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.
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Spoiler alert: this article contains details about Drag Race Mexico’s season 1, episode 6.
After the departure of Serena Morena in the previous episode, there are only 7 contestants left and the pressure, as Margaret Y Ya and Cristian Peralta said, is increasing. Gala Varo confessed that she would be afraid of facing the others in a lip sync battle. It’s a good time to remember that the winner of the show will receive a year’s worth of Anastasia Beverly Hills cosmetics, a crown and a scepter from Amped Accessories, and the grand prize of 550,000 pesos (approximately $32,630).
The mini challenge consisted of putting on make-up with a “catrinas” aesthetic (the image of a woman’s skeleton dressed elegantly with a hat, flowers, feathers and a long gown) in commemoration of the traditional Day of the Dead. The twist? They had only 3 minutes to do it and they were not allowed to use a mirror. As Lolita Banana said, “these are the Olympics of drag” and “a high-performance drag queen works with what she has.” The winner was, deservedly, Regina Voce.
The episode’s maxi challenge was one of the most anticipated since the season began: Snatch Game! This is a Drag Race franchise signature. It involves impersonating a celebrity that each contestant chooses, and doing a bit of comedy improv. We had the chance to see the queens dressed as the astrologer Walter Mercado, the businesswoman and radio host Martha Debayle, the legendary ghost of La Llorona, the actress and television host Verónica Castro, the singer and composer Gloria Trevi, the journalist Adela Micha and the influencer Luna Gil.
Later, in the werk room, Cristian Peralta shared his plans to ask his girlfriend to marry him when he leaves the show. His fellow contestants said they would love to go to the wedding in drag.
The runway theme was “supernatural” and the special guest judge was Mauricio Martínez, a singer and musical theater actor with a successful career in Mexico City and New York, and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. Argennis dressed as the Charro Negro, a legendary character “who would appear in alleys and offer people gold,” she explained. Regina Voce characterized herself as a queen of the dead. Lady Kero and Cristian Peralta dressed as La Llorona, and the latter did a spectacular reveal in black and white (although Valentina didn’t like it so much). Gala Varo was inspired by the painting Dragonfly Woman by surrealist artist Remedios Varo, which Lolita Banana thought looked more like “Martha Debayle’s Christmas tree.” Margaret Y Ya did a combination of a witch and a nahual, and Matraka decided to characterize herself as an alebrije – one of the most impressive looks I’ve seen this season, and the jury acknowledged it as such.
In the end, Regina Voce, Matraka and Margaret Y Ya were saved, and the winner of the maxi challenge was Cristian Peralta. The lip sync battle was between Argennis and Gala Varo with the song Ábranse, Perras by Gloria Trevi, and Argennis was eliminated.
Drag Race Mexico S1 airs every Thursday at 2am ET on WOW Presents Plus, with its local airing in Mexico on Paramount+.