This message comes from NPR Sponsor Mint Mobile From the gas pump to the grocery store, inflation is everywhere So Mint Mobile is offering premium wireless starting at just $15 a month To get your new phone plan for just $15, go to mintmobile.com-switch But when President Biden removed himself from their race, and in the day since, he and a lot of other high-profile Democrats have thrown their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris
And so now Vice President Harris has the backing of players in DC like the congressional black caucus, Nancy Pelosi, and Adam Schiff, and most of the squad And she also has enough party delegates pledged to her to be the party's official nominee But, but Vice President Harris has also kept a notoriously low profile over the past four years or so She also hasn't pulled it well once she's been keeping the little profile
And so we felt it might be worth a little reminder just for us to take some time, all of us to look into who she was, what she's representing the past, and to think about what she would bring to the presidency So, coming soon on the podcast, we will be diving into the life in times of Kamala Harris, including revisiting some of our own past coverage of her to see what's changed about her and what has stayed the same
So stay tuned for that, and in the meantime, I'm gonna turn it over to my co-host, Be a Parker for this week's episode of the show Just a heads up, this episode you're about to hear contains a couple of homophobic slurs Alright, on to the show Hey everyone, you're listening to Code Switch, I'm Be a Parker I want to take you all back in time for a second, to about 15 years ago, when the show RuPaul's Drag Race first premiered in 2009 RuPaul Drag Race just saw your ass
It became a huge sensation, the show has now spanned 16 seasons with spin-offs around the world from Chile to Philippines, to Drag Race, Philippines, to Sweden, to Drag Race, to Brazil, to Drag Race, to Brazil That show helped Drag become a pretty ubiquitous part of American pop culture
Drag was nothing new of course in 2009, but as the show gained popularity, Drag Queen culture started to appear in more mainstream conversations in a totally different way The fact that the view in ABC and Disney had amazing drag shows On a national television, it was amazing So, it's a little bit more...
Ron DeSantis wants state investigators to go after parents who allow their children to attend Drag Queen shows RuPaul's Drag Race has earned a total of 63 Emmy nominations This is the show's fifth win in this category The federal judge has declared a Texas law banning certain drag shows is unconstitutional and also unenforceable As Drag Queen became the faces of makeup brands and moral panics alike, Drag King's didn't become nearly as visible
And one of the oldest Drag King's in the country found herself wondering if she'd ever get the opportunity to perform again Maybe because I'm too old for them, I don't know Today on the show, we're telling that story The story of someone who's been performing since 1965 LC Saldana, aka El Danya
I didn't want ladies and gentlemen LC, no way, it had to be El Danya To do that, we're taking a trip to the Raisin Capital That's right, Fresno, California I was the very first of the Central Valley So I am the King of Drag above the others that came after me I think it went a little bit to my head
But it's okay because I did earn it, I earned it This message comes from an PR sponsor, Bluehost Try Bluehost Cloud The hosting plan made for WordPress creators by WordPress experts With 100% uptime, fast load times, and 24-7 support Your sites can handle high traffic spikes, visit Bluehost.com
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Comparison rates not available in all states or situations Price is very based on how you buy Hello, I'm John E. Johansson Jr. Join me each week on In Black America As we profile current and historically significant figures Whose stories help illuminate life in Black America
You don't want to miss the conversation KUT radio in Black America are members of the NPR Network Thanks for listening to In Black America Celeste Hamilton Dennis is with us on the show today to introduce us to Eldania Celeste will take it from here
I'm here in California's Central Valley in the Fresno area Which is three hours south of San Francisco, three hours north of Los Angeles Fresno is home to sun-made reasons and farmlands Lots of it Eldania is giving me a tour Right now we're surrounded by oranges as you can see over their tangerines
I think they're tangerines And this is all agriculture out this way It's nice, you know, it's peaceful out here The Central Valley is also heavily Latino Eldania grew up in a family of Mexican farm workers She was the oldest of seven kids And started working in the fields at five years old
She picked fags, cotton, grapes And I always have this bitterness of working in the fields Because my mother, she really didn't encourage me to continue school You know, go to school and all that My siblings did But I didn't because I felt I had to help out in the family You know
And my sisters, they never worked in the fields They never worked in the fields, just me and the boys But then she'd come home and turn on the radio Her escape You know, if a Dean Martin was on or Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett Or a victim on, I like victim on Buh, buh, buh, buh, chop, chop, chop
I need the magic touch of your own I would get up Something of her brush or a comb and pretend I was damn You know, it just came natural She had no idea that around the same time, Stormy Delarvie was doing a version of this
Wearing men's suits and singing to sold out crowds at the Apollo in New York City Fresno couldn't be any more different There were drag shows, but not on that level You can't do a show without girls When she was 21, Aldani decided it was time to bring her hairbrush act to the masses at Red Robin
Not the burger joint, but one of the few gay bars around It had a western theme Neonsigns advertising cigarette brands lit up the walls This was 1965 And when I walked in and saw already a crowd Oh my god, I felt like a star, you know So I went to the back of the stage
I turned my end of my music to the DJ Because at that time it was record 45s And then when the time came that I came on I was nervous, my knees were shaking, because first time, you know And when I saw the audience, the music started Oh man, I really got into it, I forgot about my knees shaking
And I did my number and I did it good, because I said this is it It's all or nothing Aldani's rendition of La Bamba got roaring applause She was hooked But Aldani didn't call herself a drag king Back when she did that first performance, the term was male impersonator
And for a long time, Aldani was the only male impersonator in the area Performing in big stage productions or solo shows Slick That's the word one friend used to describe her Today, Aldani has embraced the term drag king So you probably have some idea of what a traditional drag queen is, right?
