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Speaker 1: From Futuro Media and pr X. It's Latino Usa. I'm

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Speaker 1: Maria no Josa today Alaska, and no, not the state,

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Speaker 1: but the famous Spanish recording artist who sang the definitive

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Speaker 1: LGBTQ anthem in Espanol. It's the summer, therefore its pride. Therefore,

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Speaker 1: you've probably heard about some big LGBTQ event happening in

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Speaker 1: some place around the world. So our next story is

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Speaker 1: about Alaska. No, no, no, no, not the state, but

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Speaker 1: the singer behind the definitive LGBTQ anthem in Espanol. And

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Speaker 1: to start, We're gonna take a little trip back in

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Speaker 1: time to Madrid, Spain in the nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 2: Sanado fillolamentosatualist to the m.

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Speaker 1: Spain was ruled under Francisco Franco from the late nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirties until the dictator's death in nineteen seventy five, and

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Speaker 1: when Franco died, Faranco I'm work democracy was reinstated, ushering

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Speaker 1: in an era of big change. What happened next was

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Speaker 1: a cultural explosion of a repressed youth that became known

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Speaker 1: as La movida Madrilena, and everything changed music, art, fashion, film,

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Speaker 1: and especially nightlife, a young up and coming filmmaker Pedrol

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Speaker 1: Moodobar got his start. I'm the president of the Bani Dani.

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Speaker 1: People began to challenge previous social and sexual norms. Drugs

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Speaker 1: were everywhere, and people began to say Madrid, Madrid never sleeps.

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Speaker 1: La Moda Madrilena gave people a sense of freedom to

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Speaker 1: experiment personally and artistically, and it brought out a sense

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Speaker 1: of self expression that was missing during decades of censorship.

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Speaker 1: It's often said of La Movida that if you can

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Speaker 1: remember it, you weren't there. Musically, LaMDA was a mix

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Speaker 1: of pop, punk and new wave. There were bands like.

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Speaker 2: Mechano, Nomismili No nom Nomenidas Nomen.

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Speaker 1: And a young Alaska with her band at the time,

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Speaker 1: Alaska ILOs. Alaska was born in Mexico to a Spanish

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Speaker 1: father and a Cuban mother, both living in exile from

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Speaker 1: their respective dictators. When Franco died, the family moved back

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Speaker 1: to Spain and Alaska became one of the key figures

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Speaker 1: during La Movida. She mingled and partied with Almodoba and

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Speaker 1: even appeared in his first film, Beppy Lucy bom Iotras

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Speaker 1: Chicas El monton.

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Speaker 2: O Boga Lamaso Dea.

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Speaker 1: Alaska became an icon for the LGBTQ community, not only

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Speaker 1: in Spain but throughout Latin America. In fact, one of

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Speaker 1: her greatest hits at Ginlin Porta became the official song

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Speaker 1: of the World Pride Festival Hele in Madrid in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Chico Chika's post Philip World Pride or Roots you A

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Speaker 2: love it.

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Speaker 1: For years, the song has been a Pride anthem because

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Speaker 1: of the message in its lyrics. The chorus goes, who

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Speaker 1: cares what I do? Who cares what I say? I

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Speaker 1: am this way, I'll stay this way, and I'll never change.

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Speaker 1: We interviewed her at this Advantes Institute in New York City,

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Speaker 1: where she told us in her own words, how she

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Speaker 1: came to be Alaska and about the message behind one

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Speaker 1: of her most enduring hits.

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Speaker 2: Okay, my name is Oldidogada, but maybe you know me

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Speaker 2: by my other name, which is Alaska.

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Speaker 3: I was twelve years.

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Speaker 2: Old and I didn't like my name, so I thought

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Speaker 2: that was the name I should have.

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Speaker 3: Because it comes from a lurid song.

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Speaker 2: It's a song called Caroline says Carol Lances.

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Speaker 3: It said all of her friends called her Alaska.

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Speaker 1: All of her friends. Oh that's.

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Speaker 2: When I'm a girl that was there in nineteen sixty

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Speaker 2: nine when the man landed on the Moon. I wanted

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Speaker 2: to be an astronaut and I wanted to be a veterinarian.

