Quinceañeras mark the crossing from childhood into one thing new, a second wrapped in household pleasure and ritual. They characteristic ball robes, shimmering crowns and even a court docket of shut household and pals. These celebrations have lengthy centered women, leaving boys, significantly queer and homosexual boys, watching from the sidelines.
“Being a cis gay male, I didn’t really get the chance to celebrate my own quinceañera because traditionally that’s not the way it works,” stated Oliver DelGado, chief advertising and communications officer on the Los Angeles LGBT Heart.
Delgado recollects that his cousin’s quinceañera fell on his 18th birthday, turning into a joint celebration. Along with his household’s assist, he embraced it because the get together he by no means had three years earlier. “The same way she was debuting or coming out as a young lady, I was formally coming out as a gay man,” he stated.
Twenty years later, DelGado helps create that very same belated celebration for others who by no means had a quinceañera of their very own. On Friday, the Los Angeles LGBT Heart will host its third annual Queerceañera, or Queerce for brief, the middle’s signature get together honoring queer Latine tradition.
This yr’s occasion will rejoice drag artist and social media sensation Lushious Massacr and bar proprietor and neighborhood organizer Oliver Alpuche. Its theme, “Mariposas Sin Fronteras,” or “Butterflies Without Borders,” uplifts tales of migration and the transformative energy of queer and trans pleasure.
Born in Brownsville, Texas, Lushious famously received a Primetime Emmy Award for her make-up artistry within the HBO sequence “We’re Here”; since then, she has constructed a social media following of 219,000 on Instagram along with her authentic “Dragvestigate” sequence on YouTube. In a telephone name with De Los, she fondly recalled dancing “La Chacha” by norteño singer Cornelio Reyna because the chambelán de honor at her cousin’s baile sorpresa.
“I was a showgirl because I was the only boy, and the whole dance was built around me standing in the middle while all the girls danced around me,” Lushious stated. “I literally stole the quinceañera from her.”
As glamorous and celebrated as she is now, Lushious didn’t see herself that approach at 15. Because the eldest of 4 brothers, raised by dad and mom from a small rancho in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, she was embedded in a tradition the place machismo ran deep.
“As a Mexican kid, society, your community and your family teach you to be afraid of yourself and to feel shame,” Lushious recollects.
Whereas she by no means had a quinceañera of her personal, she discovered her queer ceremony of passage when she met her drag mom, her madrina de honor, Divina Garza.
Divina impressed each admiration and concern in Lushious; Divina embodied every thing that Lushious had been taught to subdue since childhood.
“She taught me to embrace myself through drag in spite of the world not loving me back. I’m big, I’m brown, I’m gay and I’m fem. Everything changed after that,” she stated.
Lushious now sees the upcoming Queerce as an opportunity to rejoice the quinceañera she by no means had and to completely personal who she is — this time, with out having to steal her cousin’s highlight.
“I would have had the biggest quinceañera ever, with the most beautiful dress and the most beautiful hair,” she stated. “Can you imagine if I had been able to truly be myself and truly be free at 15?”
For Oliver Alpuche, being honored at this yr’s Queerce seems like a milestone 10 years within the making. In 2015, he opened the now-closed homosexual bar Redline and launched the DTLA Proud Competition, which continues to rejoice the queer neighborhood in downtown L.A. At this time, he owns and operates Kiso, a homosexual bar that opened late final yr on 4th Road.
Born in a Belizean American household, the Highland Park native didn’t develop up attending many quinceañeras — his household is usually boys — however he sees them as a deeply rooted L.A. custom. He’s even planning a triple quinceañera together with his twin brother for his or her forty fifth birthday subsequent yr.
“We actually hosted a double quinceañera at Redline a while ago, and I love the idea of blending my Belizean culture with my queerness,” he stated.
To Alpuche, the quinceañera represents greater than a celebration. It’s about being seen, celebrated, and embraced by the bigger neighborhood, capturing the common need for acceptance and belonging. That’s the identical power he needed to channel when he created the DTLA Proud Competition — an area the place queer L.A. may belong and be their full selves.
In August, the competition celebrated its tenth anniversary by taking up Olvera Road.
“We wanted to celebrate in the heart of Los Angeles. It is such a Latin cultural space, just like this Queerceañera, we don’t have to separate our culture from our queerness,” Alpuche stated.
This yr’s Queerce concentrate on migration and immigrant rights comes as ICE raids proceed throughout Southern California. The middle’s authorized companies staff can be on web site offering free assets for immigrant neighborhood members, making Queerce not solely a celebration of tradition and pleasure, but in addition an area for empowerment, security and entry to very important assist.
“Immigrants are the backbone of L.A., and queer people have always been at the heart of building community and mobilizing others,” stated Alpuche.
For Lushious, the subject of immigrant rights is one thing she doesn’t shrink back from in her “Dragvestigate” movies. In a latest episode, she spoke about fellow drag queen Xunami Muse’s choice to self-deport and shared {that a} shut member of the family had additionally self-deported to Mexico. Talking with De Los, she added that her closest pal is undocumented.
“When I think about Mariposas Sin Fronteras, I immediately think of my friend,” she says. “With everything happening in this country, fear is an emotion she refuses to subscribe to.
“She’s the true Mariposa Sin Frontera,” provides Lushious. “She’s unbothered, honey.”
