“Burn that Bridge”

In this essay, I identify the contemporary trope of the sad, young gay man of color and examine the varying ways heartbreak manifests itself in the lives of queer Brown Latinx men through analysis of the character of Ricardo “Richie” Ventura in HBO’s series Looking (2014–16), set in San Francisco, and the music of Mexican American singer Omar Apollo, whose star profile has grown exponentially since the release of his debut studio album Ivory in spring 2022. Through my analysis, I argue that looking at narratives involving the manifestation of heartbreak in the lives of queer Brown men can illuminate both the contradictions within scholarly accounts of Latinx Brownness and the at times contested intimacies of searching for care and belonging among queer Latinx men of varying races and ethnicities. My case studies demonstrate a need for an understanding of Latinx Brownness as an unstable category that individuals may slip in and out of. This essay shows how queer Brown heartbreak in popular culture can empower the acts of self-preservation that queer Brown men, who may be facing multiple forms of discrimination, take to protect themselves from the violence of colorism, classism, and hegemonic heteronormativity.