Pixie Aventura is carving out a space for Latinx performers in the New York drag scene
Pixie Aventura is a drag performer who champions Latinx representation while putting on glamorous drag shows in New York City and on Fire Island.
Cesar Villavicencio (@pixieaventura) created his drag alter-ego, Pixie Aventura, as a way to express his creativity and make sure his voice is heard. “It wasn’t enough just for me to perform,” he told In the Know. “It was more about having a voice and expressing that voice and my creativity and what I had to say.”
Cesar went to a performing arts high school as a child in Miami before moving to Ohio where he experienced his first taste of culture shock. “I was really just being told not to be who I am, but still being told to be a stereotype of what I was,” Cesar told In the Know. “I was, very much without even realizing, being whitewashed.”
When Cesar first began performing as Pixie in New York City, he was reluctant to be defined as a “Latin Queen.” “I was still considered the Latin Queen no matter what and it kind of bothered me,” Cesar explained.
But over time, Cesar realized that being labeled the “Latin Queen” gave him an opportunity to bring diversity to the drag world and make it a more welcoming space for other Latinx artists. “I’m going to go full force with it because I have to be that representation,” Cesar told In the Know. “What ended up happening was I created this platform not only for myself but for any queer Latinx artist around me.”
In addition to performing in New York City, Cesar has spent the last 6 summers performing on Fire Island. A small barrier island off the southern shore of Long Island, Fire Island is a popular summer vacation destination that became known as a safe haven for queer people beginning in the 1950s.
Over the years, Cesar has come to appreciate the important role Fire Island played in queer history, and sees it as a place where queer people can embrace their true selves. “As a queer person, to be able to come out here and be in a place where anything is okay, everything is welcome, it allows an individual to completely express themselves fully,” he told In The Know. “It just really is like a vision of what the world could be like if we were just allowed to live freely everywhere.”
Cesar hopes that one day, the rest of the world can be as accepting as Fire Island. He dreams of living in a world where people celebrate diversity in all its forms and embrace their differences rather than shying away from them. “For me, I’m very comfortable being a guy; I’m very comfortable being a drag queen and showing my femininity,” Cesar explained. “To limit ourselves with a few colors from the crayon box, it kind of goes against honoring your true queerness. We shouldn’t limit it, and we should have the opportunity to do anything that we want.”
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