SirGio & Gacho Marx of Los MENtirosos

This episode features Tejano drag king couple SirGio (Gio) and Gacho Marx (Jess), co-founders of the San Antonio-based drag king troupe Los MENtirosos. In this plática, Gio and Jess share their drag stories and highlight how they perform drag through a fusion of queer and Tejane aesthetics rooted in feminist ideology and a vision of collective liberation. You can learn more about their work and upcoming performances here.

This episode was originally recorded in August 2024.

To stay connected, visit our website at malflora.org or follow us on Instagram @malfloraco.

Transcript

Meagan Solomon: Welcome to Malflora Podcast, a series of pláticas, or community dialogues, with Latina/Latine lesbians.

Alexandra Nichole Salazar: Pláticas are a Latina feminist methodology rooted in the belief that we produce knowledge about our lived experiences through conversation.

Mariana Meriqui Rodrigues: This podcast is published by Malflora Collective, a digital platform dedicated to preserving the lives and legacies of Latina/Latine lesbians. And we are your hosts:

Meagan Solomon: Meagan Solomon 

Alexandra Nichole Salazar: Alexandra Nichole Salazar

Mariana Meriqui Rodrigues: Mariana Meriqui Rodrigues 

Meagan Solomon: Today's guests are Giomara Balzaldua, or SirGio in drag, and Jessica Hawkins, or Gacho Marx in drag. Gio and Jess are a Chicana lesbian couple based in San Antonio, Texas. In this plática, they share their drag stories and highlight how they perform drag through a fusion of queer and Tejane aesthetics rooted in feminist ideology and a vision of collective liberation.

I'm your host, Meagan Solomon. Thank you for tuning in. 

I would love to just begin with getting to know you a little bit, your names, both in and out of drag, how you got started in drag, what your stories are. 

SirGio (Gio): My name is Gio or Giomara Bazaldua out of drag. She, her pronouns. And when I'm in drag, I'm SirGio, he, him pronouns. 

I've led multiple groups. Another group that I'm the director of is Zombie Bazaar Panza Fusion. And we are a San Anto Tejana blend of fusion dance. And a lot of our, performances and pieces focus on uh, the rights of undocumented folks body autonomy and the rights of LGBTQ folks and AI folks.

And so that's where my base is. And um, when we started doing a lot of stuff within community, like the Southwest Workers Union and stuff like that. And eventually one of our, one of my dancers, Michi Fink, started wearing a mustache during, during our, our regular performances. And we all really liked that.

And so we started kind of like playing with gender in that way, like with our makeup and stuff. So then eventually we just kind of wanted to get a little bit more serious about it. And so we put together our first drag number in 2014 for the SA Burlesque Festival. And we really liked it.

And so then we just got really serious about that. And so we wanted to do something separate from Zombie Bazaar. We, at first, we started calling ourselves the Zomboys, because we thought it was very, like, clever. But then we realized it really didn't make sense. Why, why were these drag kings called Zomboys? And so then we were like, okay, well, we want to be men. So let's call ourselves the Mentirosos. So then that's how we kind of started. And so at that time, Jess wasn't in the group. So we were just trying to find space. We immediately thought oh, okay, well, we'll start.

We'll go to the strip because that's where you go when you want to do drag. And we very quickly realized, oh, those spaces aren't necessarily open to us. And so then since Zombie Bazaar had done so much within community and performance wise, and we had also produced our own shows, it was our natural thing to be like, okay, well, we really never had space for ourselves to begin with.

We made it ourselves. So let's start making our own space or a space for drag kings. Because there wasn't any, at least any active drag kings at that time. And uh, so then we started producing our own events at spaces like La Botanica. And eventually we just started performing more and more.

And at that time, Jess was kind of helping me out as a supportive partner. And we realized that we really needed a good emcee element. And we didn't have that. And, you know, our shows were good, but, but it felt like something was definitely missing. And so, um, I, I tried different emcees and it just didn't fit.

And, so one day Jess was just like, all right, I'll, I'll, I'll do it. I'll try it out. And so then that's how kind of Gacho Marx was born. 

Meagan Solomon: I love that name too. 

