live with mom.  And that’s OK.