Speaker 1: Loka Tota Radio is a radiophonic novela.
Speaker 2: Which is just a very extra way of saying a podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm fosa fem and.
Speaker 2: I am ma la munos. We're podcasting through another Trump
Speaker 2: election year. We've been podcasting through election years, a global pandemic,
Speaker 2: civic unrest, political controversies, the Me Too movement, the rise
Speaker 2: of TikTok, and we are still here. We're not done
Speaker 2: telling stories.
Speaker 1: We're still making podcasts. We're older, we're wiser, We're even
Speaker 1: podcasting through a new decade of our lives.
Speaker 2: Since twenty sixteen, we've been making Loca thro Our Radio
Speaker 2: independently until we joined iHeartMedia's Michael Dura Network in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two.
Speaker 1: From our Lips to your ears, fall in love with
Speaker 1: Loka to a radio like you never have before.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Season nine, Love at First.
Speaker 1: Listen, Olao la Loka Motes. Welcome to season nine of
Speaker 1: log A Tora Radio. I'm the Ossa and I'm Mala
Speaker 1: Loka Tora Radio is a podcast dedicated to archiving are
Speaker 1: present and shifting the culture forward. You're tuning in to
Speaker 1: Capitulo dos Cientos Ventno to twenty one.
Speaker 2: Last Time on loc A Tora Radio, we interviewed Penny
Speaker 2: Le Ramirez, host of the new podcast Chess Piece The
Speaker 2: Elian Gonzale Story.
Speaker 3: A lot of people in the US when you mentioned
Speaker 3: Elean Gonzales, they remember some of the case. They remember
Speaker 3: a specific picture that was so important in the case.
Speaker 3: But we haven't talked about him in a while. But
Speaker 3: this year, this November, we're turning twenty five years of
Speaker 3: that case and that case. In that moment, I know
Speaker 3: that we're.
Speaker 2: Go ahead and tune into that capitulo, leave us a
Speaker 2: review and share with a friend.
Speaker 1: Today is so exciting because it is our second to
Speaker 1: last episode of season nine.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
Speaker 1: We have made it through another season, our ninth season
Speaker 1: of Look At Our Radio, and we're also approaching our
Speaker 1: eight year anniversary.
Speaker 2: We have like a lot of milestones coming up, and
Speaker 2: the fact that we are like getting ready to close
Speaker 2: out yet another season of Look at thot Our Radio
Speaker 2: is really mind blowing to me. We just keep pumping
Speaker 2: out episodes.
Speaker 1: I know, and they're still so much more and we'll
Speaker 1: be talking more about that in our final episode of
Speaker 1: the season. But today we have the honor of sitting
Speaker 1: down with Selena stittis. She's joining us in the studio today.
Speaker 1: And what's so special about today's guest is that we
Speaker 1: met Selena when we hosted the Purple Lily Awards. We
Speaker 1: were introduced to her by our friend and Pascuaso lok
Speaker 1: At our Radio, Curly Velasquez, and she was also receiving
Speaker 1: quite an award that evening. She was the honoree of
Speaker 1: the night, and we connected with her then we heard
Speaker 1: some of her story and just thought she would be
Speaker 1: a fantastic guest for Lokat to our Radio.
Speaker 2: She's got a lot going on. In addition to being
Speaker 2: a past contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race, Selena also has
Speaker 2: a new podcast out that she she tells us all
Speaker 2: about it. It's a really fun, exciting show. She's also
Speaker 2: making her debut at the Pasadena Playhouse this fall. So
Speaker 2: we talked to Selena about all things, including the life
Speaker 2: cycle of a drag queen and what life is like
Speaker 2: after her time on Drag Race. All right, look on
Speaker 2: what is We're here in studio with that one the
Speaker 2: only Selena s Titties welcome to look at what our radio?
Speaker 2: Can you please say hello to our listeners?
Speaker 4: Hey, baby.
Speaker 1: A jump scare.
Speaker 3: How are you guys?
Speaker 4: Yes, since we just said, I'm so happy to be here,
Speaker 4: thanks for having me. You guys are like iconic and
Speaker 4: like the reason my whole drag persona exists is because
Speaker 4: of women like y'all, you know what I mean, my cousins,
Speaker 4: my theas, my sister, my mom. It's like, y'all literally
Speaker 4: are that to me. And I don't even really know
Speaker 4: y'all that well, you know, but I just it's there,
Speaker 4: you know, it's like this unspoken like my girls, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. Like it's very that and like
Speaker 4: my drag is inspired one thousand percent by you guys,
Speaker 4: and Latino women is like my heart. So I appreciate
Speaker 4: you guys for everything you've built. The podcast has been
Speaker 4: going forever, y'all. So I'm very very honored to be here.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a good jumping off point to
Speaker 1: tell our listeners how we met you. We hosted Latino
Speaker 1: Equality Alliances Quinsana the Purple Lily Awards, where Selena was
Speaker 1: awarded a pretty iconic award.
Speaker 2: Yes, what was the award?
Speaker 4: Selena?
Speaker 2: You were the honoree of the night. The final presentation.
Speaker 2: You were like top billing and everybody was so excited
Speaker 2: to hear from you.
Speaker 4: I didn't even know. Like my manner was like, hey them,
Speaker 4: le Leah wants to present you with an award, and
Speaker 4: I was like, oh cool, like sickning. And then I
Speaker 4: show up and I'm like, oh shoot, this is like
Speaker 4: a really big deal.
Speaker 1: It's a full on galla gala.
Speaker 4: I was like very honored and like, I'm more upset
Speaker 4: that I didn't know more about the organization beforehand, because
Speaker 4: like you know, I don't know if y'all understand this,
Speaker 4: but like being in Hollywood and trying to make it
Speaker 4: in this industry, it's very like for me personally that
Speaker 4: it was a big journey of like whitewashing a little
Speaker 4: bit and like you know, very much like disassociating from
Speaker 4: my latinist because I thought that's what was going to
Speaker 4: get me booked, right, And it wasn't until I started
Speaker 4: owning it that I started getting really booked and like
Speaker 4: you know, people started really respecting what I did and
Speaker 4: really seeing something in me. So I had a whole
Speaker 4: journey with that. So to be in that space and
Speaker 4: be awarded with this purple Lily award. It was like
Speaker 4: a full full circle moment that really just like I
Speaker 4: couldn't believe I was there, and like it was such
Speaker 4: an acknowledgment of everything I've worked towards the past twenty
Speaker 4: years being in Hollywood in LA that I was like this,
Speaker 4: like any Emmy award, any Grammy, any being on TV,
Speaker 4: Like that's great, but like to be recognized from you know,
Speaker 4: the people that raised me basically, like I said, again,
Speaker 4: it's like this familiarity is this family that just exists
Speaker 4: among us. To be acknowledged by that, by that community
Speaker 4: just really is like it feels my heart and it
Speaker 4: makes me feel so seen and so like acknowledged, and
Speaker 4: because in life I don't really do feel seen or
Speaker 4: acknowledged or accepted, especially from other Latinos most of the time.
Speaker 4: It's very interesting.
Speaker 2: And you touched upon this in your acceptance speech.
Speaker 4: Which I was just on a rampage. I don't know
Speaker 4: what happened. I was just like letting my heart see
Speaker 4: it was.