SirGio (Gio): Uh, yeah, it's my favorite drag name, definitely. 

Gacho Marx (Jess): Um, So me and Gio have been together 20 years um, living unwed in sin.

 And so, um, Zombie Bazaar is 15 years old. So it's our quinceanera year. And Los Mentirosos, it's our ten year and so Zombie Bazaar, really like Gio was saying, built the model that Los Mentirosos is built on. We are community workers. We're volunteers. We're not, people have corrected us, um, and said, no, you are organizers.

But we're not organizers by trade, right? So we just say that we're community activists. And so, Zombie Bazaar really opened that door for us. They had already did all the hard work. The network was already done. The foundation was already set. And now it was just a matter of packaging Los Mentirosos, right?

So Gio did, like she said, tried some emcees; it didn't fit. And I, as a supportive partner and I'm a fixer, I was just like, shit, man, I can say some names and not mess them up. That's what an emcee is, right? You say names, you don't mess them up. And so finally, like I was all like, let me do this thing for, for my partner.

And so I did. And, um, the first show, that's all I did was say the names and not mess them up. And then I realized that, in drag, you have a mic and you have two minutes in between the last act and the next act to say whatever you want to say. And it can be silly shit like, you know here's what I did today, or talk some shit about your neighbor, or you could talk about policy, and you can talk about feminism, and you can talk about misogyny in the drag world, and you can, like, the list goes on and on and on, and so, I very quickly realized that I could be doing a lot more.

So, let me say it for you. Jessica Hawkins is my name, out of drag. I do use she, her pronouns, and in drag, I am Gacho Marx, and I use he, him, and tío is my preferred pronoun. So Gacho Marx was born, and, I really just took the things that we say with our friends, right? And I started to say those things on the microphone to all of my new friends.

And, I'm gonna give you a statistic, our personal statistic, before we go to your next question. In one year's time, Los Mentirosos out earned monetarily Zombie Bazaar in five. And we thought that was, a kick in the teeth and something that is very noteworthy. 

When y'all call us Mentirosos, you call and say, "and our budget is this" or, "and we have an honorarium," but when you call Zombie Bazaar you just ask: "are y'all free and can you?" And then you put us in the weird position of saying, "do you happen to have an honorarium?"

We can perform for a community rate. Los Mentirosos very rarely now performs for a community rate because we're not asked to. And, and Zombie Bazaar still is asked to perform at the community rate, but not if they're being booked in conjunction with Los Mentirosos. Because sometimes they will book both.

They will say, can the Mentirosos do a set and can Zombie Bazaar do a set? But still like that, Los Mentirosos still out earn Zombie Bazaar by about 30 percent. Um, same day, Same community event, different pay. 

Meagan Solomon: That is very noteworthy. Are there more feminine presenting people?

Gacho Marx (Jess): They, they are a feminine, uh, presenting group. Yeah. It used to be very, very mixed, but you know, life happens. 

And so now Zombie Bazaar is a more heightened level of dance. The skill is heightened. Um, and so they're salseras now, salseras, bachateras at their core. Um, but very much with that feminism, you know, hunch coming through. Yeah. 

Meagan Solomon: Yeah, that's beautiful. Thank you so much for tracing that trajectory.

The work that you're doing is so important and I admire it so much. 

Gacho Marx (Jess): Thank you so much. 

Meagan Solomon: With all of that said, you talked about, you know, really carving out your own space, really reconceptualizing more light, playful, depoliticized forms of drag by actually merging those two, right? Like having play, having fun, and also bringing in that important political dimension that is really hard to escape, especially in the political climate of where we live, right? I'm curious what it was like building or what it's still like building a drag king community in Texas, given, you know, recent and ongoing legislation attempting to really invisibilize queer and trans folks, especially Black and brown, queer and trans folks.

Gacho Marx (Jess): It's interesting, right? Um, because we're talking with you because drag kings are on the back burner, right? Drag kings are not drag queens. We don't get as much attention. Um, and that in effect has worked for us to our advantage a little bit in some respects. We also do drag king bilingual story time.

