[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Hello, a warning before we begin: this series contains sensitive content including violence, drugs, and sexual language. We recommend discretion.
Our stage is a small, old platform…
[Keyly Rosemberg]: It was in 2003 that I started going out to the clubs, watching the shows.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: At the back of a dimly lit bar…
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Maybe one of the first shows I ever saw was at a place called Lucho’s Club, which was on 69th and Roosevelt Avenue.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: It’s already the early hours of the morning, the busiest hours, and the performers — mostly trans — are lip-syncing to the most heartbreaking, and sensual, and danceable songs in the Latin American songbook.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: I would go there to watch them. I loved it. It’s just something else, seeing so much beauty — because you can call it beauty. Seeing them looking so pretty on a stage, performing a song, like you’re watching a real artist. But I never said I’ll be on a stage. I never thought about being in a show.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Introducing Keyly Rosemberg. Leader of the Rosemberg family, one of the mothers within the community of the Queens of Queens. We heard about her at the end of the last episode.
Keyly is a sex worker, a performer, and she also cleans offices in New Jersey. She arrived in New York from El Salvador in 1995, when she was 13 years old. And by the time she was 17, she was already going out to party with her friends to the bars on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. She got in with a fake ID.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: From the moment you arrived you paid $5, you danced all night. At two, two-thirty in the morning they’d stop the music and the host would start running the show.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And she began to love that world of nightly performances. Especially the way the hosts — the emcees — ran the shows every night. Between songs they would approach the audience, joke around, drink… but mostly, they would direct attention to the evening’s performers.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: The hosts always look for three or four people who do one or two songs each, and those are the ones who entertain the crowd. The host comes out, then the next one, then the third. And so on.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: One night, in the mid-2000s, at the legendary Lucho’s Club on Roosevelt, Keyly saw Laura Martínez’s show for the first time — Laura, who we met in the last episode. That night Laura lip-synced to Rocío Dúrcal.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: And well, for someone who has never been in front of a real artist, you feel like you’re actually watching the artist, because she really looked like Rocío Dúrcal. I don’t remember the songs, but yes, everyone enjoyed it, they enjoyed it. She just looked so beautiful, so beautiful. She embodied the character. And she conquered all of Queens.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Like that, many years went by…
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Keyly Rosemberg was watching the artists for 20 years, 20 years being their fan.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Because they don’t become mothers and families overnight: they take root in the harsh and unforgiving atmosphere of Roosevelt Avenue, where solidarity and competition go hand in hand. And in an environment like that, not many families survive.
From Central Series and Radio Ambulante Studios, this is Las Reinas de Queens. I’m Rula Ávila Muñoz. Episode 3. The Queens of the Stage.
Some years are best forgotten. For Keyly Rosemberg, that was 2015.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: It was a very hard year.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Her mother died back in her home country.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: I left in an emergency for El Salvador…
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And then her husband was unfaithful to her.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: That same day I found a lawyer and decided to get divorced.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But out of those two sorrows came a rebirth that began with a friend’s proposal.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: She says to me, «I want you to do a Selena show,» she says.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: A Selena show at a bar on Roosevelt. That meant getting up on stage — the very thing that she had been too shy to do for decades.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Oh, it made me laugh. «Are you crazy?» I said to her. «How am I going to be putting on a show? I don’t know how to do that.» «Yes, I want you to do it,» she says. «It’s to send money to a home for the elderly in El Salvador for some old folks. You can sometimes do a lot with a dollar. » She convinced me. I asked a friend to lend me a dress. She lent it to me. «Yes,» she said, «yes, I’ll lend it to you.» They dressed me in a red dress. They did my makeup. They put my hair up in a bun. And they transformed me into Selena.
