Un paréntesis en Geografía: Cartografías de la noche LGBT en Bahía Blanca (Argentina)

Abstract

A partir de entrevistas en profundidad, observación participante y consultas a la red social facebook se exponen los alcances y sentidos espaciales de sujetos asumidos como gays y lesbianas encauzados por el ocio privado en Bahía Blanca. Desde la perspectiva de las geografías posmodernas, se propone una lectura de la ciudad en clave de sitios del ambiente. En este registro aparecen vaivenes, vacíos y colonizaciones que configuran complejas cartografías que involucran aspectos de prestigio espacial, tensiones internas y fijaciones microculturales en el uso de establecimientos nocturnos que, en última instancia, revisten el rasgo de paréntesis socioespacial.

Based on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and a review of Facebook, this study reveals the scope and significance of gays and lesbians in private leisure spaces in Bahía Blanca. From a postmodern geographic focus (incipient in Argentina), the city is examined to construct the spatial possibilities of these groups within the environment. This tour shows the events, gaps, and colonisations that form complex maps showing aspects of spatial prestige, internal tensions, and cultural limits in the use of certain sites that are part of a gap in the socio-spatial dynamic of a medium sized city. This study highlights particularities of the geography of sexualities in hidden spots in metropolitan cities in Argentina, and shows that every place has its own sexualised space – although this is mainly constructed during the night. The private (space) night (time) connected with leisure is the key to exploring a part of this universe that forms a silenced local history that is excluded from the official background information.