Page 19 - Adelante Magazine February 2025

Feature

unshaven face stubble. Entering the house, an Negativity and hostility when I started drag,
altar greets you in the foyer and a candle burns awful and hateful comments. I was always
for Saint Lazaro, his namesake. Lazaro says called fat and I put up with it. That was hard.
it’s lit every night and sets next to a photo of his Even to this day it’s difficult to overcome the
mother. things that damaged my life. You would think at
58 years old that I would have gotten over
Nothing about Lazaro’s home life speaks Lola. those things, but I haven’t. Words hurt, and
Nothing on the walls, no dressed-up drag pic- that’s something you can’t erase. At the end of
tures anywhere, no club shots. We sat at La- the day, when I’m home alone, I get those
zaro’s kitchen table to talk. flashbacks. You can always say ‘forget it’ but
growing up as a kid, these ugly comments get
Adelante: I expected a different décor. At engrained in one’s brain.
least a picture or something that speaks of
Lola. Adelante: Were those comments more
Lazaro: Don’t be surprised. It’s simple. I keep from the general public or LGBTQ people?
my life as Lazaro completely separate from Lazaro: From both. But it was more from
Lola. Here in my home, I’m Lazaro. Away from within our community for sure. There were
the club life, away from the madness; this is my times I’d get in drag and be in the best mood
peace, my serenity and I’ve always done it this and there would be some gay guys that would
way. Trust me, Lola’s stuff is all here in its own make comments like ‘Halloween is not here
place. yet’. They’d just make me feel like I was noth-
ing. I would think, I’m just like you. Why are
Lazaro 12 years
Lazaro says his neighbors have never seen you putting me down? I’m in the same boat as
him dressed up. He puts his make up on at you. It would happen in the clubs, out on the
home and exits the house from an enclosed streets in the gay areas. I think people with low
garage that is connected to the house so he self-esteem have to put others down because
can get in the car and leave on the DL. When they feel the way they do. I get upset with the
he gets to the club or event, he puts on the gay community for acting like this. I think the
clothing, wig and everything else. gay community can be its own worst enemy
because if you are not perfect, you don’t exist.
Adelante: Maybe keeping these two lives Another sad thing is when you hear our people
separate was / is a good thing? say, “love is love.” Well, love is not love, be-
Lazaro: It’s a split personality. When I’m at cause sometimes the people who preach it are
the club, everyone wants to be my friend. the one’s who talk about you behind your back.
When I’m not at the club, I don’t get phone
calls, no one asks how am I doing. Am I alive? Adelante: Tell us about the start of Lola?
Let’s go out for a drink. Nothing. I just keep to Lazaro: When I started, I did my own make
myself. I’m a homebody. Ever since I stopped up, put lipstick on and called it a day. When I
doing shows and working for the club, I just started going to clubs, I met David Perry. He
enjoy my peace. There is no one to bother me. wanted to go out and do drag and I was not
Nobody to talk about me. Nobody here to put sure. I wasn’t that kind of gay, because to me,
me down. that kind of guy that did drag was a sissy. I’m
Lola @ Circus Disco 1990 a man. I do things like a man. Just because I
Adelante: Why do you do drag? wear dresses, doesn’t make me less of a man.
Lazaro: We all have a gift God gives us. The I’m an actor and I’m going out to do a role. I
reason I do drag is for the people I love. I was get paid, and when the money is gone, I’m
like many of them, searching for a soul and I going home.
found myself through Lola.
When I started doing drag it was fun and I got
Adelante: Was it harder to do drag when attention. Because when I’d go out dressed as
you started? myself, as a guy, people would not pay atten-
Lazaro: Back then I had to hide. I’d hid my tion to me because I was fat. You know in the
drag stuff from my mom. One day I felt I could gay world if you’re not perfect or a perfect
not hide it anymore. It got to the point where I match for them, they degrade you. You hear
had to take my stuff in luggage to a friend’s and them say “I won’t go out with that fat guy.”
got ready over there. So I told my mom I was Then there’s the bear community and there’d
a drag queen, a performer and that was what I be guys that would tell me I was cute but I
did, that was my life. She accepted it, kind of. needed to gain 20 more pounds. Go figure.
But she’d still ask me, when was I going to get
married. Adelante: How did you choose the name
Lola?
Adelante: Besides hiding it, what were the Lazaro: My drag mother David Sutton named
other challenges. me. One day we were listening to the Barry
Lazaro: Being harassed, and bullied in school. Manilow song Copa Cabana on the radio, and
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