Mexican-American San Cha is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter known for her explosive voice — one that carries on the traditional gravitas of Mexico’s greatest mariachi and bolero dames, such as Chavela Vargas and Lola Beltran. On stage, her persona radiates an undeniable contemporaneity that blends drag femme grandeur and LA Chicanx strength with the surreal promise of underground night culture. Often clad in elaborate tulle and ruffle garments that are customized to her silhouette, San Cha boasts a musical oeuvre that spans the gamut of musical subcultures: electro, cumbia, punk, and ranchera.
Photograph by Josef Jasso.
With a stage name that simultaneously references and subverts notions of Catholic purity and side chick misogyny, San Cha is a proudly and defiantly queer artist. While her artistic vision sets her apart from many of her peers, she is also a creature that has been intrinsically shaped by communities that include Jalisciense matriarchs, artists gentrified out of the East Bay, CDMX club kids, and drag mothers who fiercely protect their tribe.
The incomparable San Cha joined Culture Editor Alissa Lopez Serfozo (she/her, queer, cis-femme) in early June to kick off Conversaciones on Queerness: un universo de identidades y expresiones, Latina’s 2021 Pride conversation series that demonstrates the diversity of the Queer Latinx community while also relishing the celebratory spirit of Pride Month. During their conversation the two broach obsessions with exorcisms, subverting binaries, catholic guilt, working class identity, gentrification, and bringing queer friends home to your parents.
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Conversaciones on Queerness: un universo de identidades y expresiones
Pride Month is a time when millions of people come together in support of the LGBTQ+ community. For many within the queer community, Pride signals a period of visibility that brings marginalized identities to the forefront, while also ushering in a month of celebration and joy. Pride is a time to dress fearlessly, hug chosen family unabashedly, love radically, but it also presents an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be queer today.
Pride Month is a reminder that the queer community is breathtakingly diverse — there is no such thing as one LGBTQ+ monolith. For many, queerness represents a complex interplay of identity, sex, gender presentation and sexuality. Amidst the celebratory spirit that characterizes Pride Month, it is also vital to shed light on the voices that continue to go unheard, and the individuals who still feel invisible.
Latina aims to be a space for the entire Latinx community. Driven by a team of young Latinx creatives, Latina is a platform for the intersection of culture, politics, and entertainment. Dedicated to celebrating and amplifying Latinx voices, Latina’s Pride 2021 series Conversaciones on Queerness seeks to approach queerness through a Latin lens and provide a platform for the individuals creatively expanding these multifaceted conversations.
