![]() ![]() It’s a very common experience to be binary. If you want them, you can give them a try if you want to conform, that is OK too. Being nonbinary is full of so many opportunities. Think of the muxes of Oaxaca, who embrace the third gender. “Maybe one day, I’ll be a trans woman - but the nonbinary spectrum allows me to shape-shift and explore the many parts of myself. “Femininity is where I found my power,” she said. Living life on her own terms these days, she explained, means growing her hair longer than ever, and frequenting the more conventionally femme end of the gender spectrum in her daily presentation. “To embrace my femininity was to give myself another chance and live my life on my terms.” Despite a lifetime’s worth of dreams coming to fruition, she was soon engulfed by a profound depression. Yet as she freewheeled into global fame, Valentina had been quietly struggling with the death of her father in 2019. She also featured in Mexican Netflix telenovela “La Casa de las Flores,” followed by a cameo in the 2021 film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical “In the Heights.” This year she played the character of Lydia in “La Usurpadora: The Musical,” a jukebox musical film based on the ’90s telenovela of the same name. But in Europe, I really feel the fantasy.”Īfter her first two seasons of “Drag Race,” she landed the role of a lifetime as the lovable Angel Dumott Schunard in the Emmy-winning production of “Rent: Live,” which aired on Fox in 2019. Here, I go through Santee Alley sometimes, looking all hideous, and when I get recognized, I don’t like it. “They treat me differently over there, like some exotic export. they’d make me feel like an A-list star,” she said. “When I went to Europe - Spain, Portugal, the U.K. She returned to compete in the 2018 season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars.” Although she placed seventh once more, she became a fixture in the “Drag Race” cinematic universe and with coveted appearances in Vogue and Elle Mexico, she amassed a bigger international fanbase. What I was emulating was the ceremony of getting ready.” My mom used to get ready for work and put brushes on her face, so I went and proceeded to touch my face with the brushes. I was in the first grade and preparing to give my first ever public speech. “When my mother caught me, it was very traumatizing. “I was curious about femininity,” said Valentina. Where she found security and strength in her father, she also found inspiration from her mother so much that she tried on her mother’s clothes and, eventually, was discovered wearing her makeup. Yet Valentina is quick to say that she hardly begrudges her parents, whom she describes as both hard-working and deeply loving. “When I was little, we’d be watching the kids dancing on ‘Sabado Gigante’ and I’d ask, ‘Why am I not doing that?’” recalls Valentina. The two met at Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights and began dating not long after. ![]() as kids, her father from Chihuahua and her mother from Zacatecas. Long before she kicked off her illustrious career in drag, she was the middle child of three in a working-class Mexican household. I worked so hard to be welcomed and accepted in Mexico for so many years that I kind of forgot. And I’m soaking in this moment where I get to embrace being from California, while being proud of being Mexican. When I’m here, I’m not trying to make something of myself I am something. “It’s fake because there’s so many people coming here trying to make something of themselves. ![]() has this reputation for being fake, but that’s not my experience,” she said later, inside the bustling Boyle Heights restaurant Casa Fina. (“It is the most Latino Pride there is,” she said.) There, she will be proclaimed by the state of California as the official “Princess of S.E.L.A.” This weekend, she’s receiving the key to the city of Bell she’s also been designated Grand Celebrity Marshal at this year’s Long Beach Pride Parade, which takes place Sunday. This summer, the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus named Valentina a Pride Honoree for her work as a brand ambassador for the Trevor Project, an initiative to address mental health for queer youth. ![]()
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