“Por maricón,” a play by Roberto Ramos-Perea has just been published by Publicaciones Gaviota and is on the shelves at local book stores in Puerto Rico (see Librería La Tertulia).

“Por maricón” [which roughly translates as “Because you are a faggot”] was staged at the Theater of the Puerto Rican Athenaeum in the spring, receiving positive reviews.

The piece is a stage work by playwright Roberto Ramos-Perea based on research by historian César Salcedo Chirinos at the General Archive of Puerto Rico on the trial for sodomy against a Puerto Rican mulatto tailor named Francisco Sabat and a Spanish sergeant named José Colombo, one of least know court cases in nineteenth century Puerto Rican history.

Ramos-Perea explains, “The word maricón [faggot], used in the title of this theatrical piece comes from the indictment, the accusing dossier, and other documents that César Salcedo researched regarding this notorious case. The government itself used the word as part of the cruel, unjust and torturous accusation against the Francisco Sabat, whose homosexual relationship with Sergeant Colombo in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1842, was revealed by two women. The word used in the historical documents was presented as a distinct category of criminalization, upon which my imagination as a playwright elaborated a historical play.”

Based on an article (in Spanish) by Gabriela Ortiz Díaz: https://prpop.org/2016/04/de-peso-historico-por-maricon/ (also see http://dialogoupr.com/tag/por-maricon/ and https://www.facebook.com/tertuliavsj/)

[Shown here: a detail from the original poster for the theatrical premiere.]