#lgbcolombia

[lgbhistory]

Tatiana de la Tierra

Tatiana was a Latina lesbian writer, born in Colombia in 1961.

She emigrated to the US in 1969, at the age of eight.Her family settled in Florida and that was where she first discovered her passion for books and librarianship.

She befriended the head librarian at the elementary school she attended and she was trusted by the head librarian to such an extent that she was given a key to the back room where all the sexuality books were kept, and she would peek at these at a young age.

Although de la tierra did not come out as lesbian until 1982, she knew she was attracted to females around the time she reached age 10 or 11. When she was young, she would explore the female body by creating games to play with some of her girl friends that included looking at each other's nipples and vaginas.

However, when she became a teen, de la tierra desexualized herself because some of her friends and peers made her feel like outsider for being so curious about sexuality. That's why she did not have romantic partners when growing up. Only after graduating high school and going to college, she began to explore her sexuality again.

De la tierra's awareness of her sexuality later became a very important part of her career as a writer. She fell in love with poetry before even reading the work of any lesbian writers.

Tatiana had her first official library-related job as a librarian assistant while being a college student.

She was the creator of the first international Latina lesbian magazine Esto no tiene nombre "This doesn't have a name".

Much of her writing was bilingual and bicultural featuring both the English and Spanish language and contained very sexual content.  Esto no tiene nombre magazine published many works of other Latina lesbian writers.

At first, Tatiana was a self-published writer and her works were distributed by-hand at gatherings, including at the Encuentros de Lesbianas Feministas de América Latina y del Caribe ("Gatherings of Lesbian Feminists of Latin America and the Caribbean").

Through her work, de la tierra gave voice to LGBTQ people of color and inspired other writers to speak about sex openly. A lot of de la tierra's work challenges heteronormative views. Many conservatives were offended by her writing because she spoke and wrote so unapologetically. De la tierra did not hold back when it came to eroticism.

De la tierra died from health issues on July 31, 2012. Her papers and unpublished materials were donated to the University of California, Los Angeles to be studied.