Speaker 1: A beautiful rampa. I wasn't a rampage at all. It
Speaker 1: was a beautiful speech. It was a soliloquy if you will.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 4: I know, right, I was very like Shakespeare.
Speaker 2: You nailed it, and Curly brought you up and presented
Speaker 2: you with the award, and so you talked about the
Speaker 2: Latino women in your life who have inspired you and
Speaker 2: made you feel seen and safe growing up. And then
Speaker 2: you also talked about meeting Curly on set and like
Speaker 2: having this conversation about your Latino identity with Curly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Curly really like opened up the gates for me,
Speaker 4: you know. Like that was about I don't know what
Speaker 4: nine and a half years ago that I was booked
Speaker 4: to be on set for Vida on Stars, and it
Speaker 4: was like when I got to set, it was like
Speaker 4: Latin Latina woman, director, Latina writers, Latina producers, and like
Speaker 4: it was all a room full of Latinos. And I
Speaker 4: was like, up until that point, I had just been
Speaker 4: surrounding myself with white gaze, you know, So it was
Speaker 4: just a shift all of a sudden. I was like, wait,
Speaker 4: I know, no, this feels like family, this feels like home.
Speaker 4: And then I was Curly really like was talking about
Speaker 4: something they were talking about, like the conversation behind LATINX
Speaker 4: and lat like table X, like you know, or like
Speaker 4: like I don't know monson X, like like it's they're
Speaker 4: having that conversation. And I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: work like people are having these conversations. I don't even
Speaker 4: know right because I'm over here in West Hollywood trying
Speaker 4: to like buddy up with the muscle boy, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean. Like the priorities were just very off
Speaker 4: at that young age for me. So Curly really showed
Speaker 4: me like, girl, look you know, and I and I
Speaker 4: asked him, how do I become more proud and like
Speaker 4: really own you know, where I come from? Because I
Speaker 4: had a lot of internalized racism and shame behind it
Speaker 4: being in you know, just trying to navigate being a
Speaker 4: gay boy in white West Hollywood is where I was.
Speaker 4: So he really opened up the gates for me to
Speaker 4: really learn how to accept that and and pursue the
Speaker 4: like research, right, like asking my family, like where we
Speaker 4: come from? How did we get here? What's the tea?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: And is that where you started by just talking to
Speaker 1: your family?
Speaker 4: My mom, well, my mom got cancer and that really
Speaker 4: started to like, you know, the hour glass started with
Speaker 4: his flipped So I was like, oh, shoot, like, how
Speaker 4: have I never asked my mom what Honduras was like?
Speaker 4: You know what? I mean, so that kind of started
Speaker 4: to open up the conversation and what.
Speaker 1: Was that experience, Like hearing from your mom about what
Speaker 1: home country was like, you know what.
Speaker 4: That's so interesting. It's like I'd be dressing up as
Speaker 4: a woman for my career, my job, right like. And
Speaker 4: it wasn't until I started asking my mom these questions
Speaker 4: and I'm learning, like how she came over here and
Speaker 4: like how much strength and resilience and like bravery that
Speaker 4: takes to come here and do that journey that she
Speaker 4: did at when she was seventeen years old. And I'm like,
Speaker 4: when I was seventeen years old, I was a hot mess,
Speaker 4: you know. So I'm like I look at that and
Speaker 4: I see strength and I see resilience, and I think,
Speaker 4: oh my god, like this is what I want to
Speaker 4: exude and embody. And It's like, wasn't until had those
Speaker 4: conversations that I kind of learned that that's what I
Speaker 4: could be doing with my art, you know, like I'm
Speaker 4: dressing up as this Latina woman, and how can I
Speaker 4: bring and honor my mom in my art? And that's
Speaker 4: kind of what that's kind of starts to transform my
Speaker 4: art form a little bit and give it more meaning
Speaker 4: and like power behind it instead of me just like
Speaker 4: look at my big chee cheese.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: So it was a it was a very cool shift
Speaker 4: for me personally with my creativity, my art and just
Speaker 4: you know, I think pride with my mom, honoring her
Speaker 4: and her legacy and like, you know, at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, I'm her American dream, you know. So
Speaker 4: how do I take that dream and make it something
Speaker 4: beautiful instead of like a nightmare?
Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere, look a Mortes, We'll be.
Speaker 2: Right back, and we're back with more of our episode.
Speaker 2: I'm very curious about, like the life cycle of a
Speaker 2: drag queen. How did you start? What was your first step?
Speaker 4: Oh my god, So I was out here. I graduated
Speaker 4: with a BFA Musical theater and then I did a
Speaker 4: professional dance program, and I was out here trying to
Speaker 4: be a male dancer. And in La it's like for
Speaker 4: male dancing. I was auditioning for like j Lo Tours
Speaker 4: and Lady God Got Tours and Selena Gomez and I
Speaker 4: would show up and the first thing they'd say, take
Speaker 4: off your shirt, and baby, I don't. I got a
Speaker 4: little band che cheese. Okay, So that's like my man
Speaker 4: boobs were not cutting it for j Lo or Lady Gaga,
Speaker 4: so I would always get cut and I'm like, before
Speaker 4: I even dance, you know, it's all like very physical based.
Speaker 4: And I just wasn't booking anything. So I was helping
Speaker 4: a friend who wanted to be a drag queen. I
Speaker 4: was making her mixes, I was teaching he choreography, I
Speaker 4: was teaching her dances, and then she was kept losing competitions.
Speaker 4: So I was like, girl, why are you losing? I'm
Speaker 4: creating good stuff for you. So I was She's like,
Speaker 4: why don't you do it? So I did it one
Speaker 4: time and I won, and I want some more. And
Speaker 4: I was able to dance and perform and I looked crazy,
Speaker 4: like I literally, oh my god, can I just show you.
Speaker 4: I have a photo that I just found of one
Speaker 4: of my first times in drag and I just looked
Speaker 4: like a monster, like such a creature. She's she's crazy.
Speaker 4: Look at this girl right here. Oh my god, let's see.
Speaker 4: I mean my face, my face looks kind of nice,
Speaker 4: but like she's just a hot, sweaty mask. I have
Speaker 4: another photo when I did my makeup for the first time,
Speaker 4: and it was just insane. But I looked crazy, but
Speaker 4: my talent would shine through regardless of that.
Speaker 1: Okay, someone else in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 4: This was twenty and twelve.
Speaker 1: Okay, I had I'm asking because of the lip twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, oh the makeup vibes.
Speaker 1: The pink lip like a nude.
Speaker 4: There is one photo that I just need to show
Speaker 4: you because I am the have y'all ever seen like
Speaker 4: the horror movie The Thing? Do y'all see the substance?
Speaker 2: No more?
Speaker 1: Oh you all, don't say it was so good.
Speaker 4: It's not scary you it's such a fun ride. Oh
Speaker 4: hell yeah, Okay, it is so good. Okay, hold on,
Speaker 4: I just I just feel like it's worth watching. Oh
Speaker 4: here she is. This is the first time I ever
Speaker 4: did my own makeup. I mean, just a hot mess.
Speaker 2: You're the the eyebrows.
Speaker 1: We all had those brows at one point, okay, Anastasia.
Speaker 1: No one taught us how to use it.