Well, feeling nervous, I said, «I don’t know how this is going to go, but I’m going to do it.» And I did it. I performed «No me queda más» by Selena. At the moment I was performing «No me queda más,» so many things went through my mind: my relationship, my mother. But more than anything, my relationship…
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: With that heartbreak, Keyly gave in to the moment. She nailed the lip-sync perfectly and the rest was pure improvisation.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: I do whatever comes to me on stage. Throwing a bucket of beer in my face — I’ll do it. If it occurs to me to throw myself on a table on stage, I do it. So I don’t practice.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And that approach worked.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: The crowd adored me. I don’t know if it was because it was my first time, or if they genuinely liked my show. But the crowd really adored me. I did super well on tips.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: The tips. With those and with the audience’s applause, Keyly’s shyness evaporated. And suddenly, the royalty of the Roosevelt Avenue nightlife scene took notice of her.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: I received a lot of messages from old-school trans friends, the ones who already have experience. Among them, Lorena St. Cartier, Laura Martínez. And they told me: «Don’t give up, you do it beautifully. For your first show, you knocked it out of the park.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And one of those queens, Lorena St. Cartier, gave Keyly a piece of advice.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: «Keyly,» she says, «your worst enemy on a stage is the audience. Why?» she says. «Because the audience tries to scan you from head to toe. They stare directly at you, in case you slip up on something.» And she says: «Challenge them. When you’re on that stage, live the song, sing it. Don’t look away from that person, arouse them. Like when you’re arousing a man.» Her words have stayed with me.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And with her 20 years of experience as a spectator, Keyly already knew how to stand out among other artists.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: There are a lot of girls who are gorgeous at performing — at doing the splits, jumping, doing backflips. I’m not going to do that because I have silicone in my body. I’m not going to do it, but I know how to choose a song. I’ve been able to go to any stage, and I know what song to bring.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Keyly sensed that if she wanted to carve out a space for herself, she had to be unpredictable. That’s how her career on the Roosevelt stages began — as a chameleon capable of ruling a cumbia, a ranchera, a bachata, or a cheesy ’80s ballad.
Soon, the family mothers reacted. Among them, a queen named Jesica Lafontaine. Like Laura Martínez, Jesica had her own family of performers and shows: the Lafontaine family.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Jesica Lafontaine, who, at the time, was the promoter of the nights — Noches de Aventurera — came up with the idea of crowning me Miss El Salvador.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: The Miss El Salvador or Miss Central America or Miss-whatever-other-country-or-region crown is awarded by the show promoters, who are usually also the mothers, the heads of the houses.
So having one of those mothers crown you means a great deal, because a crown opens the doors to the royalty that moves through the nightlife world of Queens. A crown brings applause, prestige, attention.
On the other hand, the person who bestows a crown does so knowing they are empowering and taking under their wing a girl who will cultivate followers that will bring more dollars and business to the bars. These new audiences will help keep the houses and their respective mothers relevant.
Crowns are therefore a way of surviving, but also of expressing pride and identity.
And so, with her new crown, Keyly drew in some girls who did sex work on the street and let them join her with their own shows. Little by little she protected them from the loneliness and danger of being out in the open, extending that same kindness she herself had once received.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: When they crown me, the girls I bring in from the street to watch my show start calling me: my mother, mother. And we formed a little group of about six, with me — maybe because I was the oldest — as the leader. And people started saying, «the Rosemberg family.» That’s where it all began.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But crowns are also heavy. And they also sow envy and competition. Because according to Keyly, other queens saw her shine as a threat.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: The people who had pushed me to do shows started giving me dirty looks when it came to lending me clothes. First of all because we’re in an envious environment. So if you work for Club Evolution and I want your outfit to go to El Trio — which is my other house, El Trio — you’re going to feel like, why should I lend it to her if she’s taking it to the competition. That’s where the jealousy starts.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Added to that rivalry between friends — or frenemies, as they say in English — are the bars competing against each other, their owners, their promoters, and the respective houses led by those already established mothers.
