Inkberry Books logo
Inkberry Books
Cottonwood Shopping Center
7960 Niwot Road
Suite B-3
Niwot, CO 80503
(720) 412-1548 		           Home      






About Us      







Events      







Contact Us






Inkberry Books: August 29th at 7:00 PM



Nicholas (Nick) Villanueva

Rainbow Cattle Co.

Rainbow Cattle Co. tells the story of gay rodeo as an overlooked and important part of the LGBTQ liberation movement. Nicholas Villanueva, Jr., argues that the history of gay liberation has been oversimplified as a fight for sexual freedom in the major cities of the 1970s. But, as Villanueva reveals, the gay liberation movement thrived in rodeo in the U.S. West and in rural communities throughout America. LGBTQ rodeo athletes liberated themselves from

the heteronormative social world of sport and upended stereotypes of sport and queer identity. Organizers, athletes, and spectators fought to protect their rights to openly participate in sports, and their activism was pivotal in the fight against AIDS.
Rainbow Cattle Co. reveals a history of gay liberation through rodeo, which from the mid-1970s provided a safe space where LGBTQ athletes could focus on their sport and evolved into a highly successful philanthropic organization by the end of the twentieth century. This intersectional study of LGBTQ athletes, heteronormativity, Western history, and sport builds on scholarship from ethnic studies, critical sports studies, sociology, and history.

About the Author

Nicholas (Nick) Villanueva is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado (CU), and the NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative for CU. He is the author of four books on social justice and multiple publications about Latinx history. His most recent book, Rainbow Cattle Co.: Liberation, Inclusion, and the History of Gay Rodeo, was a

finalist for the 2025 Colorado History Book of the Year by the Colorado Humanities Center for the Book. Villanueva's current book project is an autoethnography of the Latinx rodeo experience in the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA). #My Gay Rodeo: Decolonizing Rodeo Through a Gay Vaquero Autoethnography is an intersectional examination of Latinx identity, Queer expression, rural lifestyle intricacies, and the paradox of masculine capital. #My Gay Rodeo is a cutting-edge experiment in examining identity manipulation. Villanueva accomplishes this through complete immersion in the IGRA, by competing in multiple rodeos during an eleven-month season. In addition to his research and teaching at CU, Villanueva works with the University of Colorado Athletic Department as the Faculty Athletic Representative to the NCAA. In this role, Villanueva is committed to the success of student athletes in the classroom and beyond. His national and international awards and fellowships include the Disability Services Faculty of the Year Award, the University of Colorado President's Fund for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ford Foundation, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and the North American Society for Sports History Diversity Award. Villanueva is a first-generation college graduate. He honorably served for eight years in the US Army and received the National Defense Service Medal. An avid outdoors person, Nick is thrilled to call Colorado his home.