Illustration by Mark DancyDear Mexican,
My friend told me that Latinas believe in being virgins until marriage, so if they decide to have sex before . . . they take it up the ass. He said this is a common practice and quite a pleasurable one if you're a back-door man. Is this a myth, or is there truth in his words?
GlennG.
CostaMesa
Is it true that in Latin cultures, it is considered gay to take it in the ass, but it's not gay to give it to another guy in the ass? In other words, catchers: gay; pitchers: not gay. What's the deal with that?
ConfusedGabacho
Dear Gabachos,
I was ready to dismiss both of your inquiries as little more than American stereotypes of lusty Latins along the line of the notorious Dirty Sánchez, the sexual peccadillo whereupon you stick a finger up the culoand smear feces on the lips of your beloved. But medical journals teem with studies documenting ass love in Latin America. Porejemplos,the Global Campaign for Microbicides, a pro-contraceptive organization, notes on its website "the frequency of anal intercourse has . . . been documented among heterosexuals in Latin America [in other scientific publications]."
Confused, you're right: I own a 1989 UC Irvine-produced comic that lectured immigrants on the dangers of AIDS and featured a man wistfully recalling a Papa Bear amongst a lineup of señoritasfrom his immediate sexual past. Mexican men are manly men, and they'll stick their pitosinside anything that's warm and available (see the Edward James Olmos prison-love tale AmericanMefor further detail). But Glenn, you're wrong: the everything-but-vagina virgin myth is something I've also heard of Afghan, Persian, Jewish and Indian girls. If you believe gabachos,seemingly everywoman from a patriarchal, repressive culture loves ass play. Consider a 1994 report by Dr. Ineke Cunningham disclosing that 34 percent of female Puerto Rican college students reported practicing anal sex. "When we wrote questions in our second survey asking why this was so, some of our colleagues belittled the idea," wrote Cunningham. "'That's already known,' they said. 'In a Latino culture, women engage in that practice to avoid pregnancy and maintain virginity.'" But Cunningham discovered that 56.2 percent of women indicated they had anal sex because their partners liked it, personal pleasure accounted for 16.5 percent of the cases, "while birth control and the maintaining of virginity together came to less than 10 percent." And yes: this is ¡Ask a Mexican! not ¡Ask a Boricua! but everyoneknows Puerto Ricans copy Mexicans porquethey want to be us—even when it comes to the butt.
Got a spicy question about Mexicans? Ask the Mexican at garellano@ocweekly.com. And those of you who do submit questions: give your name or a pseudonym,por favor, orwe'llmakeoneupforyou!