Speaker 4: Oh my god. So you know. But even though I
Speaker 4: look crazy, like, my talents were showing through my dancing,
Speaker 4: my performance, my stage presence, and people were acknowledging it,
Speaker 4: tipping me, paying me. So then I just started doing
Speaker 4: it here and there, and then I would quit because
Speaker 4: it's so expensive with the makeup, the hair, the patting,
Speaker 4: the heels, the and like I was broke. I was
Speaker 4: like twenty three years old, twenty four. I was working
Speaker 4: at In and out Burger at the time, the one
Speaker 4: in Hollywood right here. I worked there for five years,
Speaker 4: and I was like working there, then leaving and going
Speaker 4: to do drag show and then going back in the morning,
Speaker 4: and just back and forth, back and forth. It was
Speaker 4: just too expensive. So I quit, and then it always
Speaker 4: found its way back into my life somehow, even when
Speaker 4: I would quit, like somehow someone asked me to do
Speaker 4: a fundraiser or something, and I'd be back in drag.
Speaker 4: So I think I started to find a little niche
Speaker 4: when I was like, Okay, well how do I make
Speaker 4: How do I do what I wanted to do originally,
Speaker 4: like be TV and film stuff, but with this drag thing.
Speaker 4: So I started making my own parody videos on YouTube
Speaker 4: and stuff. Because one of my favorite movies is a
Speaker 4: scary movie and I just started to recreate like scary
Speaker 4: movie scenes basically with Selena as like the idiot girl,
Speaker 4: like oh my god, like don't put your you know,
Speaker 4: knife inside me? Like, you know, just stupid things. And
Speaker 4: I had some videos go viral and people really catching
Speaker 4: on to it, and I started booking stuff, and then
Speaker 4: I booked Vida on Stars, and I would do some
Speaker 4: extra work in drag and then yeah, I would just
Speaker 4: audition for Drag Race cause I was like why not?
Speaker 4: And then eventually five I auditioned five times. Then I
Speaker 4: got on Drag Race, and uh, you know, in Pandemic,
Speaker 4: I decided to like, you know, we were all out
Speaker 4: of a job, so I stopped my little day jobs
Speaker 4: that I had and I just did drag full time
Speaker 4: from there on, and I was hustling in the clubs
Speaker 4: and creating my own shows. And then I got on
Speaker 4: Drag Race and here we are. Now, Wow, it's been
Speaker 4: a wild journey because you know, not everyone gets on
Speaker 4: drag Race. So like for me, I always thought like, well,
Speaker 4: what would I be doing if I was on Drag Race?
Speaker 4: So I would just do that, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: And I think that goes for any artists anywhere, Like
Speaker 4: whatever it is you're trying to achieve, like what would
Speaker 4: you be doing after that? And just do that? Is
Speaker 4: how I like kind of navigated my career. And now
Speaker 4: everything I used to do before the show is what
Speaker 4: I'm doing now. So it's like that hustle on that
Speaker 4: drive to just keep pushing and creating is it's kind
Speaker 4: of what's keeping me going fantastic.
Speaker 1: And what was that experience like being on drag Race?
Speaker 1: Because it was so significant, Your you as Selena in
Speaker 1: Drag Race was so significant, It was historic iconic in
Speaker 1: so many ways. And why do you think that representation
Speaker 1: of you or Latino Latina latine representation hit so hard
Speaker 1: on Drag Race?
Speaker 4: You know what's wild? What I just realized was I
Speaker 4: was having a very self discovery experience that I decided
Speaker 4: to take onto TV and share with the world, which
Speaker 4: should have been and maybe not should have could have
Speaker 4: been a private experience for myself, right Like, like I'm
Speaker 4: talking about the exploration of my pride, of my Latinists.
Speaker 4: I decided to take that exploration onto Drag Race before
Speaker 4: really flushing it out for myself, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: But I was willing to let that bear itself on
Speaker 4: national television. And you know, there's a lot of backlash
Speaker 4: and there's a lot of like haters whatever, But there's
Speaker 4: a lot of people who were very touched and very
Speaker 4: felt very represented by what I did, and all I
Speaker 4: all I aim to do was to represent Latinist as
Speaker 4: I experience it, as I know it. And that's not
Speaker 4: gonna be true for everyone. It's not gonna be true
Speaker 4: for how everyone experiences Latinist for themselves. But I was experience.
Speaker 4: I was showing it and showcasing it as I've experienced
Speaker 4: growing up. So there was a lot of people who
Speaker 4: are like, oh, you know, she's cosplaying, or she's not Mexican,
Speaker 4: or she's not Latino enough, or she's so white, or
Speaker 4: she's whitewashed, she's got a fake access all this stuff.
Speaker 4: But I'm like, okay, but this is my experience of
Speaker 4: my Latinist is real to me, so you can't tell
Speaker 4: me who I am. But what I was happening was
Speaker 4: I was discovering who I was in that moment, and
Speaker 4: I didn't realize that in the moment, I just I
Speaker 4: didn't think there was anything wrong. But when I look back,
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, I was like really exploring my Latinists
Speaker 4: within that mom I decided to share that with the world,
Speaker 4: you know, which left me very vulnerable and very sensitive
Speaker 4: when it came to all that feedback, but it's like
Speaker 4: I'm an open book at the end of the day.
Speaker 4: You know, I've been through so much in my life
Speaker 4: that like I'm willing to take the hits if that's
Speaker 4: what it takes for me to just like try to
Speaker 4: own myself. And I don't think it's a bad thing
Speaker 4: for me to try to own myself. And if anything,
Speaker 4: there's people who did feel represented, and like, like I said,
Speaker 4: getting that award was like a beautiful acknowledgment of the
Speaker 4: work that I was aspiring to do. So it felt
Speaker 4: nice to be acknowledged and like trust that what I'm
Speaker 4: doing is working something somewhere for somebody, you know, and
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, I was working for myself.
Speaker 1: We hope you're enjoying this interview. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2: We're back, and we hope you enjoy the rest of
Speaker 2: the interview.
Speaker 1: I love that reflection so much. I mean, now, looking back,
Speaker 1: would you do anything differently, like, given maybe what you
Speaker 1: put out there and then also the feedback you receive.
Speaker 4: I think, just my if I could do anything differently,
Speaker 4: it would just be my reaction to the feedback, you know,
Speaker 4: Like I felt so like this was my art. What
Speaker 4: do you mean you don't understand? So I'm just something
Speaker 4: about my shit, and like we all are. I think
Speaker 4: my reaction to everything that had happened is probably what
Speaker 4: I would have adjusted. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: everything happens the way it's supposed to. That's how I feel,
Speaker 4: and I feel like I'm just happy I have the
Speaker 4: insight today that I have to like move forward with
Speaker 4: everything and to approach everything how I'm approaching it today.
Speaker 4: Does that makes sense? I might making sense?
Speaker 1: Oh oh yeah, plenty of sense.
Speaker 4: Crazy, not at all, because also like, okay, I appreciate
Speaker 4: y'all that y'all like are you even listening and understanding?
Speaker 4: Because you know, I don't know a lot of people
Speaker 4: were just like girls shut up, you know, like they
Speaker 4: don't want to hear it. They don't want to explore
Speaker 4: with me. They didn't want to like take the time
Speaker 4: to understand my perspective or might come from with it.
