Carmen Alicia Murguia is a third generation Milwaukeean. She’s a poet, a journalist, an activist and a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ people of color, especially those who are Latinx — like herself.
Murguia has experienced LGBTQ+ visibility go from being virtually nonexistent in the early part of her life, to being more accepted and tolerated over the years — personally, like among her Mexican American family, and more broadly through her religion and throughout the country.
This has influenced her writing and activism as well as contributed to her creating workshops that support LGBTQ folks, like ones focused on the intersection of being LGBTQ+ and Latinx.
In a conversation with WUWM’s Race & Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell, Murguia paints a picture of what she was doing before she developed her workshops, what Milwaukee used to look like for LGBTQ+ people, and how she created opportunities to support the LGBTQ+ and Latinx community in the city.
Murguia also discusses how she and her family navigated discussions of her coming out, the need for more LGBTQ+ and Latinx perspectives in media, and where she sees LGBTQ+ progress today.