So we love adult programming, but we really get fulfillment, the two of us, really get fulfillment out of children's programming. Because we really like being for these little Chicanitos, Mexicanitos in the community, what we didn't have. We didn't have somebody telling us about body autonomy.

We didn't have somebody telling us you don't have to hug every member of the family. We didn't have somebody saying pronouns to us and what that means, right? And so, we really have leaned into that. What we learned, out of an unfortunate event for some homies in San Antonio, they're called the House of Eternists.

And they're an alt drag group, kind of like gore and horror. And they were targeted by the Proud Boys at Toys for Tots toy drive and they were labeled pedophiles and groomers because one of the drag performers was combing a little girl's hair, making a trenza on the little girl. And oddly enough, that drag performer is a female, born female, who is also a drag queen.

So it wasn't even, um, and, and not queer. It wasn't even a queer person or cross dressed drag person doing this trenzita on this little girl. But what we learned out of that is no one ever thought to look into drag king story time and drag kings doing children's programming, because we also had a drag king story time that became a full play at that time, and we were so worried about protesters that we talked with the theater Jumpstart Performance Company. We talked with the theater and they got cops and we are ACAB but they said, well, let us bring at least one cop to be at the back entrance, one cop to be at the front entrance, just in case. Nothing happened, nothing happened.

So in some instances, being a drag king has helped us, right? In other instances, being Latine, being in drag, our homies that are trans, um, there's never help for that. Ever. Take the children's aspect out of it. We went and spoke at the Capitol on SB 12. That was scary. Um, we we've gone and we've marched.

We've marched here. We've marched in Austin about how there is erasure happening of LGBTQ folks, primarily those T folks, right? And it makes things difficult because of the plight that we have as brown folks, as queer folks, and as being bocones, being bocones in an art form where you bring the party, yes, you you absolutely want people to have fun, but you have to take advantage of this platform. And we are experts at taking advantage of the platform and , promoting all of the things that we want people to know about, promoting voting. All of our mariachi hats say "vote" on them. I wear this hat que dice "joto"; there's a design on the other side, it has a sandia because I might not say it while I'm walking around and we're talking about things that are cutesy and funsy but I need this to speak volumes with you. We believe in art being thought provoking. And if it's not provoking something, right, whether that's a question of what the fuck did I just see, or, or if you really get it and you come and you want to talk about Palestine, or you want to talk about politics, or what we see most is people just coming and saying, like, "This is crazy." I have been called people's non homophobic tío. I love that for them. They're just like, "Damn, Gacho, you really look like my tío. You really sound like my tío but my tío's homophobic as fuck." And so, you know, people are just like, "Can you be my tío? But like my non homophobic tío?" 

Meagan Solomon: That's really important. I'm just threading together different things that you said and some things that stand out to me. Perhaps one of the main reasons why drag queens are constantly under heat is because of larger assaults on femininity in general.

Whereas, obviously, masculinity is still upheld and privileged, but there's layers to that, right? And I think it's important that you emphasize anti drag bills being deeply connected to transphobia, because to the people making them, there's really almost no distinction between trans people and drag performers, even when there are differences and intersections, right?

And I, I really love what you spoke about, you know, being the tío that people needed. One of the things that I'm really interested in focusing on is how Tejano drag kings, Latino drag kings are one, really liberating masculinity from machismo and toxic versions of masculinity that we're all so familiar with in our families and our communities and reconceptualizing the bounds of masculinity, upending these really toxic, and harmful modes of masculinity that remain at the forefront of how we understand masculinity. And also the political dimensions of the work that you're doing within an embodiment that is both familiar to people in the community, but also transforming that. So what I appreciate is that you're not completely abandoning cultural ties. You're not completely abandoning things that are familiar to the community or familiar to things that you had growing up. You're reimagining them. It's such a beautiful thing to be able to not completely part ways with that familiarity, but to actually reimagine it and offer it to the community in ways where they can, like you said, see you as a tío that they need. And obviously in a lot of our households and communities, there's this misconception that queerness, drag, transness is a, a white or Anglo construction.