Speaker 4: They just wanted to be like, eh.
Speaker 1: You know, well, it sounds like you were on your
Speaker 1: self discovery journey, and so let's go back to the beginning. Actually,
Speaker 1: like you expressed, maybe growing up when you had when
Speaker 1: you had your own gay or queer community. It was
Speaker 1: like a white community and then you found like your
Speaker 1: Latino queer community later.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what it was. I grew up that
Speaker 4: the white gay stuff didn't happen until I was like
Speaker 4: nineteen twenty twenty one. Before that, I grew up with
Speaker 4: actually my gay uncles in the Castro, San Francisco, and
Speaker 4: we like my parents had me when they were eighteen
Speaker 4: twenty one, so they were always working. They both worked
Speaker 4: two jobs on first generation on my mom's side, so
Speaker 4: like they were just trying to survive life. And me
Speaker 4: and my brother my brothers are year younger than me.
Speaker 4: We grew up basically with our uncles who took care
Speaker 4: of us and they drive us down to La to
Speaker 4: Micocmpias in South central like every other weekend. We're always
Speaker 4: driving down go to the polgas by Conscio sox, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. And then we drive back up
Speaker 4: and then go hang out with my parents on the weekend,
Speaker 4: they go back to work and we do it all
Speaker 4: over again. My uncles were gay, and we lived in
Speaker 4: the Castro in the nineties, which at the time was
Speaker 4: a very like hub for people to run away. Two
Speaker 4: during like right after the AIDS epidemic, like people would
Speaker 4: co like looking for their community, would be go to
Speaker 4: Castro s Francisco. So it was very gay. My uncles
Speaker 4: were very gay, always playing Donna Summers Alina, you know Madonna,
Speaker 4: and like, I grew up in a very like gay environment.
Speaker 4: I don't think that's why I'm gay, but it definitely helped,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't know, you know.
Speaker 1: What I mean, It like fostered a safe environment for
Speaker 1: you to be yourself.
Speaker 4: And then my parents also were already gonna be accepting
Speaker 4: because I always had in back my head like if
Speaker 4: you don't accept me, I'm gonna blame y' all because
Speaker 4: look at who I grew up with, you know. So
Speaker 4: I was like ready to fight them, but they didn't fight.
Speaker 4: They loved me at the end of the day. And
Speaker 4: like with that said, we'd always have, you know, our
Speaker 4: parties every weekend. It was always someone's birthday, someone's graduation
Speaker 4: of another baby's born, and like these Latino parties. But
Speaker 4: I was always so ashamed growing up because I would
Speaker 4: see what was on TV and that didn't replicate what
Speaker 4: my experience growing up. So I would always like be
Speaker 4: so anti my Latin experience growing up, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, looking for like the way out because I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 4: y'all be proud of being broke, and you know what
Speaker 4: I mean, Like in my mind, that's how I saw it,
Speaker 4: because I would see what was winning out in the
Speaker 4: world and that wasn't me and my family, you know.
Speaker 4: So I would be so ashamed that I had all
Speaker 4: that internalized racism building up for me in the very
Speaker 4: early age. So when I moved out to we to
Speaker 4: like La, I was like, we're gonna break, We're gonna
Speaker 4: get out of this, you know. And I would only
Speaker 4: find out later that owning my experience in all of
Speaker 4: who I am, having pride in that would make me,
Speaker 4: you know, who I am today and like help me succeed,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it sounds pretty like common right where
Speaker 1: if we're like growing up in poverty or maybe low income,
Speaker 1: and we see the way to get away from that
Speaker 1: is like to get as close to whiteness as possible.
Speaker 1: So it sounded like that was maybe your defense and
Speaker 1: the way you saw like out quote unquote.
Speaker 4: And I still like I'm learning the verbiage of that,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And then like I it's
Speaker 4: it's wild to say out loud, you know, And I
Speaker 4: get what a lot of feedback I get from a
Speaker 4: lot of other people, and like my friends who are
Speaker 4: super proud to be Mexican or Latino are always like
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. But I'm like, this is
Speaker 4: just my experience. I didn't know any better, you know,
Speaker 4: So like it's I try not to be a shamed
Speaker 4: in my experience. It is what it is. It's brought
Speaker 4: me to this point. And like, at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, I'm like, I feel like we have like
Speaker 4: sometimes I approach this thing where like people are more
Speaker 4: proud than me and I'm less than because of it.
Speaker 4: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: It is?
Speaker 4: And I'm like, wait, we have like a common goal.
Speaker 4: My goal is is I think the same as yours.
Speaker 4: So can we work together to like uplift each other
Speaker 4: instead of like trying to hierarchy ourselves.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So sometimes I also feel like, you know, Latini
Speaker 2: that as we talk about it, it is a construct,
Speaker 2: a social construct, and so it also kind of depends
Speaker 2: on your personal amount of like buy in to the construct.
Speaker 2: I feel you I think about Latini that and you know,
Speaker 2: like some people have their home country's flag on everything.
Speaker 2: It's hanging in their car and it's on their phone case,
Speaker 2: and it's you know, it's like and we do that
Speaker 2: and we love doing that. But I think about it
Speaker 2: sometimes like having school spirit. Like we're all registered at
Speaker 2: the same school, in the same classes, We're walking the
Speaker 2: same halls.
Speaker 4: You know, you go to every football game. I don't,
Speaker 4: you know, But.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that I'm not a student, correct, I'm
Speaker 2: still I'm here with you.
Speaker 4: That's such a beautiful analogy, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And so I think that's that's part of it too.
Speaker 2: Other people are just way more intense and vocal about it.
Speaker 2: And I think sometimes like it's like a grass is
Speaker 2: greener on the other side thing, Right, So did you
Speaker 2: have an experience where like you went and you were
Speaker 2: like around like a suburban white family and you realize, like, oh,
Speaker 2: this actually isn't any better, Like my my folks are
Speaker 2: cooler and more fun and I have a more unique
Speaker 2: experience and I'm so grateful for where I come from.
Speaker 2: Did you have that like turning point mm hmm.
Speaker 4: And that happened when I, like I was asking my
Speaker 4: mom like all those questions and stuff and becoming a
Speaker 4: little more like, ooh work. She we had to work
Speaker 4: to get here, you know what I mean? Or she
Speaker 4: had to, my family had to. I just was born.
Speaker 4: But like that made me realize, oh snap. And when
Speaker 4: I was out here, after I quit my day jobs
Speaker 4: and created, I was like, let me create a show
Speaker 4: for myself, like my own drag show. I was like,
Speaker 4: how can I do that? And how can I bring
Speaker 4: in my latinists and how can I like help use
Speaker 4: that to help me own it more a little? So
Speaker 4: I was like, let me create a party that was
Speaker 4: like the parties I grew up with. So I created
Speaker 4: a drag night called because my family loves Lothia, so
Speaker 4: we always play Lotia and bitch I love a so
Speaker 4: I can never find the man. So I was like,
Speaker 4: let me, let me create a night where like I
Speaker 4: have the club make a lot and we play Lotidia.
