Page 18 - Adelante Magazine March 2025

Entertainment
By: Al Ballesteros
Photos by: Anthony Rocco Pavese Jr. - IG: @pressthatp, Dillon Blake Wright - IG: @dillonblakephotography, Andre Solórzano - IG: @andresolorzanony
Wardrobe: Bradley Mounce - IG: @bradleymounce. Hair: Rick Wellman - IG: @rickwellman

Michael Miguel:

You Pick Me Up With Every Hello
It all begins in a timeless 1996 photograph of a young
child, a three year-old boy affectionately holding a
Selena Barbie doll he had gotten from a pile of
wrapped gifts at a children’s party. Presumably be-
cause it was a “girls toy” the boy’s parents and others
tried to take the doll away. But the little boy would not
give it up and so the adults let him keep it, at least for
a little while.

That child was Michael Miguel and today at the age
of 30 he is the writer and singer of the songs on the
EP Gemini Season Part One: Michael, available on
all streaming platforms. The EP includes the remake
of his song Boys and Barbies comprised of lyrics
written from real life feelings and memories of his
growing up different than others. Michael recently fin-
ished taping the second season of the mini series Go
Go on Here TV where he plays Franky the lead role.

A rising star in our community Michael’s career is one
of evolving music and acting. Along the way, there
have been many challenges, highs and lows. We
spoke with him about growing up the boy in the photo
and his experience being raised in a very religious
family, getting kicked out of the house, his alcohol
and drug use and falling into being sex trafficked.

Michael is of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent
and from a family with 13 siblings. He was born in
New York City in Flushing Queens. He says he
bought his first three music CDs of the artists Aaliyah,
Destiny's Child and the Soundtrack from the movie
Titanic at a Flea Market. Quite a diverse mix for a
guy that grew up listening to Alejandro Fernández
music his mother played and which he sang to when
he was two years old.

He was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness in a very reli-
gious and strict Latino family. He says he could not
sing, act, or do anything like that because of the reli-
gion. For sure, that was especially hard for a gay kid.
He was eventually kicked out of the house at age 18
and life got real difficult when he got involved with the
wrong person who introduced him to drugs and who
moved him to a different state and city where he was
sex-trafficked. He would eventually break away from
that person and that life and got off the drugs and al-
cohol. But the loss of a dear friend threw him back

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