Obviously that's not true and we've always existed, but it, it seems like the work that you're doing is really bridging that gap for people, like you don't have to abandon your Mexicanness or your Latinidad and you don't have to abandon your transness or your queerness either. And that's a really important part of the work that you're doing. I just want to like, yeah, thank you for that. That's, that's really important. 

SirGio (Gio): You saying that really makes me think about what we get to do as far as the kingceañera and, um, how we were able to present that because we've done it a few times. And one time we did it at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.

And they have more of an, an elder community. And so it was a big difference performing drag for them and being able to bridge that gap, showing like how we are masculine, but we still like to enjoy having fem movements and still you know, just kind of blurring the lines of gender, showing our elders, you know, what that is.

 Definitely like the straighter, more cis elders are still trying to figure these things out. And we're able to do that in a very non threatening way, because it's familiar, but also foreign at the same time. 

Meagan Solomon: Yeah, exactly. It's an invitation for people to find their, their place in the community from a shared familiarity. They're these culturally significant elements that the drag kings in, in our community here in Texas are not abandoning.

And like you said, it does create an invitation or an entry point for some of our elders who are maybe not as embedded in this world right now to see that it's not completely foreign and that there's still a lot of synergy and connection to what they know.

Gacho Marx (Jess): One of the things that's interesting about us is that we mostly perform for people, like our average audience member is 50 probably. And it's because we didn't follow the path of performing in bars. We followed the path in performing for community.

And so, with what we love about Austin, is that we get to perform for the crowds that normally go to a drag show at a bar, right? Because we're performing at Cheer Up Charlie's. And so, it's very interesting how, Los Mentirosos, this formula works intergenerationally. When we performed the kingceañera, its premiere was at the Bonham, which is an historic, queer club here in town. And we performed in their ballroom for almost 200 people. And the youngest person in the audience was 17 years old. And the oldest person in the audience was 72. And we continue to get that, that audience because the elders of the community love seeing that this can be done, right?

There was a jota, butch lesbiana, she recently passed away, but we saw her. She came to the Esperanza performance of the kingceañera and at the end was in tears and said, you know, "I'm in my sixties and man, if me and my homies knew that this could be a thing when we were y'all's age, we would have done it. We would have done it. And y'all would be like, you know, this next generation." And she came to every show after that. She died about two weeks after the last show that she attended. And at that show we had talked and she had told me, she was like, "I'm ready. Okay, now I'm ready. I got it. I can do it. Hit me up. Bring me to practice. I'm ready. Y'all paint me up. I want to do the thing. I want to be a tío with y'all." And, uh, her name was Luci Orta and that really, like, touched me so much, right? Because it's like, they're coming, a lot of our queer elders are coming because it's what could have been.

And then our young queers at Cheer Up Charlie's and here in San Anto are coming to a show that's just like, "man, this reminds me of being five years old in my tía's backyard. Remember this is the playlist, this show is the playlist that my grandma would put on to clean her house." And so, the intergenerational, just this, this weird event that, that we've been able to bring together, the bridge, right. I love it. Absolutely. 

Meagan Solomon: I honestly don't think we have many spaces for intergenerational connection. And so it's really beautiful to be able to reach youth and elders simultaneously. Because there's so much possibility when we're able to, to see each other and find each other in these ways, in unexpected ways. And for many people, you know, making it into their elder years, not maybe thinking that they ever would.

 I just so admire that dimension of your work too.

Gacho Marx (Jess): Yeah, and it's just what speaks to us, right? Like, um, I've done very few performances of English music, and I've done even less performances of modern music and I'm talking like 80s modern forward. Because I really lean into like, what, what would my dad like to see? We want our people that come and see to feel like they're watching this performance by this performer and that now they get to be a part of it.

For story time, I mean, Gio is a bearded Selena teaching little kids to do the washing machine, joyful movement. And we have little kids that come up and they're, "I love Selena. Selena's my favorite." And we got little kids coming up to us that say, um, "I'm non binary."

Like eight year old kids are coming up and saying that they're non binary and crying because we talked about pronouns at the start of the show and you know, that thing, that question that we all get asked in college: "When is the first time that you saw yourself on TV?" And it's very nice to bring to these little kids: "When is the first time that you saw yourself in live theater?"

And we're able to provide that. 