Speaker 4: And I created a night called Elia, and I changed
Speaker 4: the drawings on the boards to be more gay and
Speaker 4: drag queen, and like, so I was combining my Latin
Speaker 4: culture with my gay culture and my drag queenness, and
Speaker 4: like I created this night called Altria, and it's like
Speaker 4: a celebration night a yourtha's house. Basically is how I
Speaker 4: presented it, and it became the best actual Los Angeles
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty three. I per formed it in like
Speaker 4: that every week. That was what I did. I was
Speaker 4: like hustling, and then I got on the show and
Speaker 4: I just brought it back two weeks ago for the
Speaker 4: first time since I've been on the show, and I'm
Speaker 4: now making a documentary about it to like kind of
Speaker 4: because of all the backlash I got while I was
Speaker 4: on the show from you know, a lot of people.
Speaker 4: A lot of people just happened to me the other day.
Speaker 4: This girl was like, uh, You're not Mexican. And I
Speaker 4: was like no, but like I basically like grew up
Speaker 4: in and out of LA and like I've been here
Speaker 4: forever and my my theas all live in South Central
Speaker 4: so i'd always be down here. And she's like, oh,
Speaker 4: well okay, and I was like, well, yeah, what are
Speaker 4: you Then just what she said, I said, Well, my
Speaker 4: family's from Hndreas, Panama, Icaragua, and she's like, oh, so
Speaker 4: you're not Mexican. It was like this was this whole
Speaker 4: thing and it was very interesting and so I was
Speaker 4: like Okay. Because of this conversation alone, I was like,
Speaker 4: let me make a documentary about like, you know how
Speaker 4: even though we're all different, like we share similar you know,
Speaker 4: we're all the same. We're not We're not the same,
Speaker 4: but we're different with the same, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So I was like, I'm working on documentary because I
Speaker 4: want to take my show and take it on tour
Speaker 4: and bring other drag race girls who are Latino and
Speaker 4: into the show. And like, you know, the biggest stars
Speaker 4: that we love from drag Race, Bianca She's from Hoduras,
Speaker 4: Valentine's Mexican, Candy Muses, Dominican Zunami's Panamanian Morphine, loved dion Is,
Speaker 4: Nikolai Wentz. So like I can bring them all into
Speaker 4: my show and then when I do a documentary where
Speaker 4: they share their experience and like, you know, we're not
Speaker 4: all Mexican or you know, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 4: We're not just Puerto Rican.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: It's like we're a whole melting pot of different we
Speaker 4: come from everywhere, but we're all still share similar you know,
Speaker 4: at the end of the day that that heart, you know.
Speaker 4: So I kind of working on a documentary right now
Speaker 4: to like make that happen. And that all came from
Speaker 4: my little show he and my little shit show downtown
Speaker 4: by skid Row, Like is now going to flourish and
Speaker 4: blossom into the beautiful thing that you know I struggled
Speaker 4: with so much. When I got all that feedback and stuff,
Speaker 4: I was like, well, let me put it back into
Speaker 4: my art and let me see how it can like
Speaker 4: help and like create something for people that's a learning experience,
Speaker 4: but also not like this bad like like y'all are
Speaker 4: wrong type thing. It's more of like, let's celebrate ourselves
Speaker 4: in a way. You know.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you took the feedback and actually did
Speaker 1: something constructive with it, like you applied it.
Speaker 4: That's my goal, right because I could sit here and
Speaker 4: complain and be like oh more for me, you know,
Speaker 4: but like, don't get me.
Speaker 1: Nowhere and question going back to the girl that mentioned
Speaker 1: or questioned if you were Mexican or not? Was this
Speaker 1: because of the lot? Like was she taking issue with
Speaker 1: that or like what was where was that coming from?
Speaker 4: I think for her or personally, because you know, the
Speaker 4: drag race girls are struggling right now because there's a
Speaker 4: lot of drag queens, there's a lot of drag race
Speaker 4: there's queens everywhere. The market's very saturated. So like, I
Speaker 4: just released a new podcast coming out, and I just
Speaker 4: think personally, she's like, oh, she sees me winning, and
Speaker 4: she's she called my drag cosplay. She's like, you're cosplaying.
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, do you know what you're saying
Speaker 4: when you say that? And then when she's like, oh,
Speaker 4: you're not even Mexican, I'm like, you're not Latina at all.
Speaker 4: So it was a little in the moment, I was like,
Speaker 4: this is a learning experience. Let me teach her. But
Speaker 4: at the same time, I was like, bitch, calm down.
Speaker 1: Wait, no, you don't have to say the name. But wait,
Speaker 1: this was non Latina. Was this a white person?
Speaker 4: No, she was black, but which even more so, I
Speaker 4: was like girl interest. It was very interesting, but I
Speaker 4: was like, in my face, I'm used to that online
Speaker 4: in comments and stuff. But I was like, and I
Speaker 4: thought she was my sister, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So I was like, it was giving a little bit
Speaker 4: of like jealousy because she sees me out here hustling
Speaker 4: and making shit happen. Sure, Loki, that's then underlying thing.
Speaker 4: So I think she was wanted to knock me down
Speaker 4: a couple of pegs. But I was like, girl, this
Speaker 4: is exactly why I want to work on this documentary,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the documentary, the podcast, you have projects.
Speaker 4: You have to the word I have to. You have
Speaker 4: to stay relevant with these kids and the content of
Speaker 4: the fifteen second tiktoks. You got to make sure that,
Speaker 4: oh god, it's a lot.
Speaker 1: It's expensive.
Speaker 4: Yes, it's expensive, totally.
Speaker 2: And at the Purpo Lily Awards, when we were chatting
Speaker 2: with you, Curly introduced us and you started talking about
Speaker 2: your show, The.
Speaker 4: Homegirl hot Line.
Speaker 2: Tell Home Girl hot Line, tell us all about it.
Speaker 2: What did the idea come from? How are you making
Speaker 2: how are you putting it together?
Speaker 4: Were first talking about that. Yeah, yes, well basically, so
Speaker 4: I'm sober. I was a hot mess when I was
Speaker 4: nineteen twenty twenty one. I was out here running the streets,
Speaker 4: you know, because of my insecurities, because of I didn't
Speaker 4: know how to fit in with these people trying to
Speaker 4: I was really doing drugs and drinking and running the
Speaker 4: streets out here. And I got sober and I was
Speaker 4: twenty one years old, and so I'll have thirteen years
Speaker 4: next month and November twentieth, that's my sobriety day. And
Speaker 4: you know, I got sober through the Rooms of Alcoholics
Speaker 4: Anonymous and there, you know, it's a lot of what
Speaker 4: we do there is just we share our story and
Speaker 4: you try to relate and then you share your experience
Speaker 4: and there's a lot of like just talking and relating, right.
Speaker 4: So in that I have a beautiful community in LA
Speaker 4: especially in the queer community. There's a lot of there's
Speaker 4: a big sober queer community and they've shown me how
Speaker 4: to be a man and grow up and they're the
Speaker 4: ones who taught me drag and be of service and
Speaker 4: you know, and how to be an adult. And I
Speaker 4: was just thinking, like how can I bring that energy
Speaker 4: into a podcast space for myself because there's a lot
Speaker 4: of drag queens of that podcasts, but they're all about
Speaker 4: drag race, so they're all about being you know, shady,
Speaker 4: or they're all about just like opinion based about what's
Speaker 4: happening in pop culture. And I'm like, what can I
Speaker 4: do to create some healing within our community and then
Speaker 4: even more so with you know, my POC community, because
Speaker 4: that's who's watching, right, that's who's paying attention to me.