And faced with the lack of borrowed outfits, Keyly once again used her resourcefulness to hold on to the place she had earned. In the middle of necessity, she found a challenge and a passion that would make her family stand out: fashion design.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: I started buying fabrics, making little things for myself. Everything looked good on me. So I bought an industrial sewing machine, a better one, I paid around $600 for it. But I, Keyly Rosemberg, am not going to wear an outfit I’ve already worn.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And since then she has made more than 300 costumes — for herself and for her daughters.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: I don’t like a Rosemberg child to show up in rags or to show up looking bad. Because that reflects on the mother. That reflects on the family.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: After the break, we’ll meet one of Keyly’s daughters: Zuleyka Rosemberg. And with her, the art of winning crowns and choosing a mother.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Welcome back. So, a family needs daughters.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Well, to begin with, I have many names. Legally, my name is Levi Urquilla, and that’s how I’m known mostly in the LGBT community, working collectively. But at night, or in the bars, or in the shows, in the competitions, my name is Zuleyka Rosemberg.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka is Salvadoran and arrived in the city in 2019, when she was 25 years old. And well, it was a tough arrival.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: It was mostly the first week that I was sleeping outside, in the parks, or sometimes… One night, I slept on the train.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But she didn’t let herself be intimidated. She soon found a bed in a shelter and began exploring the city, especially the bars on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. And there, at one called El Trio, she met a group of trans girls and gay guys. They were from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador… And that little group had a name: La Casa del Rostro — the House of the Face.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Because we were like only young girls, like under 25. And we were all very young and pretty. I didn’t consider myself pretty but there I was anyway.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: At the time Zuleyka identified as a gay boy. And that’s how she joined the group.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: We spent time together. It was mostly a group of dreamy girls living together, who had just arrived in this city.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka started spending her time in the bars on Roosevelt. And there she came across stars like Laura Martínez and Keyly Rosemberg performing as their most beloved artists.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Rocío Dúrcal, Marisela, Laura León, Selena…
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: For Zuleyka it was love at first sight with the shows: the colorful dresses, the sequins and the lights, the beauty of the performers and their ability to mesmerize everyone: the drunk and the sober, the macho and the not so much.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: The sparkle, the sparkle of everything. The energy that people transmitted in the show or on the stage, that’s what caught my attention. Because there can be many… Let’s say there can be ten people, but if just one of them has that sparkle of talent and charisma and personality, I mean, that makes all the difference.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Because, in case it hasn’t been made clear, these are not improvised shows. That is, they’re not a karaoke night where you write your name on a slip of paper and go up there and sing. No. The shows are an art form.
To begin with, there are several genres. There are the dance numbers, usually featuring tropical music or samba. This is the most demanding genre, the one that requires tremendous physical fitness from the performers, because if they drop the intensity of their dancing for even one second, they lose the audience’s attention and respect.
Then there’s the romantic genre: the tearjerker songs, the heartbreak and betrayal anthems, very Juan Gabriel or Paquita la del Barrio. Here what counts are the subtle gestures, the flirtatious glances at the audience, the elegance and class.
And finally, you have the dramatic numbers. In these, the performers act out the lyrics of the song as if they are living them in their own flesh. And to help their performance, they can bring all kinds of accessories and props — from confetti and nightstands to picture frames, decorated walls, and fans.
But the shows are also an art form because there are rules about what makes a good or a bad performance. There is an aesthetic. And that’s why there is a huge difference between beginners and masters — or, as Zuleyka calls them: «the old school.»
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: The old school will always put much more time, much more sacrifice, into a show than someone new. Because the new ones nowadays, mostly, it’s about throwing themselves on the floor, spinning around, and doing the splits. The old school doesn’t do that, but she focuses more on making you feel the song, on making sure you see her looking great, that she comes out polished, that she comes out neat in her costume.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But on top of that, the masters earn a tremendous amount of money in tips. And for someone newly arrived in the city, like Zuleyka, that was quite an attractive incentive.
She wanted to be on the stage, like Laura Martínez or Keyly Rosemberg. And she didn’t just want to shine like them — she also wanted to earn like them: fame and dollars. And so Zuleyka asked one of her friends from La Casa del Rostro to introduce her to one of the hosts at El Trio. And she gave her a chance.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: I remember I was nervous for the first show because I didn’t know if there would be anyone there.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: The show was on a Thursday. Zuleyka stepped onto the stage wearing a borrowed wig and a borrowed dress.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Back then I didn’t know how to do my own makeup. I went out on stage looking funny. And well, that was that — that was the first time.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: She performed a ballad by the diva of divas.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: It was a Rocío Dúrcal song.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka managed to win the audience over and the bar’s promoters invited her back for a second show.
That time she did a Celia Cruz song: «La negra tiene tumbao.» And it was then that she met the legendary Jesica Lafontaine, who we mentioned a moment ago, the one who had crowned Keyly back in 2018. And she told her:
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: That she had liked my show and that she liked how I looked because I looked very slender — tall, slim, and dark-skinned — and that the song had worked and that I danced beautifully. So she wanted me to be part of her group, or her family. And I said yes. And just like that I joined the Lafontaine family.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: The Lafontaine family was one of the most prestigious in Queens. Joining them was a real honor.