Meagan Solomon: And to potentíally build real relationships with people because you're still centered in the communities that you grew up in or that you have, you know, an ongoing relationship with. It's not that distant connection that maybe people feel just watching it on a screen.

Gacho Marx (Jess): It's lovely. Right now, I mean our youngest Mentiroso is 11 Because of story time one of our community that that is a Mentiroso as well, um their mother um allowed them to perform in our story time. Um, and they've performed a book with us here and in Austin called "The Kid Who Became Governor of Texas" and it's about a transgender child and they're non binary.

It's about a transgender child that falls to sleep and wakes up and their wish came true. And they're the governor of Texas. And, um, about what they would do. They appoint their, their dog lieutenant governor. And then they veto all of the, the ban bills towards transgender youth. And they pass new rules and new laws, and they have a dance break and dance party every day at the Texas Capitol. So, you know, it's, it's just, 

Meagan Solomon: That's amazing. 

Gacho Marx (Jess): Yeah. I'll let you ask another question. 

Meagan Solomon: I would love to talk more about the Tejano dimensions of your drag, because I feel like Tejano culture isn't widely represented in, in, you know, the mainstream, um, especially in the context of drag.

And I think that's really important because, as we already described, it's a vessel for you to stay culturally connected and also liberate masculinity or other harmful parts of, of the culture that are reverberated in our communities and our households, you know, homophobia, transphobia, etc.

So I'd love to hear more about the Tejano influences of your work, and how you do embody culturally significant references and songs and clothing, etc. And do that in a way that is honoring your feminist ethics. 

Gacho Marx (Jess): Well, I'll talk on that a little bit first. Um, so, virtual was so great for us, um, during quarantine because we got to perform for a bunch of people in the UK. And so that was amazing because we, we are regional, right? Tejano is so regional, um, performing Freddy Fender.

Um, a lot of people aren't going to know that, you know, for us, we hear that, "wasted days," and we're just like, fuck yeah! Um, but now we're singing, we're singing for people in the UK. And, um, I was, was really nervous going into it because I was like, how are they gonna react to this?

And, um, I taught them the word "jotería" and I had flashcards and I said, so we're going to break this down by syllable and then we're going to string it all together. And we're going to talk about the "jo-ter-ía" right? And then also, um, I'll get the camera and I'll pan from head all the way down to my botas bien, bien puntadas.

And I'll explain to them about where this aesthetic came from, how it started, and everything that I have, comes from three stalls at the pulga, at the Poteet Flea Market here in San Antonio. And so I explained the pulga to them and, um, talk about every little part of what I'm wearing and they absolutely loved it. Loved every part of it. Learning about a different culture. They loved it. They dug it. 

We've performed at the Austin International Drag Festival. Um, it's mostly white kings. I'll tell you that, but international it is. And so we've performed for kings from all over the US outside of the US and we don't change it up. Just because we know it's going to be a white audience, we're not performing, you know, country and pop. We're performing what we're performing.

And, um, people love it. Love seeing that cultural part and learning about it. I always get, the compliments on the outfit, um, Gio, Gio's, well, talk about how SirGio dresses. 

SirGio (Gio): I'm glad that you brought that up. Yeah. Um, I'm, I'm a femme at heart and, um, SirGio doesn't know how to dress. No idea what he's doing with himself.

He does too much. He doesn't keep it demure. He, he just doesn't know what he's doing. He definitely knows that if he gets a t shirt, he's going to cut off the sleeves. But, uh, but yeah, he just, um, yeah, he just like, if he finds it at the pulga, he's like, okay, yeah, put it on, but I'm also going to keep on this like vest with the sequins Virgen um, at times when I, when I'm asked, that's, that's what SirGio is SirGio, uh, doesn't, doesn't quite know what to do. But also I do a lot of gender fluidity and gender fucking. So then I can, you know, wear some fem, uh, stuff with my beard and like, but lipstick and earrings. And I feel like that's where SirGio's most comfortable is being, being, you know, just kind of able to express both femininity and masculinity at the same time.