Speaker 4: So let's create a dream of consciousness and like, you know,
Speaker 4: mindfulness within our community. It doesn't have to be all
Speaker 4: like g girl, grawl girl. You know that's in there,
Speaker 4: in there, because that's entertaining. But I really want to
Speaker 4: like create something a little more deep rooted that can
Speaker 4: help the kid who's listening in Oklahoma who just happened
Speaker 4: to come across my little podcast because he likes drag Queens.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, well, maybe this can help them, you know,
Speaker 4: be a little more mindful and conscious about what's going
Speaker 4: on with their own thinking and their own selves. Because
Speaker 4: I feel like I love like reading a book, like
Speaker 4: a self help book and like universe God stuff, Like
Speaker 4: I love that stuff. So I'm like, how can I
Speaker 4: bring that into a space for podcasts within the Drag
Speaker 4: Queen Realm platform that I have.
Speaker 2: I love it. You described the show also as sort
Speaker 2: of like an audio drama or like a radio.
Speaker 4: Play a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, so it's like.
Speaker 2: Tell us, tell us.
Speaker 4: Well, it's just like, how can I create this world?
Speaker 4: I love world building, right, Like I'm a theater girl.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day. I love writing scripts.
Speaker 4: I love creating experiences. So in this experience of this podcast.
Speaker 4: Selena works at this radio station and she is getting
Speaker 4: calls in like remember I don't know if y'all do
Speaker 4: y'all know ninety four point nine it was a area
Speaker 4: radio station, Wild ninety four point nine. It's the same
Speaker 4: as like what they have out here. It's the one
Speaker 4: O three two point seven Kiss FM. Yes, you know,
Speaker 4: like when you're listening in the morning or just even
Speaker 4: like the breakfast club, like like people call in and
Speaker 4: like Ryan seacrests on the radio. Like I remember going
Speaker 4: up listening to that, and it's like I was like,
Speaker 4: what if it's a radio station and people are calling
Speaker 4: in and with their problems and Selena's just like talking
Speaker 4: back to them. But what I've created in this world
Speaker 4: is Selena has this THEATA and she's the producer of
Speaker 4: the podcast. And so she's on the other side of
Speaker 4: the wall and she it's me an old lady Drag
Speaker 4: and she is my grandma and my thea and she's
Speaker 4: just like, ah, get pass up with that, like you know,
Speaker 4: she's so like my Drag is truly inspired by like
Speaker 4: actors like Robin Williams and Eddie Murphy and John Leguizamo.
Speaker 4: Remember like Missus Doubt Fire and Resbutia, and like those
Speaker 4: movies from the early nineties where these comedians where drag
Speaker 4: were in drag playing these characters and these iconic movies.
Speaker 4: That's very much what it inspires me. And then like
Speaker 4: the humor comes from like Scary Movie and Hot Chick
Speaker 4: and like those movies White Chicks, like very crass. That's
Speaker 4: like where I get my humor from. That's what inspired
Speaker 4: my drag right initially, and then I found really like
Speaker 4: who Selena is by looking at my family and my
Speaker 4: mom and my sister's mythas and so with all that combined,
Speaker 4: I was like, how can I bring that comedy into this,
Speaker 4: Like she's like the comedic relief is miscone cheat that
Speaker 4: and this? And then what I'm building now too is
Speaker 4: like I created a theme song for the podcast and
Speaker 4: it starts out with like this trio because I'm like,
Speaker 4: have y'all ever heard, like y'all know the Supremes, right, yes,
Speaker 4: of course? Like is there Latina Supremes.
Speaker 1: In Spanish?
Speaker 4: Well, like in American pop culture, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: That doesn't really exist, not well, you know what I
Speaker 4: feel like existed.
Speaker 2: There was there were girl groups in the sixties and
Speaker 2: seventies that maybe we just are not familiar.
Speaker 4: With correct right, And I'm like, where are they?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 4: Because I love so when you think of like oldies
Speaker 4: writ like low writer oldies, it's like it's like angel baby, right,
Speaker 4: And I'm like, Latinos love these oldies. My dad listens
Speaker 4: to old these while theys like working on the sync,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. So I'm like, why are
Speaker 4: we so attracted to oldies? And you know these doop
Speaker 4: groups and these crooner songs, like why is that the vibe? Right?
Speaker 4: You know? My parents love song is like always in
Speaker 4: Forever by heat Wave, And I'm like, what if there
Speaker 4: was a Latina version of like a Supremes. So in
Speaker 4: my I'm working on a movie, musical, like writing a
Speaker 4: script and so so many products I'm just like always
Speaker 4: working on. So I'm like, what if there's these three
Speaker 4: girls and you know, my grandma passed away recently and
Speaker 4: Maria Kathman and her sisters all came here from Nicaragua
Speaker 4: and their grandma or their mom used to make all
Speaker 4: their clothes. And my dad just sent me some photos
Speaker 4: of them and they are jo lads but like pristine
Speaker 4: and these beautiful outfits walking down the street with the
Speaker 4: cars behind them, and I'm like, these girls are sickening
Speaker 4: in badass, like my my grandma was a you don't
Speaker 4: mess with hers what it looked like, right, but cunty
Speaker 4: and just beautiful. And I'm like, that's Selena is titties.
Speaker 4: Like that's literally me. So I was like, what if
Speaker 4: Gonchita in my podcast world was a part of this
Speaker 4: girl group that existed, and that used to be the
Speaker 4: recording studio they used to record in back in the day,
Speaker 4: and now she works there and Selena, their granddaughter, is
Speaker 4: doing a podcast. So I'm building this entire world, and
Speaker 4: I'm building this musical about these three girls from the
Speaker 4: sixties and I'm calling them. I'm Selena s Titties, so
Speaker 4: I'm gonna call them lost chee.
Speaker 1: Cheese, Selena s chee chee cheez.
Speaker 4: I love I love this world. I'm building a world
Speaker 4: so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 2: You know, that is so fun.
Speaker 1: I love this. Okay. So that's what I love, love
Speaker 1: love about podcasting and audio. It's that you can really
Speaker 1: do what you want. You can create your own everything, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: So the podcast Homegrow Hotline you're are people calling in
Speaker 1: and so are these real stories or are these scripted stories?
Speaker 4: No, they're real. So the stories are real.
Speaker 1: So the stories are real, but the characters the world
Speaker 1: that we're listening to that is like fiction.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like scripted, right, But we're both reacting to the
Speaker 4: real life stories coming in. So it's like a combination.
Speaker 1: Characters are reacting to the real story, the real world.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like my goal, my goal I think is
Speaker 4: like season one is just building the world. Season two
Speaker 4: we have guests come in and interact with the voicemails
Speaker 4: that come into the hotline and then like eventually live
Speaker 4: shows and then who knows what happens from there, right,
Speaker 4: So I'm really just trying to set the world right
Speaker 4: now and see where that goes.
Speaker 1: I love that so much.
Speaker 2: It's so creative, it's such a good idea. Think it sounds,
Speaker 2: it's so fun. And is this something that you're putting
Speaker 2: on video or it's all audio.