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Speaker 2: But when I was twelve, I was already into bobwe

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Speaker 2: and all that sudden. What made me a word that

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Speaker 2: I can make, I can make a band, and I.

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Speaker 3: Can play music was the Ramones.

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Speaker 2: It was not that I wanted to sing because I

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Speaker 2: have a great voice, or I wanted to be an

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Speaker 2: actress because I want to be the best actress in

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Speaker 2: the world.

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Speaker 3: No, I want to belong.

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Speaker 2: I thought it was more of a live that type

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Speaker 2: of life what I wanted to do. You're just thinking

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Speaker 2: of what do you want to do next that In

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Speaker 2: the beginning, it was Bowie basically, but from that moment on,

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Speaker 2: you can add everything and anything.

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Speaker 3: I love village people kind of track work.

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Speaker 2: I love house music, I love Latin music, and I

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Speaker 2: love a sleazy rock and roll And if you mix

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Speaker 2: all that together, that's me.

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Speaker 3: It's quite amazing.

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Speaker 2: Because I always try to say what I actually do

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Speaker 2: is pop music.

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Speaker 3: And when you mean pop music, it means something.

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Speaker 2: It's done for nineteen eighty six or twenty and twelve,

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Speaker 2: not for forty years after that. I didn't really have

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Speaker 2: big dreams, which makes it very easy to succeed, because

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Speaker 2: if you don't have such high things in your mind,

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Speaker 2: you're always succeeding.

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Speaker 3: I know the Ramons.

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Speaker 2: Didn't fade away, or David Bowie didn't fade away, but

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Speaker 2: it's funny when it happens to you.

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Speaker 3: I can't import that well. That song was just another

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Speaker 3: song and another album.

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Speaker 2: We were quite successful already in Spain and starting to

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Speaker 2: be successful in Mexico and other countries.

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Speaker 3: It was the first of that album. It was a

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Speaker 3: big success, but that's all I mean. It didn't mean

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Speaker 3: nothing to know one at the time.

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Speaker 2: Years later, demonstrations in Madrid on the Gay Pride Day,

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Speaker 2: which were like only two hundred people gathering together or

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Speaker 2: five hundred people gathering together. At the end of the

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Speaker 2: demonstrations they started singing again.

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Speaker 3: Importa.

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Speaker 2: One year later it was one thousand people, then five

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand people, one million people, and in a very

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Speaker 2: natural way it became a sort of him. I think

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Speaker 2: it was just the right time in Spain for things

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Speaker 2: becoming mainstream and maybe the song was part of that.

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Speaker 2: I'm not just an icon, if we can say so.

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Speaker 2: I don't feel myself like an icon. I've been dancing

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Speaker 2: in gay bar since I was fourteen.

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Speaker 3: I'm part of that.

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Speaker 2: I come from the gay underground scene, So it's my life.

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Speaker 3: It's the world I live in.

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Speaker 2: The lyrics say a lot. Everyone can take them to

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Speaker 2: their own. Sorry, if this is what I want to do,

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Speaker 2: that's enough. I never regret it. I mean, if it

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Speaker 2: doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. But you've already tried it.

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Speaker 2: That's all you can do.

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Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Gini Montalbo and edited by

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Speaker 1: Marlon Bishop. It was mixed by Stephanie Lebau. The Latino

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Speaker 1: USA team includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victori Estrada, Renaldo

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Speaker 1: Leanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Cruzado, Luis Luna, Rodi mar Marquez,

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Speaker 1: Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Nursaudi and Nancy Trujillo. Benni le

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Speaker 1: Ramirez is our co executive producer I'm Your Host and

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Speaker 1: co executive producer Maria Josa join us again on our

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Speaker 1: next episode and in the meantime, I'll see you on

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Speaker 1: all of our social media, especially an Instagram. Asta la

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Speaker 1: Proxima notes Jao.

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Speaker 3: Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment

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Speaker 3: building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians.

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Speaker 1: Funding for Latino USA is average of a culture of health.

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Speaker 2: Is made possible in part by a grant from the

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Speaker 2: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Alonso Contu