Um, I, I grew up like doing folklorico and I was in Escaramuza. So I was around a lot of charros. And so I feel like I get a lot of my performance clothes from that. I love me like a horse, horse tailed belts, you know, um, some like really extra botines. I have some like sequins botines that are like my faves.

And I also like being able to move through that realm because I did a lot of folklorico when I was younger and I, and, and having been in Escaramuza, which is all the fem sides of these, like, traditions. And so, it's fun to be able to be like, I'm a charro completo, completo tonight.

You know, like, wear the, the right outfit. I pick the right song. Uh, you know, I get to feel like, like, you know, being able to run through those spaces also. 

Meagan Solomon: I love that, and it sounds so healing, like, to be able to honor parts of your youth, and carry it into adulthood, and to like, merge worlds and to embody that in your drag, the feminine, the masculine, there's a lot people can learn from that, and it's very liberating.

I think it's so empowering to see other people explore gender in unconventional ways and to celebrate it and again to maintain like cultural resonance for people in our community. I just love that. 

Gacho Marx (Jess): Yeah. I, um, being a masc lesbiana, right? Um, I already, I've been practicing my whole life for this, you know? I sit a certain way already.

I walk a certain way already. Um, when I first started, I wore my clothes. Once Gacho got very developed to the point where I felt very comfortable. Um, I mean, this is face makeup that they use to paint. at the fair for the little kids. And this is the normal look. This is the vibe. Um, you know, the, the tío that paints his bigote, um, you know, bien canoso on top, but he's got this black, pitch black mustache, right?

Um, and you never know what's going to come out of his mouth. I dress to the nines for the most part, but certain performances require that I be the volleyball coach and I wear, you know, the matching jacket with mister shorts up to here, and the, the Cortez Nike Cortez with the hat that's so flat like that, like, and it sits almost on top of the head. Glasses.

I'm wearing glasses, like, you know, a whistle, a whistle. Um, and people also don't know what's going to come out of my mouth.

My name is Gacho for a reason, right? But, they get surprised because what comes out of my mouth is feminist ideology and making fun of misogyny. I like to take the things that are really going to burn men the most and say those things looking like this. Um, the last show that we did, um, A group of men walked in cause it was like at an open gallery on, um, like an art walk night and a group of men walked in about three or four of them.

And I said, "come on, come on in, sit down, have a seat. Um, don't be walking in here looking like you just walked in the gay club and you know what's going to happen at the gay club." And so, you know, I'm wearing this joto hat and this ridiculous look and saying like, "dude, nobody's fucking hitting on you at the gay bar."

Like, look how basic you are. Like, we we do not want you. Because yo soy tío joto I'm not out there hitting I'm not out here hitting on the women at the show. I'm hitting on the men respectfully because I don't want them to feel, como se dice? Objectified. I don't want the men at my show to feel objectified. Um, I was outed. in front of a tía at a drag show by a drag queen.

And that right there, um, I never knew, who would have known, right, that all these years later that I would take that and say, I will never, I will never, an audience member will never be the target of my joke, they will never be the butt of my joke. Audience? Yes. All the men? Yes. All the women? Never. One man solito? No, unless you're heckling me, then I'm gonna have to heckle you back, right?

We, we, um, talk about consent at the start of the show. Uh, my joke is we have consent forms. We forgot them tonight, which means that nobody has consent to touch anybody. We will not touch you. Um, We have a tip taco for the people that want to tip us, but are embarrassed to hold the dollar out because for a lot of shy people, that makes them a part of the show.

So we have a tip taco and we have a taco vato that walks around. And if you want to put tips in there, just the tip. You are not that special and we are not that kind of people. 

Um, so all of these things, right, all of these things go together so that we can set that tone of, this is a very different show of what you think you are about to see.

We have a Viva Viva Palestina chant moment during the shows because I have to address why that sandia is on the side of my head. I have to address, um, that we're having such a beautiful and amazing night tonight without fear, right? Without fear of this ending abruptly. Um, and so we take a quick moment and we acknowledge that we are lucky and fortunate to be where we are in the fiesta that we are, in the joteria, in the love that we are tonight. But, just so that we know that this doesn't happen everywhere, and we say the word genocide. We do not mince words with what is happening.