Speaker 4: It's going to be all all audio podcast platforms. But
Speaker 4: then on YouTube, there's a video on YouTube on my
Speaker 4: YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my god, how fun?
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited and so okay, so that's the podcast.
Speaker 2: You also have this documentary that you're working on, So
Speaker 2: is that a self produced project?
Speaker 1: Me?
Speaker 4: All of this is out of my pocket.
Speaker 2: Yes, we get it, We get it completely.
Speaker 4: Yes, man, it's crazy. Uh yeah, it's all me and
Speaker 4: I mean, I guess the sponsorships are cute, but that's
Speaker 4: what we work towards, right, like totally. So we're building
Speaker 4: that and getting that together, which was cool. Like before
Speaker 4: my podcast has even come out, I've already got like
Speaker 4: several sponsorships, so that's nice, So congradulation. I'm learning how
Speaker 4: this all works and we're getting there and then yeah,
Speaker 4: but it's hard, you know, I'm trying to self fund
Speaker 4: all this stuff, especially right now there's not a lot
Speaker 4: of work, especially in TV and film. It's so rough
Speaker 4: out here. So I'm trying to make it happen.
Speaker 2: And do people assume that, oh, you were on drag Race,
Speaker 2: so you've got it made your fine?
Speaker 4: Girl. The money's playing me like they're like, try to
Speaker 4: charge me so much because they're like, oh, she's on
Speaker 4: drag ra she has money, so that we can charge
Speaker 4: her this much. And I'm like, Diva, can.
Speaker 1: You, yeah, can you kind of demystify that for us?
Speaker 1: So someone is on drag race, and then what happens.
Speaker 4: So mind you, they have to pay a lot of
Speaker 4: money for us to even get like to present something
Speaker 4: on the show. Because what we present on the show
Speaker 4: for drag race walking down the runway, we don't most
Speaker 4: of us, we should be wearing that in real life,
Speaker 4: but we want to really stunt and like show our
Speaker 4: best on the show, So we hash out a lot
Speaker 4: of money to just get prepared for the show. So
Speaker 4: there's that. So we leave the show with debt, you know,
Speaker 4: already from everything we made, so we're trying to pay
Speaker 4: back all that stuff. It costs thousands of dollars, which
Speaker 4: you know, I'm asking for friends, I'm saving up money,
Speaker 4: and it's like we're still trying to pay it off.
Speaker 4: And then you hustle, you hustle, hustle. You make your money.
Speaker 4: Within that first year you're very hot, and then the
Speaker 4: next season comes out and you're not so hot anymore
Speaker 4: because it's the new girls are here, and then they're
Speaker 4: booking all everything. So how do you stay relevant? How
Speaker 4: do you keep the fans like paying attention in and
Speaker 4: like wanting to invest in support your art. And it's
Speaker 4: it's a struggle. It's hard. But I'm a hustler. So
Speaker 4: I'm out here hustling these streets making it happen. And
Speaker 4: I don't know about a lot of other girls, but
Speaker 4: I know it's not it's not easy, but a lot
Speaker 4: of girls aren't doing or have the creativity to create
Speaker 4: a lot of like what my ambitions have, you know?
Speaker 4: So there are girls who are And I look at
Speaker 4: girls like you know, Bob the Drag Queen want to
Speaker 4: Exchange and Trixie Mattel, they're very successful, Bianca del Rio.
Speaker 4: So it's like they're all you know. I actually signed
Speaker 4: with management that there are a lot of them are
Speaker 4: signed to because I'm like, I want to be like
Speaker 4: those girls, So how did they get there? Right? So
Speaker 4: I'm forging my little path and making that happen. And
Speaker 4: I ended up signing with that management, and so it's
Speaker 4: been it's been a journey and it's not it's not easy,
Speaker 4: but it's part of the game, right. It's the hustle
Speaker 4: out here, and people think it's Hollywood and make it.
Speaker 4: No girl, it cost a lot of money. You got
Speaker 4: a hustle. You gotta shake babies and kiss his hands.
Speaker 5: Shake babies his hands, and shake babies shake hands and
Speaker 5: kiss babies, you know, shake the baby, don't shake the baby.
Speaker 1: For the record, I look at the don't shake the baby.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Selena words of wisdom for aspiring drag
Speaker 2: queens out there.
Speaker 4: Oh, don't do it.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 4: I think it's like knowing who you are, right like
Speaker 4: discovering who I am and like getting more proud with
Speaker 4: that is allowing it to bleed into my art, And
Speaker 4: I think that's something to people forget too, is like
Speaker 4: it's an art form at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: just how a screenwriter writes their scripts and puts themselves
Speaker 4: into it, how a musician writes their music and puts
Speaker 4: themselves and their feelings into their music. My drag is
Speaker 4: a vessel for for who I am and what I'm
Speaker 4: going through, you know, And drag race was an experience.
Speaker 4: My experience at the time was learning how to be
Speaker 4: more proud, to take pride in my latinus, and I
Speaker 4: threw that into my drag. And right now, you know,
Speaker 4: I'm honoring my grandma and my mom because my mom
Speaker 4: and my grandma both passed away last year. So that's
Speaker 4: really like bleeding into my art right now. Like with
Speaker 4: those chee cheese my grandma. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Having uh, you know, my podcast. I'm trying to take
Speaker 4: from my experience with my sober experience, and I put
Speaker 4: that into my podcast. How can I be of service
Speaker 4: to someone else? And like, I'm taking all of who
Speaker 4: I am into my art. So I think if you
Speaker 4: want to any art form you want to do is
Speaker 4: just knowing who you are will dictate who what your
Speaker 4: art looks like, you know. But if you don't know
Speaker 4: who you are, what's your art? What's your art doing?
Speaker 4: You feel me? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. So kind of just to wrap
Speaker 1: up this conversation and bring it back to the top
Speaker 1: of the conversation and the Purple Lily Awards, you talked
Speaker 1: about how the theas and the primas in your life
Speaker 1: created that space for you to be safe and to
Speaker 1: be yourself. So can you talk more about that and
Speaker 1: how that inspired Selena? I did.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, you know, like for me, my cousins scare me,
Speaker 4: my male cousins, like my male cousins try to kill
Speaker 4: me once, Like I remember my dad walked in and
Speaker 4: he was like hanging me by a belt, you know,
Speaker 4: and like cause I was playing with rugrats and me
Speaker 4: and my cousin call my cousin Chris Angelica, and he
Speaker 4: like flipped on us, and so I don't know, you know,
Speaker 4: the straight boys they are a little Machi's more and
Speaker 4: crazy and wild, and especially where we grew up, like
Speaker 4: it was just wild. So I never felt safe with
Speaker 4: the straight boys. And my family, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And my cousin, my female cousins always, you know, we're
Speaker 4: dancing to spice girls over here, we're over here singing
Speaker 4: songs and playing with coloring books and stuff. So they
Speaker 4: always created that safe space for me to just be
Speaker 4: myself and explore my creativity too, and like we were
Speaker 4: creative together. So and my you know, my mom my,
Speaker 4: theias were always like, oh, do a little dance for us,
Speaker 4: or like, you knowing, sing the song with her, and
Speaker 4: like they just fostered that safe space for me to
Speaker 4: be creative and myself. And I didn't realize that in
Speaker 4: the moment, but I look back and I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's what they were doing when I couldn't be that
Speaker 4: way when I was playing football because my dad wanted
Speaker 4: to be playing football with the boys, you know, So
Speaker 4: yeah that really I look back and I think, oh yeah,
Speaker 4: these women really are the reason I am who I am.
