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Their voices seemed to echo in the street. It didn’t take long for his buddies to join in on the insult, chanting mariposa in unison. I didn’t know it at the time, but that term is usually used with negative connotations to degrade a flamboyant person-at its core, it’s just another homophobic slur.
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When I reached the group, I was approached by one of the boys, and before I could even say a word, he said his older brother had told them they shouldn’t play with me because I was a mariposa (which translates to butterfly). I walked over in hopes of playing with them and making new friends. One year while visiting family back home in Mexico, I was outside playing with my toy Tonka truck and some dolls when I noticed the neighborhood kids playing together. The last thing I wanted was for my parents to be the talk of the town. Before I knew it, my only friends were the teachers who noticed my sudden social decline.Īs you can imagine, the societal weight on my young shoulders became immense. But as time went on, the kids around me sensed “something’” that I felt was naturally part of me. I did school plays, and I was always eager to learn and make new friends. Throughout early elementary school, I was unapologetically myself. I knew I was different pretty early on, but as a child you just want to be accepted. If you had put a mirror to my face while filming this episode, I feel as though I would have seen a younger version of myself anxiously waving back at me. It was important to me that I handled Guillermo’s coming out story authentically and with fragile hands. I suppose now the answer is that he was hiding in the shadows all along-something I personally can relate to. I've personally gotten the question of "is he or isn't he?'' many times before. Throughout the seasons of What We Do in the Shadows, many people have questioned Guillermo's sexuality.