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By Reynaldo Leanos, Jr.
Beatrix Lestrange stood in front of a crowd dressed in a multicolored dress, a red wig, black pumps and a choker with nails.
"Who is ready to have a political time?" Asked Lestrange to the audience, who stood in a semicircle and applauded.
"We will try to bring joy, positivity, beauty, resistance, culture, anything," Lestrange added, pointing to the wall of the border just behind her.
Drag queens from the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, on the US-Mexico border, gathered Saturday in front of an existing border structure in Brownsville to stage a protest against No Border Wall. They said their goal was to show people that there was no border crisis and to voice their opposition to building more obstacles in the area. All money raised by the event will go to LGBTQ asylum seekers
Earlier this month, Congress passed a spending bill providing $ 1.375 billion for border infrastructure construction in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. And in November, US Customs and Border Protection, in partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers, awarded two contracts for the construction of a border wall in South Texas. Both projects are expected to be built in Hidalgo County and construction is expected to begin this month.
Lestrange organized the protest and is a self-proclaimed "dragtavist", a drag queen who uses his platform for social activism.
"The vision was to perform in front of this wall and project our beauty, glamor and power to this symbol of hatred, racism and xenophobia," said Lestrange. "All those things that do not really happen in our community."
Michelangelo De Vinci, whose real name is Sabino Ponce Jr., said he wanted to participate in the event because, for him, it's personal. His father was formerly undocumented.
"I know his struggle is coming to an end and how he built his foundation with his third year studies," said Ponce. "There are other people trying to come here and do something better for themselves and their families. My father being one of them and these other people too, they should have the chance to live here too.
Each lip queen synchronized and performed a different song in their showy outfits, from "American Idiot" by Green Day to "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga.
Jorge Trujillo, a professor at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, was among the guests who attended the queens show. Trujillo explained that the drag show showed how the Rio Grande Valley was the best in the United States.
"We must continue this movement and let people never forget that there has never been a better opportunity to be proud of Valley," Trujillo said.
Arina Heys, whose real name is David Bocanegra, also played at the protest show. Heys wanted to participate in the event to show the beauty of Latin culture in the region.
"We are painted as a negative image," Heys said. "We look like any other community and it's extremely family friendly, lovable, humble and welcoming."
Lestrange added that she also hoped that drag's performance would represent an awareness of some of the issues that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer migrants face.
"I am moved to tears and moved every time because they are already fleeing horrible conditions," Lestrange said of LGBTQ migrants. "They are fleeing homophobia, transphobia, violence, trauma, just to come to the doors of our country and meet more."
Lestrange said all the money raised through the flogging event would go to LGBTQ asylum seekers, but she wants to challenge other LGBTQ communities in the country to participate in their own form of activism. .
"If we can do that in front of the wall of the border, they can do something similar," said Lestrange. "Do it now, because tomorrow is too late."
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