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Compañeras — Juanita Ramos
Full Title: Compañeras: Latina Lesbians (An Anthology)
Juanita Ramos, compiler and editor
Latina Lesbian History Project · New York · 1987
First Edition · First Printing
The Book:
The first edition, first printing of Compañeras: Latina Lesbians (An Anthology), compiled and edited by Juanita Ramos and published by the Latina Lesbian History Project in 1987. Bringing together writing, oral history, poetry, artwork, and personal testimony from forty-seven women, the book was the first anthology devoted exclusively to documenting Latina lesbian lives and experiences. This copy retains its original illustrated paper wrappers and is exceptionally well preserved.
Condition:
Fine. The original illustrated wrappers remain bright and clean with an uncreased spine. The binding is square and tight, and the interior remains crisp and free of ownership inscriptions, annotations, institutional markings, or structural defects, with only negligible evidence of handling.
Story Of The Book
Silence does not disappear on its own. Someone has to decide that being seen is worth the risk.
When Compañeras appeared in 1987, Latina lesbians were often marginalized across several worlds at once—within mainstream American culture, within predominantly white feminist and gay movements, and within communities where sexuality could itself be difficult to discuss openly.
The Latina Lesbian History Project answered that absence by creating its own historical record. Forty-seven women contributed essays, oral histories, poetry, artwork, and testimony, documenting lives that conventional publishing and historical institutions had rarely preserved.
The anthology did more than demand visibility. It placed those voices permanently into print, allowing women who had often been spoken about—or not recorded at all—to become the authors of their own history.
Why It’s In The Collection
Compañeras belongs in Consigned to Darkness because creating a historical record can itself be an act of resistance.
The anthology documents people confronting overlapping systems of exclusion involving sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and race. Rather than waiting for established institutions to decide those experiences were worth preserving, the Latina Lesbian History Project created the archive itself.
This 1987 first printing is therefore more than an early LGBTQ+ anthology. It is the original publication object through which an underrepresented community asserted control over how its own lives would enter the historical record.
Collection Categories: LGBTQ+ Rights · Civil Rights · Political Dissent · Feminist Classics · Free Expression · Witness Literature · Publication-Event Object · Women's History & Feminism · Latin American Literature
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Authentication Evidence
Title page identifies the work as Compañeras: Latina Lesbians (An Anthology), compiled and edited by Juanita Ramos.
Copyright page records copyright © 1987 by Juanita Díaz.
Copyright page explicitly states “First Edition. First Printing,” directly confirming edition and printing status.
Copyright page identifies the Latina Lesbian History Project, New York City, as publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 87-82402 corresponds to the original 1987 publication.
ISBN 0-9619450-4-4 corresponds to the original Latina Lesbian History Project edition.
Original publisher’s illustrated paper wrappers are present and correspond to documented first-edition copies.
No later-edition statement, revised-edition notice, or subsequent-printing designation is present.
No Routledge imprint or other later-publisher information is present.
No evidence of rebinding, ex-library provenance, remainder marking, facsimile production, or replacement components is observed.
Observable bibliographic evidence, including the explicit “First Edition. First Printing” statement, supports identification as the authentic 1987 Latina Lesbian History Project first edition, first printing.
Full Title: Compañeras: Latina Lesbians (An Anthology)
Juanita Ramos, compiler and editor
Latina Lesbian History Project · New York · 1987
First Edition · First Printing
The Book:
The first edition, first printing of Compañeras: Latina Lesbians (An Anthology), compiled and edited by Juanita Ramos and published by the Latina Lesbian History Project in 1987. Bringing together writing, oral history, poetry, artwork, and personal testimony from forty-seven women, the book was the first anthology devoted exclusively to documenting Latina lesbian lives and experiences. This copy retains its original illustrated paper wrappers and is exceptionally well preserved.
Condition:
Fine. The original illustrated wrappers remain bright and clean with an uncreased spine. The binding is square and tight, and the interior remains crisp and free of ownership inscriptions, annotations, institutional markings, or structural defects, with only negligible evidence of handling.
Story Of The Book
Silence does not disappear on its own. Someone has to decide that being seen is worth the risk.
When Compañeras appeared in 1987, Latina lesbians were often marginalized across several worlds at once—within mainstream American culture, within predominantly white feminist and gay movements, and within communities where sexuality could itself be difficult to discuss openly.
The Latina Lesbian History Project answered that absence by creating its own historical record. Forty-seven women contributed essays, oral histories, poetry, artwork, and testimony, documenting lives that conventional publishing and historical institutions had rarely preserved.
The anthology did more than demand visibility. It placed those voices permanently into print, allowing women who had often been spoken about—or not recorded at all—to become the authors of their own history.
Why It’s In The Collection
Compañeras belongs in Consigned to Darkness because creating a historical record can itself be an act of resistance.
The anthology documents people confronting overlapping systems of exclusion involving sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and race. Rather than waiting for established institutions to decide those experiences were worth preserving, the Latina Lesbian History Project created the archive itself.
This 1987 first printing is therefore more than an early LGBTQ+ anthology. It is the original publication object through which an underrepresented community asserted control over how its own lives would enter the historical record.
Collection Categories: LGBTQ+ Rights · Civil Rights · Political Dissent · Feminist Classics · Free Expression · Witness Literature · Publication-Event Object · Women's History & Feminism · Latin American Literature
———
Authentication Evidence
Title page identifies the work as Compañeras: Latina Lesbians (An Anthology), compiled and edited by Juanita Ramos.
Copyright page records copyright © 1987 by Juanita Díaz.
Copyright page explicitly states “First Edition. First Printing,” directly confirming edition and printing status.
Copyright page identifies the Latina Lesbian History Project, New York City, as publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 87-82402 corresponds to the original 1987 publication.
ISBN 0-9619450-4-4 corresponds to the original Latina Lesbian History Project edition.
Original publisher’s illustrated paper wrappers are present and correspond to documented first-edition copies.
No later-edition statement, revised-edition notice, or subsequent-printing designation is present.
No Routledge imprint or other later-publisher information is present.
No evidence of rebinding, ex-library provenance, remainder marking, facsimile production, or replacement components is observed.
Observable bibliographic evidence, including the explicit “First Edition. First Printing” statement, supports identification as the authentic 1987 Latina Lesbian History Project first edition, first printing.