A man putting on a dress, you were lowering your status and so it becomes comedic That's Mofisher, she says old school drag kings are doing something kind of similar But subversive in a different way For a woman to put on a suit, you're usurping male power and privilege
And you're challenging the status quo So it's more political by nature So that to me is more interesting Mo's a drag king who's performed by the name of Mo B Dick since the 90s The B, by the way, stands for bodacious She says drag kings are still not very known and largely ignored
A lot of that, according to Mo, is about who's running the drag shows Men I get a lot of people ask me how come drag kings aren't known My answer is PMS Patriarchy, misogyny, sexism And PMS, as we know, affects everything and everyone around it
I was watching the new drag kings and they were saying, I'm the only drag king Rightfully so, we don't have online presence So they couldn't find elder representation And I thought, oh my gosh, we have to do something So Mo co-created the website, drag king history
And it's where I first saw a photo of El Danya All five feet of her, wearing a white suit, studded with rhinestones And a matching Stetson cowboy hat Here's my Stets, this is my favorite hat We're here in El Danya's bedroom And she climbs on top of her bed to grab a boot barn box off a shelf She pulls out that white Stetson hat and puts it on Towering over me Tell me, before you take it off, what are you feeling?
Like a cowboy, you know Like a cowboy stud And I can be a stud too El Danya had swagger But her swagger had to be kept secret too Especially in the rural areas outside of Fresno She knew she was a lesbian since the time she was an elementary school
And in the beginning, she'd hide her sexuality and her drag clothes We're here in Farmersville on the corner of Farmersville and Walnut Avenue And this is where the high-shaparole used to stand The high-shaparole is a gay bar El Danya went to and performed that a lot in her early years
Before someone burned it down And there was walnut orchards on that side And walnut orchards over here And if anybody did hanky-panky, they would come out here to stand or go to their orchards You know, the red necks or young kids would go down this road
And sometimes they would stop and blow their horn And scream out faggots and queers And take off This area has a very rich and long history of drag and performances And mostly because of the Imperial Court system Or the bar network that was around
But it is in the face of historically, incredibly very conservative culture That's Cat Fulbear, professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at Fresno State The Imperial Court she's talking about is one of the oldest LGBTQ organizations in the country With 74 chapters to date
It's not something a lot of people know about, even within the queer community A big part of what they do is host fundraising drag balls Where members compete for the royal titles There are crowns, there are sectors, there are big gold pins and jewelry and puffy dresses and drama
They create a magical space In times where people don't get to live magical lives all the time The Court has always been kind of a big deal in the Fresno area and it still is In 1980, Aldania co-founded the Sequoia Empire Court out of Vizalia
Which at the time was a rural town near the High Shopper L And she held the Emperor's title three times This is my Emperor's vest And the different coronations that I went to, you know, they give you a pin or something, you know By day, she was working in factories
By night, she was hosting and performing in drag shows And that helped raise thousands of dollars for aides and other charities with the Sequoia Empire Court All in the very rural, relatively conservative Central Valley Vizalia at that time really had a closeted community And once they found out about the Court, they got brave Coming up, you told me that this was your last performance, you told everybody this was your last performance Stay with us This message comes from NPR Sponsor Squarespace
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I'm back with reporters Celeste Hamilton-Dennis who is telling us the story of Aldania, one of the oldest drag kings still performing in the U.S So Celeste, before we get back into it, I'm really curious how did you come across this story to begin with So I have two daughters and a husband and during the pandemic, I was pretty bored, like I think a lot of us were And to kind of past the time, I would make my family do these pop culture photo shoots
And what I mean by that is that I would make them dress up as characters from movies or TV shows like Ted Asso or Righteous gemstones And we would take photos and in all these photos, I always wanted to be the male character
Like I would be Ted Lasso and my eight year old would be like Roy Kent's, you know Which was my favorite one because I'd make her put, I'd found this like sticky chest hair That I had to kind of bribe her with though, I think I had to buy her lots of Sarah Pedge kids to be able to put it on Seems kind of itchy but the fun picture I mean I guess what do you get out of that?
