A Rich History With Renewed Opportunities
In the past few years, the art of drag has had much more exposure than ever largely due to the visibility of drag competition shows like Rupaul’s Drag Race and The Boulet Brother’s Dragula. With more visibility comes more people interested in the art form, and Reno is no exception.
The Biggest Little City has a long history with drag performers. It’s a hub for the non-profit organization The Silver Dollar Court which started in 1976 and still functions today as a donating entity to various charities.
Back in the 80s and 90s, it used to be that the only way you could engage with a community of drag performers was through such organizations like the SDC or through various pageants put on around the country. While that can still be the case, the advent of social media has led to an explosion of people accessing both the art form and the communities of people engaging with it.
This has been the case in Reno, where there are now several drag shows happening both during the week and throughout the weekend, including many performers coming from a variety of groups in the area.
One such group is the Haus of Valoure. They are a drag house made up of Latina queens, having only formed a year or so ago.
“I believe drag is for anyone and there’s so many forms in drag, there’s no yes or no in drag. All the baby queens I think they should just be out there and explore their gayness.” -Xitanya Valoure @xitanya_v who has been a part of the house from the beginning, who spoke on the subject of their Latin identity within the greater drag scene in Reno. Photo by: Matthew Berrey
A House of Latina Queens
“We are a house of Latina queens, so we are pretty diverse when it comes to what we perform, it can be something in English, something in Spanish. I think a lot of the queens here in Reno, or anywhere in general forget where they come from, and so performing something in Spanish is also very nice and rewarding to see, especially from someone outside of drag, at least that’s what I’ve been told,” Xitanya Valoure said.
Her house mom Deevina feels the same way although emphasized that it’s just an aspect of their drag and not the whole story.
“We just add that to our drag. It’s not necessarily something that identifies us, because you know we don’t want to be ‘Oh, the Latinas’… at the end of the day we love what we do and it doesn’t really affect the whole part of us being Latinas because we just love drag itself,” she said.
When asked whether or not having that Latin based performance within the community is important, she said, “Oh one-hundred percent. Yeah definitely because it’s showing how proud we are of our roots, and also how we aren’t shying away from doing other things like our own music, our own language just because somebody else might not like it… It's good because it’s giving some representation out there that this is what we are doing, this is what we are capable of doing and what we enjoy doing.”
“For me, the way I see it I shouldn’t have to do anything or explain myself as in like why I do things a certain way, we’re all here living life only once, we get to do what we like what we enjoy without having to stop it because somebody else might not be okay with it.” -Deevina Valoure @deevina.belicia photo by: Matthew Berrey
Bringing the Community to Shows
In the short time the house has been putting shows together, they have shown to be a large force in getting a lot of Hispanic and Latinx people out to their shows.
“We bring out a lot of the Latino crowd, and that’s not our focus but it’s very nice to have that crowd feel welcomed. And that’s what we want, we want everybody to feel welcomed,” Xitanya said.
According to the latest 2020 Census data, the Hispanic and Latinx community in the greater Northern Nevada Region is hovering around 24 percent. As the community increases, so does the importance of representation of that community especially within these kinds of queer spaces.
Within Latinx culture and communities, the experience of queer Latinx people can be difficult in part due to the idea of machismo, which is the idea of strong and aggressive masculine pride.
For Zamantha Amourosa, creating this drag identity is in a way a rejection of it: “In the Latin culture, being feminine is already looked down upon so I think that’s something that we really try to attack within our community, and I mean there’s been plenty of opportunities for us as well, as far as participating in events that focus around the Latinx culture.”
“I’m a big fan of everyone, drag is a way for you to express yourself and basically take control of that femininity that people put you down for. Whenever I see someone getting into drag I always cheer them on because it’s something that… I mean it’s helped me gain more confidence and make me a happier person, so just seeing them get into that type of mindset and putting themselves in that type of environment I’m always here for.” -Zamantha Amourosa Valoure @zamanthaxamourosa photo by: Matthew Berrey
A Welcoming Space
Having a space that is welcoming and encouraging for anybody to engage with is incredibly important, especially for queer people today. Apart from bringing out the Latinx community and bringing more diversity to the drag scene here, the Haus of Valoure just wants to highlight the art of drag and make a more welcoming place for all who want to enjoy it.
“If you’re thinking about doing it, do it. Because honestly like I mean even though you’re in Reno you still get opportunities out here, if you ever want to do events you can reach out to any of us and we’d be more than happy to bring anyone on and get them started with shows and things like that,” Zamantha added.