And then we do a call and response. When I say "viva, viva," you say "Palestina." Fist up in the air, please. Um, so, it's a fun time. It's a fun ass time. 

Meagan Solomon: And it's very subversive. You're reconceptualizing what the drag scene looks like. Leading with feminist principles at their center. That's so, so important.

Gacho Marx (Jess): Yeah, I mean, I'll talk about the dude that, that, that thing. Like, I'll make fun of that. Do you know, do you know that one? The guy that gets your attention like that? Yeah, yeah. If you want us to come over put a dollar in there. We ain't gonna respond to the I'm not a cat We ain't doing that. Um, I I'm a lazy emcee.

I don't write things down. What comes out of my mouth comes out of my mouth and and I, um, uh, I black out. I black out. So a lot of times I don't remember and they'll say like, "Oh my God, that shit that you said." And I'm like, "what did I say?" Cause I don't remember, but I do remember this one thing.

Um, and we were at a mostly straight event. And people absolutely loved it. And I talked about how our tíos, the older they get, they'd start to become our tías. Right? So they start to dye their hair and dye their mustache. Um, sometimes they'll walk around with maroon hair because their wife dyed their hair maroon and had a little bit left over.

And now they have maroon hair, right? The burgundy hair and how your tío like will brag to you about a herringbone necklace, a gold herringbone necklace. And wear a pinky turquoise ring and it's like that is such tía shit, but here you are, you want to do that stuff, pero be like "es maricón." Shut the fuck up. You don't get to be calling anybody maricón when you're turning into tía Esther Literally who you're becoming um, so I like putting that out there because people don't realize it, like, and you see it every day.

You see it at the holidays, and you can't quite pin what's weird about tío José today. But he looks more like tía Esther than he did last time. Um, so I like, I like to throw that out there. 

Um, we also have a really good working relationship with our friend José Villalobos. 

He's a visual artist and also performance art and he does exactly what we do except that he's male and he takes these hypermasculine parts of our culture and feminizes the fuck out of them.

He has done lowriders. He has turned leather saddles into lowriders with the placazo from the lowrider car club, but it says "maricón." He had taken, um, cock fighting and made paintings of the, the torso and the crotch area of a man holding a cock. You know, prized cock. 

Um, and we, we met him. He was bartending at an event that we did and he came to the backstage and he's just like, "I'm mind blown right now. This is my art personified. I take all of this toxic masculinity and I show people how ridiculously feminine, feminine that it can be if you read it from the right lens, right? You're looking from the right angle."

And so he's just like, "You're standing here looking exactly like my tío and you open your mouth and you say, "no me toques." Like, like what? Like, you're not gonna come and try to like fake land the kiss on my lips. You're not gonna, you know, come and rub my back like weird tío shit. Like not boundary shit, you know? Um, so we, we have had the, the privilege of working with José and being part of, um, an art exhibit that he did in Dallas actually.

Meagan Solomon: I feel like there's, there are so many more stories to tell and preserve.   

Gacho Marx (Jess): Have you ever gotten in drag? 

Meagan Solomon: I've never even thought about it. I've always just been, um, like an admirer. I've never thought about doing drag. I don't know how I would feel. 

Gacho Marx (Jess): It's euphoric as fuck and it's crazy. I don't know if I don't know if my drag sisters feel it. I've never had these conversations with drag queens.

There is a definite shift. I'm not even five feet tall. I'm four foot eleven. Um, and I, I walk tall baby. I walk tall normally, but when I put this mustache on, there's a shift; there's a definite shift in my attitude. Um, I feel more confident. It's an untouchable, like, I feel that and it, there's nothing that has paralleled ever, ever being in drag. 

It's, it's beautiful. I mean, the Mentirosos, we, we've had all in total over the last 10 years, probably about 15, 16 members, um, that, you know, some people come in and out at our biggest, we were like nine, um, nine people. Right now we are six active performers.

And then we always partner with Zombie Bazaar. We're kind of a variety show now more than we are a drag show because, you know, Gio is the artistic director/choreographer of both troupes and so now we have the ability to bring feminine energy on the stage with us and couple up and do intricate choreography as couples.

