4 - Teen Gay Romance: Two Television Dramas from Juan Osorio

Summary

THE #ARISTEMO PHENOMENON

Foreign viewers of Mexican media may still think of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna as the country's consummate example of bromance. Although they first worked as child stars in television, the celebrated actors came to joint homoerotic fame in Y tu mamá también (Alfonso Cuarón, 2002). As is well known, this crowd- and critic-pleasing feature's notorious last scene showed the couple of best friends, who had spent the course of the film vying for the favors of an older woman, finally making love with each other for just one guilty time. Less known outside Mexico is the pair's soccer comedy, also successful at the local box office, Rudo y cursi (helmed by Alfonso's sibling Carlos Cuarón in 2008), where they played enduringly intimate half-brothers.

Yet, most recently, a new and more youthful male couple has come to fame in Mexico and they are the subject of my fourth chapter, the first on television. The pair has achieved mainstream stardom in two popular genres (telenovela and series) and in two media (free-to-air television and legitimate theater). They have also given rise to a huge social media footprint. And they have done this, surprisingly perhaps, while desublimating Gael and Diego's extended homosocial tease and creating an open and unapologetic queer romance.

Joaquín Bondoni (born 2003) and Emilio Osorio (born 2002) both began, like Gael and Diego before them, as child stars on television. Bondoni starred in the one-off dramas known in Mexico as “unitarios,” where he had already appeared in a muchloved gay role by 2017 at just thirteen years old). Osorio featured in a family-friendly traditional telenovela, Mi corazón es tuyo (“My Heart Is Yours,” Televisa, 2014–15), where he played one of seven children of a wealthy widower cared for by a feisty nanny. The latter show was made by Juan Osorio, Emilio's father, one of Mexican television's most prolific and powerful producers. He is also one of the few content creators who has managed to navigate the choppy media waters of a modern Mexico where familiar fare has fallen out of favor with mass audiences.