I think like really first and foremost, I think it's just super fun Like I just got like such a joy at transforming myself, I mean Ted Lasso, I kind of looked a little bit like my father, which was a little weird and creepy to look in the mirror and actually see my dad But it's just really fun to transform and to like escape yourself sometimes I don't know, you kind of like step into this power in a way that I don't know
I don't want to look into how other people did cross-dressing or drag and I really didn't know that there was this like whole community of drag kings out there Like I feel kind of silly like admitting this but I really didn't even know about drag kings And was really surprised to learn that there is this whole history of them and that's how I kind of found Aldania Because I had found the website of drag king history and that led me to her Alright, so let's get back to the story
Life was good, Aldania was performing a lot, she was in a relationship and even though she never wanted kids, her partner at the time had a son, named Mark When he was very young age we call him Bunny and he would scream, you are Bunny, you know Who she couldn't help but fall in love with
Oh here it is, it went to nursery school in 1974 He performed for the kids, he danced and imitated Tom Jones That's right, because he would watch me do no to Tom Jones And then that neat As he got older he continued to watch her rehearse Tom Jones giving her notes, applauding He was her biggest fan
We're riding around the Fresno area and Aldania's blasting Tom Jones Love me tonight and lip syncing Her car, by the way, has Aldania on the license plate She usually practices while driving She is tapping the steering wheel to the beats, mouthing every word, stretching every syllable The ability to lip sync and do it well is the hallmark of serious artistry and drag And for Aldania it needs to be tight How's that?
Flalas, she's got that same chest bearing Tom Jones swagger that made the ladies go wild No surprise really, she's been doing Tom Jones for decades I like his voice, his movements, you know And he's sexy on stage And I present that to when I do him
Because like I said hey, they used to go take their underwear off and throw them at me the guys And not the girls, and the girls will throw me bras, you know That was fun, oh my god, I enjoyed that Those braithering days and the 80s and 90s, that was her peak Then life happens
Her relationship sours, she tries to launch an entertainment company called Aldania Productions But she never makes a profit And she needs to work more at the factory to survive With each passing birthday, she starts feeling like nobody wants to see her on stage anyway And then her son Mark, remember, bunny? When he's 29, he dies suddenly It's hard for her to talk about And sometimes I ask God why did you take him? Why? You know?
I rock Sometimes I think God tested both of us And I feel that we failed with Mark I wish I could have been a better parent with Mark It's all too much for Aldania She leaves Fresno for the Bay Area And even though she's in a much more queer friendly place She doesn't do drag for another 10 years
Damn it, my heart's broken in a thousand pieces It really is And it's hard for me to put it, you know, the pieces together Because there's times I don't know what I want There's times I just don't want to live anymore, you know And there's times that I do
The only thing that saves me is it makes me happy I'm in control within my own self-being is when I entertain A few years ago, Aldania comes back to Fresno The Bay Area was just too expensive And she still needs to work Now she cleans houses I go with her one day to her client Jeff's house Don't you hear your doorbell? No Good morning Good morning How are you?
Well, okay, I've got my plant the other day Well, it's still there Let's get to see you Nice to see you too All right, I'm gonna get to work Okay The work is hard on her body sometimes But she tells me it also keeps her active At one point, she climbs up on the bathroom sink
To wipe the insides of the lights Making sure every speck of dirt is gone She's meticulous Some mornings I go to work crying Because I just feel like I can't do it But I have to I'll continue working as long as I can You know, until I drop because I have no choice
After returning to Fresno, Aldania meets Catpho Bear Who you heard from earlier Cat's working hard on an oral history project of LGBTQ elders in the area And it just sort of blew my mind that like Here is this person who's alive And I know that seems very dramatic to say Like this person is alive
But I say that for anybody who's over 50 in our LGBTQ community The AIDS epidemic was devastating And Cat says people have continually tried to erase and deny their existence So to be your full self It's a radical act of survival Cat sees Aldania for who she is
A pioneer and drag long before drag was mainstream And this surprises Aldania My self-esteem has been low for a long time And that's why all through the years This performing I have struggled You know, really getting recognition Because the drag queens are the ones that rule You know, the stage
They really do Cat brings Aldania to her class Invites her to perform a couple of times at smaller Fresno state events Students ask Aldania for selfies And Aldania starts to realize Maybe she's not done For as old as I am to do this I have it in me, you know And if I feel that I still have it in me, why should I stop?
