Queerbait your way to the top

Venezuelan regga(y)tonero La Cruz throws a wrench in contemporary queer discourse

*Disclaimer: As noted in last year’s Post-Pride Reading List, Cracks in PoMo “often uses discourses on sexuality as a specimen for examining the ways that postmodern thought and culture are cracking. While my personal moral convictions are no secret to those who have read this blog or listened to my podcast extensively, the goal when covering topics related to sexuality is not to argue for specific moral conclusions, but instead to highlight certain insights that emerge in the cracks of postmodern construals of sexuality.” Our readers hold a wide array of views when it comes to sexual morality, thus our main interest here—as in most of our articles—is to comment on its aesthetic, cultural, and sociological implications.

La Cruz, the 28-year old Venezuelan singer, has been making waves for initiating a new movement in reggaeton, or as he puts it, “reggayton.” After opening for several big-name reggaeton acts during his teen years and a short stint on the Spa(i)nish singing competition show Operacion Triunfo, he released his first solo album in 2022…and openly announced that he was gay.

La Cruz is certainly not the only openly queer person on the reggaeton/Latin trap scene. Puerto Ricans acts like M2F Villano Antillano and lesbian Young Miko have enjoyed success—at least much more than La Cruz, who perhaps struggles in comparison due to the Latino stigmatization of male homosexuality. Yet the fact that he has achieved greater success than other gay male Latino artists (like Kevin Fret who was killed in a homophobic hate crime) stands as a testament to Latino machismo, which is much more comfortable with a straight-acting gay male than with a “loca.”

His stereotypically masculine affect is worth examination, as it can be read in a variety of lights.