‘We’re here to stay’: Tucson celebrates its Latino Pride Festival with drag performances, banda and ritmo

TUCSON – The crowd screamed as Ezmeralda Felix climbed on a steel pole, throwing her hair back and her tips in the air as she danced to JLo’s “Waiting for Tonight,” the bright red tassels of her costume moving to her rhythm.. 

Ezmeralda Felix, who was crowned Miss Gay Tucson America 2026, was one of dozens of drag performers who took to the dance floor at the Latino Pride Festival Tucson on Saturday at MSA Annex entertaining Southern Arizona’s LGBTQ+ community and allies during the daylong celebration.

The festival, organized by Latino Pride Alliance (LPA), brought drag, banda and latin music together for hours of festivities. It featured performances by Las Gatas con Tacon, the Divas Illusion Show and Drag Race Mexico. 

Drag queens performed to Celia Cruz, Selena, Shakira and Jesse & Joy. They wore tall heeled boots and tacones, bright-colored gowns and sequined costumes with sparkling tassels, all while performing cartwheels, climbing on a steel pole and whipping their hair back.

And in addition to enjoying their performances, festivalgoers learned more from organizations like Southern Arizona Senior Pride, the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation and Healthy Familias, tabling the event and sharing resources and information. 

Steve Gallardo, co-founder of Latino Pride Alliance and Maricopa County Supervisor for District 5, said these festivals are a place where people can celebrate their full identity and get resources and healthcare education. 

“We want to be able to utilize this festival, not only to celebrate our culture and have fun, but — how do you educate? How do you engage the community? How do you tear down the stereotypes around pride?” Gallardo said. “It's about bringing the community together to celebrate. It’s about being yourself.”

LPA was formed in 2017 in Phoenix and has hosted five Latino Pride Festivals in Phoenix. Saturday was Tucson’s second edition.

‘Family is who you chose’

For Martin Salazar and James Duncan, the festival was a place where they could celebrate their identities in a safe space. It was especially needed after Tucson Pride was canceled earlier this year and the organization shuttered, he said. 

Some Latinos are still struggling to figure out who they are or haven’t come out to their family yet, Salazar said. 

“Being vulnerable is the hardest thing you can do,” he said. “Especially with a family coming from a Hispanic household, you're told that, you know, depression, anxiety, it's all in your head.”

Salazar said Latino families sometimes make it harder for LGBTQ+ Latinos to fully express themselves. And in those cases, it’s important to choose yourself, he said. 

“Family is who you choose,” Salazar said. “Family can be wrong and it's important to put yourself first.”

For him, Pride is like a family reunion where everyone can be themselves with their chosen family. His friend and coworker Duncan agreed, adding, “You choose your family, and sometimes they choose you.”

Duncan was adopted into a White family and raised in Kingman, Arizona. While he knew he looked different, he didn’t start to discover and learn about his Latino roots until he moved to Tucson, he said. 

“I didn't know my community until I came down here,” he said. “I'm brown, but I don't understand my culture, my community. I didn’t grow up with it, so it's very different. And then when I come down here, I work with my community. I live in my community. It's a different experience.”

Duncan and Salazar work at El Rio Health, a group of community health centers that offers medical care, behavioral healthcare, dental care and other specialty services. El Rio offers sliding scale prices for low-income and is open to treating everyone regardless of their immigration status or gender identity. 

“Anytime that we can celebrate minorities in our own community, I think it's important to highlight those that experience the hardships of life and politics and general living,” Duncan said. “If we can celebrate those people in our community, how can we go wrong?”

‘That rainbow flag, it’s a reassurance’

Gallardo said it’s especially important to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community in today’s political environment as political leaders, especially those in Washington, D.C., are trying to remove protections and rights for LGBTQ+ people. 

“If you're ever going to have a Pride, now's the time to have it,” he said. “To stand up and let folks know we're not going away, we're not going back in the closet, and we're here to stay.”

Ezmeralda Felix, who grew up on Tucson’s south side, agreed, adding that she purposefully includes her Hispanic and Mexican heritage in her performances as a way to support the LGBT+ and Latino communities. Both are being further marginalized and attacked, she said.

As the current Miss Gay Tucson America 2026, Ezmeralda Felix said she hopes to be present and visible in a way that invites more people to support and understand drag as an art form and as an act of resilience. 

“I feel that right now, there's a lot of fear within both communities and that's why it's important to be very vocal and to come to the events like [Latino Pride], because it's like a little safe haven,” Ezmeralda Felix said. “It's like a little umbrella where everybody can feel safe and happy; with your friends, with your partner, with just anybody. You don't even have to be part of either of the communities… As entertainers, we try to create a safe place for anybody else and especially with the current times. Now more than ever, it is important for all of us to be united.”

Latino Pride Alliance works with high schools around Phoenix to help organize gay-straight alliance groups. The organization’s goal is to respond to Latino youth and families’ needs not just as they relate to LGBTQ+ identities but also socioeconomic needs, healthcare and transportation, Gallardo said. LPA also educates Latino communities on bullying, homophobia and xenophobia, family separation, violence against youth, homelessness and HIV/AIDs. 

In the face of the current anti-LGBTQ+ political climate, Gallardo encouraged allies to display the Pride flag and help members of the community feel safe. This is especially important in schools, where students may be afraid or be struggling with their gay identity or may be worried about what their family will say, Gallardo said. 

“Everyone knows what that rainbow flag is. [Students] see that rainbow flag, it's a reassurance to them that they're not alone and everything will be all right,” Gallardo said. “That is, that's the message, just that simple display.”

Stephanie Casanova is an independent, bilingual journalist from Tucson, Arizona, covering community stories for over 10 years. She is passionate about narrative, in-depth storytelling that is inclusive and reflects the diversity of the communities she covers.