Booty-shaking, musical numbers and a Bob Mackie-designed costume – multiculturalism is a dish best served flamboyantly. A show exploring one man’s identity within both the Latino world and the gay community may sound like a serious subject, but Gaytino! aims to put a lighthearted spin on things.

“Humor, I think, is very valuable in getting a point across,” Gaytino! writer and performer Dan Guerrero said in an interview with The Diamondback.

Tuesday at 8 p.m., Guerrero brings Gaytino! – an event hosted by Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority Inc., La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda and Pride Alliance – to the Hoff Theatre in the Stamp Student Union. Gaytino! follows Guerrero’s life from the 1950s onward, paying tribute to both his father and a close friend, Guerrero said. He wanted to expose audiences to Chicano culture and its largely untold stories.

“It is Chicano history, it is gay history, over many, many decades, from a personal point of view,” Guerrero said. He admitted some of the stories in Gaytino! are pretty outrageous, but also stressed they are all true.

“I don’t think of myself so much as an actor as a storyteller,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero, who has had a long career in the entertainment industry, said he first found a passion for musical theater as a teenager.

He wholeheartedly embraced the idea of being a musical performer. It allowed him to support himself financially while pursuing what he loved best.

“Well who wouldn’t want to go through life singing and dancing? That’s for me,” Guerrero said. “It’s in me, I love it.”

Guerrero has worked all sides of the business: as a performer, a Broadway talent agent, a producer and director and writer. However, he said Gaytino! has been the highlight of his time in the business.

“It uses everything I’ve learned in my career,” Guerrero said.

Judy Herrera, the chapter orientation advisor for Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority Inc., said she played a large part in arranging for Guerrero to come to the campus.

Herrera, who said she was inspired to set up an event like this in honor of her gay sister, also said homosexuality is “taboo in Latin American culture.”

“It’s worse for Latinos, because they don’t get any respect in the community,” Herrera said. Religion and tradition are very important in Latino culture, making it even harder for those with different lifestyles, Herrera added.

“The culture is very machismo,” she said. “It’s a patriarchal culture, where the male is [dominant].”

Jenna Brager, president of Pride Alliance, said she thinks it is important for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Latino students to listen to what Guerrero has to say.

“It’s a really good opportunity to look at a specific part of a very diverse LGBT community,” Brager said. Like Guerrero, Brager mentioned the role comedy will play in the production.

“There is that humor aspect that really does reach out to people,” Brager said.

Although Guerrero said he would not reveal how old he is – something he saves for the end of Gaytino! when he yells the number out to the audience – Brager said it will be good to hear from an older person who is gay.

“The LGBT community is so young and has also lost so many of what we would consider elders,” Brager said, citing AIDS as the primary reason for the loss.

Even though Brager said she is unsure of how many people will attend Tuesday’s show, she is hoping for “a really mixed crowd,” while Herrera said she thinks people can “easily relate” to Guerrero’s stories.

“It absolutely has universal appeal,” Guerrero said of Gaytino!. He said he hopes to entertain and “illuminate,” which he uses as a synonym for “educate,” a word he said “scares people.”

“I want them to come away with a better understanding of both of these cultures,” he said.

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