This was January 2020. The pandemic shut down Roosevelt Avenue and the bars started organizing clandestine shows in private homes and basements. You could only attend by invitation.
And Zuleyka was part of them. That’s how her career began — underground.
And when the bars reopened on Roosevelt, Zuleyka — Zuleyka Lafontaine — already had a good reputation. That last name opened doors. And she took advantage of every opportunity she was given. If she had to perform every night for a week, she did it. That’s how badly she wanted to stand out.
All while she was still living in a migrant shelter, and all while doing sex work from time to time on the dating app Grindr to supplement her income.
It was around that time that she met Keyly Rosemberg. And Keyly captivated her with her provocative outfits and her irreverence.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: She is very authentic. She is very wild, to put it that way. You see her on the street and if it’s the first time you’re meeting, she starts right in with her antics, starts asking you things that maybe nobody has ever asked you before, but since she’s so bold, she just asks.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: About boyfriends, about sex, about sex work… She just was that overfamiliar.. And when Zuleyka found out they were from the same country — El Salvador — they became inseparable.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: And that’s where I got to know her better — that she is a really good person, that she would take the food out of her own mouth to give it to you.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Keyly would let her stay at her place, feed her, and also advise her on starting a new life in New York.
And so the months went by.
One night, at the bar El Trio, Jesica Lafontaine put on her signature show. It was called Noches de Aventurera and it was hugely famous — so much so that sometimes a competition by that name was organized, and the winner took home a crown.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: The Noches de Aventurera crown — a lot of girls fought for it, and it was like the ultimate crown, at that time, in the whole community.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: In other words, winning it could establish your status as a performer.
But that night Jesica crowned Zuleyka. With no warning, no competition.
It was controversial. According to Zuleyka, some of Jesica’s other daughters weren’t too happy about it. Because in theory, several contestants would compete for that crown — usually around 10 or 12. And it was won on the stage, through sweat and high heels. Not by being hand-picked. But Zuleyka didn’t care much.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: I was happy that they were recognizing in such a short time the artistry I had, because I was already being called to quite a few bars to perform.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And at each of those shows she could earn around 70 dollars in tips.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Yes, as an Aventurera girl and also as Zuleyka Lafontaine, I’d go: everywhere I was invited. I’d go.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But at the same time Zuleyka was beginning to understand what it meant to belong to a family like Jesica Lafontaine’s.
Because when she had just arrived, with the girls from La Casa del Rostro, Zuleyka thought that the houses were just a little group to hang out with. But now, with Jesica, the family was becoming something more serious, with more obligations.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: And I was starting to realize that really, more than anything, it was mostly about helping the lady and being there in case she needed something, being like her chaperone. So I started not liking that.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But on top of that, Zuleyka was hearing rumors that sometimes Jesica took advantage of her daughters’ kindness and trust. That she expected absolute availability from them and would only do you a favor if you paid it back.
For the record, we reached out to Jesica in several ways to speak with her about this, but she never replied.
At first Zuleyka paid no attention to those rumors. But as time went on and she realized they were true, she started to feel uncomfortable.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: And I think that was what I was mostly waiting for — like, there’s a certain point at which you say, «OK, this is where it ends with her and I cut ties.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: That moment came one night in mid-2021, in the form of a message from Laura Martínez.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: She reached out to me and said, «I want to crown you Revelation of the Year.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Revelation of the Year at the Roosevelt Avenue bars. Like being nominated for an Oscar for your first film. Laura continued:
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: «And it doesn’t matter that you have…» — because she’s always like that — «it doesn’t matter that you have that crown,» she says, «from Noches de Aventurera. I want to crown you as Revelation, because you deserve it.» So, «OK, let me think about it, because I have this crown and I don’t know what to do.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Because Laura and Jesica were rivals.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: They didn’t get along and couldn’t stand the sight of each other.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Both were hosts of their own shows on Roosevelt and competed for audiences and attention — and of course, they each had their vanities.
So accepting Laura’s crown meant snubbing Jesica Lafontaine’s crown. And her last name.
