GLAAD contributor Enrique Torre Molina is a diversity, inclusion and LGBTQ+ community activist, speaker and consultant working with companies, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and media. He co-founded Colmena 41, co-hosts the “Mafia Gay” podcast and lives in Mexico City.
LEER EN ESPAÑOL
Spoiler alert: this article contains details about Drag Race Mexico’s season 1, episode 3.
The episode began with the ten remaining contestants entering the werk room to find a message that Miss Vallarta, the first eliminated queen, wrote with lipstick on her mirror: “I really love you all. #PinkTeam.”
Valentina entered to announce the mini challenge: “When you’re a baby drag queen, you think you can take on the whole world. But we are looking for that queen who won’t choke.” It’s a pun that works better in Spanish, where the idiom for “take on the world” literally translates to “eat the world.” She then explains the queens must get in pairs and pick the one who likes to eat to get into quick drag, giving them five minutes to put on makeup. She and Lolita Banana explained that the “Taco Bellas” challenge would consist of eating “as many tacos as possible in 90 seconds.” Vermelha Noir and Regina Voce were the winners and received a prize of 18,000 pesos (around 1,041 dollars).
For the maxi challenge, they have to create an advertising spot for one of five fake business: a funeral home, a travel agency, a nail salon, an auto repair shop, and a taco stand.
On the day of the catwalk, everyone was visibly excited with the guest judge: Danna Paola, “a musical and LGBTIQ icon” in the words of Vermelha Noir (and the “Britney Spears of Mexico” according to Margaret Y Ya). While they’re putting on makeup, Vermelha spoke about the time her grandmother made her promise that she would never be gay, and how a few months later she came out to her. “But that’s not something to disappoint your loved ones. It just makes you proud of who you are.” Gala Varo also shared a personal moment: “For me it is important to create a career that makes my mother feel proud, when the time comes for her to find out. I have a conflict between her peace of mind and mine, but I am proud of myself.” I think it’s beautiful that between challenges and eliminations we can see a vulnerable aspect of these characters.
For the catwalk, the theme was “Night of a thousand María Félix” and Valentina appeared with a fedora hat and makeup that evoked that iconic Mexican actress. She wore a crocodile necklace, a reference to the Cartier design, and similar to the one Regina Voce and Cristian Peralta chose. Pixie Pixie dressed in black and white. Argennis and Lady Kero wore dresses from the movie The Beautiful Otero. Serena Morena and Margaret Y Ya created pant suits like the one Félix wore to attend horse races. Gala Varo preferred a “slutty” odalisque look.
We saw the final result of her spots, which was not the funniest moment of the episode. They had too many albures (a Mexican type of double entendre jokes), which made them predictable, as Danna Paola pointed out. And another exciting moment was when she went into the werk room to greet them and share that “The community raised me since I was 8 years old. They have embraced me and made me understand that it is okay to be different”.
The episode ended with Argennis, Cristian Peralta and Margaret Y Ya being saved. The winner of the challenge was Regina Voce, who said that her grandmother used to be María Félix’s double in her films. The lip sync battle was between Vermelha Noir and Serena Morena with Xt4sis by Danna Paola. No one knew the lyrics (which isn’t the first time on this season) but Serena Morena did it with more energy and revealed another layer to her look during the song.
Vermelha was ultimately eliminated this episode, leaving the the show with a positive energy in spite of her loss, and Serena stays another week to fight for the crown.
Drag Race Mexico airs every Thursday at 2am ET on WOW Presents Plus, with its local airing in Mexico on Paramount+.