A personal reflection on Ocaña, Nazario, queer visibility and the parts of ourselves we learn to hide in order to feel accepted, safe or understood.

Nazario brought queer life onto the page without cleaning it up first. Through sex, humour, exaggeration and characters such as Anarcoma, his comics placed marginalised lives at the centre of Barcelona’s underground culture. This article explores what becomes possible when queer people are allowed to be complicated, contradictory and fully involved in their own stories.

This first article begins with Ocaña in Barcelona, reflecting on queer visibility, public space, shame, performance and the body as a form of resistance.