But at the same time, Zuleyka felt she deserved that new Revelation of the Year crown. She had spent months putting on unique shows — «burning herself out in the bars,» as she puts it — even risking audiences growing tired of her performances.
On top of that she was tired of being Jesica’s chaperone. And when she talked it over with Keyly, she also encouraged her to accept the crown. She even offered to take care of the dress.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: So she said, «if you’re going to accept the crown, come over to the house and find something to wear here, so you look beautiful at the coronation.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: So it was decided. Zuleyka said nothing to Jesica. She simply let Laura know she accepted.
The coronation took place at Lunas, a small bar on Roosevelt. Laura invited Zuleyka up to the stage. And there, just before placing the sash and the Revelation of the Year crown on her, Laura leaned into her ear and asked: How do you want me to introduce you?
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: «How do you want me to introduce you?» As Zuleyka Rosemberg. And that’s where Zuleyka Rosemberg was born.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka Rosemberg. The answer came straight from her heart.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Well, because I already felt… I already felt close to Keyly. I already felt like part of her.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: It surprised everyone: Laura. And Keyly, who was there in the audience, applauding her, with her enormous smile.
When mother and daughter found each other at the end of the show, Keyly hugged Zuleyka and said: Welcome to the family.
A short break and we’ll be back.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: We’re back. Thi is Las Reinas de Queens.
Two days after being crowned Revelation of the Year, Zuleyka received a message from Jesica Lafontaine: she wanted her to return the Noches de Aventurera title.
Zuleyka agreed. She thanked Jesica for everything they had lived through together. But that was the end of their relationship.
Zuleyka was now a Rosemberg. And with Keyly’s help she began something she had been thinking about for months: her transition.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: She encouraged me to want to become a trans girl. Because she told me, «OK, but being a girl on the outside opens a lot of doors for you. Love comes your way» — which isn’t true. But still, with her words I also started to see all of this.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Hormone therapy was difficult. She suffered from depression, anxiety, hunger, her hair was falling out… It was a cocktail of feelings she wasn’t sharing with anyone, not even with Keyly.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: And also, since I didn’t have a mental health professional either, it hit me hard.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But on top of that she had to put up with what other trans girls said about the changes that were beginning to show in her body — that her chest wasn’t big enough, that her hair was too short… Comments that felt like a straitjacket about how a trans woman was supposed to look.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Because of that same prototype — that you’re not yet a complete woman unless you have breasts, hips, long hair.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: They were hurtful, painful, and unfair words, but quite common.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: The trans community is very, very, very intense and can get to the point of being passive-aggressive with comments. That’s why a lot of girls sometimes halt their transition, or don’t go through with it, for that very reason. Because a lot of the time these comments come from girls who have already had surgery — they seem to forget that they went through the same thing too, and instead of helping the girls, they tear them down. And that’s what happened to me back then.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka collapsed. She needed to escape from everything. She interrupted her treatment and cut her hair.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: And I decide to leave. I decide to get out of New York.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: At the time she was living at Keyly’s place, but on the day of her departure…
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: That day I knew she was home, but I didn’t… I didn’t want to bother her because she had already told me she wasn’t going to say goodbye.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Because Keyly had told her she’d rather not.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: I wanted to tell her that we’d see each other soon, that it wasn’t a forever goodbye, just a see-you-later.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka went to Los Angeles. She worked in construction for three months. Then she went to Oakland, further north in California, and there she worked in a kitchen. She barely had any free time. Every now and then she talked with Keyly — they missed each other. But aside from that, she barely socialized.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: I never really went looking for more friendships…
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: She was afraid of being criticized and judged the way she had been in New York. They were months of deep loneliness.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: While going through these constant changes I couldn’t find my happiness. And being out there in California I realized that the only one who matters in this life is me, and no one else. I don’t have to be like everyone else in order to be happy, because I can be happy in my own way.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka didn’t owe anyone any explanations. In California she decided she was going to resume her transition. She was going to be a trans woman on her own terms, regardless of what others said. But on top of that, she decided she would return to the place she missed most at that moment — where she had left her family: New York. She arrived in June, the day before Pride Day. And she went straight to Keyly’s house.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: She hugged me and we held each other and I said, «hi, how are you?» And we stood there hugging for about half a minute, and then she asked me how I’d been, why I hadn’t let her know. I wanted to surprise her.