El fuego inmortal

In this essay, transcendental works of gay literature in Spanish are studied, many of which were not published outside the countries where they were published, so they will be authentic rarities to discover for the majority of readers. Others, well known or by established authors, had never been analyzed from the perspective of their contribution to the visibility of the gay individual in the 20th century. But all of them, in some way, helped create the intellectual ferment that cemented a shared identity. They constitute the summary of a common heritage of experiences that led, after overcoming many barriers -even those of those concerned-, in the struggle for the recognition of their rights in the face of the hostility of the heteronormative society, and, later, in the pride of belonging to a minority, gay pride. The drama that in some countries means exile for sexual reasons or the tragedy caused at the time by the AIDS pandemic, of which many of the writers discussed here were victims, but also chroniclers, are transversal experiences that fill some of these pages. Without forgetting a recurring phenomenon presented from different angles: homophobia, not only external, but also internalized by some authors, unable to assume their own feelings.