The following English translation was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and has been reviewed and edited by our team for accuracy and clarity.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: In New York City, in Queens, there’s a big street, Roosevelt Avenue. And there, when night falls, the queens come out. Women who have learned to survive three times: as trans women, as Latina immigrants, and as sex workers. For years, one woman accompanied and protected them.
[Lorena Borjas]: I’m going to get where I have to go like a dog, fight tooth and nail.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Lorena Borjas. The queen of the queens of Queens. But when she died…
[Cecilia Gentili]: No one will be able to fill Lorena Borjas’s shoes.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: The other queens were left without their greatest defender.
[Woman at vigil]: We all think they’re going to attack us for being trans. I’m afraid to walk around in a city that’s supposed to be safe.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: How do you make a space for yourself in a city that was supposed to be a refuge for you? In a country whose politics are becoming increasingly hostile to you?
[Audio de archivo, Donald Trump]: You can never become a woman, you’re not gonna be a woman.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Because today their kingdoms are in danger.
[Laura Martínez]: That’s why we don’t want Trump to stay, because he hates the community. He’s going to persecute us again.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: How do they fight? In the streets, as sex workers, they close ranks, confronting the police.
[Cristina Herrera]: Trans women were easier targets for the police to meet their quota.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: Confronting the neighbors.
[Audio of “prostitute march”]: What are we? Prostitutes! What do we want? Justice!
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And defending themselves against their own clients…
[Jacqui]: They shot her too, my friend…
[Man]: I’m going to the hospital.
[Jacqui]: They shot her too!
Of course we fall in love, but they don’t take us seriously either. Of course we want to start a family, but where is the one who wants to start one with us?
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: But queens shine too. It’s not a metaphor. It’s not an exaggeration. Their palaces are many bars on Roosevelt Avenue.
[Laura Martínez]: And that’s when I started asking: where was there a drag show?
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: They’re queens because they’ve been crowned.
[Lorena St. Cartier]: I’m the transgender woman with the most crowns in New York City.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: And because they walk the stage like divas.
[Keyly Rosemberg]: When you’re on stage, live the song. Don’t look down at that person: excite them.
[Rula Ávila Muñoz]: I’m Rula Ávila Muñoz, and I invite you to a fierce and dazzling world, with music blasting, where thrice-marginalized women wage a fourth battle: not only to survive after the death of their protective mother, but to thrive in a world of threats, armed with heels, sequins, and if necessary, a good shot of tequila.
This is “Las Reinas de Queens”, a new series from Central, the series channel of Radio Ambulante Studios.
Listen to “Las Reinas de Queens” on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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New episodes every Thursday, starting April 9.
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Este podcast es propiedad de Radio Ambulante Studios. Cualquier copia, distribución o adaptación está expresamente prohibida sin previa autorización.