And so we'll do, a king and Zombie couple. And then we always have two jotos couples in there at the same time. So we're doing, "Un Reconcito en el Cielo" and we want it to look like a baile is happening. And there's three straight couples and two queer couples in there doing the thing. 

Um, and we have had people through the years realize that they are not she, her, that they're really they, them, or that they're really he, him.

We have had people that got so empowered by the binder, right, that, um, now they only wear the binder. Now it's like, I didn't know I could do this. I didn't know that, you know, people could still call me by my given name, very feminine name, but I could wear my masc bucha clothes and not have chichis anymore because this binder, I can wear it when I go to work and, um, and really like feel like more like me.

Right? So we, we do not at present have a, a trans member in Los Mentirosos, but we do have two non binary members in Los Mentirosos and, um, three members that are, are no longer active, but learned that they're not she, her through drag. 

Meagan Solomon: And, and the specific kind of drag that y'all are doing too, where you know, there are like we talked about, there's some traditional elements and it is through those traditional cultural elements that people are discovering more of their queerness or transness and I love that so much.

And I want to hear more from Gio, but really my last question is centered on like hopes and dreams for Los Mentirosos moving forward.

SirGio (Gio): I would really like to have some members come in that just kind of want to be younger and do the things.

Like, I think that, you know, me and Jess are definitely close to king retirement age. 

Gacho Marx (Jess): "¡Me duele la espalda!

SirGio (Gio): And so, so it'd be nice to, to yeah, have some younger folks that, that would want to like, keep doing like Mentirosos specifically, uh, because you know, it's always hard to think of this project that you, you made and you've worked on and, you know, just like, and you know, you stop, you don't want it to stop.

Meagan Solomon: Yeah. You want to pass the torch. 

SirGio (Gio): Yeah. So it'd be cool to, to have, have some, some Mentirosos that are interested in doing all of what we do. Cause me and Jess do most of the production work and that does take a lot of time. And so it'd be nice to have some, some folks that want to take over that stuff so we can retire and just like, I don't know.

Be the Abby Lee Miller of drag.  

Gacho Marx (Jess): Um, at work they say, what is your magic wand? Um, like list, um, I really would like somebody that would want to emcee because, because my, my main focus, um, are two things. I want an emcee because when we aren't able to do this, right, or, um, we're out of town and somebody wants to book Los Mentirosos right now, because I am "la voz de Los Mentirosos," the show doesn't happen if me and Gio are out of town, um, because we're attached at the hip. If I go, she goes. And so the show can't happen. So I really would like to have a second emcee for as long as me and Gio are able to do it. I ultimately would like to take a little bit of a step back from adult programming and focus more on children's programming because we really want them to learn at younger ages.

I think that that's going to help, um, generationally, right? It's going to bring us the generational wealth, not in money, but in people just being compassionate human beings. I really want to focus more on that. Um, but as far as the adult programming goes, I would really like to take kingceañera out of Texas.

Um, so that more people can see it. The kingceañera is known across the entire US and into Mexico, if we could take it into Mexico so they could see how we have massacred the Mexican quinceanera with our Chicano [unintelligible]. I would love to share it. And we also have another idea for a drag kind of play with a working title, "Tragos Amargos," um, that shows the hardships that tíos go through, the heartbreak of a tío, the heartbreak of a, of a tío joto and a straight tío, uh, the heartbreak of losing your neighborhood to gentrification, the heartbreak of losing your friends to gangs and drugs.

You know, all of the things that we've seen our tíos cry about. I didn't see my tíos cry a lot. I didn't see my dad cry a lot growing up. And so that, that's my next working title for a drag play. So we have kingceañera, "Leyendas," y "Tragos Amargos." And I'd like all of them to come to fruition before I fade away.

Meagan Solomon: We're manifesting that. I can't wait to see it. I'm so grateful for your time and your tesimonios and super excited for what's to come.     

Mariana Meriqui Rodrigues: Thank you for listening to Malflora Podcast.   

Alexandra Nichole Salazar: To stay connected, visit our website at malflora.org or follow us on Instagram @malfloraco. 

Meagan Solomon: Until next time!