But here's the thing The drag of today is not like the drag of yesterday A lot of this has to do with RuPaul Who's never had a drag king on her show Drag kings are not warmly welcome Because they're not seen on drag race Moe Fisher from drag king history again Drag kings have had to work harder
A drag queen can get up and do a shablam, a split And the crowd's going crazy A drag king could do the shablam and a split And people like, you're not a queen So what happens now through the YouTube tutorials Then that has spawned all these new generation That are more expansive in their expression
In terms of makeup and costume Cosplay, performance And just by an anus just wild They've taken it to the nth degree Which I love that These new drag kings who include women Non-binary and trans performers They're at regiously creative Imagine neon colored wigs Contoured painted beards
Fake 12 pack abs As for Aldania Well, it's different today And I have to get used to that Everybody does their own thing now I'm starting to see that some of them are okay They're doing, you know, the way they dress I really don't like the drag king has to put a mustache on a beard
Why can't they just, you know, be themselves Maybe just sideburns, maybe a mustache, but that's it Aldania knows her style of performing is a bit more team She's not sure where she fits and drag anymore And she starts to think Maybe it's actually time to hang up the steps in
But before she does, in the fall of 2022, she asks Kat to organize a big drag show With both kings and queens at Fresno State It's to fundraise for scholarships for the college's new LGBTQ minor I wanted to prove to the queens that I could do it
I was very selfish, but I didn't want Kat to know that I was selfish Of course Kat says yes And the show is called Fresno Queer West to honor the first queer bars in the area Aldania decides this is her last performance No way she's going to have a shot like this again So it's gotta be perfect
She gathers a group of five performers together Kat says she tells them This is Fresno State, this is really professional This isn't gonna be something where you can just flub or kind of go off the fly Like there's gonna be important people in that room This is my last performance, all of that
They practice and practice and practice And whenever they'd have rehearsals, she'd pitch her mark on the couch, applauding I'm sitting with Aldania at the computer in her room watching a video of the finale of that night Bear stage, the words happy trails projected on a big screen
Performers and tassels and tool, a violin and a guitar Aldania stands in the center wearing her white steps in hat She's petite, but she and her glittering rhinestone belt demand attention You can't see the audience in the video, but there are 400 people in those seats
And they're watching Aldania sway cowboy style I'm so proud of me Her and the performers, they're in this together They did good I told them how I wanted it and they did it They link arms while she keeps lips syncing about the trails she has gone down Happy trails to you Not all the trails have been happy, but tonight this one is And she's meeting herself again We have some inhalation It was nice This whole time, cats in the audience watching her I thought to myself, she's never gonna stop
And she didn't because literally the next day she says, oh, I know what we can do next time I was like, next time you told me that this was your last performance You told everybody this was your last performance and obviously it has not been her last performance
And it will never be the last performance, like I joke like we've created a monster But truthfully, this is well overdue Since then, Aldania has been performing in small places here and there The stage, it's where she belongs On stage, she forgets On stage, she remembers
On stage, she's the little girl with the hairbrush And she's still dreaming of one day having her name on the marquee I don't feel old, I feel young, I feel like poorly Just performing make you feel young Yes, yes it does, yes it does it brings the youth out of you And that's our show
Is it less you wanna do the credits with me? Sure, alrighty You can follow us on Instagram at NPR CodeSwitch If email is more your thing, ours is codeswitch at npr.org And subscribe to the podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcast
You can also subscribe to the code switch newsletter by going to npr.org slash code switch newsletter And another way to support our work here is to sign up for code switch plus It's small but really makes a difference for us And you'll get to listen to every code switch episode without any ads
Check it out at plus.npr.org slash code switch And thanks to everyone who's already signed up This story was originally reported in the audio program at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism The scan foundation provided funding in conjunction with UC Berkeley's investigative reporting program
It was edited by Sheree and Marisol Miraji Who you may have heard of She's now the head of the audio program at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism And an assistant professor of race in journalism And it was reported and produced by me, Celeste Hamilton Dennis
The code switch adaptation was produced by Jess Cung It was edited by Leah Danella Our engineer was James Willitz And a big shout out to the rest of the code switch massive Christina Colle, Courtney Stein, Xavier Lopez, Ville and William, Stalya Mortata Jean D'Embi and Lloyd Lizaraca I'm BA Parker
And I'm Celeste Hamilton Dennis Hi, D'Embi Later Now it's getting harder and harder to do They don't want to do the photo shoots at all but they don't want to be the male characters in the photo shoots Um, they are giving me a pushback about the photo shoots in general
Now I really have to bribe them Now I have to give them money before I could get away with Candy Now I have to actually pay them I mean, I support all children who unionize against their parents They said no, they said it's I make them different, you know, things This message comes from Schwab
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