It is in Spanish but it has handy maps listing gay businesses.
#What is a gay bar called in spanish free#
Once you get in town, you can pick up a copy of the free gay glossy magazine, Shanguide. Chueca's sidewalks are filled with barkers handing out fliers and trying to convince passersby to come in to sample their club. You won't have much trouble figuring out what is going on once you get in town. The bars and nightclubs have different themes on different nights.
There are a wide variety of gay places in Chueca, from heterosexual mixed cafes to men's saunas and cruising bars with dark rooms. Visitors to Chueca are the beneficiaries of the boom. It has already become one of the most expensive streets in the city with rents on some high-end shops running at as much as $5,000 a month.įuencarral intersects with Gran Via, Madrid's famous wide boulevard lined with that distinctive and often copied Spanish architecture. Just last year, Madrid opened a more than 300-yard stretch of Fuencarral Street as a pedestrian-only street. She was forced to move her bookstore from one building in Chueca to another after a huge rent hike.Ĭhueca's resurgence has helped surrounding businesses thrive. Hernandez saw the value of her modest apartment increase from $130,000 when she purchased it in 1996 to nearly $800,000 today. Spain has had same-sex marriage since 2005.Ĭhueca, within easy walking distance of downtown, is now one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Madrid. That followed Franco's dictatorship, which ended with his death in 1975. Just three years earlier, Spain had repealed its laws that had made homosexuality illegal. The first three gay bars opened in Chueca in 1981. Elderly residents who couldn't afford to move out of Chueca were appreciative of the change because they saw the drug addicts move out and the streets became cleaner and safer. By the late 20th century, the area had deteriorated into a dangerous drug-infested slum. In a 10-year span after opening, she saw an explosion of gay bars, nightclubs, and cafes.Ĭhueca (pronounced Choo-aye-ka) was named for Federico Chueca, a 19th century heterosexual Spanish composer. In 1993, she opened Berkana, the first gay bookstore in the Chueca neighborhood. Now I think that Spain is a paradise for gays and lesbians," Hernandez told the Bay Area Reporter. "When I arrived in the states in 1985, I thought it was a paradise for gays and lesbians.
was on gay rights when she first visited New York City 25 years ago. Madrid resident Mili Hernandez, 50, recalled how far ahead the U.S. Spain's economy may be on the skids, but the Spanish are showing no signs of giving up their cherished nightlife any time soon.Īlthough Spain has long enjoyed a robust nightlife, not that long ago, that nightlife did not have much to offer gays. Despite cool weather and an intermittent light rain, the streets, bars, and cafes were jammed with people. on a Wednesday night in Madrid's gay Chueca district but it didn't look like a weeknight.