#Kim chi drag queen american name archive#

“Drag queens that imitate Celia will wear that kind of performance apparel, and it’ll immediately signal to everyone to think of Celia,” says Mayor. Crafted by Mexican designer Miguel Nieto using a clever design trick that seemingly defies gravity, the shoes have a high-heeled look without an actual heel.

Going on view in the exhibition are a custom-made pair of gold shoes. The other bata cubana is adorned with a Cuban flag design, featuring a shimmering star at the center and a mass of red, white and blue ruffles ornamenting the sleeves and skirt. The gown is a combination of traditional and contemporary styles with undulating sleeves and a layered train. Cruz wore the orange bata cubana during performances at Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater. Two of Cruz’s Cuban rumba dresses, known as bata cubana, and a pair of gold shoes are part of the museum’s collections. “She is a phenomenon, so it made a lot of sense when we’re talking about music and its impact on society to include Celia in the show.” “So many of her songs have withstood the test of time, both for the Latinx community as much as in global music,” Mayor says.

#Kim chi drag queen american name archive#

Michael Caulfield Archive via Getty Images “I wanted to name myself after someone I’m connected to, after someone I feel has had a really positive impact on my life,” says drag performer Celia Light, whose handmade costumes pay homage to Celia Cruz's bold fashions.Īt the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Queen of Salsa’s legacy and iconic style are honored as part of the upcoming “Entertainment Nation,” an exhibition that explores how music, theater, television, film and sport have created large national conversations about social and political issues for more than 150 years.Īshley Mayor, one of the organizers behind the exhibition-which has also been given the Spanish name “Nación del Espectáculo”-says Cruz rose to fame during a time when there was increased immigration from Latin America to the United States, and her story offers an important lens on today’s conversations about the Latino experience.Ĭruz's audiences thrilled to her famous call- ¡Azúcar!, or “sugar,” which originated, she always said, in a Miami restaurant when she told a server what she took with her coffee. “There is a level of wanting to take femininity to its highest point and wanting to express it loudly and beautifully, and wanting to put it all out there,” she says. The Cruz phenomenon “speaks to drag culture,” she says, of the performances she offers at events ranging from private parties to local bars and restaurants. Light is now part of a community of entertainers and impersonators from cities like Miami, Austin, Chicago and New Orleans reviving the Queen of Salsa’s eye-catching fashion and extravagant stage presence. Drag names also tend to be a play on words-the Korean side dish kimchi is the inspiration for the name of the famous drag queen Kim Chi-so once she realized Celia Light sounded like “cellulite,” she knew that adapting her childhood idol’s name was destiny.

Light, 23, based in Austin, Texas, says she was inspired by Cruz, having grown up listening to her salsa music played at family gatherings and blasted in her home whenever her mother did the house cleaning. 1960) was known as a fashion icon with a bold aesthetic characterized by vivid colors, flamboyant gowns, multicolored wigs, eccentric shoes and dazzling makeup and jewelry. That person was the Cuban American singer Celia Cruz, the “Queen of Salsa,” who died in 2003 after an award-winning career that transcended borders and connected with Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish-speaking audiences worldwide.Ĭelia Cruz (above c. “I wanted to name myself after someone I’m connected to, after someone I feel has had a really positive impact on my life,” Light says. But before Light even put on drag makeup and couture for the first time, she knew she needed a stage name. Performer and entertainer Celia Light remembers watching the reality competition television show RuPaul’s Drag Race while still a senior in high school.