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: That same night, Zuleyka went back to bar El Trio to perform a show. And the emcee of the evening welcomed her.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: The guy starts saying: «Oh, the one who had disappeared, a girl who has returned and come back stronger than ever. Ladies and gentlemen, Zuleyka Rosemberg.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Zuleyka performed the song «Mírame» — «Look at Me» — by Edith Márquez. She chose that song for its lyrics.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: «Look at me, I’m not the same as before. This smile is for someone I love to death. Look at me, it’s a pleasure to greet you, now that you live so sadly, and I’m so happy.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And yes, that night everyone looked at her. Zuleyka’s return filled the Rosemberg family with energy.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: The Rosembergs were the boom at some point and everyone wanted to be a Rosemberg. We got to be 20 people.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: I had up to 20 kids.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Here’s Keyly again.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: There were trans girls and gay guys who dressed as women. The first thing was telling them, «look, our goal is this: here in the United States we have no family. Some guys fall into bad habits out of loneliness, out of stress. We want to have a different kind of dynamic, so we’re not alone.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But according to Zuleyka, many of those girls who claimed to be daughters were only there to take advantage of the family’s fame.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: At that moment we were the family of the year, so to speak. But little by little they each drifted away.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And the truth is that keeping a family like the Martínezes, or the Lafontaines, or the Rosembergs going…
[Keyly Rosemberg]: It is very hard. It is very hard to maintain a family in every sense of the word.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: To start with, the families of the Queens of Queens are born out of encounters between strangers. And that sometimes doesn’t work.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Sometimes you have two kids who can’t stand each other and they’re siblings — they fight, and you have to step in and get in the middle of it.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Keyly has always tried to set boundaries around what is and isn’t allowed in her family. For example: she doesn’t care if her daughters use drugs or alcohol.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: It doesn’t bother me because I’m not their biological mother. So they should have their own freedom too. And I’m not into the after-party. I’m not… And they are. They like to go out for drinks. They’re young, they deserve it — as long as, I always tell them, they do it carefully, then go ahead, but don’t be calling me — and they all know this — don’t be calling me at five in the morning, at six in the morning, telling me something happened to them.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But she does care if her daughters misbehave at a club, where they socialize with other families. Embarrassing behavior can lead to a falling out.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Two girls left me, and it really hurt. It broke my heart that they left for the same reason — because in my family there is discipline. And one of the rules I always had was that you had to behave when you go to a club.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Keyly talks about the balance between being a biological mother and a companion. But reaching that balance is hard.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Because at the moment, you say… You really take on the role of a biological mother. But then you say, «no, you can’t treat them that way because they’re not your child.»
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: It has happened to Keyly several times that she has loved her children deeply only to watch them leave.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: That was one of my worst mistakes. Falling in love — not like, not as a partner, not like that… Loving them as if they were your own.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But that pain is offset by the satisfaction of watching her daughters on stage.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: Seeing a Rosemberg kid get up on that stage is like watching a real artist. I enjoy it, I live it. I’m so nervous that something might fall off them, that something might go wrong, everything. I’m so nervous and I feel so happy.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: That’s why she has accompanied Zuleyka through her entire rise as a queen. And she has encouraged her to go beyond Queens.
One day in 2023, Keyly invited Zuleyka to an event in Washington DC. A beauty pageant for the entire trans Latino community in the United States — something very different from the Roosevelt shows.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Because each competition has its own way of scoring, its own way of competing, its own way of doing things and organizing.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: For example, there’s a category called swimsuit. Another category called question and answer. Another evening gown and interview. So there’s a panel of judges in the back scoring who does it best.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: It sounds very selfish, but within competitions, that’s how it is. The more sparkle you bring or the more feathers you bring — the more fabulous the outfit — the more people will love you, or the better the judges will score you.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: When Zuleyka saw the girls come out with their feathered pieces, their rhinestone gowns, with perfect make up, she knew she had to be up there.
So a year later, Zuleyka entered a competition: Miss Mundo Latina USA, in the New Comer participant group.
She trained for months for her talent number — a dance mix of several songs. And Keyly helped her with her dress.
