Tatiana Mendez sparkles as brightly as the jewels on her crown
Tatiana will be a hostess at RabbitFoot Record Store Cafe with Ashley Satine during the Art Walk portion of 'Art is a Drag', 6-9pm.
At 9pm, run over to the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center for a classic drag extravaganza to watch Tiffany and 12 other featured drag queens perform and entertain you.
Highlights from 1/28/2017 interview with Diego Larenas
How did you get started in drag?
I did costumes at my high school and would try on all the costumes, girls and boys, to make sure the construction was good and was sewing them correctly. Next thing I knew I was trying the girls’ costumes on with the heels, then with the makeup, then the wig. Before I knew it there I was stomping through high school at 16, 17 years of age in full drag.
At the time I didn't know this was drag, I just knew this was fun and I was dressing up like a girl. This was around the time that the first season RuPaul's Drag Race came out. After I saw that, I realized what I was doing was a 'thing', this is DRAG.
Who was your favorite Queen from Drag Race?
Nina Flowers, hands down. She's amazing.
How did you get your drag name?
My best friend at the time told me I looked like a Tatiana. Then later on when I realized I needed a last name, another best friend of mine, we were like sisters, and her last name was Mendez. So I became Tatiana Mendez, named after my best friends.
Tell me about the crown -
I am not into pageants. I don't really like the idea of the competition, it's so intense. But I love performing and where I've moved to recently, the only way to get your name out there was to go do these drag competition.
This particular drag competition was several weeks long (formatted like RuPaul's Drag Race) with different categories. There was a crown and a sash and a permanent position and $1000 cash. So I signed up. Coming up in Orlando is an intense drag scene - you either learn quickly or you fall hard. So after my Orlando experiences, I was well trained and prepared in a place without as many drag queens or as high a bar.
It was fun. I enjoyed it. My favorite challenge was the superhero/girl power week and I did Mystique from X-Men. I was so proud of myself with that costume. It was technically so difficult to make a character look naked while you're in drag. It took me a month to hand-paint the scales on a blue bodysuit.
What were the other categories for that competition?
There was a Lady Gaga week. I won that week with Mary the Night Away, which is a really fun dance hit There was a Broadway week. I tried to do something out-of-the-box and played Rachel Berry from Glee. I played her trying to be on Broadway.
If you had a talk show, who would be your first guest?
Ellen DeGeneres. She is so fun, iconic and positive ... and would bring viewers to my talk show. Ellen's Halloween pranks is a favorite of mine. Plus, she is part of our 'coming out' history.
If you could back and tell your 15 your old self something, what would it be?
I would tell my 15 year old self to quit being so angry. I was so different and everyone had to keep pointing that out. I try to be such a loving person and show everyone I meet kindness. When I was younger and I was so feminine as a boy, I wasn't really called gay that much, I was called a girl. I think it was because of the essence I gave off. They hated me for some reason because of that. It made me so mad.
So, I would tell myself to not be so mad, just stay in your lane. Stay focused on what your doing and don't be so bothered by everybody else.
What was your experience of coming out?
My family always knew. I grew up surrounded by great women. Since I wanted to be a girl, I had great role models for the kind of independent woman I wanted to be.
When it came to them telling me how to be a boy ... like, not to roll my eyes, being limp-wristed or swishing my hips when I walked, they would say, "Don't do that, you're a boy." But I didn't know what being a boy was. I knew those things were not being a boy, but I was a boy, so what was I to do? When it came to being around kids at school, I didn't know what being a boy was and wanted to be a girl like all the other girls I knew. `
By 4th and 5th grade I knew I had to start hiding, keeping my thoughts and feelings secret.
Do you have a most-memorable performance?
The best performance I ever did was to Take Time by Ledisi. I saw someone in a pageant do that song and it spoke to me, was about my life. So, I found the song, learned it and now any chance I get to be brand new to a club or a crowd it's the first thing I perform. I think "Oh, they're not sick of it".
