Reflections on Hispanic Heritage Month and Mexican Independence Day Featuring Hector Zaragoza, Oregon Artist, and Past Boosting Our Voices Podcast Guest

This month means several things in the various spaces that I navigate, including home, community, and professionally. At a personal level, I find the dates surrounding Mexico’s independence on September 16th to be a time to celebrate with the community and enjoy the many foods and festivities celebrating our Mexican heritage. This translates to staying pretty busy as both a Mariachi and Mexican folk dancer during a peak season for our work. A highlight performance for this year was sharing my music and dance at the Mariachi Joya de Oro Concert at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show linked here: Mariachi Joya de Oro OSF Green Show. While I recommend the whole concert you might get an extra special display, 47 minutes in, of the traditional dancing my mother and I have taught across Oregon for over two decades!

Reflecting on Hispanic Heritage Month, as a Mexican born in the United States, this is a chance to look within my own culture and acknowledge the contributions that Mexicans have made both in the USA and in the homeland. For many including myself, the United States IS our homeland and this month is a chance for our heritage, and cultural roots to be displayed tying us back to our ancestral roots. 

I also am using this gained visibility on Hispanic heritage and the respective festivities to highlight the intersectionality within our community. I believe in creating opportunities for visibility and acceptance of our LGBTQ community members when celebrating our respective homelands.  I was very excited that this year I collaborated with the nonprofit Coalición Fortaleza in Talent, Oregon to premiere the Rogue Valley’s first-ever POC Drag house ‘The House of LaVicious’ led by my partner Lady Villain LaVicious and myself. I admit I had reservations about being ‘out’ as a drag queen in Southern Oregon and I was fortunately met with such a welcoming and loving audience composed of many of my Latinx neighbors in the Rogue Valley. It really made a difference to me to be shown this type of support coming from my neighbors, and more importantly, I hope that by doing this I did my part in encouraging others to be more accepting.