Speaker 4: And I was so like anti that for a long
Speaker 4: time too, Like I didn't want to look at that.
Speaker 4: I don't want to let that be my narrative because
Speaker 4: I'm like a'm bro mask, especially in the gay world,
Speaker 4: trying to appeal to men and be like I'm sexy, right,
Speaker 4: you like this, you like this. I'm gonna hide my femininity,
Speaker 4: you know, because they don't like feminine guys, so I
Speaker 4: have to be like super muchI small and like I'm
Speaker 4: shoving down all that stuff that they created for me
Speaker 4: to be myself. I'm shoving that away. So that was
Speaker 4: all part of my drinking and my using, right because
Speaker 4: I felt so uncomfortable with myself because I didn't know myself.
Speaker 4: I was trying, I was not being myself right. So
Speaker 4: this discovery of getting sober, learning who I am and
Speaker 4: owning myself and being a little you know, like that
Speaker 4: all makes me who I am. And I you know,
Speaker 4: look where I'm at today.
Speaker 1: It works amazing.
Speaker 4: But I also have a pressent free gries, you have
Speaker 4: shorter hair, so like a part of how I make
Speaker 4: money and like you know, hustle is like I have
Speaker 4: merchandise and I have an EP that came out in January,
Speaker 4: my first little music project. Then I called it Homegirl
Speaker 4: because my whole, like my mission with Selena A. S.
Speaker 4: Titties is that she's your homegirl, right like in high school,
Speaker 4: She's the girl that that was like, hey, you got
Speaker 4: a pencil, and like she wasn't prepared, but she did
Speaker 4: protect you with the football players walking by the hallway,
Speaker 4: right like, don't mess with him. You know that's it's
Speaker 4: my boy, like those girls in high school, my cousins
Speaker 4: is who that is. That's why I wanted Selena to
Speaker 4: be for anyone who feels like they you know, like
Speaker 4: a little like don't have a voice. That's very much
Speaker 4: me can't stand up for themselves. Selena's stand up for you,
Speaker 4: and she represents that. Cause Selena is what I Jason
Speaker 4: out of Drag is very insecure. I'm very quiet, I'm
Speaker 4: very honed in. I'm very observant because I'm like observing
Speaker 4: my surroundings, learning how to navigate through. Right, let me
Speaker 4: suppress this so I can be this for you here,
Speaker 4: so I can gain this and that that Jason's very
Speaker 4: that Selena's like excuse me, I'm here, you know, which
Speaker 4: is like what I crave to be out of drag
Speaker 4: and She's given me the confidence to be that. So
Speaker 4: Selena is that girl for me. She's your homegirl. So
Speaker 4: I named my EP Homegirl, and my EP my music
Speaker 4: project that I did in January was a homage to
Speaker 4: like being at home girl, you know what I mean,
Speaker 4: like my mom my home Selena Stitties.
Speaker 2: Where can our listeners follow and support? Where can they
Speaker 2: catch a show? Where can they and catch your new projects?
Speaker 2: How can they follow you?
Speaker 4: When is this coming out?
Speaker 1: This is coming out next Wednesday.
Speaker 4: Oh fantastic. So right now you can catch me. I'm
Speaker 4: at Pasadena Playhouse. I'm doing Lakaja Fall. It's an equity theater.
Speaker 4: It's like they won the Tony Award for the Best
Speaker 4: Regional Theater in America. I'm doing a really big, high
Speaker 4: scale production Lakajha Fall, taking Selena Stities on stage, musical theater,
Speaker 4: going back to my roots, you know, with my BFA
Speaker 4: musical theater. So I'm performing at Lakasha Fall the Pasadena
Speaker 4: Playhouse November fifteenth to December twelfth. You can find me
Speaker 4: there right now, and you can see me every Wednesday
Speaker 4: on my podcast, the Homegirl Hotline on my YouTube panel,
Speaker 4: and my Instagram is at s Titties and you can
Speaker 4: buy my merch at stities dot com. Slash screaming we.
Speaker 2: Have to have to go. We love you've been, Yes,
Speaker 2: and for those listening, that's the bird Cage, but it's
Speaker 2: the original stage play correct.
Speaker 4: Yes, and it's very French and like, oh we we.
Speaker 1: Exactly.
Speaker 4: How exciting.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, really fustling, you are doing the things things.
Speaker 2: And a true thespian, honestly lesbian thespian.
Speaker 4: It's very exciting. The Playhouse, Darling, the Pasadena Playhouse. It's
Speaker 4: so it's so interesting, right because I'm like I'm in
Speaker 4: these clubs like like like oh my titties, my titties,
Speaker 4: my titties. And then I'm like in this professional ass
Speaker 4: like like I'm in theater. Now I got to be
Speaker 4: a little more professional. But it's like I'm having such
Speaker 4: a beautiful experience, like like my talents really gets to
Speaker 4: shine through in this realm, singing and dancing, acting, all
Speaker 4: the stuff, being professional on time, knowing where i have
Speaker 4: to go. I'm like really showing a lot of my
Speaker 4: professionalism here. And it's paying off, and it feels so
Speaker 4: good to be respected and acknowledged. Like I keep saying,
Speaker 4: we're in the clubs, you know, the drunk tweak in
Speaker 4: the corner doesn't care if I'm on time, you know,
Speaker 4: Like it feels so good that I'm getting like that,
Speaker 4: I'm at this level right now. It's cool. It's cool.
Speaker 2: Congratulations. Oh we're so getting tickets.
Speaker 1: I'm already the case is so cool.
Speaker 4: Like y'all ever watch Matt TV. Yes, Michael McDonald, look
Speaker 4: what I can do. He's in it. Paul Volt, Nicole Parker,
Speaker 4: like these Mad TV comedians and I'm I'm getting to
Speaker 4: work with them side by side. It's an honor to
Speaker 4: watch them work. It's like so cool, It's really really cool.
Speaker 2: How exciting. Well this has been I knew it would be.
Speaker 2: But a fabulous interview with selenas Titty.
Speaker 4: Sorry is so deep and somber, okerfect.
Speaker 1: That's what we do here.
Speaker 2: We love range.
Speaker 4: Thanks for letting me. Thank you for opening up your
Speaker 4: space to me, you know, my two powerful women right here,
Speaker 4: just creating the space for for your community and letting
Speaker 4: me be a part of it. And I appreciate it
Speaker 4: so much, and letting me share my experience with you
Speaker 4: and being open and you know, willing to listen to me.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, absolutely, thank you. Welcome back anytime down.
Speaker 4: I'll bring Selena next time for sure, like five full drag.
Speaker 4: I don't know if it's I don't know if you're holding.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he's ready for it.
Speaker 2: Our engineer, Yeah, he's finey stuff.
Speaker 1: Lok A Radio is executive produced by Viosa Fem and
Speaker 1: Mala Munios.
Speaker 2: Stephanie Franco is our producer.
Speaker 1: Story editing by Me viosa.
Speaker 2: Creative direction by me.
Speaker 1: Mala look At Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michael
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Speaker 1: Desitos loclonia