As their relationship deepens, Valentín agrees to have sex with Molina. While their love making conforms to the stereotypical passive and active roles found in traditional Hispanic society, and Molina sees himself as a woman trapped in a male body who wants to have sex with a "real" man, sex is nevertheless presented as an oasis outside history and politics where individuals can find a liberating space for intimate communion.

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In El beso de la mujer araña, the reader hears the words of the two protagonists without intervention from a third-person narrator. The only authorial intervention is a series of eight erudite footnotes dispersed throughout the chapters whose purpose is primarily to inform the (Hispanic) reader about various theories concerning the origins and nature of homosexuality.

The last note, however, presents the work of a so-called Danish scholar, Dr. Anneli Taub (an invented figure) who summarizes all the theoretical models previously presented and, in addition, proposes a political and revolutionary theory of homosexuality. Dr. Taub urges homosexuals to organize and to participate in the political process.

When it first appeared, the open portrayal of homosexuality in El beso de la mujer araña was unsettling for many members of the Hispanic literary establishment who found it difficult to accept an openly gay novel. Yet, though it was considered a flop with intellectuals and critics, the novel, nonetheless, gained popularity and eventually became a best-seller.

By portraying the gay Molina as sympathetically complex, Puig counteracted the Hispanic world's intolerance toward homosexuality. In the end, El beso de la mujer araña is perhaps the most popular politically incorrect gay love story ever written. Despite its stereotypical notions of femininity and traditional passive-active sex roles, El beso de la mujer araña clearly articulates the triumph of the redemptive forces of love.

Puig's Death

When Manuel Puig died in 1990 at the age of fifty-seven, the New York Times obituary claimed that he had suffered cardiac arrest following a routine gall bladder operation. What was most puzzling, however, was that the obituary mentioned Puig's two "sons," thus making him appear to have been heterosexual.

In 1993, the Colombian writer Jaime Manrique wrote an excellent article for Christopher Street ("Manuel Puig: The Writer as Diva"), in which he recounts a number of personal encounters with Puig, whom he describes as openly homosexual.

Manrique's article reads like a detective story in which he searches for answers concerning the "mysterious" death of the Argentine writer. Manrique reveals certain details that lead him to believe that Puig died of AIDS. If this was so, why then the cover-up? Manrique suggests: "After all, if homosexuality is the greatest taboo in Hispanic culture, AIDS is the unspeakable."

In literature, the gay male cross-dresser and the lesbian cross-dresser are depicted quite differently.

Although Latin Americans have produced many works that have homoerotic themes or gay and lesbian characters, their sensibilities are largely different from those of North American and European writers.

There has always been homosexual involvement in American musical theatre and a homosexual sensibility even in straight musicals, and recently the Broadway musical has welcomed openly homosexual themes and situations.

Post-modern theory has led to the problematizing of marginalized and "other" peoples and cultures and to viewing homosexuality as a social construction.

Australian political scientist and self-described "international activist-academic" Dennis Altman has studied both the glbtq political movement and the globalization of sexual identities.

Allen Barnett wrote stories unlikely to be surpassed for their depiction of gay life at the height of the AIDS pandemic.

Versatile Colombian-born author Jaime Manrique has written novels, short stories, poetry, and works of nonfiction with gay themes.