Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons was a totally random find. Storygraph featured it on its Giveaways section. Intrigued, I entered the contest and didn’t win. Months later, I was at the library and there Anthony Christian Ocampo’s work was, sitting on the shelf. I nabbed it and settled in.

Brown and Gay in LA is an sociological study of gay, Brown, and second generation immigrant men in Los Angeles, California, especially those connected to the West Hollywood neighborhood. Filipino and gay himself, Ocampu conducted interviews with men of these groups and synthesized their biographic experiences into the book, noting commonalities and trends. Ocampo’s interviewees were Asian (mostly Filipino) and Latino men. 

I loved it. As a white person in the USA, I am an immigrant. My family lines have been on these unceded, occupied lands for three or four generations. I’ve linked two other reviews below from people more familiar with the relevant identities. I expected my life to be very different from a first or second immigrant of color’s experience. As I kept reading, I realized these men and I had more in common than I initially thought. The interviewees are my generation. Our pop culture touchstones and schooling years are the same. It was a bit of a shock. We grew up in the same area and came out as queer. I literally stood next to them and had guesses as to their interior worlds. Of course I didn’t guess every nuance–the double whammy of racist and homophobic microaggressions packs a whallop. But I was a lot closer to these men than I thought I would be, picking up the book. We are different, and that is good. We share more in commonalities than have differences, and that’s good too.

As you may have guessed, this book blew my mind a lot. Ocampo takes pains to make his prose accessible to the average reader, to which I’m thankful. I took notes, and the number of pages is Many, haha. Some especially interesting points were (1) how being masculine centers on not being feminine, (2) the conflation of gender performance and sexuality; and (3) how immigrant children feel immense pressure to fulfill the “American Dream.” Most immigrant stories I’ve read center on the parents, and the children don’t realize how much their parents sacrificed. Also! Many cool WeHo fun facts! 

Ocampo’s work is essential reading for anyone seeking to learn about their fellow men. 
 

Bookdragon217’s review: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/7ec231da-7f20-4816-98ba-6cb49401c2d3

Fherrera’s review: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/31fd255d-d741-4673-9a19-3cf0bcd7b9bf