The Vallarta drag icon announces her plans for the future and breaks the silence about a tragic event that almost cost her life and her career. Azael, better known in the Puerto Vallarta drag scene as Diva Divine, has been a mainstay in the Vallarta entertainment industry and is admired for his authenticity and originality. He tells O&APV, chronologically, about the evolution of his Diva Divine character, the challenges he has overcome, and the tests that life has put in his way. Which are the places in Puerto Vallarta where the name of Diva Divine was heard the most?
Diva
Divine 20 years reinventing drag By Randy Rodriguez / Managing Editor Photos courtesy of Diva Divine 42
Summer 2020
o u t a n d a b o u t pv.c o m
In 2001, I started working at the first gay club in Puerto Vallarta called Los Balcones, where I was adopted as the main Drag Queen. This club was the one that made me known in almost the entire country. I also had participation in a place that in its time was called NYPV, a large club that carried personalities such as Martha Wash, Thelma Houston and LucĂa Mendez, among many other celebrities. I was in the first original group of The Dirty Bitches, born in the Blue Chairs hotel, sharing one of the best times both for the place and for the group made up of the drag queens Angy Star, Kasandra Castro (R.I.P.) and me. During a time, I was doing dinner-shows in a well-known restaurant named the Kit-Kat, famous for its food, service and martinis, the place was unique and I had the privilege of entertaining the nights with my shows. My character was iconic, I was considered the first Drag Queen in Puerto Vallarta. Since the most common thing at the time was cross-dressing, feathers and wigs but the extravagance with which Diva Divine arrived was unprecedented; My costumes,
