New Kids On The Block Ready to Slay

PRIDE

FRESH MEXICAN FACES BRING PRIDE, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, ENTERTAINMENT TO PUERTO VALLARTA

By Salvador Dominguez

BUILDING A PATH BASED ON TALENT, AN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT, AND AN AMAZING AMOUNT OF ENERGY, WE’RE EXCITED TO INTRODUCE YOU TO A FEW OF THE NEW MEXICAN FACES THAT HAVE ARRIVED IN PUERTO VALLARTA, READY TO SHINE IN EVERYTHING FROM ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT TO CULINARY SKILLS.

This new generation of young queers is betting on humility and humanity, and are fighting every day to show who they are through art, endeavors and what it means to be LGBTQ+ these days. Photographer: James Murray @jmurworld

On location at: Sapphire Puerto Vallarta Beach Club

Stylist and Art Director: James Murray and Salvador Dominguez

ROMAN VENTURA

ROMÁN IS ORIGINALLY FROM THE LITTLE TOWN OF MASCOTA, JALISCO, BUT GREW UP IN ESPERANZA, SONORA. He later adopted Puerto Vallarta as his home, where he combines his professional and personal life.

He studied to become an international chef at the ISIMA Institute of Higher Studies in Puerto Vallarta. After finishing school, he worked in the best restaurants in Puerto Vallarta, starting as a kitchen assistant, learning and absorbing all the knowledge and then putting it into practice.

During the pandemic, with people confined to their homes, he found more people wanted to have intimate house parties. He decided to create his own private chef service.

“I wanted to express my artistry, creativity, and imagination. So, I started cooking private dinners,” he said.”This experience cemented my passion for being a private chef. It has helped me learn even more about how to create a story for every dish and every meal I serve.”

The LGBTQ community was the first to receive him with open arms and has been recommending him - either by word of mouth or on social networks. And while he has mostly worked for the LGBTQ community, his client base is rapidly expanding thanks to all of the outstanding recommendations he has received.

ULISES PÉREZ

QUEER CHOREOGRAPHER AND DANCER

ULISES ARRIVED AT OUR APPOINTMENT SPORTING GLITTER, AN OVERSIZED SHIRT AND SHORTS THAT HIGHLIGHTED HIS INCREDIBLE BROWN LEGS BURSTING WITH ENERGY. He’s a young 'Queer' that might stop you in your tracks for a doubletake. His style is unique, with a look and personality acting like a magnet drawing you in.

Originally from Acapulco, Guerrero, he began his career nine years ago as a dancer in Mexico City, where he studied ballet, contemporary dance and folklore dancing. He lives in PV for almost four years.

In addition to his dance, Ulises is dedicated to teaching different contemporary dance and ballet classes, and has been a choreographer for shows such as What a Drag PV and is currently part of several casts in the Act2PV theater.

And get this -he has a voguing house - 'House of Paradise' - one of the first in Vallarta.

"House of Paradise seeks to create a community for queers,” he said. “Because when I arrived in Vallarta, there were many gays but the treatment for queer people was not the same. I found some discrimination from the community itself and that is why I thought of creating the House to be a support for diversity.”

"I am a queer and effeminate” he said. “Before I had a hard time accepting that concept, but today I am proud of my identity and of being a Mexican queer."

ORIGINALLY FROM CIUDAD DELICIAS, CHIHUAHUA, FERNANDO HAS SPENT MOST OF HIS LIFE DANCING. HE BEGAN WHEN HE WAS SIX-YEARS-OLD, WITH TRADITIONAL MEXICAN DANCES.

As he was finishing high school, Fernando went to Mexico City to study at the Mexican Folklore Ballet. That, for him, was a release because he was able to experience his life as a gay man in the big city.

Fernando arrived in Vallarta and immediately joined different dance companies and thus began to work on his passions. He prefers to work in shows that are presented inside hotels in Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Nayarit.

"I feel very good working in hotels,” he said. “The colleagues are almost always the same and we have become a family."

Fernando is currently 25-years-old and also combines dance and choreography with aerial dance on fabric and routines on sancos (stilts). This has allowed him to expand his work and participate in more international shows.

"I am very self-taught, if I see that they are going to give a course and I am interested, I go,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to take advantage and add another discipline to your knowledge and thus offer better shows."

MARIO CARRASCO

JIU JITSU COMPETITOR, REAL ESTATE AGENT & TOUR GUIDE

MARIO IS A PATA SALADA - PROUD OF HIS ROOTS WHERE HE GREW UP IN THE OLAS ALTAS NEIGHBORHOOD SURROUNDED BY TOURISTS, IN THE HEART OF THE ROMANTIC ZONE, LIVING ONLY WITH HIS MOTHER.

Carrasco is 24-years-old and considers himself Pansexual and gets along perfectly well with his family and society. "I have been comfortable with my sexuality without any problem since I was a child. I have always been surrounded by diversity. “I grew up with friends of my mother from the gay community, everything was very natural for me."

He says he is mostly attracted to women but does not limit himself to that gender.

"I don't limit myself, I don't look at gender, but at what a person transmits to me as their personality, their energy and their attitude.”

He currently has been working for four-and-a-half years at Jet’s Private Tours and combines that with being a real estate agent with Ryan Donner. His true passion is martial arts. Mario has dedicated himself body and soul to Jiu Jitsu discipline, saying "every day I wake up thinking about how to improve in this martial art. I literally eat, live and breathe Jiu Jitsu". Encuentra nuestra versión en español en: