It’s around 10 o’clock on a Saturday night when the music first pulses through the speakers at Flixx Lounge, a cabaret bar in downtown Omaha. Colorful lights flash against a row of Latin American flags that hang from the ceiling, and audience members sitting at small tables cheer when a dark-haired drag queen walks through the stage door. Juanna V Mii quiets down the crow and begins to go over some rules for the evening.
“Make sure to stay off the stage because you do not want to get hit in the eye with a heel. It has happened, and it’s not pretty, OK?” she says before repeating the warning in Spanish.
This is the opening performance of Noche Latina, a new monthly Latin drag show in Omaha. Tonight, queens compete to earn a spot in the bilingual show’s recurring cast.
Juan Valdovinos is the 22-year-old producer of the show who performs as Juanna V Mii. He wants to build a cast of the best of the best Latin entertainers from the area.
”Once they’re selected, I’m hoping that they still bring that caliber to every show, and that’s going to be the standard,” Valdovinos said.
Valdovinos decided to start a drag show for Latin entertainers when he noticed that many performances only had music in English and lacked diversity. He hopes Noche Latina can be a safe space to celebrate and support queer Latin people in the Midwest.
“I'm also really hoping that we start cooperating with some more nonprofits and being able to raise funds for people, especially Latin, queer and trans people,” Valdovinos said. “Because right now, we still have legislation, especially against trans people. And they need support.
Nebraska and Iowalawmakers each passed bills this spring to restrict gender-affirming care and ban transition surgeries for minors. Both states also introduced legislation to ban drag shows for minors, but neither passed.
Valdovinos thinks people that are against drag just don't understand it.
“I understand from one perspective that not all drag is age friendly, or kid friendly. But I know that when I was growing up, I was just dying to go out there and to get to meet people like me,” he said.
Valdovinos is the child of Mexican immigrants. Growing up in South Omaha, he was surrounded by family members who sang and played instruments in Mariachi bands. In high school, he discovered drag as another way to do his favorite thing — perform.
“Drag is the art of building a character,” Valdovinos said. “It's just an outlet to express creativity in a way that maybe as our true selves, we can't always display so we find a safe space to display it."
The 21-and-up Noche Latina show is gaining popularity with audiences. Tonight it attracted people from as far away as Sioux City, Iowa, like Emmanuel Galvan, who drove 90 minutes with his friend Jesus to watch the performance.
“We don’t have that many [Latin drag] shows very often,” Galvan said.
This isn’t the first Latin drag show that’s connected Nebraskans and Iowans.
In the 2010s a competition called Miss Gay South Omaha brought queer Latino entertainers together to perform while also connecting them with resources like sexual health care and business workshops. Winners would travel around Nebraska and Iowa to speak at events and Spanish radio stations.
That includes Eevee Treviño, a Noche Latina contestant who was crowned Miss Gay South Omaha 2015. Treviño saw the title as an opportunity to educate other Latinos about the LGBTQ+ community.
“I was on the local channel here in Omaha, which was really fun having an interview there too, just about my life, and growing up gay and Mexican. And, you know, American too, because I'm from here, too,” Treviño said.
Miss Gay South Omaha ended in 2016, but its founder Bernardo Montoya says he’s happy to see a show like Noche Latina continue with a similar mission.
“These events aren’t just a place for someone to go and put on a bunch of outfits,” Montoya said in Spanish. “They’re sources for work. They are a place to showcase people’s talents. From there they can jump to other cities and be hired, and be paid.”
Back at Flixx Lounge in Omaha, it’s close to midnight when Juanna V Mii calls for a drum roll before she announces the show’s cast members.
“And the winner of the popular vote goes to… Miss Alana M. Vivianaaaa!”
Alana M. Viviana, a black and Hispanic trans woman, wins first place and lands a spot on the Noche Latina monthly show cast.
She likes the new show since it brings together performers of all different experience levels.
“It’s not just newer entertainers; it’s not older entertainers,” Viviana said. “It’s a mix of all of us in between from different generations of drag, different generations of performing.”
Eevee Treviño also secured a spot in the cast with her passionate lip sync performance of “La Bruja”. After performing drag for 14 years in Omaha, she feels like Latin performers in the Midwest are more embraced now than they were years ago.