And so the big night arrived in March 2025. Zuleyka went through each of the challenges: swimsuit, evening gown, talent…
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: I wasn’t expecting to win, but I wasn’t going to hold back either.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And the final challenge — question and answer.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: They asked me what had inspired me to want to participate. My answer was that first of all, more than anything, it was about inspiring people who were just starting out in this beautiful art of drag performance; and inspiring trans girls to know that not only gay guys can do this kind of thing, but that trans girls can do it too.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: It was a smart and diplomatic answer. It was like a universal celebration of the artform she had been practicing ever since she arrived in New York. And when the moment came to announce the New Comer winners…
[Emcee]: Ladies and gentlemen, there was one single winner across all categories…
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: They announced third place, then second. And then…
[Emcee]: Please welcome the new Miss Mundo Latina USA New Comer, winner of swimsuit, talent, question and answer, and evening gown: Zuleyka Rosemberg!
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: «Ladies and gentlemen, Zuleyka Rosemberg!»… I couldn’t believe it.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: She burst into tears. She never could have imagined she would experience something like this when she arrived in the United States. But on top of that, she was winning something far more valuable than a crown.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: I think this is very important for us because beyond empowering you, it makes you visible. Because we often see them on the street, maybe doing sex work or at home. But by entering this world, they don’t know whether they might be able to bring out the talent they have.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: As queen of the competition, Zuleyka has had to work for New York’s trans community — from handing out condoms to sex workers on Roosevelt Avenue to performing during the Queens Pride parade. Her title of Miss Mundo Latina USA Newcomer has come with responsibilities.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Well, I have to use it for that — so people can see that they didn’t crown me just to crown me, but that they crowned me for a reason. And that reason is that I help, that I collaborate, that I’m there and present in the causes that deserve it.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Today she works at the Colectivo Intercultural Transgrediendo, one of the most important organizations in New York’s trans community. There she supports people who have just discovered they are HIV-positive. She can do that work because she herself carries the virus.
[Zuleyka Rosemberg]: Having HIV isn’t like a thought or a reference point that you’re going to die soon — it’s more like going back… For me, personally, it’s like being reborn, like getting to live again. And there I give them examples of people who have had HIV for 40, 60 years and are still here.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: For a community so deeply affected by the HIV epidemic — one that watched almost an entire generation disappear because of the virus — these kinds of stories matter. They give hope.
And among all the queens of Queens, there was one whose stories did exactly that: drew a line connecting the past, the present, and the future.
A queen whose stories became a balm and an energizer for a community still in mourning over the death of Lorena Borjas.
A woman who was destined to become the new queen of all queens: Cecilia Gentili. Santa Cecilia. The mother of all whores.
Las Reinas de Queens is a podcast from Central, the series channel of Radio Ambulante Studios, and is part of the My Cultura podcast network on iHeartRadio.
This series was produced by Diego Senior and Pablo Argüelles, with additional production and reporting by Nikol Pizarro, Joana Toro, and Andrés Sanin.
The editors were Daniel Alarcón, Silvia Viñas, and me.
Fact-checking by Bruno Scelza and Nikol Pizarro.
María Linares did the sound design and mixing, as well as the original music.
The series’ graphic design and art direction are by Diego Corzo.
Product development for Las Reinas de Queens was led by Natalia Ramírez. Digital production was carried out by Ana María Betancourt and Óscar Luna.
Business development and strategic partnerships were led by Camilo Jiménez Santofimio. Julián Santos and Eric Spiegelman provided legal support.
Las Reinas de Queens is an original idea by Diego Senior, Joana Toro, and Andrés Sanin.
The executive producers are Diego Senior; and from Radio Ambulante Studios, our CEO, Carolina Guerrero.
At iHeart, the executive producers are Arlene Santana and Leo Gomez.
Part of the funding for this project was provided by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, as part of their «Spreading Love Through Media» initiative, with support from the John Templeton Foundation.
You can follow us on social media at centralseriesRA and subscribe to our newsletter at centralpodcast.audio.
I’m Rula Ávila Muñoz. Thank you for listening.
Este podcast es propiedad de Radio Ambulante Studios. Cualquier copia, distribución o adaptación está expresamente prohibida sin previa autorización.
This podcast is the property of Radio Ambulante Studios. Any copy, distribution, or adaptation is expressly prohibited without prior authorization.
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